Numbers 1:49-53
1:49 “Only the tribe of Levi
you must not number
or count
with
the other Israelites.
1:50 But appoint
the Levites over the tabernacle of the testimony,
over all its furnishings and over everything in it. They must carry
the tabernacle and all its furnishings; and they
must attend to it and camp around it.
1:51 Whenever the tabernacle is to move,
the Levites must take it down, and whenever the tabernacle is to be reassembled,
the Levites must set it up.
Any unauthorized person
who approaches it must be killed.
1:52 “The Israelites will camp according to their divisions, each man in his camp, and each man by his standard.
1:53 But the Levites must camp around the tabernacle of the testimony, so that the Lord’s anger will not fall on the Israelite community. The Levites are responsible for the care of the tabernacle of the testimony.”