“Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn males among the Israelites, and the livestock of the Levites instead of their livestock. And the Levites will be mine. I am the Lord.

Then you are to bring the Levites before the Lord, and the Israelites are to lay their hands on the Levites; ¹ 

And so ¹  you are to separate the Levites from among the Israelites, and the Levites will be mine.

Whenever the tabernacle is to move, ¹  the Levites must take it down, and whenever the tabernacle is to be reassembled, ²  the Levites must set it up. ³  Any unauthorized person ⁴  who approaches it must be killed.

“Look, ¹  I myself have taken the Levites from among the Israelites instead of ²  every firstborn who opens the womb among the Israelites. So the Levites belong to me,

“Do not allow the tribe of the families of the Kohathites to be cut off ¹  from among the Levites;

“Take the Levites from among the Israelites and purify ¹  them.

So I have taken the Levites instead of all the firstborn sons among the Israelites.

You are to assign ¹  the Levites to Aaron and his sons; they will be assigned exclusively ²  to him out of all ³  the Israelites.

And for the redemption of the 273 firstborn males of the Israelites who exceed the number of the Levites,

So Moses took the redemption money ¹  from those who were in excess of those redeemed by the Levites.

So Moses accepted the carts and the oxen and gave them to the Levites.

You are to bring the Levites before the tent of meeting and assemble the entire community of the Israelites.

You are to have the Levites stand before Aaron ¹  and his sons, and then offer them as a wave offering to the Lord.

And take ¹  the Levites for me – I am the Lord – instead of all the firstborn males among the Israelites, and the livestock of the Levites instead of all the firstborn of the livestock of the Israelites.”

After this, the Levites went in to do their work in the tent of meeting before Aaron and before his sons. As the Lord had commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so they did.

But the Levites must camp around the tabernacle of the testimony, so that the Lord’s anger ¹  will not fall on the Israelite community. The Levites are responsible for the care ²  of the tabernacle of the testimony.”

“Then the tent of meeting with the camp of the Levites will travel in the middle of the camps. They will travel in the same order as they camped, each in his own place ¹  under his standard.

All who were numbered of the Levites, whom Moses, Aaron, and the leaders of Israel numbered by their families and by their clans,

“Receive these gifts ¹  from them, that they may be ²  used in doing the work ³  of the tent of meeting; and you must give them to the Levites, to every man ⁴  as his service requires.” ⁵