But as for you, your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness,

“After this, the Levites will go in to do the work of the tent of meeting. So you must cleanse them and offer them like a wave offering.

So Moses sent them to the war, one thousand from every tribe, with Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest, who was in charge of the holy articles and the signal trumpets.

So Moses numbered them according to the word of the Lord, just as he had been commanded.

“As for the sons of Merari, you are to number them by their families and by their clans.

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

“Separate yourselves from among this community, that I may consume them in an instant.”

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

But Moses said, “Why are you now transgressing the commandment of the Lord? It will not succeed!

“Get away from this community, so that I can consume them in an instant!” But they threw themselves down with their faces to the ground.

Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up on Mount Hor.

So Moses and Eleazar the priest spoke with them in the plains of Moab, by the Jordan River across from Jericho. They said,

But if he should nullify them after he has heard them, then he will bear her iniquity.”

Your fathers did the same thing when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to see the land.

You must have this tassel so that you may look at it and remember all the commandments of the Lord and obey them and so that you do not follow after your own heart and your own eyes that lead you to unfaithfulness.

You and Aaron are to number all in Israel who can serve in the army, those who are twenty years old or older, by their divisions.

For all the firstborn males among the Israelites are mine, both humans and animals; when I destroyed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I set them apart for myself.

The Levites purified themselves and washed their clothing; then Aaron presented them like a wave offering before the Lord, and Aaron made atonement for them to purify them.

“Make two trumpets of silver; you are to make them from a single hammered piece. You will use them for assembling the community and for directing the traveling of the camps.

So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord. He then gathered seventy men of the elders of the people and had them stand around the tabernacle.