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

So Moses instructed the Israelites to observe the Passover.

And when it came to rest he would say, “Return, O Lord, to the many thousands of Israel!”

Then Moses returned to the camp along with the elders of Israel.

Then Israel sent messengers to King Sihon of the Amorites, saying,

But Sihon did not permit Israel to pass through his border; he gathered all his forces together and went out against Israel into the wilderness. When he came to Jahaz, he fought against Israel.

and went after the Israelite man into the tent and thrust through the Israelite man and into the woman’s abdomen. So the plague was stopped from the Israelites.

These were the ones chosen from the community, leaders of their ancestral tribes. They were the heads of the thousands of Israel.

“The Israelites will camp according to their divisions, each man in his camp, and each man by his standard.

The Israelites did according to all that the Lord commanded Moses – that is what they did.

But the Levites were not numbered among the other Israelites, as the Lord commanded Moses.

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

So Moses numbered all the firstborn males among the Israelites, as the Lord had commanded him.

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

Every offering of all the Israelites’ holy things that they bring to the priest will be his.

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

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

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

“But if they blow with one trumpet, then the leaders, the heads of the thousands of Israel, must come to you.

So the Israelites set out on their journeys from the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud settled in the wilderness of Paran.