“Take a census of the Kohathites from among the Levites, by their families and by their clans,

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 and his sons, and then offer them as a wave offering to the Lord.

“Therefore you will say to them, ‘When you offer up the best of it, then it will be credited to the Levites as the product of the threshing floor and as the product of the winepress.

The grazing lands around the towns that you will give to the Levites must extend to a distance of 500 yards from the town wall.

“So the total of the towns you will give the Levites is forty-eight. You must give these together with their grazing lands.

And take 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.”

So Moses and Aaron and the entire community of the Israelites did this with the Levites. According to all that the Lord commanded Moses concerning the Levites, this is what the Israelites did with them.

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.

“Only the tribe of Levi you must not number or count with the other Israelites.

“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 under his standard.

“Number the Levites by their clans and their families; every male from a month old and upward you are to number.”

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 from them, that they may be used in doing the work of the tent of meeting; and you must give them to the Levites, to every man as his service requires.”

and Aaron is to offer the Levites before the Lord as a wave offering from the Israelites, that they may do the work of the Lord.

“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.

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.

“This is what pertains to the Levites: At the age of twenty-five years and upward one may begin to join the company in the work of the tent of meeting,

They may assist their colleagues in the tent of meeting, to attend to needs, but they must do no work. This is the way you must establish the Levites regarding their duties.”