But appoint<n id="1" /> the Levites over the tabernacle of the testimony,<n id="2" /> over all its furnishings and over everything in it. They must carry<n id="3" /> the tabernacle and all its furnishings; and they<n id="4" /> must attend to it and camp around it.<n id="5" />

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;When Aaron and his sons have finished<n id="1" /> covering<n id="2" /> the sanctuary and all the furnishings of the sanctuary, when the camp is ready to journey, then<n id="3" /> the Kohathites will come to carry them;<n id="4" /> but they must not touch<n id="5" /> any<n id="6" /> holy thing, or they will die.<n id="7" /> These are the responsibilities<n id="8" /> of the Kohathites with the tent of meeting.p>

<p class="bodytext">But<n id="1" /> the man who is ceremonially clean, and was not on a journey, and fails<n id="2" /> to keep the Passover, that person must be cut off from his people.<n id="3" /> Because he did not bring the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s offering at its appointed time, that man must bear his sin.<n id="4" />

&#8216;The <sc>Lordsc> is slow to anger and abounding in loyal love,<n id="1" /> forgiving iniquity and transgression,<n id="2" /> but by no means clearing<n id="3" /> the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children until the third and fourth generations.&#8217;<n id="4" />

You will by no means enter into the land where<n id="1" /> I swore<n id="2" /> to settle<n id="3" /> you. The only exceptions are Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

According to the number of the days you have investigated this land, forty days &#8211; one day for a year &#8211; you will suffer for<n id="1" /> your iniquities, forty years, and you will know what it means to thwart me.<n id="2" />

And they assembled against Moses and Aaron, saying to them, &#8220;You take too much upon yourselves,<n id="1" /> seeing that the whole community is holy, every one of them, and the <sc>Lordsc> is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the community of the <sc>Lordsc>?&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">Moses was very angry, and he said to the <sc>Lordsc>, &#8220;Have no respect<n id="1" /> for their offering! I have not taken so much as one donkey from them, nor have I harmed any one of them!&#8221;p>

But the Levites must perform the service<n id="1" /> of the tent of meeting, and they must bear their iniquity.<n id="2" /> It will be a perpetual ordinance throughout your generations that among the Israelites the Levites<n id="3" /> have no inheritance.<n id="4" />

When you look up<n id="1" /> to the sky<n id="2" /> and see the sun, moon, and stars &#8211; the whole heavenly creation<n id="3" /> &#8211; you must not be seduced to worship and serve them,<n id="4" /> for the <sc>Lordsc> your God has assigned<n id="5" /> them to all the people<n id="6" /> of the world.<n id="7" />

At that time the <sc>Lordsc> set apart the tribe of Levi<n id="1" /> to carry the ark of the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s covenant, to stand before the <sc>Lordsc> to serve him, and to formulate blessings<n id="2" /> in his name, as they do to this very day.

For the <sc>Lordsc> your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God who is unbiased and takes no bribe,

When he<n id="1" /> blesses you, if the<n id="2" /> place where he chooses to locate his name is distant,

You must pay his wage that very day before the sun sets, for he is poor and his life depends on it. Otherwise he will cry out to the <sc>Lordsc> against you, and you will be guilty of sin.p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">Then Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the Levitical priests, who carry the ark of the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s covenant, and to all Israel&#8217;s elders.

and commanded the people: &#8220;When you see the ark of the covenant of the <sc>Lordsc> your God<n id="1" /> being carried by the Levitical priests, you must leave here<n id="2" /> and walk<n id="3" /> behind it.

When the feet<n id="1" /> of the priests carrying the ark of the <sc>Lordsc>, the Ruler<n id="2" /> of the whole earth, touch<n id="3" /> the water of the Jordan, the water coming downstream toward you will stop flowing and pile up.&#8221;<n id="4" />p>

The priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the <sc>Lordsc> stood firmly on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan. All Israel crossed over on dry ground until the entire nation was on the other side.<n id="1" />p>

Instruct them, &#8216;Pick up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests<n id="1" /> stand firmly, and carry them over with you and put them in the place where you camp tonight.&#8217;&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">The Israelites did just as Joshua commanded. They picked up twelve stones, according to the number of the Israelite tribes, from the middle of the Jordan as the <sc>Lordsc> had instructed Joshua. They carried them over with them to the camp and put them there.