Numbers 1:44-54 ▼

44 These are those who were numbered, whom Moses and Aaron numbered, and the princes of Israel, being twelve men; each one was from the house of his fathers.

45 So were all those that were numbered of the children of Israel, by the house of their fathers, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth to war in Israel;

46 The total number of the children of Israel was six hundred and three thousand and five hundred and fifty.

47 ?But the Levites and the tribe of their fathers were not numbered among them.

48 Because the LORD had spoken to Moses, saying,

49 You shall not number the tribe of Levi, neither take the sum of them among the children of Israel;

50 But you shall appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the testimony and over all its vessels and over all that belongs to it; they shall carry the tabernacle and all its vessels; and they shall minister to it, and shall encamp round about the tabernacle.

51 And when the tabernacle shall set forward, the Levites shall take it down; and when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up; and the stranger who comes near shall be put to death.

52 And the children of Israel shall pitch their tents, every man by his own camp and every man by his own standard, throughout their hosts.

53 But the Levites shall pitch round about the tabernacle of the testimony, that there be no wrath against the congregation of the children of Israel; and the Levites shall keep the charge of the tabernacle of the testimony.

54 And the children of Israel did according to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so did they.