Numbers 3:1-26 ▼

1 And these [are] the generations of Aaron and Moses, in the day of YHWH’s speaking with Moses in Mount Sinai.

2 And these [are] the names of the sons of Aaron: the firstborn Nadab, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar;

3 these [are] the names of the sons of Aaron, the anointed priests, whose hand he has consecrated for acting as priest.

4 And Nadab dies—Abihu also—before YHWH, in their bringing strange fire near before YHWH, in the wilderness of Sinai, and they did not have sons; and Eleazar—Ithamar also—acts as priest in the presence of their father Aaron.

5 And YHWH speaks to Moses, saying,

6 “Bring the tribe of Levi near, and you have caused it to stand before Aaron the priest, and they have served him,

7 and kept his charge, and the charge of all the congregation before the Tent of Meeting, to do the service of the Dwelling Place;

8 and they have kept all the vessels of the Tent of Meeting, and the charge of the sons of Israel, to do the service of the Dwelling Place;

9 and you have given the Levites to Aaron and to his sons; they are surely given to him out of the sons of Israel.

10 And you appoint Aaron and his sons, and they have kept their priesthood, and the stranger who comes near is put to death.”

11 And YHWH speaks to Moses, saying,

12 “And I, behold, have taken the Levites from the midst of the sons of Israel instead of every firstborn opening a womb among the sons of Israel, and the Levites have been Mine;

13 for every firstborn [is] Mine, in the day of My striking every firstborn in the land of Egypt I have sanctified to Myself every firstborn in Israel, from man to beast; they are Mine; I [am] YHWH.”

14 And YHWH speaks to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, saying,

15 “Number the sons of Levi by the house of their fathers, by their families; every male from a son of a month and upward—you number them.”

16 And Moses numbers them according to the command of YHWH, as he has been commanded.

17 And these are the sons of Levi by their names: Gershon, and Kohath, and Merari.

18 And these [are] the names of the sons of Gershon by their families: Libni and Shimei.

19 And the sons of Kohath by their families: Amram, and Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel.

20 And the sons of Merari by their families: Mahli and Mushi; these are the families of the Levites, by the house of their fathers.

21 Of Gershon—the family of the Libnite and the family of the Shimite; these are the families of the Gershonite.

22 Their numbered ones, in number, every male from a son of a month and upward, their numbered ones [are] seven thousand and five hundred.

23 The families of the Gershonite encamp westward behind the Dwelling Place.

24 And the prince of a father’s house for the Gershonite [is] Eliasaph son of Lael.

25 And the charge of the sons of Gershon in the Tent of Meeting [is] the Dwelling Place, and the tent, its covering, and the veil at the opening of the Tent of Meeting,

26 and the hangings of the court, and the veil at the opening of the court, which [is] by the Dwelling Place and by the altar all around, and its cords, to all its service.