Numbers 3:1-31 ▼

1 These are the generations of Aaron and Moses in the day that the Lord spoke to Moses in mount Sinai.

2 And these the names of the sons of Aaron: his firstborn Nadab, then Abiu, and Eleazar, and Ithamar.

3 These the names of the sons of Aaron the priests that were anointed, and whose hands were filled and consecrated, to do the functions of priesthood.

4 Now Nadab and Abiu died, without children, when they offered strange fire before the Lord, in the desert of Sinai: and Eleazar and Ithamar performed the priestly office in the presence of Aaron their father.

5 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

6 Bring the tribe of Levi, and make them stand in the sight of Aaron the priest to minister to him, and let them watch,

7 And observe whatsoever appertaineth to the service of the multitude before the tabernacle of the testimony,

8 And let them keep the vessels of the tabernacle, serving in the ministry thereof.

9 And thou shalt give the Levites for a gift,

10 To Aaron and to his sons, to whom they are delivered by the children of Israel. But thou shalt appoint Aaron and his sons over the service of priesthood. The stranger that approacheth to minister, shall be put to death.

11 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying :

12 I have taken the Levites from the children of Israel, for every firstborn that openeth the womb among the children of Israel, and the Levites shall be mine.

13 For every firstborn is mine: since I struck the firstborn in the land of Egypt: I have sanctified to myself whatsoever is firstborn in Israel both of man and beast, they are mine: I am the Lord.

14 And the Lord spoke to Moses in the desert of Sinai, saying:

15 Number the sons of Levi by the houses of their fathers and their families, every male from one month and upward.

16 Moses numbered them as the Lord had commanded.

17 And there were found sons of Levi by their names, Gerson and Caath and Merari.

18 The sons of Gerson: Lebni and Semei.

19 The sons of Caath: Amram, and Jesaar, Hebron and Oziel:

20 The sons of Merari: Moholi and Musi.

21 Of Gerson were two families, the Lebnites, and the Semeites:

22 Of which were numbered, people of the male sex from one month and upward, seven thousand five hundred.

23 These shall pitch behind the tabernacle on the west,

24 Under their prince Eliasaph the son of Lael.

25 And their charge shall be in the tabernacle of the covenant:

26 The tabernacle itself and the cover thereof, the hanging that is drawn before the doors of the tabernacle of the covenant, and the curtains of the court: the hanging also that is hanged in the entry of the court of the tabernacle, and whatsoever belongeth to the rite of the altar, the cords of the tabernacle, and all the furniture thereof.

27 Of the kindred of Caath come the families of the Amramites and Jesaarites and Hebronites and Ozielites. These are the families of the Caathites reckoned up by their names:

28 All of the male sex from one month and upward, eight thousand six hundred: they shall have the guard of the sanctuary,

29 And shall camp on the south side.

30 And their prince shall be Elisaphan the son of Oziel:

31 And they shall keep the ark, and the table and the candlestick, the altars, and the vessels of the sanctuary, wherewith they minister, and the veil, and all the furniture of this kind.