Numbers 3:33-51 ▼

33 Of Merari—the family of the Mahlite and the family of the Mushite; these [are] the families of Merari.

34 And their numbered ones, in number, all the males from a son of a month and upward, [are] six thousand and two hundred.

35 And the prince of a father’s house for the families of Merari [is] Zuriel son of Abihail; they encamp northward by the side of the Dwelling Place.

36 And the oversight [and] charge of the sons of Merari [are] the boards of the Dwelling Place, and its bars, and its pillars, and its sockets, and all its vessels, and all its service,

37 and the pillars of the court all around, and their sockets, and their pins, and their cords.

38 And those encamping before the Dwelling Place eastward, before the Tent of Meeting, at the east, [are] Moses and Aaron, and his sons, keeping the charge of the sanctuary for the charge of the sons of Israel, and the stranger who comes near is put to death.

39 All those numbered of the Levites whom Moses numbered—Aaron also—by the command of YHWH, by their families, every male from a son of a month and upward, [are] twenty-two thousand.

40 And YHWH says to Moses, “Number every firstborn male of the sons of Israel from a son of a month and upward, and take up the number of their names;

41 and you have taken the Levites for Me (I [am] YHWH), instead of every firstborn among the sons of Israel, and the livestock of the Levites instead of every firstling among the livestock of the sons of Israel.”

42 And Moses numbers, as YHWH has commanded him, all the firstborn among the sons of Israel.

43 And every firstborn male, by the number of names, from a son of a month and upward, of their numbered ones, are twenty-two thousand two hundred and seventy-three.

44 And YHWH speaks to Moses, saying,

45 “Take the Levites instead of every firstborn among the sons of Israel, and the livestock of the Levites instead of their livestock; and the Levites have been Mine; I [am] YHWH.

46 And [from] those ransomed of the two hundred and seventy-three of the firstborn of the sons of Israel, who are more than the Levites,

47 you have even taken five shekels apiece by the counted head—you take by the shekel of the holy place; the shekel [is] twenty gerahs;

48 and you have given the money to Aaron and to his sons, whereby those over and above are ransomed.”

49 And Moses takes the ransom money from those over and above those ransomed by the Levites;

50 he has taken the money from the firstborn of the sons of Israel—one thousand and three hundred and sixty-five, by the shekel of the holy place;

51 and Moses gives the money of those ransomed to Aaron and to his sons, according to the command of YHWH, as YHWH has commanded Moses.