Numbers 8:14-19 ▼

14 This is how you are to separate the descendants of Levi from among the Israelis. The descendants of Levi belong to me.

15 |After this, the descendants of Levi are to come to serve at the appointed place of meeting, after you have purified them and presented them as wave offerings,

16 since they've been set apart for me from among the Israelis. I've taken them for myself instead of the first to open the womb—every firstborn of the Israelis,

17 since every firstborn of Israel belongs to me, from human beings to livestock. On the same day that I destroyed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I consecrated them to myself,

18 taking the descendants of Levi instead of every firstborn of the Israelis.

19 I've set the descendants of Levi apart from the Israelis so that Aaron and his sons would work in service at the appointed place of meeting, making atonement on behalf of the Israelis so that there won't be a plague among the Israelis whenever they approach the sanctuary.|