Chapter 3

¹These are the generations of Aaron and Moses in the day that the Lord spoke to Moses in mount Sinai. ²And these the names of the sons of Aaron: his firstborn Nadab, then Abiu, and Eleazar, and Ithamar. ³These 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. ⁴Now 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. ⁵And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ⁶Bring the tribe of Levi, and make them stand in the sight of Aaron the priest to minister to him, and let them watch, ⁷And observe whatsoever appertaineth to the service of the multitude before the tabernacle of the testimony, ⁸And let them keep the vessels of the tabernacle, serving in the ministry thereof. ⁹And thou shalt give the Levites for a gift, ¹⁰To 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. ¹¹And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying : ¹²I 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. ¹³For 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. ¹⁴And the Lord spoke to Moses in the desert of Sinai, saying: ¹⁵Number the sons of Levi by the houses of their fathers and their families, every male from one month and upward. ¹⁶Moses numbered them as the Lord had commanded. ¹⁷And there were found sons of Levi by their names, Gerson and Caath and Merari. ¹⁸The sons of Gerson: Lebni and Semei. ¹⁹The sons of Caath: Amram, and Jesaar, Hebron and Oziel: ²⁰The sons of Merari: Moholi and Musi. ²¹Of Gerson were two families, the Lebnites, and the Semeites: ²²Of which were numbered, people of the male sex from one month and upward, seven thousand five hundred. ²³These shall pitch behind the tabernacle on the west, ²⁴Under their prince Eliasaph the son of Lael. ²⁵And their charge shall be in the tabernacle of the covenant: ²⁶The 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. ²⁷Of 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: ²⁸All of the male sex from one month and upward, eight thousand six hundred: they shall have the guard of the sanctuary, ²⁹And shall camp on the south side. ³⁰And their prince shall be Elisaphan the son of Oziel: ³¹And 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. ³²And the prince of the princes of the Levites, Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, shall be over them that watch for the guard of the sanctuary. ³³And of Merari are the families of the Moholites, and Musites, reckoned up by their names : ³⁴All of the male kind from one month and upward, six thousand two hundred. ³⁵Their prince Suriel the son of Abihaiel: they shall camp on the north side. ³⁶Under their custody shall be the boards of the tabernacle, and the bars, and the pillars and their sockets, and all things that pertain to this kind of service: ³⁷And the pillars of the court round about with their sockets, and the pins with their cords. ³⁸Before the tabernacle of the covenant, that is to say on the east side, shall Moses and Aaron camp, with their sons, having the custody of the sanctuary, in the midst of the children of Israel. What stranger soever cometh unto it, shall be put to death. ³⁹All the Levites, that Moses and Aaron numbered according to the precept of the Lord, by their families, of the male kind from one month and upward, were twenty-two thousand. ⁴⁰And the Lord said to Moses: Number the firstborn of the male sex of the children of Israel, from one month and upward, and thou shalt take the sum of them. ⁴¹And thou shalt take the Levites to me for all the firstborn of the children of Israel, I am the Lord: and their cattle for all the firstborn of the cattle of the children of Israel: ⁴²Moses reckoned up, as the Lord had commanded, the firstborn of the children of Israel: ⁴³And the males by their names, from one month and upward, were twenty-two thousand two hundred and seventy-three. ⁴⁴And the Lord spoke to Moses, saving: ⁴⁵Take the Levites for the firstborn of the children of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites for their cattle, and the Levites shall be mine. I am the Lord. ⁴⁶But for the price of the two hundred and seventy-three, of the firstborn of the children of Israel, that exceed the number of the Levites, ⁴⁷Thou shalt take five sides for every head, according to the weight of the sanctuary. A sicle hath twenty obols. ⁴⁸And then shalt give the money to Aaron and his sons, the price of them that are above. ⁴⁹Moses therefore took the money of them that were above, and whom they had redeemed from the Levites, ⁵⁰For the firstborn of the children of Israel, one thousand three hundred and sixty-five sicles, according to the weight of the sanctuary, ⁵¹And gave it to Aaron and his sons, according to the word that the Lord had commanded him.