Numbers 8:1-26
8 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying
2 “Tell Aaron, When you set up the lamps the seven lamps are to throw their light to the front side of the stand.”
3 And Aaron did so: he set the lamps up facing the front of the stand, as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
4 (And this is the make of the stand, chased work in gold: base and petals and all, it is chased work; like the vision Jehovah showed Moses, so he made the stand.)
5 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying
6 “Take the Levites from among the sons of Israel and purify them.
7 And thus you shall do to them for their purification: sprinkle sin-water on them, and let them past a razor over all their flesh, and wash their clothes and clean themselves
8 and take a steer of horned cattle and its grain-offering, faring stirred up with oil, and you shall take a second steer of horned cattle for a sin-offering;
9 and you shall present the Levites before the Tent of Meeting and assemble all the congregation of the sons of Israel.
10 And you shall present the Levites before Jehovah, and the sons of Israel shall lay their hands on the Levites’ heads,
11 and Aaron shall wave the Levites before Jehovah as a wave-offering from the sons of Israel, and they shall be for doing Jehovah’s service.
12 And the Levites shall lay their hands on the steers’ heads, and he shall do the one as a sin-offering and the other as a burnt-offering to Jehovah to purge the Levites.
13 And you shall set the Levites before Aaron and his sons and wave them as a wave-offering to Jehovah.
14 And you shall set the Levites apart from among the sons of Israel, and the Levites shall become mine;
15 and after that the Levites shall go in to serve the Tent of Meeting.“And you shall cleanse them and wave them as a wave-offering,
16 because they are a donation given to me from among the sons of Israel; in place of the starter of every womb, everybody’s firstborn, of the sons of Israel, I have taken them for mine.
17 For every firstborn among the sons of Israel, man and beast, is mine; on the day that I struck down every firstborn in Egypt I consecrated them to myself.
18 And I have taken the Levites in place of every firstborn among the sons of Israel,
19 and have given the Levites as a donation to Aaron and his sons from among the sons of Israel to do the sons of Israel’s service in the Tent of Meeting and to purge the sons of Israel and not have any calamity among the sons of Israel at the sons of Israel’s approaching the sacred things.”
20 And Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the sons of Israel did it to the Levites; just as Jehovah had commanded Moses for the Levites, so the sons of Israel did to them.
21 And the Levites cleared away their sins and washed their clothes, and Aaron waved them as a wave-offering before Jehovah, and Aaron purged them to make them clean;
22 and after that the Levites went in to do their service in the Tent of Meeting before Aaron and his sons. As Jehovah had commanded Moses about the Levites, so they did to them.
23 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying
24 “This is what is for the Levites: from twenty-five years old up one shall go in to do duty in the service of the Tent of Meeting,
25 and after fifty years old he shall retire from the duty of service and shall no longer serve,
26 but shall officiate with his brothers in the Tent of Meeting to keep charge, but shall not do service. Thus you shall do for the Levites in their functions.”
