Numbers 1:47-54

New Catholic Bible

⁴⁷ Responsibility of the Levites. The families of the tribe of Levi, however, were not counted with the rest of them^{[a] 48} for the Lord had said to Moses, ⁴⁹ “You are not to take a census of the tribe of Levi, nor are you to include them in the census of the people of Israel. ⁵⁰ You will assign the Levites responsibility over the tent of the tabernacle and over all of its vessels and over all of the things that belong to it. They will carry the tabernacle and all of its vessels. They will care for it and they will camp around the tabernacle. ⁵¹ When the tabernacle is to be moved, the Levites will take it down. When it is to be erected, the Levites will set it up. Anyone else who approaches it must be put to death.

⁵² “Each of the Israelites will pitch his tent within his own camp, alongside his own standard, each in his own company, ⁵³ but the Levites will camp around the tabernacle of the Testimony so that no wrath come upon the community of the people of Israel. The Levites will keep guard over the tabernacle of the Testimony.” ⁵⁴ This is what the people of Israel did. They did everything that the Lord had commanded Moses.