Numbers 1:47-54

Amplified Bible, Classic Edition

⁴⁷ But the Levites by their fathers’ tribe were not numbered with them.

⁴⁸ For the Lord had said to Moses,

⁴⁹ Only the tribe of Levi you shall not number in the census of the Israelites.

⁵⁰ But appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the Testimony, and over all its vessels and furnishings and all things that belong to it. They shall carry the tabernacle [when journeying] and all its furnishings, and they shall minister to it and encamp around it.

⁵¹ When the tabernacle is to go forward, the Levites shall take it down, and when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up. And the excluded [any not of the tribe of Levi] who approach the tabernacle shall be put to death.

⁵² The Israelites shall pitch their tents by their companies, every man by his own camp and every man by his own [tribal] standard.

⁵³ But the Levites shall encamp around the tabernacle of the Testimony, that there may be no wrath upon the congregation of the Israelites; and the Levites shall keep charge of the tabernacle of the Testimony.

⁵⁴ Thus did the Israelites; according to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so they did.