⁶ Therefore the king summoned Jehoiada the chief priest and said to him, “Why haven’t you required the Levites to bring in from Judah and Jerusalem the tax imposed by Moses the servant of the Lord and by the assembly of Israel for the tent of the covenant law?”^(A)

¹² “When you take a census^(A) of the Israelites to count them, each one must pay the Lord a ransom^(B) for his life at the time he is counted. Then no plague^(C) will come on them when you number them. ¹³ Each one who crosses over to those already counted is to give a half shekel,^[a] according to the sanctuary shekel,^(D) which weighs twenty gerahs. This half shekel is an offering to the Lord. ¹⁴ All who cross over, those twenty years old or more,^(E) are to give an offering to the Lord. ¹⁵ The rich are not to give more than a half shekel and the poor are not to give less^(F) when you make the offering to the Lord to atone for your lives. ¹⁶ Receive the atonement^(G) money from the Israelites and use it for the service of the tent of meeting.^(H) It will be a memorial^(I) for the Israelites before the Lord, making atonement for your lives.”

⁵⁰ Instead, appoint the Levites to be in charge of the tabernacle^(A) of the covenant law^(B)—over all its furnishings^(C) and everything belonging to it. They are to carry the tabernacle and all its furnishings; they are to take care of it and encamp around it.

⁷ Moses placed the staffs before the Lord in the tent of the covenant law.^(A)

⁸ The next day Moses entered the tent^(B) and saw that Aaron’s staff,^(C) which represented the tribe of Levi, had not only sprouted but had budded, blossomed and produced almonds.^(D)

⁴⁴ “Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the covenant law^(A) with them in the wilderness. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen.^(B)

³ But Joab^(A) replied to the king, “May the Lord your God multiply the troops a hundred times over,^(B) and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king want to do such a thing?”

² Bring your fellow Levites from your ancestral tribe to join you and assist you when you and your sons minister^(A) before the tent of the covenant law.