⁶ Then Moses said to Aaron and his sons Eleazar and Ithamar,^(A) “Do not let your hair become unkempt^[a](B) and do not tear your clothes,^(C) or you will die and the Lord will be angry with the whole community.^(D) But your relatives, all the Israelites, may mourn^(E) for those the Lord has destroyed by fire.

⁴⁶ Then Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer^(A) and put incense in it, along with burning coals from the altar, and hurry to the assembly^(B) to make atonement^(C) for them. Wrath has come out from the Lord;^(D) the plague^(E) has started.”

⁵ “You are to be responsible for the care of the sanctuary and the altar,^(A) so that my wrath will not fall on the Israelites again.

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. ³ They are to be responsible to you^(B) and are to perform all the duties of the tent,^(C) but they must not go near the furnishings of the sanctuary or the altar. Otherwise both they and you will die.^{(D) 4} They are to join you and be responsible for the care of the tent of meeting—all the work at the tent—and no one else may come near where you are.^(E)