⁴ The service of the Kohathites relating to the tent of meeting concerns the most holy things.

¹⁹ This is how you shall deal with them in order that they may live and not die when they come near the most holy things: Aaron and his sons shall go in and assign each to a particular task or burden.^(A)

³⁴ It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch.^(A)

³⁰ from thirty years old up to fifty years old you shall enroll them, everyone who qualifies to do the work of the tent of meeting.^(A)

²⁴ This is the service of the clans of the Gershonites, in serving and bearing burdens:

¹⁵ When Aaron and his sons have finished covering the sanctuary and all the furnishings of the sanctuary, as the camp sets out, after that the Kohathites shall come to carry these, but they must not touch the holy things, or they will die. These are the things of the tent of meeting that the Kohathites are to carry.^(A)

³⁰ with Elizaphan son of Uzziel as head of the ancestral house of the clans of the Kohathites. ³¹ Their responsibility was the ark, the table, the lampstand, the altars, the vessels of the sanctuary with which the priests minister, and the screen—all the service pertaining to these.