Levites Not Numbered in the Census

^47 (A)The Levites, however, were not numbered among them by their fathers’ tribe. ⁴⁸ Yahweh had spoken to Moses, saying, ⁴⁹ “Only the tribe of Levi ^(B)you shall not number, nor shall you take their ^[a]census among the sons of Israel. ⁵⁰ But you shall ^(C)appoint the Levites over the ^[b]tabernacle of the testimony and over all its furnishings and over all that belongs to it. They shall carry the tabernacle and all its furnishings, and they shall attend to it; they shall also camp around the tabernacle. ^51 (D)So when the tabernacle is to set out, the Levites shall take it down; and when the tabernacle encamps, the Levites shall set it up. But ^(E)the ^[c]layman who comes near shall be put to death. ^52 (F)And the sons of Israel shall camp, each man by his own camp, and each man by his own standard, according to their armies. ^53 (G)But the Levites shall camp around the tabernacle of the testimony so that there will be ^(H)no wrath on the congregation of the sons of Israel. ^(I)So the Levites shall keep charge of the tabernacle of the testimony.” ⁵⁴ Thus the sons of Israel did; according to all which Yahweh had commanded Moses, so they did.