Numbers 1:47-54

New King James Version

⁴⁷ But ^(A)the Levites were not numbered among them by their fathers’ tribe; ⁴⁸ for the Lord had spoken to Moses, saying: ^49 (B)“Only the tribe of Levi you shall not number, nor take a census of them among the children of Israel; ^50 (C)but you shall appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the Testimony, over all its furnishings, and over all things that belong to it; they shall carry the tabernacle and all its furnishings; they shall attend to it ^(D)and camp around the tabernacle. ^51 (E)And when the tabernacle is to go forward, the Levites shall take it down; and when the tabernacle is to be set up, the Levites shall set it ^(F)up. ^(G)The outsider who comes near shall be put to death. ⁵² The children of Israel shall pitch their tents, ^(H)everyone by his own camp, everyone by his own standard, according to their armies; ^53 (I)but the Levites shall camp around the tabernacle of the Testimony, that there may be no ^(J)wrath on the congregation of the children of Israel; and the Levites shall ^(K)keep^[a] charge of the tabernacle of the Testimony.”

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