Duties of the Merarites

²⁹ “As for the sons of Merari, you shall number them by their families (clans), by their fathers’ households; ³⁰ from thirty years and upward to fifty years old, you shall number them, everyone who enters the service to do the work of the Tent of Meeting (tabernacle). ³¹ This is what they are assigned to carry [on the march], according to all their service in the Tent of Meeting: the boards [for the framework] of the tabernacle and its bars and its pillars and its sockets or bases, ³² and the pillars around the courtyard with their sockets or bases and their pegs and their cords (tent ropes), with all their equipment and with all their [accessories for] service; and you shall assign each man by name the items ^[a]he is to carry [on the march]. ³³ This is the work of the families of the sons of Merari, according to all their tasks in the Tent of Meeting (tabernacle), ^[b]under the direction of Ithamar the son of Aaron, the priest.”