and the leader of the fathers’ households of the Gershonites: Eliasaph the son of Lael.

and the leader of the fathers’ households of the Kohathite families: Elizaphan the son of Uzziel.

And the leader of the fathers’ households of the families of Merari was Zuriel the son of Abihail. They were to camp on the northward side of the tabernacle.

“Take a census of the descendants of Kohath from among the sons of Levi, by their families, by their fathers’ households,

“Take a census of the sons of Gershon also, by their fathers’ households, by their families;

Duties of the Merarites

“As for the sons of Merari, you shall count them by their families, by their fathers’ households;

So Moses, Aaron, and the leaders of the congregation counted the sons of the Kohathites by their families and by their fathers’ households,

And the numbered men of the sons of Gershon by their families and by their fathers’ households,

their numbered men by their families, by their fathers’ households, were 2,630.

And the numbered men of the families of the sons of Merari by their families, by their fathers’ households,

All the numbered men of the Levites, whom Moses, Aaron, and the leaders of Israel counted, by their families and by their fathers’ households,

He shall not make himself unclean for his father or for his mother, for his brother or for his sister, when they die, because his consecration to God is on his head.

Then the leaders of Israel, the heads of their fathers’ households, made an offering (they were the leaders of the tribes; they were the supervisors over the numbered men).

Then Moses said to Hobab the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses’ father-in-law, “We are setting out to the place of which the Lord said, ‘I will give it to you.’ Come with us and we will do you good, for the Lord has promised good concerning Israel.”

Was it I who conceived all this people? Or did I give birth to them, that You should say to me, ‘Carry them in your arms, as a nurse carries a nursing infant, to the land which You swore to their fathers’?

But the Lord said to Moses, “If her father had only spit in her face, would she not be put to shame for seven days? Have her shut outside the camp for seven days, and afterward she may be received again.”

“Send out men for yourself to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am going to give the sons of Israel; you shall send a man from each of their fathers’ tribes, every one a leader among them.”

‘The Lord is slow to anger and abundant in mercy, forgiving wrongdoing and violation of His Law; but He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, inflicting the punishment of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generations.’

shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who were disrespectful to Me see it.

“Speak to the sons of Israel, and obtain from them a staff for each father’s household: twelve staffs, from all their leaders for their fathers’ households. You shall write each man’s name on his staff,

and write Aaron’s name on the staff of Levi; for there is to be one staff for the head of each of their fathers’ households.

So Moses spoke to the sons of Israel, and all their leaders gave him a staff, one for each leader, for their fathers’ households, twelve staffs in all, with the staff of Aaron among their staffs.

Duties of Levites

So the Lord said to Aaron, “You, your sons, and your father’s household with you shall bear the guilt in connection with the sanctuary, and you and your sons with you shall bear the guilt in connection with your priesthood.

But also bring your brothers with you, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, so that they may join you and serve you, while you and your sons with you are before the tent of the testimony.

that our fathers went down to Egypt, and we stayed in Egypt a long time, and the Egyptians treated us and our fathers badly.