Numbers 8
1 The LORD spoke to Moses:
2 “Speak to Aaron and tell him: ‘When you set up the lamps, the seven lamps are to shine toward the front of the lampstand.’”
3 Aaron did so: he set up the lamps facing the front of the lampstand, as the LORD had commanded Moses.
4 This was how the lampstand was made: it was hammered out of gold. From its base to its blossoms, it was hammered out. The lampstand was made according to the pattern the LORD had shown Moses.
5 The LORD spoke to Moses:
6 “Take the Levites from among the Israelites and purify them.
7 This is what you are to do to purify them: sprinkle the purification water on them; they are to shave their whole bodies, wash their clothes, and purify themselves.
8 Then they are to take a young bull with its grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil, and you are to take another young bull as a sin offering.
9 Present the Levites before the tent of meeting and assemble the whole community of the Israelites.
10 Present the Levites before the LORD, and the Israelites are to lay their hands on the Levites.
11 Aaron is to present the Levites as a wave offering before the LORD on behalf of the Israelites, and they will perform the LORD’s service.
12 The Levites are to lay their hands on the heads of the bulls. Then offer one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering to the LORD, to make atonement for the Levites.
13 Set the Levites before Aaron and his sons, and present them as a wave offering to the LORD.”
14 “In this way you are to set the Levites apart from among the Israelites, and the Levites will be mine.
15 After that, the Levites may come to serve at the tent of meeting. You are to purify them and present them as a wave offering.
16 For they are given to me, wholly given, from among the Israelites. I have taken them for myself in place of every firstborn, the firstborn of all the Israelites.
17 For every firstborn among the Israelites is mine, both people and animals. On the day I struck down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, I set them apart for myself.
18 I have taken the Levites in place of every firstborn among the Israelites.
19 I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and his sons from among the Israelites, to do the work of the Israelites at the tent of meeting and to make atonement for the Israelites, so that no plague will strike the Israelites when they approach the sanctuary.”
20 Moses, Aaron, and the whole community of the Israelites did this with the Levites. The Israelites did with them exactly as the LORD had commanded Moses concerning the Levites.
21 The Levites purified themselves and washed their clothes. Aaron presented them as a wave offering before the LORD and made atonement for them to purify them.
22 After that, the Levites came to perform their service at the tent of meeting, before Aaron and his sons. They did with them exactly as the LORD had commanded Moses concerning the Levites.
23 The LORD spoke to Moses:
24 “This is what applies to the Levites: from the age of twenty-five onward, each one is to come and take part in the service at the tent of meeting.
25 From the age of fifty, he is to retire from the ranks of service and no longer serve.
26 He may assist his brothers at the tent of meeting by keeping the charge, but he is not to do the work. This is how you are to assign the Levites their duties.”
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