All those of twenty years old and over, who are able to go to war in Israel, are to be numbered by you and Aaron.

These are the names of those who are to be your helpers: from Reuben, Elizur, the son of Shedeur;

These are the men named out of all the people, chiefs of their fathers' houses, heads of the tribes of Israel.

These are they who were numbered by Moses and Aaron and by the twelve chiefs of Israel, one from every tribe.

But to them you are to give the care of the Tent of meeting with its vessels and everything in it: they are to take up the Tent, and be responsible for everything to do with it, and put up their tents round it.

And when the Tent of meeting goes forward, the Levites are to take it down; and when it is to be put up, they are to do it: any strange person who comes near it is to be put to death.

The children of Israel are to put up their tents, every man in his tent-circle round his flag.

But the tents of the Levites are to be round the Tent of meeting, so that wrath may not come on the children of Israel: the Tent of meeting is to be in the care of the Levites.

The children of Israel are to put up their tents in the order of their families, by the flags of their fathers' houses, facing the Tent of meeting on every side.

Those whose tents are on the east side, looking to the dawn, will be round the flag of the children of Judah, with Nahshon, the son of Amminadab, as their chief.

Then the Tent of meeting is to go forward, with the tents of the Levites, in the middle of the armies; in the same order as their tents are placed, they are to go forward, every man under his flag.

These are all who were numbered of the children of Israel, in the order of their fathers' families: all the armies in their tents together came to six hundred and three thousand, five hundred and fifty.

Now these are the generations of Aaron and Moses, in the day when the word of the Lord came to Moses on Mount Sinai.

These are the names of the sons of Aaron: Nadab the oldest, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.

These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the priests, on whom the holy oil was put, who were marked out as priests.

And give orders that Aaron and his sons are to keep their place as priests; any strange person who comes near is to be put to death.

For all the first sons are mine; on the day when I put to death all the first sons in the land of Egypt, I took for myself every first male birth of man and beast. They are mine; I am the Lord.

And these are the names of the sons of Gershon, by their families: Libni and Shimei.

And the sons of Merari by their families: Mahli and Mushi. These are the families of the Levites in the order of their fathers' houses.

From Gershon come the Libnites and the Shimeites; these are the families of the Gershonites.

The tents of the Gershonites are to be placed at the back of the House, to the west.

In the Tent of meeting, the Gershonites are to have the care of the House, and the Tent with its cover, and the veil for the door of the Tent of meeting,

From Kohath come the Amramites and the Izharites and the Hebronites and the Uzzielites; these are the families of the Kohathites.

The tents of the Kohathites are to be placed on the south side of the House.

In their care are the ark, and the table, and the lights, and the altars, and all the vessels used in the holy place, and the veil, and all they are used for.

From Merari come the Mahlites and the Mushites; these are the families of Merari.

The chief of the families of Merari was Zuriel, the son of Abihail: their tents are to be placed on the north side of the House.

And in their care are to be all the boards of the Tent, with their rods and pillars and bases, and all the instruments, and all they are used for,

And those whose tents are to be placed on the east side of the House in front of the Tent of meeting, looking to the dawn, are Moses and Aaron and his sons, who will do the work of the holy place for the children of Israel; and any strange person who comes near will be put to death.

Take the Levites in place of all the first sons of the children of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites in place of their cattle; the Levites are to be mine; I am the Lord.

And the price you have to give for the two hundred and seventy-three first sons of the children of Israel which are in addition to the number of the Levites,

All those from thirty to fifty years old who are able to do the work of the Tent of meeting.

And on the table of the holy bread they are to put a blue cloth, and on it all the vessels, the spoons and the basins and the cups; and the holy bread with them;

And over them they are to put a red cloth, covering it with a leather cover, and putting its rods in their places.

And they are to take a blue cloth, covering with it the light-support with its lights and its instruments and its trays and all the oil vessels which are used for it:

All these they are to put in a leather cover, and put it on the frame.

On the gold altar they are to put a blue cloth, covering it with a leather cover; and they are to put its rods in their places.

All the vessels which are used in the holy place they are to put in a blue cloth, covering them with a leather cover, and put them on the frame.

And they are to take away the burned waste from the altar, and put a purple cloth on it;

Placing on the cloth all its vessels, the fire-baskets, the meat-hooks, the spades, and the basins; all the vessels of the altar; they are to put a leather cover over all these, and put its rods in their places.

And after the holy place and all its vessels have been covered up by Aaron and his sons, when the tents of the people go forward, the sons of Kohath are to come and take it up; but the holy things may not be touched by them for fear of death.

But they themselves are not to go in to see the holy place, even for a minute, for fear of death.

All those from thirty to fifty years old who are able to do the work of the Tent of meeting.

This is to be the work of the Gershonites, the things they are to do and take up.

They are to take up the curtains of the House, and the Tent of meeting with its cover and the leather cover over it, and the hangings for the door of the Tent of meeting;

And the hangings for the open space round the House and the altar, and the curtain for its doorway, with the cords and all the things used for them; whatever is necessary for these, they are to do.

From the mouth of Aaron and his sons the Gershonites will have word about all the things they are to do and take up; you are to give them their orders.

The sons of Merari are to be numbered by families, in the order of their fathers' houses;

And the pillars of the open space outside it, with their bases and their nails and cords and all the instruments used, and everything which has to be done there; all the instruments for which they are responsible are to be numbered by name.

This is the work which the sons of Merari are to do in connection with the Tent of meeting, under the direction of Ithamar, the son of Aaron the priest.

Male or female they are to be put outside the tent-circle, so that they may not make unclean my resting-place among them.

And he will make her take an oath, and say to her, If no man has been your lover and you have not been with another in place of your husband, you are free from this bitter water causing the curse;

All the time he is under his oath let no blade come near his head; till the days while he is separate are ended he is holy and his hair may not be cut.

And this is the law for him who is separate, when the necessary days are ended: he is to come to the door of the Tent of meeting,

Then let his long hair, the sign of his oath, be cut off at the door of the Tent of meeting, and let him put it on the fire on which the peace-offerings are burning.

Say to Aaron and his sons, These are the words of blessing which are to be used by you in blessing the children of Israel; say to them,

And this is how you are to make them clean: let the holy water which takes away sin be put on them, and let the hair all over their bodies be cut off with a sharp blade, and let their clothing be washed and their bodies made clean.

And you are to take the Levites before the Lord: and the children of Israel are to put their hands on them:

And the Levites are to put their hands on the heads of the oxen, and one of the oxen is to be offered for a sin-offering and the other for a burned offering to the Lord to take away the sin of the Levites.

Then the Levites are to be put before Aaron and his sons, to be offered as a wave offering to the Lord.

So you are to make the Levites separate from the children of Israel, and the Levites will be mine.

After that, the Levites will go in to do whatever has to be done in the Tent of meeting; you are to make them clean and give them as a wave offering.

This is the rule for the Levites: those of twenty-five years old and over are to go in and do the work of the Tent of meeting;

But after they are fifty years old, they are to give up their work and do no more;

But be with their brothers in the Tent of meeting, taking care of it but doing no work. This is what you are to do in connection with the Levites and their work.

In the fourteenth day of this month, at evening, you are to keep it at the regular time, and in the way ordered in the law.

In the second month, on the fourteenth day, in the evening, they are to keep it, taking it with unleavened bread and bitter-tasting plants;

Nothing of it is to be kept till the morning, and no bone of it is to be broken: they are to keep it by the rules of the Passover.

When they are sounded, all the people are to come together to you at the door of the Tent of meeting.

If only one of them is sounded, then the chiefs, the heads of the thousands of Israel, are to come to you.

When a loud note is sounded, the tents placed on the east side are to go forward.

At the sound of a second loud note, the tents on the south side are to go forward: the loud note will be the sign to go forward.

But when all the people are to come together, the horn is to be sounded but not loudly.

The horns are to be sounded by the sons of Aaron, the priests; this is to be a law for you for ever, from generation to generation.

And if you go to war in your land against any who do you wrong, then let the loud note of the horn be sounded; and the Lord your God will keep you in mind and give you salvation from those who are against you.

Then Moses said to Hobab, the son of his father-in-law Reuel the Midianite, We are journeying to that place of which the Lord has said, I will give it to you: so come with us, and it will be for your profit: for the Lord has good things in store for Israel.

And when the ark went forward Moses said, Come up, O Lord, and let the armies of those who are against you be broken, and let your haters go in flight before you.

Where am I to get flesh to give to all this people? For they are weeping to me and saying, Give us flesh for our food.

And the Lord said to Moses, Send for seventy of the responsible men of Israel, who are in your opinion men of weight and authority over the people; make them come to the Tent of meeting and be there with you.

But every day for a month, till you are tired of it, turning from it in disgust: because you have gone against the Lord who is with you, and have been weeping before him saying, Why did we come out of Egypt?

Then Moses said, The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand men on foot; and you have said, I will give them flesh to be their food for a month.

Are flocks and herds to be put to death for them? or are all the fish in the sea to be got together so that they may be full?

And a young man went running to Moses and said, Eldad and Medad are acting as prophets in the tent-circle.

And Moses said to him, Are you moved by envy on my account? If only all the Lord's people were prophets, and the Lord might put his spirit on them!

Then Aaron said to Moses, O my lord, let not our sin be on our heads, for we have done foolishly and are sinners.

Send men to get knowledge about the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel; from every tribe of their fathers you are to send a man, every one a chief among them.

These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to get knowledge about the land. And Moses gave to Hoshea, the son of Nun, the name of Joshua.

And see what the land is like; and if the people living in it are strong or feeble, small or great in number;

And what sort of land they are living in, if it is good or bad; and what their living-places are, tent-circles or walled towns;

But the people living in the land are strong, and the towns are walled and very great; further, we saw the children of Anak there.

And the Amalekites are in the South; and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites are living in the hill-country; and the Canaanites by the sea and by the side of Jordan.

Then Caleb made signs to the people to keep quiet, and said to Moses, Let us go up straight away and take this land; for we are well able to overcome it.

But the men who had gone up with him said, We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.

And they gave the children of Israel a bad account of the land they had been to see, saying, This land through which we went is a land causing destruction to those living in it; and all the people we saw there are men of more than common size.

And they will give the news to the people of this land: they have had word that you, Lord, are present with this people, letting yourself be seen face to face, and that your cloud is resting over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night.

Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites are in the valley; tomorrow, turning round, go into the waste land by the way to the Red Sea.

And early in the morning they got up and went to the top of the mountain, saying, We are here and we will go up to the place which the Lord said he would give us: for we have done wrong.

And Moses said, Why are you now acting against the Lord's order, seeing that no good will come of it?

Go not up, for the Lord is not with you, and you will be overcome by those who are fighting against you.

For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you will be put to death by their swords: because you have gone back from the way of the Lord, the Lord will not be with you.