And the sons of Kohath, by their families: Amram and Izhar and Hebron and Uzziel.

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.

Their chief is Elizaphan, the son of Uzziel.

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.

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 the pillars of the open space round it, with their bases and nails and cords.

All the Levites numbered by Moses and Aaron at the order of the Lord, all the males of one month old and over numbered in the order of their families, were twenty-two thousand.

And the Lord said to Moses, Let all the first male children be numbered, and take the number of their names.

Every first son from a month old and over was numbered by name, and the number came to twenty-two thousand, two hundred and seventy-three.

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,

From the first sons of Israel he took it, a thousand, three hundred and sixty-five shekels, by the scale of the holy place;

Let the sons of Kohath, from among the sons of Levi, be numbered by their families, in the order of their fathers' houses;

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

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.

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.

Let the sons of Gershon be numbered by families, in the order of their fathers' houses;

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 this is their part in the work of the Tent of meeting: the transport of the boards and the rods of the Tent, with the pillars and their bases;

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.

So Moses and Aaron and the chiefs of the people took in hand the numbering of the sons of the Kohathites, by families, in the order of their fathers' houses;

Who were numbered by families in the order of their fathers' houses, were two thousand, six hundred and thirty.

And those of the sons of Merari who were numbered by families, in the order of their fathers' houses,

Who were numbered by families, were three thousand, two hundred.

And all the Levites who were numbered by Moses and Aaron and the chiefs of the people, by families, in the order of their fathers' houses,

By taking as her lover another man, and keeps it secret so that her husband has no knowledge of it, and there is no witness against her, and she is not taken in the act;

And a basket of unleavened bread, cakes of the best meal mixed with oil, and thin unleavened cakes covered with oil, with their meal offering and drink offerings.

Then the chiefs of Israel, the heads of their fathers' houses, made offerings; these were the chiefs of the tribes, who were over those who were numbered.

And they came with their offerings before the Lord, six covered carts and twelve oxen; a cart for every two of the chiefs, and for every one an ox.

Two carts and four oxen he gave to the sons of Gershon for their work;

And four carts and eight oxen he gave to the sons of Merari for their work, under the direction of Ithamar, the son of Aaron the priest.

But to the sons of Kohath he gave nothing; because they had the care of the holy place, taking it about on their backs.

And the chiefs gave an offering for the altar on the day when the holy oil was put on it; they made their offering before the altar.

All the oxen, for the burned offering were twelve, the male sheep twelve, the he-lambs of the first year twelve, with their meal offering; and the males of the goats for sin-offering twelve;

Say to Aaron, When you put the lights in their places, the seven lights will give light in front of the support.

And Aaron did so; he put the lights in their places so that they gave light in front of the support, as the Lord gave orders to Moses.

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.

And the Levites were made clean from sin, and their clothing was washed, and Aaron gave them for a wave offering before the Lord; and Aaron took away their sin and made them clean.

And then the Levites went in to do their work in the Tent of meeting before Aaron and his sons: all the orders which the Lord had given Moses about the Levites were put into effect.

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.

And there were certain men who were unclean because of a dead body, so that they were not able to keep the Passover on that day; and they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day:

And if a man from another country is among you and has a desire to keep the Passover to the Lord, let him do as is ordered in the law of the Passover: there is to be the same rule for the man from another nation and for him who had his birth in the land.

And on the day when the House was put up, the cloud came down on it, on the Tent of witness; and in the evening there was a light like fire over the House till the morning.

And whenever the cloud was taken up from over the House, then the children of Israel went journeying on; and in the place where the cloud came to rest, there the children of Israel put up their tents.

At the order of the Lord the children of Israel went forward, and at the order of the Lord they put up their tents: as long as the cloud was resting on the House, they did not go away from that place.

Sometimes the cloud was resting on the House for two or three days; then, by the order of the Lord, they kept their tents in that place, and when the Lord gave the order they went on.

And sometimes the cloud was there only from evening to morning; and when the cloud was taken up in the morning they went on their journey again: or if it was resting there by day and by night, whenever the cloud was taken up they went forward.

Or if the cloud came to rest on the House for two days or a month or a year without moving, the children of Israel went on waiting there and did not go on; but whenever it was taken up they went forward on their journey.

At the word of the Lord they put up their tents, and at the word of the Lord they went forward on their journey: they kept the orders of the Lord as he gave them by Moses.

And the children of Israel went on their journey out of the waste land of Sinai; and the cloud came to rest in the waste land of Paran.

They went forward for the first time on their journey as the Lord had given orders by the hand of Moses.

First the flag of the children of Judah went forward with their armies: and at the head of his army was Nahshon, the son of Amminadab.

Then the flag of the children of Reuben went forward with their armies: and at the head of his army was Elizur, the son of Shedeur.

Then the Kohathites went forward with the holy place; the others put up the House ready for their coming.

Then the flag of the children of Ephraim went forward with their armies: and at the head of his army was Elishama, the son of Ammihud.

And the flag of the children of Dan, whose tents were moved last of all, went forward with their armies: and at the head of his army was Ahiezer, the son of Ammishaddai.

So they went forward three days' journey from the mountain of the Lord; and the ark of the Lord's agreement went three days' journey before them, looking for a resting-place for them;

And by day the cloud of the Lord went over them, when they went forward from the place where they had put up their tents.

But now our soul is wasted away; there is nothing at all: we have nothing but this manna before our eyes.

Am I the father of all this people? have I given them birth, that you say to me, Take them in your arms, like a child at the breast, to the land which you gave by an oath to their fathers?

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.

And I will come down and have talk with you there: and I will take some of the spirit which is on you and put it on them, and they will take part of the weight of the people off you, so that you do not have to take it by yourself.

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.

But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was tasted, the wrath of the Lord was moved against the people and he sent a great outburst of disease on them.

So that place was named Kibroth-hattaavah; because there they put in the earth the bodies of the people who had given way to their desires.

From Kibroth-hattaavah the people went on to Hazeroth; and there they put up their tents.

And suddenly the Lord said to Moses and Aaron and Miriam, Come out, you three, to the Tent of meeting. And the three of them went out.

And he said, Now give ear to my words: if there is a prophet among you I will give him knowledge of myself in a vision and will let my words come to him in a dream.

So Miriam was shut up outside the tent-circle for seven days: and the people did not go forward on their journey till Miriam had come in again.

After that, the people went on from Hazeroth and put up their tents in the waste land of Paran.

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.

And these were their names: of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua, the son of Zaccur.

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;

And if the land is fertile or poor, and if there is wood in it or not. And be of good heart, and come back with some of the produce of the land. Now it was the time when the first grapes were ready.

They went up into the South and came to Hebron; and Ahiman and Sheshai and Talmai, the children of Anak, were living there. (Now the building of Hebron took place seven years before that of Zoan in Egypt.)

That place was named the valley of Eshcol because of the grapes which the children of Israel took from there.

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 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.

There we saw those great men, the sons of Anak, offspring of the Nephilim: and we seemed to ourselves no more than insects, and so we seemed to them.

Then Moses and Aaron went down on their faces before the meeting of the people.

Said to all the children of Israel, This land which we went through to see is a very good land.

Only, do not go against the Lord or go in fear of the people of the land, for they will be our food; their strength has been taken from them and the Lord is with us: have no fear of them.

I will send disease on them for their destruction, and take away their heritage, and I will make of you a nation greater and stronger than they.

The Lord is slow to wrath and great in mercy, overlooking wrongdoing and evil, and will not let wrongdoers go free; sending punishment on children for the sins of their fathers, to the third and fourth generation.

They will not see the land about which I made an oath to their fathers; not one of these by whom I have not been honoured will see it.

But my servant Caleb, because he had a different spirit in him, and has been true to me with all his heart, him I will take into that land into which he went, and his seed will have it for their heritage.

How long am I to put up with this evil people and their outcries against me? The words which they say against me have come to my ears.

And as you went through the land viewing it for forty days, so for forty years, a year for every day, you will undergo punishment for your wrongdoing, and you will see that I am against you.

I the Lord have said it, and this I will certainly do to all this evil people who have come together against me: in this waste land destruction will come on them, and death will be their fate.

Those same men who said evil of the land, came to their death by disease before the Lord.

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.

Then with the ox give a meal offering of three tenth parts of a measure of the best meal mixed with half a hin of oil.

And if a man from another country or any other person living among you, through all your generations, has the desire to give an offering made by fire of a sweet smell to the Lord, let him do as you do.

There is to be one law for you and for the man of another country living with you, one law for ever from generation to generation; as you are, so is he to be before the Lord.

So the priest will make the people free from sin, and they will have forgiveness; for it was an error, and they have given their offering made by fire to the Lord, and their sin-offering before the Lord, on account of their error: