The Wilderness Years

For every firstborn is mine: since I struck the firstborn in the land of Egypt: I have sanctified to myself whatsoever is firstborn in Israel both of man and beast, they are mine: I am the Lord.

And the Lord spoke to Moses in the desert of Sinai, saying:

Number the sons of Levi by the houses of their fathers and their families, every male from one month and upward.

Moses numbered them as the Lord had commanded.

And there were found sons of Levi by their names, Gerson and Caath Merari.

The sons of Gerson: Lebni and Semei.

The sons of Caath: Amram, and Jesaar, Hebron and Oziel:

The sons of Merari, Moholi and Musi.

Of Gerson were two families, the Lebnites, and the Semeites:

Of which were numbered, people of the male sex from one month and upward, seven thousand five hundred.

These shall pitch behind the tabernacle on the west,

Under their prince Eliasaph the son of Lael.

And their charge shall be in the tabernacle of the covenant:

The tabernacle itself and the cover thereof, the hanging that is drawn before the doors of the tabernacle of the covenant, and the curtains of the court: the hanging also that is hanged in the entry of the court of the tabernacle, and whatsoever belongeth to the rite of the altar, the cords of the tabernacle, and all the furniture thereof.

Of the kindred of Caath come the families of the Amramites and Jesaarites and Hebronites and Ozielites. These are the families of the Caathites reckoned up by their names:

All of the male sex from one month and upward, eight thousand six hundred: they shall have the guard of the sanctuary,

And shall camp on the south side.

And their prince shall be Elisaphan the son of Oziel:

And they shall keep the ark, and the table and the candlestick, the altars, and the vessels of the sanctuary, wherewith they minister, and the veil, and all the furniture of this kind.

And the prince of the princes of the Levites, Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, shall be over them that watch for the guard of the sanctuary.

And of Merari are the families of the Moholites, and Musites, reckoned up by their names:

All of the male kind from one month and upward, six thousand two hundred.

Their prince Suriel the son of Abihaiel: their shall camp on the north side.

Under their custody shall be the boards of the tabernacle, and the bars, and the pillars and their sockets, and all things that pertain to this kind of service:

And the pillars of the court round about with their sockets, and the pins with their cords.