The Wilderness Years

Before the tabernacle of the covenant, that is to say on the east side shall Moses and Aaron camp, with their sons, having the custody of the sanctuary, in the midst of the children of Israel. What stranger soever cometh unto it, shall be put to death.

All the Levites, that I Moses and Aaron numbered according to the precept of the Lord, by their f families, of the male kind from one month and upward, were twenty-two thousand.

And the Lord said to Moses: Number the firstborn of the male sex of the children of Israel, from one month and upward, and thou shalt take the sum of them.

And thou shalt take the Levites to me for all the firstborn of the children of Israel, I am the Lord: and their cattle for all the firstborn of the cattle of the children of Israel:

Moses reckoned up, as the Lord had commanded, the firstborn of the children of Israel:

And the males by their names, from one month and upward, were twenty-two thousand two hundred and seventy-three.

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

Take the Levites for the firstborn of the children of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites for their cattle, and the Levites shall be mine. I am the Lord.

But for the price of the two hundred and seventy-three, of the firstborn of the children of Israel, that exceed the number of the Levites,

Thou shalt take five sicles for every bead, according to the weight of the sanctuary. A sicle hath twenty obols.

And thou shalt give the money to Aaron and his sons, the price of them that are above.

Moses therefore took the money of them that were above, and whom they had redeemed from the Levites,

For the firstborn of the children of Israel, one thousand three hundred and sixty-five sicles, according to the weight of the sanctuary,

And gave it to Aaron and his sons according to the word that the Lord had commanded him.

And the Lord spoke to Moses, and Aaron, saying:

Take the sum of the sons of Caath from the midst of the Levites, by their houses and families.

From thirty years old and upward, to fifty years old, of all that go in to stand and to minister in the tabernacle of the covenant.

This is the service of the sons of Caath:

When the camp is; to set forward, Aaron and his sons shall go into the tabernacle of the covenant, and the holy of holies, and shall take down the veil that hangeth before the door, and shall wrap up the ark of the testimony in it,

And shall cover it again with a cover of violet skins, and shall spread over it a cloth all of violet, and shall put in the bars.

They shall wrap up also the table of proposition in a cloth of violet, and shall put with it the censers and little mortars, the cups and bowls to pour out the libations: the loaves shall be always on it:

And they shall spread over it a cloth of scarlet, which again they shall cover with a covering of violet skins, and shall put in the bars.

They shall take also a cloth of violet wherewith they shall cover the candlestick with the lamps and tongs thereof and the snuffers and all the oil vessels, which are necessary for the dressing of the lamps:

And over all they shall put a cover of violet skins and put in the bars.

And they shall wrap up the golden altar also in a cloth of violet, and shall spread over it a cover of violet skins, and put in the bars.