The Wilderness Years

and have taken all the vessels of ministry wherewith they minister in the sanctuary, and have put them unto a garment of blue, and have covered them with a covering of badger skin, and have put them on the bar,

and have removed the ashes of the altar, and have spread over it a garment of purple;

and have put on it all its vessels wherewith they minister about it, the censers, the hooks, and the shovels, and the bowls, all the vessels of the altar, and have spread on it a covering of badger skin, and have placed its staves:

`And Aaron hath finished--his sons also--covering the sanctuary, and all the vessels of the sanctuary, in the journeying of the camp, and afterwards do the sons of Kohath come in to bear it , and they do not come unto the holy thing, that they have died; these things are the burden of the sons of Kohath in the tent of meeting.

`And the oversight of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, is the oil of the lamp, and the spice-perfume, and the present of continuity, and the anointing oil, the oversight of all the tabernacle, and of all that is in it, in the sanctuary, and in its vessels.'

And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,

`Ye do not cut off the tribe of the families of the Kohathite from the midst of the Levites;

but this do to them, and they have lived, and do not die in their drawing nigh the holy of holies: --Aaron and his sons go in, and have set them, each man to his service, and unto his burden,

and they go not in to see when the holy thing is swallowed, that they have died.'

And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, saying,

`Take up the sum of the sons of Gershon also by the house of their fathers, by their families;

from a son of thirty years and upward, till a son of fifty years thou dost number them, every one who is going in to serve the host, to do the service in the tent of meeting.

`This is the service of the families of the Gershonite, to serve--and for burden,

and they have borne the curtains of the tabernacle, and the tent of meeting, its covering, and the covering of the badger skin which is on it above, and the vail at the opening of the tent of meeting,

and the hangings of the court, and the vail at the opening of the gate of the court which is by the tabernacle, and by the altar round about, and their cords, and all the vessels of their service, and all that is made for them--and they have served.

`By the command of Aaron and his sons is all the service of the sons of the Gershonite in all their burden, and in all their service; and ye have laid a charge on them concerning the charge of all their burden.

This is the service of the families of the sons of the Gershonite in the tent of meeting; and their charge is under the hand of Ithamar son of Aaron the priest.

`The sons of Merari, by their families, by the house of their fathers, thou dost number them;

from a son of thirty years and upward even unto a son of fifty years thou dost number them, every one who is going in to the host, to do the service of the tent of meeting.

`And this is the charge of their burden, of all their service in the tent of meeting; the boards of the tabernacle, and its bars, and its pillars, and its sockets,

and the pillars of the court round about, and their sockets, and their pins, and their cords, of all their vessels, and of all their service; and by name ye do number the vessels of the charge of their burden.

`This is the service of the families of the sons of Merari, for all their service, in the tent of meeting, by the hand of Ithamar son of Aaron the priest.'

And Moses numbereth--Aaron also, and the princes of the company--the sons of the Kohathite, by their families, and by the house of their fathers,

from a son of thirty years and upward even unto a son of fifty years, every one who is going in to the host, for service in the tent of meeting,

and their numbered ones, by their families, are two thousand seven hundred and fifty.