NumbersChapter 8

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¹Then the LORD said to Moses, ²"Speak to Aaron. Tell him, 'When you set up the seven lamps, they must light the area in front of the lampstand.'" ³And Aaron did this. He set up the lamps so they faced the front of the lampstand. He did just what the LORD had commanded Moses. ⁴This is how the lampstand was made. It was made of hammered gold, from its base to its flowers. It was made just like the pattern the LORD had shown Moses. ⁵Again the LORD spoke to Moses. He said, ⁶"Take the Levites from among the Israelites. Make them clean for worship. ⁷This is what you must do to make them clean. Sprinkle them with the water that makes people clean. Have them shave their whole bodies and wash their clothes. In this way they will make themselves clean. ⁸Then have them take a young bull with its grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil. And you must take a second young bull for a sin offering. ⁹Bring the Levites to the front of the Tent of Meeting. Gather the whole community of Israel there. ¹⁰You must bring the Levites before the LORD. Have the Israelites lay their hands on them. ¹¹Aaron must give the Levites to the LORD as a wave offering from the people of Israel. Then they can do the LORD's work. ¹²Then the Levites must lay their hands on the heads of the bulls. Offer one bull to the LORD as a sin offering. Offer the other as a burnt offering. This will make atonement for the Levites. ¹³Have the Levites stand in front of Aaron and his sons. Then give them to the LORD as a wave offering. ¹⁴In this way you will set the Levites apart from the rest of the Israelites. And the Levites will belong to me. ¹⁵First you must make them clean and give them as a wave offering. After that they may come and serve at the Tent of Meeting. ¹⁶The Levites have been fully given to me from among the people of Israel. I have taken them for myself in place of every firstborn. They take the place of the first child born to every mother in Israel. ¹⁷Every firstborn male in Israel belongs to me, both people and animals. I set them apart for myself on the day I struck down all the firstborn in Egypt. ¹⁸But I have taken the Levites in place of all the firstborn of the people of Israel. ¹⁹I have given the Levites from among the Israelites as a gift to Aaron and his sons. They will do the work for the Israelites at the Tent of Meeting. They will make atonement for them. They will do this so that no plague will strike the Israelites when they come near the holy place." ²⁰So Moses, Aaron, and the whole community of Israel did this with the Levites. They did everything the LORD had commanded Moses. ²¹The Levites made themselves clean and washed their clothes. Aaron gave them to the LORD as a wave offering. Aaron also made atonement for them to make them clean. ²²After that, the Levites came to do their work at the Tent of Meeting, in front of Aaron and his sons. So the people did with the Levites just what the LORD had commanded Moses. ²³And the LORD said to Moses, ²⁴"This is the rule for the Levites. Men twenty-five years old or older will come to do the work at the Tent of Meeting. ²⁵But at age fifty, they must stop doing the work. They will not serve anymore. ²⁶After that, they may help their brothers do their jobs at the Tent of Meeting. But they must not do the work themselves. This is how you must give the Levites their jobs."