Numbers 8

Setting up the lamps

¹The LORD spoke to Moses. He said, ²“Speak to Aaron and tell him, ‘When you set up the lamps, the seven lamps are to shine out toward the front of the lampstand.’” ³Aaron carried this out, setting up its lamps toward the front of the lampstand, just as the LORD had commanded Moses. ⁴The lampstand was crafted like this: it was hammered work in gold, beaten out from its base to its blossoms. It was made in keeping with the pattern that the LORD had shown Moses.

The Levites are made clean and presented

⁵The LORD spoke to Moses. He said, ⁶“Take the Levites from among the Israelites and make them clean. ⁷This is what you are to do to make them clean: sprinkle them with the water of purification. Then they are to pass a razor over their whole body, wash their clothes, and make themselves clean. ⁸They are to bring a young bull and the grain offering that goes with it, fine flour mixed with oil. You yourself are to take another young bull as a sin offering. ⁹Bring the Levites forward in front of the tent of meeting, and call together the whole congregation of the Israelites. ¹⁰When you have brought the Levites before the LORD, the Israelites are to place their hands on them. ¹¹Aaron is to present the Levites before the LORD as a wave offering from the Israelites, so that they may do the work of serving the LORD. ¹²The Levites are to lay their hands on the heads of the bulls. Then offer one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering to the LORD, to make atonement for the Levites. ¹³Set the Levites before Aaron and his sons, and present them to the LORD as a wave offering. ¹⁴By doing this you will set the Levites apart from among the Israelites, and the Levites will belong to me. ¹⁵After that the Levites may go in to serve at the tent of meeting, once you have made them clean and presented them as a wave offering. ¹⁶They are given over entirely to me from among the Israelites. I have taken them for myself in place of the firstborn, the first child born to every mother in Israel. ¹⁷For every firstborn among the Israelites belongs to me, of people and of animals alike. I made them holy to myself on the day I struck down every firstborn in the land of Egypt. ¹⁸So I have taken the Levites in place of every firstborn among the Israelites. ¹⁹I have handed over the Levites, taken from among the Israelites, to Aaron and his sons as a gift. They are to do the work of the Israelites at the tent of meeting and make atonement for them, so that the Israelites are not struck by a plague when they approach the sanctuary.” ²⁰Moses, Aaron and the whole congregation of the Israelites carried out for the Levites all that the LORD had commanded Moses about them; the Israelites did exactly that with them. ²¹The Levites cleansed themselves of sin and washed their clothes, and Aaron presented them before the LORD as a wave offering. Aaron made atonement for them so that they would be clean. ²²After that the Levites went in to do their work at the tent of meeting, serving under Aaron and his sons. What the LORD had commanded Moses about the Levites was done with them.

The ages of service for the Levites

²³The LORD spoke to Moses. He said, ²⁴“This is the rule for the Levites: from the age of twenty-five and up, each one is to come and take his place on duty in the work of the tent of meeting.^{a 25}But from fifty years old he is to step down from the duty of the work and serve no more. ²⁶He may help his fellow Levites at the tent of meeting by keeping guard, but he is not to do the work. This is how you are to arrange the duties of the Levites.”