Numbers 8

¹ Yahweh spoke to Moses and said:

² ‘Say this to Aaron, “When you set up the lamps, the seven lamps must throw their light towards the front of the lamp-stand”‘.

³ Aaron saw to this. He set up the lamps to the front of the lamp-stand, as Yahweh had ordered Moses.

⁴ This lamp-stand was worked in beaten gold, including its stem and its petals, which were also of beaten gold. This lamp-stand had been made according to the pattern Yahweh had shown to Moses.

⁵ Yahweh spoke to Moses and said:

⁶ ‘Separate the Levites from the sons of Israel and purify them.

⁷ This is how you are to purify them: you must sprinkle them with lustral water, and they must shave their bodies all over and wash their clothing. They will then be clean.

⁸ They must next take a young bull, with the accompanying oblation of fine flour mixed with oil, and you must take a second young bull for a sacrifice for sin.

⁹ Then bring the Levites before the Tent of Meeting, and call together the whole community of the sons of Israel.

¹⁰ When you have brought the Levites before Yahweh, the sons of Israel must lay their hands on them.

¹¹ Aaron shall then offer the Levites, making the gesture of offering before Yahweh on behalf of the sons of Israel. From that time, they will be dedicated to the service of Yahweh.

¹² ‘The Levites must then lay their hands on the heads of the bulls, one of which you are to offer as a sacrifice for sin, and the other as a holocaust to Yahweh; this is how the rite of atonement for the Levites is to be performed.

¹³ Having brought the Levites before Aaron and his sons, you will present them to Yahweh with the gesture of offering.

¹⁴ This is how you are to set the Levites apart from he rest of the sons of Israel, so that they may be mine.

¹⁵ The Levites will then begin their ministry in the Tent of Meeting. ‘You must purify them and offer them with the gesture of offering

¹⁶ because they have been made over to me from among the sons of Israel, as ‘oblates’. They are to replace those who open the womb, all the first-born; of all the sons of Israel I have taken them for my own.

¹⁷ All the first-born among the sons of Israel, man and beast, do indeed belong to me: the day I struck all the first-born in the land of Egypt, I consecrated them to myself,

¹⁸ and now, in place of all the first-born among the sons of Israel, I have taken the Levites.

¹⁹ From among the sons of Israel I give them to Aaron and his sons, as ‘oblates’; on behalf of the sons of Israel, they will minister in the Tent of Meeting and perform the rite of atonement over them, so that none of the sons of Israel may be struck down for approaching the sanctuary.’

²⁰ Moses, Aaron and the whole community of the sons of Israel dealt with the Levites exactly as Yahweh had directed Moses concerning them; this is what the sons of Israel did with them.

²¹ The Levites purified themselves and washed their clothes, and Aaron presented them with the gesture of offering before Yahweh. Then he performed the rite of atonement over them to purify them.

²² The Levites were then allowed to perform their ministry in the Tent of Meeting in the presence of Aaron and his sons. As Yahweh had directed Moses concerning the Levites, so it was done to them.

²³ Yahweh spoke to Moses and said:

²⁴ ‘This concerns the Levites. From the age of twenty-five onwards, the Levite must exercise his ministry and do duty in the Tent of Meeting.

²⁵ After the age of fifty, he is no longer bound to the ministry; he will have no further duties;

²⁶ but he will still help his brothers to ensure the services in the Tent of Meeting, though he himself will no longer have any ministry. See that this is the rule for the ministry of the Levites.’