36 And the appointed charge of the sons of Merari shall be the boards of the tabernacle and its bars and its pillars and its sockets and all its equipment and all the service pertaining to it,
37 And the pillars around the court and their sockets and their pegs and their cords.
38 And those who encamp before the tabernacle to the east, before the Tent of Meeting toward the sunrise, shall be Moses and Aaron and his sons, keeping the charge of the sanctuary for the charge of the children of Israel; and the stranger who comes near shall be put to death.
39 All who were numbered of the Levites, whom Moses and Aaron numbered at the commandment of Jehovah, by their families, all the males from a month old and upward were twenty-two thousand.
40 And Jehovah said to Moses, Number all the firstborn males of the children of Israel from a month old and upward, and take the number of their names.
41 And you shall take the Levites for Me – I am Jehovah – instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the cattle of the children of Israel.
42 And Moses numbered, just as Jehovah commanded him, all the firstborn among the children of Israel.
43 And all the firstborn males according to the number of names, from a month old and upward, of those who were numbered of them were twenty-two thousand two hundred seventy-three.
44 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
45 Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of their cattle; and the Levites shall be Mine; I am Jehovah.
46 And for the redemption of the two hundred seventy-three of the firstborn of the children of Israel over and above the number of the Levites,
47 You shall take five shekels apiece per head; according to the shekel of the sanctuary you shall take them. (The shekel is twenty gerahs.)
48 And you shall give the money, by which the excess number of them is redeemed, to Aaron and to his sons.
49 So Moses took the redemption money from those who were over and above those who were redeemed by the Levites;
50 From the firstborn of the children of Israel he took the money, a thousand three hundred sixty-five shekels according to the shekel of the sanctuary.
51 And Moses gave the redemption money to Aaron and to his sons, according to the word of Jehovah, as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
CHAPTER 4
1 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,
2 Take the sum of the sons of Kohath from among the sons of Levi, by their families, by their fathers’ households,
3 From thirty years old and upward even to fifty years old, all who enter into the service to perform the skilled work in the Tent of Meeting.
4 This is the service of the sons of Kohath in the Tent of Meeting concerning the most holy things.
5 When the camp sets out, Aaron and his sons shall go in, and they shall take down the veil of the screen and cover the Ark of the Testimony with it,
6 And they shall put on it a covering of porpoise skin, and shall spread over it a cloth all of blue strands, and shall put in its poles.