1And YHWH spoke to Moses, saying, 2“Speak to Aaron, and you shall say to him: ‘When you put up the lamps, the seven lamps shall shed light opposite the front of the menorah.’” 3And Aaron did so. He put up its lamps opposite the front of the menorah as YHWH had commanded Moses. 4And this was the menorah’s construction: hammered work of gold; including its shaft, including its flower, it was hammered work. According to the appearance that YHWH had shown Moses, so he made the menorah.
5And YHWH spoke to Moses, saying, 6“Take the Levites from among the children of Israel, and make them pure. 7And this is what you shall do to them to make them pure: you shall sprinkle water of sin expiation on them, and they shall pass a razor over all of their flesh, and they shall wash their clothes, and so they will be made pure. 8And they shall take a bull of the cattle and its grain offering, fine flour mixed with oil; and you shall take a second bull of the cattle for a sin offering. 9And you shall bring the Levites forward in front of the Tent of Meeting, and you shall assemble all of the congregation of the children of Israel. 10And you shall bring the Levites forward in front of YHWH, and the children of Israel shall lay their hands on the Levites. 11And Aaron shall make the Levites an elevation offering in front of YHWH from the children of Israel, and they shall be to do YHWH’s service. 12And the Levites shall lay their hands on the bulls’ heads. And make one a sin offering and one a burnt offering for YHWH to make atonement for the Levites. 13And you shall stand the Levites in front of Aaron and in front of his sons and make them an elevation offering for YHWH. 14And you shall distinguish the Levites from among the children of Israel, and the Levites shall be mine. 15And after that the Levites shall come to work at the Tent of Meeting, when you have made them pure and made them an elevation offering. l6Because they are given, given, to me from among the children of Israel. I have taken them to me in place of the first birth of every womb, the firstborn of everyone from the children of Israel. 17Because every firstborn of the children Israel is mine, of human and of animal; on the day that I struck every firstborn in the land of Egypt I consecrated them to me. l8And I took the Levites in place of every firstborn of the children of Israel 19and gave the Levites—they are given—to Aaron and to his sons from among the children of Israel to do the work of the children of Israel in the Tent of Meeting and to make atonement for the children of Israel, so there will not be a plague in the children of Israel when the children of Israel would come near to the Holy.”
20And Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel did to the Levites according to all that YHWH commanded Moses about the Levites; the children of Israel did so to them. 21And the Levites did sin expiation and washed their clothes, and Aaron made them an elevation offering in front of YHWH, and Aaron made atonement for them to make them pure. 22And after that the Levites came to do their work in the Tent of Meeting in front of Aaron and in front of his sons. As YHWH commanded Moses about the Levites, so they did to them.
23And YHWH spoke to Moses, saying, 24“This is what the Levites have: from twenty-five years old and up each shall come to do army service by the work of the Tent of Meeting; 25and from fifty years old he shall go back from the army service and shall not work anymore; 26and he shall minister with his brothers in the Tent of Meeting to keep the charge, but he shall not do work. You shall do thus to the Levites regarding their charge.”