¹Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying:

²Speak to Aaron and say to him: When you bring up the lamps toward the front, the face of the lampstand, the seven lamps shall shine.

³And Aaron did so: toward the front, the face of the lampstand, he brought up its lamps, just as Yahweh had commanded Moses.

⁴And this was the work of the lampstand: hammered work of gold, from its thigh to its blossom, it was hammered work. Like the look that Yahweh had shown Moses, so he made the lampstand.

⁵Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying:

⁶Take the Levites from the midst of the children of Israel, and purify them.

⁷And thus you shall do to them, to purify them: spatter the water of sin on them, and let them pass a razor over all their flesh, and wash their garments, and so purify themselves.

⁸And they shall take a young bull, a son of the herd, with its grain offering of fine flour mixed in oil; and a second young bull, a son of the herd, you shall take as a sin offering.

⁹Bring the Levites near before the tent of meeting, and assemble the whole congregation of the children of Israel.

¹⁰Bring the Levites near before the face of Yahweh, and the children of Israel shall lean their hands on the Levites.

¹¹And Aaron shall wave the Levites as a wave offering before the face of Yahweh from the children of Israel, and they shall be the ones to serve in the service of Yahweh.

¹²And the Levites shall lean their hands on the head of the young bulls; then make the one a sin offering, and the other a burnt offering to Yahweh, to cover over the Levites.

¹³Make the Levites stand before Aaron, and before his sons, and wave them as a wave offering to Yahweh.

¹⁴Separate the Levites from the midst of the children of Israel, and the Levites shall be mine.

¹⁵And after that the Levites shall come in to serve at the tent of meeting; and you shall purify them, and wave them as a wave offering.

¹⁶For they are wholly given to me from the midst of the children of Israel; in place of the opening of every womb, the firstborn of all from the children of Israel, I have taken them for myself.

¹⁷For every firstborn among the children of Israel is mine, among man and beast; on the day I struck every firstborn in the land of Egypt, I set apart them for myself.

¹⁸And I took the Levites in place of every firstborn among the children of Israel.

¹⁹And I gave the Levites as gifts to Aaron and to his sons from the midst of the children of Israel, to serve the service of the children of Israel at the tent of meeting and to cover over the children of Israel, so that no blow will fall among the children of Israel when the children of Israel come near to the holy place.

²⁰Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel did to the Levites according to all that Yahweh commanded Moses for the Levites; so the children of Israel did to them.

²¹The Levites purified themselves from sin and washed their garments; and Aaron waved them as a wave offering before the face of Yahweh; and Aaron covered over them to purify them.

²²And after that the Levites came in to serve in their service at the tent of meeting before Aaron and before his sons; just as Yahweh commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so they did to them.

²³Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying:

²⁴This is what is for the Levites: from twenty-five years of age and upward, he shall come to serve in the host, in the service of the tent of meeting;

²⁵and from fifty years of age he shall return from service in the host, and he shall not serve again.

²⁶He shall minister with his brothers in the tent of meeting, to keep the watch, but he shall not serve in the service. This is how you shall do for the Levites in their watches.