⁶ Then Moses said to Aaron and his sons Eleazar and Ithamar,^(A) “Do not let your hair become unkempt^[a](B) and do not tear your clothes,^(C) or you will die and the Lord will be angry with the whole community.^(D) But your relatives, all the Israelites, may mourn^(E) for those the Lord has destroyed by fire.

¹⁹ From among all the Israelites, I have given the Levites as gifts to Aaron and his sons^(A) to do the work at the tent of meeting on behalf of the Israelites^(B) and to make atonement for them^(C) so that no plague will strike the Israelites when they go near the sanctuary.”

⁴⁶ Then Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer^(A) and put incense in it, along with burning coals from the altar, and hurry to the assembly^(B) to make atonement^(C) for them. Wrath has come out from the Lord;^(D) the plague^(E) has started.”

⁵ “You are to be responsible for the care of the sanctuary and the altar,^(A) so that my wrath will not fall on the Israelites again.

¹⁹ But God struck down^(A) some of the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh, putting seventy^[a] of them to death because they looked^(B) into the ark of the Lord. The people mourned because of the heavy blow the Lord had dealt them.