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49 The tribe of Levi alone you shall not enroll nor include in the census along with the other Israelites. 50 You are to give the Levites charge of the tabernacle of the covenant with all its equipment and all that belongs to it. It is they who shall carry the tabernacle with all its equipment and who shall be its ministers;(A) and they shall camp all around the tabernacle. 51 When the tabernacle is to move on, the Levites shall take it down; when the tabernacle is to be pitched, it is the Levites who shall set it up. Any unauthorized person who comes near[a] it shall be put to death.(B)

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Footnotes

  1. 1:51 Comes near: here and in 3:10, 38; 17:5; 18:4, 7 the Hebrew word rendered “comes near” is very nearly a technical term for someone who intrudes upon or violates a space set apart as holy and for which they have not been qualified by priesthood.

49 “You must not count the tribe of Levi or include them in the census of the other Israelites. 50 Instead, appoint the Levites to be in charge of the tabernacle(A) of the covenant law(B)—over all its furnishings(C) and everything belonging to it. They are to carry the tabernacle and all its furnishings; they are to take care of it and encamp around it. 51 Whenever the tabernacle(D) is to move,(E) the Levites are to take it down, and whenever the tabernacle is to be set up, the Levites shall do it.(F) Anyone else who approaches it is to be put to death.(G)

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