CHAPTER 3
1 These be the generations of Aaron and of Moses, in the day in which the Lord spake to Moses, in the hill [or mount] of Sinai.
2 And these be the names of the sons of Aaron; his first engendered, Nadab; afterward, Abihu, and Eleazar, and Ithamar;
3 these be the names of Aaron’s sons, priests, that were anointed, and whose hands were [ful] filled and hallowed, that they should be set in priesthood.
4 Nadab and Abihu [died], when they offered alien fire in the sight of the Lord, in the desert of Sinai, and were dead without free children; and Eleazar and Ithamar were set in priesthood before Aaron their father.
5 And the Lord spake to Moses, saying,
6 Present thou the lineage of Levi, and make it to stand in the sight of Aaron, the priest, that they minister to him;
7 and wake or watch, and that they keep whatever thing pertaineth to the religion of the multitude, before the tabernacle of witnessing;
8 and that they keep the vessels of the tabernacle, and serve in the service of it.
9 And thou shalt give by free gift the Levites to Aaron and to his sons, to whom they be given of the sons of Israel.
10 Soothly thou shalt ordain Aaron and his sons on the religion of priesthood; a stranger that nigheth for to minister, shall die.
11 And the Lord spake to Moses, saying,
12 I have taken the Levites of the sons of Israel for each first engendered thing that openeth the womb in the sons of Israel; and the Levites shall be mine,
13 for each first engendered thing is mine; since the time I smote the first engendered thing in the land of Egypt, I have hallowed to me whatever thing is born first in Israel; from man unto beast they be mine; I am the Lord.
14 And the Lord spake to Moses in the desert of Sinai, and said,
15 Number thou the sons of Levi by their fathers’ houses, and by their meines, each male from one month and above.
16 [And] Moses numbered them, as the Lord commanded.
17 And the sons of Levi were found, by their names, Gershon, and Kohath, and Merari;
18 the sons of Gershon were Libni, and Shimei;
19 the sons of Kohath were Amram, and Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel;
20 and the sons of Merari were Mahli, and Mushi.
21 Of Gershon were two meines, of Libni, and of Shimei;
22 of which the people of male kind was numbered, from one month and above, seven thousand and five hundred.
23 These shall set tents behind the tabernacle at the west part,
24 under the prince Eliasaph, the son of Lael.
25 And they shall have the keepings in the tabernacle of [the] bond of peace, the tabernacle itself, and the covering thereof, the tent that is drawn before the gates of the covering of the witnessing of the bond of peace;
26 and the curtains of the great entry, also the tent that is hanged in the entering of the great entry of the tabernacle, and whatever thing per-taineth to the use of the altar, the cords of the tabernacle, and to all the service thereof.
27 The kindred of Kohath shall have the peoples of Amram, and of Izhar, and of Hebron, and of Uzziel; these be the meines of Kohathites,
28 numbered by their names, all of male kind, from one month and above, eight thousand and six hundred. They shall have the keepings of the saintuary,
29 and they shall set their tents at the south coast thereof;
30 and the prince of them shall be Elizaphan, the son of Uzziel.
31 And they shall keep the ark, and the table, and the candlestick, the altars, and the vessels of the saintuary in which it is served, and the veil, and all such manner appurtenance.
32 Soothly the prince of princes of Levites shall be Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest; and he shall be upon the keepers of the keeping of the saintuary.
33 And soothly of Merari shall be the peoples of Mahli, and of Mushi,
34 numbered by their names, all the male kind, from one month and above, six thousand and two hundred;
35 the prince of them shall be Zuriel, the son of Abihail; they shall set their tents in the north coast.
36 And under the keeping of them shall be the tables of the tabernacle, and the bars, and the pillars, and their foundaments, and all things that pertain to such adorning,
37 and the pillars of the great entry by compass, with their bases, and the stakes with their cords.
38 Forsooth Moses, and Aaron with his sons, shall set their tents before the tabernacle of [the] bond of peace, that is, at the east coast, and shall have the keeping of the saintuary, in the midst of the sons of Israel; what-ever alien nigheth thereto, he shall die.
39 All the Levites, which Moses and Aaron numbered, by the commandment of the Lord, by their meines, in male kind, from one month and above, were two and twenty thousand.
40 And the Lord said to Moses, Number thou the first begotten of male kind of the sons of Israel, from one month and above; and thou shalt have the sum or the number of them;
41 and thou shalt take the Levites to me for all the first begotten of the sons of Israel; I am the Lord; and thou shalt take their beasts for all the first begotten of the sons of Israel.
42 And as the Lord commanded, Moses numbered the first begotten children of the sons of Israel;
43 and the males were by their names, from one month and above, two and twenty thousand two hundred and seventy and three.
44 And the Lord spake to Moses, and said,
45 Take thou the Levites for the first begotten of the sons of Israel, and take the beasts of the Levites for the beasts of them, and the Levites shall be mine; I am the Lord.
46 Forsooth in the price of two hundred and seventy and three persons, that pass the number of the Levites, of the first begotten of the sons of Israel,
47 thou shalt take five shekels by each head, at the measure of the saintuary; a shekel hath twenty halfpence;
48 and thou shalt give the money to Aaron and to his sons, the price of them that be numbered above the number of the Levites.
49 Therefore Moses took the money of them that were numbered above, and which they had again-bought of the Levites,
50 for the first begotten of the sons of Israel, a thousand three hundred and sixty and five of shekels, by the weight of the saintuary;
51 and he gave that money to Aaron and to his sons, by the word that the Lord commanded to him.