Dual Panel1The LORD told Moses
2to say to Aaron: “When you put the seven lamps in position, see that they shed their light forwards in front of the lampstand.”
3Aaron did this: he positioned the lamps so as to shed light forwards in front of the lampstand, as the LORD had instructed Moses.
4The lampstand was made of beaten work in gold from stem to petals, made to match the pattern the LORD had shown Moses.
5The LORD said to Moses:
6“Separate the Levites from the rest of the Israelites and cleanse them ritually.
7This is how the cleansing is to be done. Sprinkle lustral water over them; they are then to shave their whole bodies, wash their clothes, and so be cleansed.
8Next, they must take a young bull as a whole-offering with its prescribed grain-offering, flour mixed with oil, while you take a second young bull as a purification-offering.
9Bring the Levites before the Tent of Meeting and, when you have called the whole community of Israelites together,
10bring the Levites before the LORD, and let the Israelites lay their hands on the Levites” heads.
11Aaron must present the Levites before the LORD as a special gift from the Israelites, and they will be dedicated to the service of the LORD.
12The Levites must lay their hands on the heads of the bulls, one bull to be offered as a purification-offering and the other as a whole-offering to the LORD, to make expiation for the Levites.
13Then stand the Levites before Aaron and his sons, presenting them to the LORD as a special gift.
14You thus separate the Levites from the rest of the Israelites, and they are to be mine.
15“After this, the Levites may enter the Tent of Meeting to serve in it, ritually cleansed and presented as a special gift;
16for out of all the Israelites they are assigned and dedicated to me. I have accepted them as mine in place of all that comes first from the womb, every first child among the Israelites;
17for every firstborn male creature, man or beast, among the Israelites is mine. On the day when I struck down every firstborn creature in Egypt, I consecrated all the firstborn of the Israelites to myself,
18and I have accepted the Levites in their place.
19I have assigned the Levites to Aaron and his sons, dedicated among the Israelites to perform the service of the Israelites in the Tent of Meeting and to make expiation for them; then no calamity will befall the Israelites should they come close to the sanctuary.”
20Moses and Aaron and the whole community of Israelites carried out all the commands the LORD had given to Moses for the dedication of the Levites.
21The Levites purified themselves of sin and washed their clothes, and Aaron presented them as a dedicated gift before the LORD and made expiation for them, to cleanse them.
22Then at last they went in to perform their service in the Tent of Meeting, before Aaron and his sons. Thus the commands the LORD had given to Moses concerning the Levites were all carried out.
23The LORD said to Moses,
24“As regards the Levites, they are to begin their active work in the service of the Tent of Meeting at the age of twenty-five.
25At the age of fifty a Levite must retire from regular service and serve no longer.
26He may continue to assist his fellow-Levites in attendance in the Tent of Meeting, but no longer perform regular service. That is how you are to arrange the duties of the Levites.”