The young men perform menial labor; ¹  boys stagger from their labor. ² 

They must join ¹  with you, and they will be responsible for the care of the tent of meeting, for all the service of the tent, but no unauthorized person ²  may approach you.

I myself have chosen ¹  your brothers the Levites from among the Israelites. They are given to you as a gift from the Lord, to perform the duties ²  of the tent of meeting.

See, I have given the Levites all the tithes in Israel for an inheritance, for their service which they perform – the service of the tent of meeting.

Now you are condemned to perpetual servitude as woodcutters and water carriers for the house of my God.” ¹ 

Has the potter no right to make from the same lump of clay ¹  one vessel for special use and another for ordinary use? ² 

The one who plants and the one who waters work as one, ¹  but each will receive his reward according to his work.

Now in a wealthy home ¹  there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also ones made of wood and of clay, and some are for honorable use, but others for ignoble use. ² 

But the Levites must perform the service ¹  of the tent of meeting, and they must bear their iniquity. ²  It will be a perpetual ordinance throughout your generations that among the Israelites the Levites ³  have no inheritance. ⁴ 

You will probably ask yourself, ¹  ‘Why have these things happened to me? Why have I been treated like a disgraced adulteress whose skirt has been torn off and her limbs exposed?’ ²  It is because you have sinned so much. ³ 

Yet they will be ministers in my sanctuary, having oversight at the gates of the temple, and serving the temple. They will slaughter the burnt offerings and the sacrifices for the people, and they will stand before them to minister to them.