When you finish tithing all ¹  your income in the third year (the year of tithing), you must give it to the Levites, the resident foreigners, the orphans, and the widows ²  so that they may eat to their satisfaction in your villages. ³ 

Then you shall say before the Lord your God, “I have removed the sacred offering ¹  from my house and given it to the Levites, the resident foreigners, the orphans, and the widows just as you have commanded me. ²  I have not violated or forgotten your commandments.

Their job was to help Aaron’s descendants in the service of the Lord’s temple. They were to take care of the courtyards, the rooms, ceremonial purification of all holy items, and other jobs related to the service of God’s temple. ¹ 

“‘But the Levitical priests, the descendants of Zadok ¹  who kept the charge of my sanctuary when the people of Israel went astray from me, will approach me to minister to me; they will stand before me to offer me the fat and the blood, declares the sovereign Lord.

All those numbered of the camp of Ephraim, according to their divisions, are 108,100. They will travel third.

And all the firstborn males, by the number of the names from a month old and upward, totaled 22,273.

Then the tabernacle was dismantled, and the sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari set out, carrying the tabernacle.

And the Kohathites set out, carrying the articles for the sanctuary; ¹  the tabernacle was to be set up ²  before they arrived. ³ 

No longer may the Israelites approach the tent of meeting, or else they will bear their sin ¹  and die.

From all your gifts you must offer up every raised offering due ¹  the Lord, from all the best of it, and the holiest part of it.’ ² 

And you may ¹  eat it in any place, you and your household, because it is your wages for your service in the tent of meeting.

They stopped ¹  there, went inside the young Levite’s house (which belonged to Micah), ²  and asked him how he was doing. ³ 

Serving beside them were their fellow Levites, the descendants of Merari, led by ¹  Ethan, son of Kishi, son of Abdi, son of Malluch,

They were allotted as cities ¹  of refuge Shechem and its pasturelands (in the hill country of Ephraim), Gezer and its pasturelands,

That day David first gave to Asaph and his colleagues this song of thanks to the Lord:

including Obed-Edom and sixty-eight colleagues. Obed-Edom son of Jeduthun and Hosah were gatekeepers.

These divisions of the gatekeepers, corresponding to their leaders, had assigned responsibilities, like their relatives, as they served in the Lord’s temple.

Only Jonathan son of Asahel and Jahzeiah son of Tikvah were ¹  against this, assisted by Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite.

Then he said to me, “These are the houses for boiling, where the ministers of the temple boil the sacrifices of the people.”

Then you will know that I sent this commandment to you so that my covenant ¹  may continue to be with Levi,” says the Lord who rules over all.