“Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn males among the Israelites, and the livestock of the Levites instead of their livestock. And the Levites will be mine. I am the Lord.

As for ¹  the cities of the Levites, the houses in the cities which they possess, ²  the Levites must have a perpetual right of redemption.

Then you are to bring the Levites before the Lord, and the Israelites are to lay their hands on the Levites; ¹ 

And so ¹  you are to separate the Levites from among the Israelites, and the Levites will be mine.

But ¹  the Levites, according to the tribe of their fathers, ²  were not numbered ³  among them.

Hashabiah son of Kemuel led the Levites, Zadok led the descendants of Aaron,

The Levites had ¹  David’s musical instruments and the priests had trumpets.

Some of the Judean divisions of the Levites settled in Benjamin.

Whenever the tabernacle is to move, ¹  the Levites must take it down, and whenever the tabernacle is to be reassembled, ²  the Levites must set it up. ³  Any unauthorized person ⁴  who approaches it must be killed.

But the Levites must camp around the tabernacle of the testimony, so that the Lord’s anger ¹  will not fall on the Israelite community. The Levites are responsible for the care ²  of the tabernacle of the testimony.”

“Look, ¹  I myself have taken the Levites from among the Israelites instead of ²  every firstborn who opens the womb among the Israelites. So the Levites belong to me,

When ¹  the Levites lay their hands on the heads of the bulls, offer ²  the one for a purification offering and the other for a whole burnt offering to the Lord, ³  to make atonement for the Levites.

“Instruct the Israelites to give ¹  the Levites towns to live in from the inheritance the Israelites ²  will possess. You must also give the Levites grazing land around the towns.

They were accompanied by the Levites Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebadiah, Asahel, Shemiramoth, Jehonathan, Adonijah, Tobijah, and Tob-Adonijah, and by the priests Elishama and Jehoram.

Konaniah and his brothers Shemaiah and Nethanel, along with Hashabiah, Jeiel, and Jozabad, the officials of the Levites, supplied the Levites with 5,000 Passover sacrifices and 500 cattle.

I also discovered that the grain offerings for the Levites had not been provided, and that as a result the Levites and the singers who performed this work had all gone off to their fields.

These were the sons ¹  of Levi by their names: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

“Do not allow the tribe of the families of the Kohathites to be cut off ¹  from among the Levites;

“Take the Levites from among the Israelites and purify ¹  them.

So I have taken the Levites instead of all the firstborn sons among the Israelites.