“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.

And I will choose some of them as priests and Levites,” says 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.

“Therefore you will say to them, ¹  ‘When you offer up ²  the best of it, then it will be credited to the Levites as the product of the threshing floor and as the product of the winepress.

The grazing lands around the towns that you will give to the Levites must extend to a distance of 500 yards ¹  from the town wall.

“So the total of the towns you will give the Levites is forty-eight. You must give these together with their grazing lands.

So the Israelites gave to the Levites these cities and their pasturelands.

The musicians and Levite family leaders stayed in rooms at the sanctuary ¹  and were exempt from other duties, for day and night they had to carry out their assigned tasks.

These were the family leaders of the Levites, as listed in their genealogical records. They lived in Jerusalem.

So the Levites no longer need to carry the tabernacle or any of the items used in its service.”

Stand in the sanctuary and, together with the Levites, represent the family divisions of your countrymen. ¹ 

So Moses and Aaron and the entire community of the Israelites did this with the Levites. According to all that the Lord commanded Moses concerning the Levites, this is what the Israelites did with them.

“This is what pertains to the Levites: ¹  At the age of twenty-five years ²  and upward one may begin to join the company ³  in the work of the tent of meeting,

They may assist ¹  their colleagues ²  in the tent of meeting, to attend to needs, but they must do no work. This is the way you must establish ³  the Levites regarding their duties.”

So the Israelites assigned these cities and their grazing areas to the Levites from their own holdings, as the Lord had instructed.

So the Israelites assigned to the Levites by lot these cities and their grazing areas, as the Lord had instructed Moses.

He told them: “You are the leaders of the Levites’ families. You and your relatives must consecrate yourselves and bring the ark of the Lord God of Israel up to the place I have prepared for it.

King Hezekiah and the officials told the Levites to praise the Lord, using the psalms ¹  of David and Asaph the prophet. ²  So they joyfully offered praise and bowed down and worshiped.

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.

An area eight and a quarter miles ¹  in length and three and one-third miles ²  in width will be for the Levites, who minister at the temple, as the place for the cities ³  in which they will live.