Numbers 3:14-39

EasyEnglish Bible

The Levite families

¹⁴ The Lord said to Moses in the Sinai desert, ¹⁵ ‘Put the Levites into clans and families and count them. Make a list of every male who is a month old or older.’ ¹⁶ Moses obeyed the Lord. So Moses recorded them as the Lord said.

¹⁷ The names of the sons of Levi were Gershon, Kohath and Merari.

¹⁸ Gershon had two sons. Their names were Libni and Shimei.

¹⁹ Kohath's sons were called Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel.

²⁰ Merari's sons were called Mahli and Mushi.

Those were the sons and grandsons of Levi. They became the leaders of the clans of Levi's tribe.

Gershon's clan

²¹ There were two families in Gershon's clan. They were the families of Libni and Shimei. ²² There were 7,500 males who were one month or older in their list. ²³ Gershon's clan had to put up their tents on the west side of the special Tent. ²⁴ The leader of the clan of Gershon was Eliasaph the son of Lael.

²⁵ Gershon's clan had to take care of the Tent of Meeting, with the cloth that covered it, and the curtain at its door. ²⁶ There was a yard round the outside of the tabernacle and the altar. Gershon's family took care of the curtains that hung round the yard, with their ropes. They also took care of the curtain at the entrance to the yard. They took care of all those kinds of things.

Kohath's clan

²⁷ There were four families in Kohath's clan. They were the families of Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel. ²⁸ There were 8,600 males who were one month old or older in this clan. They had to take care of the things inside the special Tent. ²⁹ Kohath's clan had to put up their tents on the south side of the tabernacle. ³⁰ The leader of Kohath's descendants was Elizaphan the son of Uzziel.

³¹ Kohath's family had to take care of the Covenant Box, the table and the lampstands. They had to take care of the altars and the tools that the priests used in the special Tent. They also took care of the curtain in front of the Most Holy Place in the Tent. They did all the work with those things.

³² Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, was the most important leader of the Levites. He ruled over those people who took care of God's special Tent.

Merari's clan

³³ There were two families in Merari's clan. They were the families of Mahli and Mushi. ³⁴ There were 6,200 males in that list. They were one month old or older when Moses counted them. ³⁵ The leader of Merari's clan was Zuriel, the son of Abihail. They had to put up their tents on the north side of the special tabernacle.

³⁶ Merari's family had to take care of all the wood parts of the tabernacle. They took care of the heavy things that stood on the ground to hold the poles. ³⁷ They also took care of the poles that held the cloth round the yard, their ropes and other things that held the Tent in its place.

³⁸ Moses, Aaron and Aaron's sons had to put up their tents in front of the tabernacle, on the east side. They were the only people who could go into the Holy Place in the Tent. Any other person who went near it had to die.

³⁹ So Moses and Aaron obeyed the Lord. They counted the Levites by their clans. There were 22,000 males who were one month old or older.