49. The tribe of Levi alone you shall not enroll nor include in the census along with the other Israelites.
50. You are to give the Levites charge of the tabernacle of the covenant with all its equipment and all that belongs to it. It is they who shall carry the tabernacle with all its equipment and who shall be its ministers; and they shall camp all around the tabernacle.
51. When the tabernacle is to move on, the Levites shall take it down; when the tabernacle is to be pitched, it is the Levites who shall set it up. Any unauthorized person who comes near it shall be put to death.
52. The other Israelites shall camp according to their companies, each in their own divisional camps,
53. but the Levites shall camp around the tabernacle of the covenant to ensure that God’s wrath will not fall upon the Israelite community. The Levites shall keep guard over the tabernacle of the covenant.
54. The Israelites complied; they did just as the Lord had commanded Moses.