36. And the appointed charge of the sons of Merari was the boards or frames of the tabernacle, and its bars, pillars, sockets or bases, and all the accessories or instruments of it, and all the work connected with them,
37. And the pillars of the surrounding court and their sockets or bases, with their pegs and their cords.
38. But those to encamp before the tabernacle toward the east, before the Tent of Meeting, toward the sunrise, were to be Moses and Aaron and his sons, keeping the full charge of the rites of the sanctuary in whatever was required for the Israelites; and the excluded [one not a descendant of Aaron and called of God] who came near [the sanctuary] was to be put to death.
39. All the Levites whom Moses and Aaron numbered at the command of the Lord, by their families, all the males from a month old and upward, were 22,000.
40. And the Lord said to Moses, Number all the firstborn of the males of the Israelites from a month old and upward, and take the number of their names.
41. You shall take the Levites for Me instead of all the firstborn among the Israelites. I am the Lord; and you shall take the cattle of the Levites for Me instead of all the firstlings among the cattle of the Israelites.
42. So Moses numbered, as the Lord commanded him, all the firstborn Israelites.
43. But all the firstborn males from a month old and upward as numbered were 22,273 [273 more than the Levites].
44. And the Lord said to Moses,
45. Take the Levites [for Me] instead of all the firstborn Israelites, and the Levites' cattle instead of their cattle; and the Levites shall be Mine. I am the Lord.
46. And for those 273 who are to be redeemed of the firstborn of the Israelites who outnumber the Levites,
47. You shall take five shekels apiece, reckoning by the sanctuary shekel of twenty gerahs; you shall collect them,
48. And you shall give the ransom silver from the excess number [over the Levites] to be redeemed to Aaron and his sons.