14. In this way you will separate the Levites from the other Israelites, and the Levites will be mine.
15. “Once you have made them clean and presented them as an offering, the Levites may come and do their work at the tent of meeting.
16. They will be the only Israelites given to me. I have taken them to be mine as substitutes for every firstborn male offspring of the Israelites.
17. Every firstborn in Israel, whether human or animal, is mine. The day I killed every firstborn male in Egypt, I set them apart as holy to me.
18. So I have taken the Levites as substitutes for all the firstborn sons of the Israelites.