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.
19. The Levites will be the only Israelites I give to Aaron and his sons. They will work for the Israelites at the tent of meeting. They will make peace with the Lord for the Israelites. Then no plague will strike the Israelites when they come near the holy place.”
20. Moses, Aaron, and the whole community of Israel did what the Lord commanded Moses to do to the Levites.
21. The Levites performed the ceremonies to take away their sins and washed their clothes. Aaron presented them as an offering to the Lord and made peace with the Lord for them in order to make them clean.
22. After that, the Levites came and did their work at the tent of meeting in the presence of Aaron and his sons. They did as the Lord had commanded Moses.
23. The Lord said to Moses,