36. Now the appointed duties of the sons of Merari involved the frames of the tabernacle, its bars, its pillars, its sockets, all its equipment, and the service concerning them,
37. and the pillars around the court with their sockets and their pegs and their cords.
38. Now those who were to camp before the tabernacle eastward, before the tent of meeting toward the sunrise, are Moses and Aaron and his sons, performing the duties of the sanctuary for the obligation of the sons of Israel; but the layman coming near was to be put to death.
39. All the numbered men of the Levites, whom Moses and Aaron numbered at the command of the Lord by their families, every male from a month old and upward, were 22,000.
40. Then the Lord said to Moses, "Number every firstborn male of the sons of Israel from a month old and upward, and make a list of their names.
41. You shall take the Levites for Me, I am the Lord, instead of all the firstborn among the sons of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the cattle of the sons of Israel."
42. So Moses numbered all the firstborn among the sons of Israel, just as the Lord had commanded him;
43. and all the firstborn males by the number of names from a month old and upward, for their numbered men were 22,273.
44. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
45. "Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the sons of Israel and the cattle of the Levites. And the Levites shall be Mine; I am the Lord.
46. For the ransom of the 273 of the firstborn of the sons of Israel who are in excess beyond the Levites,
47. you shall take five shekels apiece, per head; you shall take them in terms of the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs),