1. When Moses finished setting up The Dwelling, he anointed it and consecrated it along with all that went with it. At the same time he anointed and consecrated the Altar and its accessories.
2-3. The leaders of Israel, the heads of the ancestral tribes who had carried out the census, brought offerings. They presented before God six covered wagons and twelve oxen, a wagon from each pair of leaders and an ox from each leader.
4-5. God spoke to Moses: ‘‘Receive these so that they can be used to transport the Tent of Meeting. Give them to the Levites according to what they need for their work.”
6-9. Moses took the wagons and oxen and gave them to the Levites. He gave two wagons and four oxen to the Gershonites for their work and four wagons and eight oxen to the Merarites for their work. They were all under the direction of Ithamar son of Aaron the priest. Moses didn’t give any to the Kohathites because they had to carry the holy things for which they were responsible on their shoulders.
10-11. When the Altar was anointed, the leaders brought their offerings for its dedication and presented them before the Altar because God had instructed Moses, “Each day one leader is to present his offering for the dedication of the Altar.”
12-13. On the first day, Nahshon son of Amminadab, of the tribe of Judah, brought his offering. His offering was:a silver plate weighing three and a quarter pounds and a silver bowl weighing one and three-quarter pounds (according to the standard Sanctuary weights), each filled with fine flour mixed with oil as a Grain-Offering;