Study Desk

"Take the Levites from among the children of Israel and cleanse them ceremonially.

And you shall bring the Levites before the tabernacle of meeting, and you shall gather together the whole congregation of the children of Israel.

So you shall bring the Levites before the LORD, and the children of Israel shall lay their hands on the Levites;

and Aaron shall offer the Levites before the LORD like a wave offering from the children of Israel, that they may perform the work of the LORD.

Thus you shall separate the Levites from among the children of Israel, and the Levites shall be Mine.

For they are wholly given to Me from among the children of Israel; I have taken them for Myself instead of all who open the womb, the firstborn of all the children of Israel.

For all the firstborn among the children of Israel are Mine, both man and beast; on the day that I struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I sanctified them to Myself.

I have taken the Levites instead of all the firstborn of the children of Israel.

And I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and his sons from among the children of Israel, to do the work for the children of Israel in the tabernacle of meeting, and to make atonement for the children of Israel, that there be no plague among the children of Israel when the children of Israel come near the sanctuary."

Thus Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel did to the Levites; according to all that the LORD commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so the children of Israel did to them.

"Let the children of Israel keep the Passover at its appointed time.

So Moses told the children of Israel that they should keep the Passover.

And they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month, at twilight, in the Wilderness of Sinai; according to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did.

And those men said to him, "We became defiled by a human corpse. Why are we kept from presenting the offering of the LORD at its appointed time among the children of Israel?"

"Speak to the children of Israel, saying: "If anyone of you or your posterity is unclean because of a corpse, or is far away on a journey, he may still keep the LORD's Passover.

Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, after that the children of Israel would journey; and in the place where the cloud settled, there the children of Israel would pitch their tents.

At the command of the LORD the children of Israel would journey, and at the command of the LORD they would camp; as long as the cloud stayed above the tabernacle they remained encamped.

Even when the cloud continued long, many days above the tabernacle, the children of Israel kept the charge of the LORD and did not journey.

Whether it was two days, a month, or a year that the cloud remained above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would remain encamped and not journey; but when it was taken up, they would journey.

And the children of Israel set out from the Wilderness of Sinai on their journeys; then the cloud settled down in the Wilderness of Paran.