Study Desk

On the ninth day Avidan the son of Gid`oni, prince of the children of Binyamin

On the tenth day Achi`ezer the son of `Ammishaddai, prince of the children of Dan

On the eleventh day Pag`i'el the son of `Okhran, prince of the children of Asher

On the twelfth day Achira the son of `Enan, prince of the children of Naftali

"Take the Levites from among the children of Yisra'el, and cleanse them.

You shall present the Levites before the Tent of Meeting. You shall assemble the whole congregation of the children of Yisra'el.

You shall present the Levites before the LORD. The children of Yisra'el shall lay their hands on the Levites,

and Aharon shall offer the Levites before the LORD for a wave offering, on the behalf of the children of Yisra'el, that it may be theirs to do the service of the LORD.

Thus you shall separate the Levites from among the children of Yisra'el, and the Levites shall be mine.

For they are wholly given to me from among the children of Yisra'el; instead of all who open the womb, even the firstborn of all the children of Yisra'el, I have taken them to me.

For all the firstborn among the children of Yisra'el are mine, both man and animal. On the day that I struck all the firstborn in the land of Mitzrayim, I sanctified them for myself.

I have taken the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the children of Yisra'el.

I have given the Levites as a gift to Aharon and to his sons from among the children of Yisra'el, to do the service of the children of Yisra'el in the Tent of Meeting, and to make atonement for the children of Yisra'el; that there be no plague among the children of Yisra'el, when the children of Yisra'el come near to the sanctuary."

Thus did Moshe, and Aharon, and all the congregation of the children of Yisra'el, to the Levites. According to all that the LORD commanded Moshe concerning the Levites, so the children of Yisra'el did to them.

"Moreover let the children of Yisra'el keep the Pesach in its appointed season.

Moshe spoke to the children of Yisra'el, that they should keep the Pesach.

They kept the Pesach in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at evening, in the wilderness of Sinai. According to all that the LORD commanded Moshe, so the children of Yisra'el did.

Those men said to him, "We are unclean because of the dead body of a man. Why are we kept back, that we may not offer the offering of the LORD in its appointed season among the children of Yisra'el?"

"Say to the children of Yisra'el, 'If any man of you or of your generations is unclean by reason of a dead body, or is on a journey far away, he shall still keep the Pesach to the LORD.

Whenever the cloud was taken up from over the Tent, then after that the children of Yisra'el journeyed; and in the place where the cloud remained, there the children of Yisra'el encamped.