Numbers 3:9-13

Contemporary English Version

⁹ They are assigned to help Aaron and his sons, ¹⁰ who have been appointed to be priests. Anyone else who tries to perform the duties of a priest must be put to death.

^11-13 (A) Moses, I have chosen these Levites from all Israel, and they will belong to me in a special way. When I killed the first-born sons of the Egyptians, I decided that the first-born sons in every Israelite family and the first-born males of their flocks and herds would be mine.^[a] But now I accept these Levites in place of the first-born sons of the Israelites.