Chapter 8
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The LORD spoke to Moses, saying:
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Take the Levites from within the sons of Israel and purify them.
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In this way you shall do to them to purify them: sprinkle on them water of sin offering, and they shall pass a razor over all their flesh, and they shall wash their garments, and they shall be pure.
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They shall take a bull—a son of oxen—and its sacrifice/offering, fine flour mixed in oil, and you shall take a second bull, a son of oxen, for sin.
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You shall bring the Levites before the tent of meeting, and you shall assemble all the congregation of the sons of Israel.
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You shall bring the Levites before the LORD, and the sons of Israel shall lay their hands on the Levites.
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And Aaron shall wave the Levites as a wave offering before the LORD from the sons of Israel, and they will be for serving the service of the LORD.
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And the Levites shall lay their hands on the heads of the bulls, and you shall offer the one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering to the LORD to make atonement for the Levites.
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And you shall station the Levites before Aaron and before his sons, and you shall wave them as a wave offering to the LORD.
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And you shall separate the Levites from the midst of the sons of Israel, and the Levites shall be mine.
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And after this the Levites shall come to serve the tent of meeting, and you shall purify them and you shall wave them as a wave offering.
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For they are given to me from the midst of the sons of Israel in place of every firstborn who opens the womb from the sons of Israel. I have taken them for myself.
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For every firstborn among the sons of Israel is mine, both man and beast; on the day that I struck every firstborn in the land of Egypt, I consecrated them to me.
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And I took the Levites in place of every firstborn among the sons of Israel.
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And I give the Levites as a gift to Aaron and to his sons from the midst of the sons of Israel to perform the service of the sons of Israel in the tent of meeting and to make atonement for the sons of Israel, so that there will not be a plague among the sons of Israel when the sons of Israel approach the holy things.
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Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the sons of Israel did to the Levites according to all that the LORD commanded Moses concerning the Levites. So the sons of Israel did to them.
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The Levites purified themselves and washed their garments. Aaron waved them as a wave offering before the LORD, and Aaron made atonement for them to purify them.
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And after this the Levites came to perform their service in the tent of meeting before Aaron and before his sons, just as the LORD commanded Moses concerning the Levites; in this way they did to them.
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And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying.
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This is for the Levites: from a son of twenty-five years and upward, he will come to the host of the host in the service of the tent of appointed time.
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And from the age of fifty years he shall return from the army of the service and shall not serve anymore.
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And he shall serve his brothers in the tent of meeting to keep a charge, and service he shall not serve. In this way you shall do to the Levites in their charges.