Numbers 1:47-54

⁴⁷The Levites, however, were not counted among them by their fathers’ tribe. ⁴⁸For the Lord had spoken to Moses, saying, ⁴⁹“Only the tribe of Levi you shall not count, nor shall you take their census among the sons of Israel. ⁵⁰And you shall appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the testimony, and over all its furnishings and over everything that belongs to it. They shall carry the tabernacle and all its furnishings, and they shall take care of it; they shall also camp around the tabernacle. ⁵¹So when the tabernacle is to move on, the Levites shall take it down; and when the tabernacle encamps, the Levites shall set it up. But the layman who comes near it shall be put to death. ⁵²So the sons of Israel shall camp, each man by his own camp, and each man by his own flag, according to their armies. ⁵³But the Levites shall camp around the tabernacle of the testimony, so that there will be no divine wrath against the congregation of the sons of Israel. So the Levites shall be responsible for service to the tabernacle of the testimony.” ⁵⁴And the sons of Israel did so; in accordance with all that the Lord had commanded Moses, so they did.