Numbers 1:46-53

⁴⁶Even all they that were numbered, were six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty.

⁴⁷But the Levites, after the tribe of their fathers, were not numbered among them.

⁴⁸For the Lord had spoken unto Moses, saying,

⁴⁹Only the tribe of Levi shalt thou not number, and their sum shalt thou not take, among the children of Israel;

⁵⁰But thou shalt appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the testimony, and over all its vessels, and over all things that belong to it: they shall carry the tabernacle, and all its vessels; and they shall minister unto it; and round about the tabernacle shall they encamp.

⁵¹And when the tabernacle is to be carried forward, the Levites shall take it down; and when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up: and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death.

⁵²And the children of Israel shall pitch their tents, every man by his own camp, and every man by his own standard, according to their armies.

⁵³But the Levites shall encamp round shout the tabernacle of the testimony, that there be no wrath upon the congregation of the children of Israel: and the Levites shall keep the charge of the tabernacle of the testimony.