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 to Moses, saying,

⁴⁹Only thou shalt not number the tribe of Levi, neither take the sum of them among the children of Israel:

⁵⁰But thou shalt appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of testimony, and over all its vessels, and over all things that belong to it: they shall bear the tabernacle, and all its vessels, and they shall minister to it, and shall encamp around the tabernacle.

⁵¹And when the tabernacle moveth 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, throughout their hosts.

⁵³But the Levites shall pitch around the tabernacle of testimony; that there may be no wrath upon the congregation of the children of Israel: and the Levites shall keep the charge of the tabernacle of testimony.