“And they will be Mine,” says Yahweh of hosts, “on the day that I prepare My own treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.”
And behold, I Myself have taken your brothers the Levites from among the sons of Israel; they are a gift to you, given to Yahweh, to perform the service for the tent of meeting.
“Now, behold, I have taken the Levites from among the sons of Israel instead of every firstborn, the first offspring of the womb among the sons of Israel. So the Levites shall be Mine.
“Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When a man or woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to dedicate himself as a Nazirite to Yahweh,
For every firstborn among the sons of Israel is Mine, among the men and among the animals; on the day that I struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I sanctified them for Myself.
At that time Yahweh set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, to stand before Yahweh to minister for Him and to bless in His name to this day.