This is the number of the things for the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the testimony, as they were counted according to the command of Moses, for the service of the Levites, by the hand of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest.
And 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.
But 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.”
So Moses spoke to the sons of Israel, and all their leaders gave him a staff, one for each leader, for their fathers’ households, twelve staffs in all, with the staff of Aaron among their staffs.
But also bring your brothers with you, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, so that they may join you and serve you, while you and your sons with you are before the tent of the testimony.
Now on the day that the tabernacle was erected, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony, and in the evening it was like the appearance of fire over the tabernacle until morning.
“Our fathers had the tabernacle of testimony in the wilderness, just as He who spoke to Moses directed him to make it according to the pattern which he had seen.