10 “But as for us, the Lord is our God. We people of Judah have not refused to obey God! We have not left him! The priests who serve the Lord are Aaron’s sons. And the Levites help the priests serve the Lord.
10 But as for us, the LORD is our God, and we have not forsaken him; and the priests, which minister unto the LORD, are the sons of Aaron, and the Levites wait upon their business:
10 But as for us, the Lord is our God, and we have not forsaken Him. We have priests ministering to the Lord who are sons of Aaron, and Levites for their service.
10 But as for us, Jehovah is our God, and we have not forsaken him; and we have priests ministering unto Jehovah, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites in their work:
10 But the Lord is our God, and we have not forsaken him. And the priests who minister to the Lord are from the sons of Aaron. And the Levites are in their proper order.
They offer burnt offerings {\cf2\super [172]} and burn incense {\cf2\super [173]} of spices to the Lord every morning and every evening. They put the bread in rows on the special table in the temple. {\cf2\super [174]} And they take care of the lamps on the golden lampstand so it shines bright each and every evening. We very carefully serve the Lord our God. But you people have abandoned him!
You threw out the Lord’s priests, the descendants of Aaron. And you threw out the Levites. Then you chose your own priests, just like every other nation on earth. And now, any person that will bring a young bull and seven rams can become a priest! A priest to serve those ‘No-gods’.
So I made the priests and Levites clean and pure. I took away all the foreigners and the strange things they taught. And I gave the Levites and priests their own duties and responsibilities.
Then I will test those survivors. I will give them many troubles. The troubles will be like the fire a man uses to prove silver is pure. I will test them the way a person tests gold. Then they will call to me for help, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘You are my people.’ And they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’”
But the men of Levi must make their camp around the Holy Tent. The men of Levi will guard the Holy Tent of the Agreement. {They will protect the Holy Tent} so that nothing bad will happen to the people of Israel.”
He did this the way the Lord commanded him through Moses. This was a sign to help the people of Israel remember that only a person from the family of Aaron should burn incense [215] before the Lord. Any other person who burns incense before the Lord will die like Korah and his followers.
We know that it was the Lord God who brought our people out of Egypt. We were slaves in that land. But the Lord did great things for us there. He brought us out of that land and protected us while we traveled through other lands.