Bamidbar

In the wilderness of Sinai, in the second month of the second year after the exodus, God commands a census of the whole congregation: every male twenty years and up, able to go out to war, counted by clans and fathers' houses, with a named chieftain standing for each tribe. The totals are given tribe by tribe — 603,550 in all. The Levites are not counted among them; they are appointed over the tabernacle of the testimony, to carry it, tend it, and camp around it.

The camp is set in order: each tribe under its own standard, at a distance around the tent of meeting. Judah's division camps east with Issachar and Zebulun and leads the march; Reuben's division south with Simeon and Gad; Ephraim's west with Manasseh and Benjamin; Dan's north with Asher and Naphtali — with the tent of meeting and the camp of the Levites in the middle.

The Levites are then taken formally in place of every firstborn of Israel, "for every firstborn is Mine" since the night of Egypt. Their three clans are counted from a month old — Gershon, Kohath, and Merari — each assigned its camp side and its charge: the fabrics, the furniture, the frames. The firstborn of Israel number 22,273, and the 273 beyond the Levites' count are redeemed at five shekels each. The portion closes with the Kohathites' duty and its danger: Aaron and his sons first cover the ark and all the holy furniture; the Kohathites carry, but must not touch the holy things, nor go in to see them even for a moment, lest they die.