1. When the Lord talked with Moses on Mount Sinai,
2. Aaron's four sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar,
3. were the ones to be ordained as priests.
4. But the Lord killed Nadab and Abihu in the Sinai Desert when they used fire that was unacceptable in their offering to the Lord. And because Nadab and Abihu had no sons, only Eleazar and Ithamar served as priests with their father Aaron.
5. The Lord said to Moses:
11-13. Moses, I have chosen these Levites from all Israel, and they will belong to me in a special way. When I killed the firstborn sons of the Egyptians, I decided that the firstborn sons in every Israelite family and the firstborn males of their flocks and herds would be mine. But now I accept these Levites in place of the firstborn sons of the Israelites.
36-37. Their duties included taking care of the tent frames and the pieces that held the tent up: the bars, the posts, the stands, and its other equipment. They were also in charge of the posts that supported the courtyard, as well as their stands, tent pegs, and ropes. The Merari clans were responsible for setting these things up and taking them down.