1. This is the family tree of Aaron and Moses at the time God spoke with Moses on Mount Sinai.
2-4. The names of the sons of Aaron: Nadab the firstborn, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar—anointed priests ordained to serve as priests. But Nadab and Abihu fell dead in the presence of God when they offered unauthorized sacrifice to him in the Wilderness of Sinai. They left no sons, and so only Eleazar and Ithamar served as priests during the lifetime of their father, Aaron.
11-13. God spoke to Moses: “I have taken the Levites from among the People of Israel as a stand-in for every Israelite mother’s firstborn son. The Levites belong to me. All the firstborn are mine—when I killed all the firstborn in Egypt, I consecrated for my own use every firstborn in Israel, whether human or animal. They belong to me. I am God.”
14-16. God spoke to Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai: “Count the Levites by their ancestral families and clans. Count every male a month old and older.” Moses counted them just as he was instructed by the mouth of God.
17. These are the names of the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
18. These are the names of the Gershonite clans: Libni and Shimei.
19. The sons of Kohath by clan: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel.
20. The sons of Merari by clan: Mahli and Mushi.These are the clans of Levi, family by family.