Numbers 1:50
But thou shalt appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of testimony, and over all the vessels thereof, and over all things that belong to it: they shall bear the tabernacle, and all the vessels thereof; and they shall minister unto it, and shall encamp round about the tabernacle.
But thou shalt appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of testimony,.... So called from the ark in it, in which was the law of God, which was a testimony of the will of God to his people:
and over all the vessels thereof; the candlestick, table: and altars, as Aben Ezra notes:
and over all things that belong to it; the vessels of vessels, as the same writer calls them; for the candlestick, shewbread table, and the two altars of incense and burnt offering had vessels appertaining to them:
they shall bear the tabernacle, and all the vessels thereof; carry them from place to place when needful:
and they shall minister unto it; by taking care of the instruments of it and the vessels in it, but not by doing any part of the priestly office in it, as offering sacrifice, burning incense, and the like:
and shall encamp round about the tabernacle; they were a sort of camp or army of themselves, and their station was around the tabernacle, which was a kind of royal palace to God the King of kings; so that as they were the king's legion, and to be numbered alone, as Jarchi observes, in Numbers 1:49, so they were a guard about his palace, and were placed between that and the camp of Israel.