¹¹ “Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back My wrath from the Israelites because he was zealous among them with My zeal,^[a](A) so that I did not destroy the Israelites in My zeal. ¹² Therefore declare: I grant him My covenant of peace.^{(B) 13} It will be a covenant of perpetual priesthood for him and his future descendants,^(C) because he was zealous for his God and made atonement for the Israelites.”

⁸ “At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi^(A) to carry the ark of the Lord’s covenant, to stand before Yahweh to serve Him, and to pronounce blessings in His name, as it is today.

⁸ He said about Levi:

²⁹ Remember them, my God, for defiling the priesthood as well as the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites.^(A)

¹⁷ “For this is what the Lord says: David will never fail to have a man sitting on the throne of the house of Israel.^{(A) 18} The Levitical priests will never fail to have a man always before Me to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to make sacrifices.”^(B)

¹⁹ The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: ²⁰ “This is what the Lord says: If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night so that day and night cease to come at their regular time,^{(C) 21} then also My covenant with My servant David^(D) may be broken so that he will not have a son reigning on his throne, and the Levitical priests will not be My ministers.^{(E) 22} The hosts of heaven cannot be counted; the sand of the sea cannot be measured.^(F) So, too, I will make the descendants of My servant David and the Levites who minister to Me innumerable.”