Transporting the Tabernacle was the most dangerous job in ancient Israel. The Targum Jonathan makes clear that one wrong glance at the sacred vessels meant death by divine fire.
When the camp moved, Aaron and his sons entered the Holy of Holies first. They covered the Ark of the Testimony with the veil, then layered hyacinth-dyed skins over it, then a wrapper of twined work. The table of the showbread received a purple cloth, then scarlet, then hyacinth skins. The golden candelabrum was wrapped in purple, then enclosed in hyacinth leather and placed on a carrying rest. Every sacred object was sealed beneath multiple layers before anyone from the Kohathite clan could touch them.
The Targum adds a chilling warning not found in the standard text. God told Moses: "Thou shalt not give occasion for the tribe of the family of Kohath to perish among the Levites." To protect them, Aaron was commanded to assign each man individually to his specific burden. And the Kohathites were told to "turn away their eyes from the Most Holy Place" when approaching it. Looking at the uncovered vessels would kill them.
The other Levite clans had safer assignments. Gershon's sons carried the curtains, coverings, and hangings. Merari's sons handled the structural elements: boards, bars, pillars, and sockets. Both served under Ithamar son of Aaron.
The final census of working-age Levites (thirty to fifty years old) counted 2,750 Kohathites, 2,630 Gershonites, and 3,200 from Merari—totaling 8,580 men. Every one was numbered "by the mouth of the Word of the Lord," the Targum's characteristic way of describing divine instructions flowing through the Memra rather than through direct contact with God.