You forgot 'lb".
I've read my Bible(s) for close to 45 years,
thanks.
And it distinctly says God instructed Moses and the tribe of Levi who stepped forward to obey,
to pick up the sword.
In fact,
if not for Moses slaying the guilty ones,
God Himself would have slain the entire nation (Ex. 32):
9 And the Lord said to Moses,
“I have seen this people,
and indeed it is a stiff-necked people!
10 Now therefore,
let Me alone,
that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them.
And I will make of you a great nation.”
By Moses slaying the idolaters,
he spared the rest of the nation:
11 Then Moses pleaded with the Lord his God,
and said:
“Lord, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?
12 Why should the Egyptians speak,
and say,
‘He brought them out to harm them,
to kill them in the mountains,
and to consume them from the face of the earth’?
Turn from Your fierce wrath,
and relent from this harm to Your people.
13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants,
to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them,
‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven;
and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants,
and they shall inherit it forever.’
Then Moses even declared that it was God's instruction after He had relented from destroying the entire nation:
26 then Moses stood in the entrance of the camp,
and said,
“Whoever is on the Lord’s side—come to me!”
And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him.
27 And he said to them,
“Thus says the Lord God of Israel:
‘Let every man put his sword on his side,
and go in and out from entrance to entrance throughout the camp,
and let every man kill his brother,
every man his companion,
and every man his neighbor.’ ”
Then God went a step further and condemned them eternally:
33 And the Lord said to Moses,
“Whoever has sinned against Me,
I will blot him out of My book.
In fact,
because Levi obeyed,
God blessed them.
Jacob, their father,
had once cursed them for once taking up the sword unjustly,
without God's instruction:
“Simeon and Levi are brothers;
Instruments of cruelty are in their dwelling place.
6 Let not my soul enter their council;
Let not my honor be united to their assembly;
For in their anger they slew a man,
And in their self-will they hamstrung an ox.
7 Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce;
And their wrath, for it is cruel!
I will divide them in Jacob
And scatter them in Israel. Gen. 49
The same tribe of Levi however was made the priests of Israel,
showing God taking away that curse.
God had declared it.
Now we either believe the entirety of the Scriptures or we don't.
It's not a pick and choose.