Numbers 17

1 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,

The Lord told Moses,

2 Speak to the sons of Israel, and take rods from them, one for each father's house, from all their rulers according to their fathers' houses, twelve rods. Write thou every man's name upon his rod.

“Tell the Israelites to bring twelve walking sticks, one from the leader of each tribe. Write the name of each man on the walking stick,

3 And thou shall write Aaron's name upon the rod of Levi, for there shall be one rod for each head of their fathers' houses.

and write Aaron's name on the walking stick of the tribe of Levi, because there has to be a walking stick for the head of each tribe.

4 And thou shall lay them up in the tent of meeting before the testimony, where I meet with you.

Place the walking sticks in the Tent of Meeting in front of the Testimony where I meet with you.

5 And it shall come to pass, that the rod of the man whom I shall choose shall bud. And I will make to cease from me the murmurings of the sons of Israel, which they murmur against you.

The walking stick that belongs to the man I choose will sprout buds, and I will put a stop to the Israelites' constant complaints against you.”

6 And Moses spoke to the sons of Israel. And all their rulers gave him rods, for each ruler one, according to their fathers' houses, even twelve rods, and the rod of Aaron was among their rods.

Moses explained this to the Israelites, and each of their leaders gave him a walking stick, one for each of the leaders of their tribes. So there were twelve walking sticks including the one belonging to Aaron.

7 And Moses laid up the rods before Jehovah in the tent of the testimony.

Moses placed the walking sticks before the Lord in the Tent of the Testimony.

8 And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses went into the tent of the testimony, and, behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and put forth buds, and produced blossoms, and bore ripe almonds.

The next day Moses went into the Tent of the Testimony and saw that Aaron's walking stick that represented the tribe of Levi, had sprouted and developed buds, flowered and produced almonds.

9 And Moses brought out all the rods from before Jehovah to all the sons of Israel. And they looked, and took every man his rod.

Moses took all the walking sticks from the presence of the Lord and showed them to all the Israelites. They saw them, and each man collected his own walking stick.

10 And Jehovah said to Moses, Put back the rod of Aaron before the testimony, to be kept for a sign against the sons of rebellion, that thou may make an end of their murmurings against me, that they not die.

The Lord told Moses, “Put Aaron's walking stick back in front of the Testimony, to be kept there as a reminder to warn anyone who wants to rebel, so that you may stop their complaining against me. Otherwise they'll die.”

11 Thus Moses did. As Jehovah commanded him, so he did.

Moses did what the Lord ordered him to do.

12 And the sons of Israel spoke to Moses, saying, Behold, we perish, we are undone, we are all undone.

Then the Israelites came and told Moses, “Can't you see we're all going to die? We'll be destroyed! We're all going to be killed!

13 Every man who comes near, who comes near to the tabernacle of Jehovah, dies. Shall we all of us perish?

Anyone who dares to approach the Tabernacle of the Lord will die. Are we all going to be completely wiped out?”