Numbers 17

1 And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

Then Yahweh said to Moses/me,

2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and take from them one staff each for a family division, from all their princes, according to their family divisions, twelve staves: the name of each man shalt thou write upon his staff.

“Tell the Israeli people to bring to you twelve walking sticks. They should bring one from each of the leaders of the twelve tribes. You should carve each leader’s name on his stick.

3 And the name of Aaron shalt thou write upon the staff of Levi; for there shall be but one staff for the head of their family division.

There must be one stick for the leader of each tribe, so you must carve Aaron’s name on the stick for the tribe of Levi.

4 And thou shalt lay them down in the tabernacle of the congregation before the testimony, where I usually meet with you.

Put those sticks inside the Sacred Tent, in front of the sacred chest that has in it the tablets on which the Ten Commandments are written. That is the place where I always talk with you.

5 And it shall come to pass, that the staff of the man whom I shall choose, shall blossom: and I will allay from around me the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against you.

Buds will sprout on the stick of the man whom I have chosen [to be the priest]. [When the people see that], they will stop their constantly complaining about you [because they will realize that you are the one whom I have chosen].”

6 And Moses spoke unto the children of Israel, and all their princes gave him each a staff, one for every prince, according to their family divisions, twelve staves: and the staff of Aaron was among their staves.

So Moses/I told the people what Yahweh had said. Then each of the twelve Israeli leaders, including Aaron, brought his walking stick to Moses/me.

7 And Moses laid down the staves before the Lord in the tabernacle of the testimony.

Moses/I placed the sticks inside the Sacred Tent in front of the sacred chest.

8 And it came to pass on the morrow, that as Moses went into the tabernacle of the testimony, behold, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had budded; and it brought forth buds, and produced blossoms, and yielded ripe almonds.

The following morning, when he/I went into the tent, he/I saw that Aaron’s stick, which represented the tribe of Levi, had sprouted, it had produced leaves and blossoms, and it had also produced almonds that were ripe!

9 And Moses brought out all the staves from before the Lord unto all the children of Israel; and they looked [at them], and took away every one his staff.

Moses/I brought all the sticks out of the Sacred Tent and showed them to the people. Each of the twelve leaders took back his own stick.

10 And the Lord said unto Moses, Carry back the staff of Aaron before the testimony, to be kept as a token against the children of rebellion, that there may be an end of their murmurings from around me, and they die not.

Then Yahweh said to Moses/me, “Put Aaron’s stick in front of the sacred chest, and let it stay there permanently. That will be a warning to people who want to rebel [against me]. Then no more people will die [because of complaining against me].”

11 And Moses did so; as the Lord had commanded him, so did he.

So Moses/I did what Yahweh had commanded.

12 And the children of Israel said unto Moses, thus, Behold, we perish, we are lost, we are all lost.

Then the Israeli people said to Moses/me, “We are going to die! All of us are surely going to die!

13 Every one that cometh near at all unto the tabernacle of the Lord must die: shall we totally perish?

Everyone who comes close to Yahweh’s Sacred Tent dies. Are the rest of us going to die, also?” [RHQ]