Numbers 17

1Yahweh said to Moses,

2“Speak to the Israelites and get twelve staffs from them, one staff from the leader of each ancestral house, from all their leaders by their ancestral houses. Write each man’s name on his staff.

3Write Aaron’s name on the staff of Levi, for there is to be one staff for the head of each ancestral house.

4Place them in the tent of meeting in front of the testimony, where I meet with you.

5The staff of the man I choose will sprout. In this way I will rid myself of the constant grumbling of the Israelites against you.”

6So Moses spoke to the Israelites, and all their leaders gave him staffs, one for each leader by their ancestral houses, twelve staffs in all. Aaron’s staff was among their staffs.

7Moses placed the staffs before Yahweh in the tent of the testimony.

8The next day Moses went into the tent of the testimony, and there was Aaron’s staff, which represented the house of Levi. It had sprouted, put out buds, blossomed, and produced ripe almonds.

9Then Moses brought out all the staffs from Yahweh’s presence to all the Israelites. They looked at them, and each man took his own staff.

10Yahweh said to Moses, “Put Aaron’s staff back in front of the testimony, to be kept as a sign for the rebels. This will put an end to their grumbling against me, so that they will not die.”

11Moses did this; he did just as Yahweh had commanded him.

12The Israelites said to Moses, “Look, we are perishing! We are lost, all of us are lost!

13Anyone who comes near, anyone who comes near the tabernacle of Yahweh, will die. Are we all going to perish?”