Numbers 17
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 17
Aaron’s Staff.[a] 1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel and take one staff from the leaders of each of the ancestral tribes, and write each of their names on the twelve staffs. 3 Write Aaron’s name upon the staff of Levi, for there is one staff for the leader of each of the ancestral tribes. 4 You are to lay them in the tent of meeting in front of the Testimony where I meet with you. 5 The staff of the man whom I choose will blossom. Thus I will bring an end to the grumblings of the people of Israel against you.” 6 Moses spoke to the people of Israel, and all of the leaders gave him one staff each, one for each of the twelve ancestral tribes, and the staff of Aaron was among the other staffs. 7 So Moses placed the staffs before the Lord in the tent of meeting.
8 The next day, Moses went into the tent of meeting. The staff of Aaron of the tribe of Levi had blossomed and brought forth buds.[b] It was blooming and producing almonds. 9 Moses brought all of the staffs from before the Lord out to the people of Israel. They looked at them, and each man took his staff.
10 The Lord said to Moses, “Bring Aaron’s staff before the Testimony to be kept as a warning to the rebels. This should end their grumblings against me, so that they may not have to die.” 11 Moses did this. He did as the Lord had commanded him. 12 Then the people of Israel spoke to Moses saying, “We are dying, we are lost! We are all lost! 13 Anyone who approaches the tabernacle of the Lord will die. Are we going to die?”
Footnotes
- Numbers 17:1 The word translated staff means both “staff of command” and “genealogical tree.”
- Numbers 17:8 The staff . . . had blossomed and brought forth buds: as the Lord intended, Aaron’s staff exceeded the others in fruitfulness and was a clear sign of God’s choice of Aaron and his sons as true priests.
Numbers 17
King James Version
17 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and take of every one of them a rod according to the house of their fathers, of all their princes according to the house of their fathers twelve rods: write thou every man's name upon his rod.
3 And thou shalt write Aaron's name upon the rod of Levi: for one rod shall be for the head of the house of their fathers.
4 And thou shalt lay them up in the tabernacle of the congregation before the testimony, where I will meet with you.
5 And it shall come to pass, that the man's rod, whom I shall choose, shall blossom: and I will make to cease from me the murmurings of the children of Israel, whereby they murmur against you.
6 And Moses spake unto the children of Israel, and every one of their princes gave him a rod apiece, for each prince one, according to their fathers' houses, even twelve rods: and the rod of Aaron was among their rods.
7 And Moses laid up the rods before the Lord in the tabernacle of witness.
8 And it came to pass, that on the morrow Moses went into the tabernacle of witness; and, behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds.
9 And Moses brought out all the rods from before the Lord unto all the children of Israel: and they looked, and took every man his rod.
10 And the Lord said unto Moses, Bring Aaron's rod again before the testimony, to be kept for a token against the rebels; and thou shalt quite take away their murmurings from me, that they die not.
11 And Moses did so: as the Lord commanded him, so did he.
12 And the children of Israel spake unto Moses, saying, Behold, we die, we perish, we all perish.
13 Whosoever cometh any thing near unto the tabernacle of the Lord shall die: shall we be consumed with dying?
