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?
Numbers 17
EasyEnglish Bible
Aaron's stick makes flowers
17 The Lord said to Moses, 2 ‘Tell the Israelites that they must give to you 12 sticks, one for each tribe. Write the name of the leader of each tribe on each stick. 3 Write Aaron's name on the stick from the tribe of Levi. 4 Take the sticks to the Tent of Meeting and put them in front of the Covenant Box. 5 Leaves will start to grow on the stick of the man that I have chosen as priest. In that way I will stop the bad words that the Israelites are always saying against you.’
6 Moses spoke to the Israelites and the leaders gave him 12 sticks. 7 Moses put the sticks in front of the Covenant Box of the Lord in the Tent of Meeting.
8 The next day, Moses went to the Tent of Meeting. He saw that the stick of the tribe of Levi had started to make leaves. That stick had the name of Aaron on it. Flowers and almonds were growing on it! 9 Moses brought all the sticks out of the Tent of Meeting. He showed them to the leaders and they saw what had happened. Each leader took his own stick.
10 The Lord said to Moses, ‘Put Aaron's stick in front of the Covenant Box again. The people will see it there like a sign. Then they will remember that they must not turn against me. If they continue to complain, they will die.’ 11 Moses did what the Lord told him.
12 The Israelites said to Moses, ‘We will all die! 13 Any person who comes near the Lord's special Tent will die. So we will all die!’
Numbers 17
New King James Version
The Budding of Aaron’s Rod
17 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and get from them a rod from each father’s house, all their leaders according to their fathers’ houses—twelve rods. Write each man’s name on his rod. 3 And you shall write Aaron’s name on the rod of Levi. For there shall be one rod for the head of each father’s house. 4 Then you shall place them in the tabernacle of meeting before (A)the Testimony, (B)where I meet with you. 5 And it shall be that the rod of the man (C)whom I choose will blossom; thus I will rid Myself of the complaints of the children of Israel, (D)which they make against you.”
6 So Moses spoke to the children of Israel, and each of their leaders gave him a rod apiece, for each leader according to their fathers’ houses, twelve rods; and the rod of Aaron was among their rods. 7 And Moses placed the rods before the Lord in (E)the tabernacle of witness.
8 Now it came to pass on the next day that Moses went into the tabernacle of witness, and behold, the (F)rod of Aaron, of the house of Levi, had sprouted and put forth buds, had produced blossoms and yielded ripe almonds. 9 Then Moses brought out all the rods from before the Lord to all the children of Israel; and they looked, and each man took his rod.
10 And the Lord said to Moses, “Bring (G)Aaron’s rod back before the Testimony, to be kept (H)as a sign against the rebels, (I)that you may put their complaints away from Me, lest they die.” 11 Thus did Moses; just as the Lord had commanded him, so he did.
12 So the children of Israel spoke to Moses, saying, “Surely we die, we perish, we all perish! 13 (J)Whoever even comes near the tabernacle of the Lord must die. Shall we all utterly die?”
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Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
