The Budding of Aaron’s Rod

17^*The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ²Speak to the Israelites, and get twelve staffs from them, one for each ancestral house, from all the leaders of their ancestral houses. Write each man’s name on his staff, ³and write Aaron’s name on the staff of Levi. For there shall be one staff for the head of each ancestral house. ⁴Place them in the tent of meeting before the covenant,^* where I meet with you. ⁵And the staff of the man whom I choose shall sprout; thus I will put a stop to the complaints of the Israelites that they continually make against you. ⁶Moses spoke to the Israelites; and all their leaders gave him staffs, one for each leader, according to their ancestral houses, twelve staffs; and the staff of Aaron was among theirs. ⁷So Moses placed the staffs before the Lord in the tent of the covenant.^*

8 When Moses went into the tent of the covenant^* on the next day, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted. It put forth buds, produced blossoms, and bore ripe almonds. ⁹Then Moses brought out all the staffs from before the Lord to all the Israelites; and they looked, and each man took his staff. ¹⁰And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Put back the staff of Aaron before the covenant,^* to be kept as a warning to rebels, so that you may make an end of their complaints against me, or else they will die.’ ¹¹Moses did so; just as the Lord commanded him, so he did.

12 The Israelites said to Moses, ‘We are perishing; we are lost, all of us are lost! ¹³Everyone who approaches the tabernacle of the Lord will die. Are we all to perish?’