Numbers 17
1Yahweh spoke to Moses:
2“Speak to the sons of Israel and take from them a staff for each ancestral house, from all their leaders according to their ancestral houses, twelve staffs. Write each man’s name on his staff.
3Write Aaron’s name on Levi’s staff, for there is to be one staff for the head of each ancestral house.
4Place them in the tent of meeting before the testimony, where I meet with you.
5The staff of the man I choose shall bud. I will put an end to the complaints the sons of Israel are grumbling against you, which come before me.”
6Moses spoke to the sons of Israel, and all their leaders gave him staffs, one staff for each leader according to their ancestral houses, twelve staffs. Aaron’s staff was among their staffs.
7Moses placed the staffs before Yahweh in the tent of the testimony.
8The next day Moses entered the tent of the testimony. Look, Aaron’s staff for the house of Levi had budded: it had put out buds, blossomed, and borne ripe almonds.
9Moses brought all the staffs out from before Yahweh to all the sons of Israel. They looked, and each man took his staff.
10Yahweh said to Moses, “Put Aaron’s staff back before the testimony to be kept as a sign for the rebellious, so that you bring their complaints against me to an end, and they do not die.”
11Moses did so. As Yahweh commanded him, so he did.
12The sons of Israel said to Moses, “Look, we are dying! We are lost! We are all lost!
13Everyone who approaches, who approaches Yahweh’s dwelling, dies! Must we all perish?”