1 And the Lord spake vnto Moses, saying, 2 Speake vnto the children of Israel, and take of euery one of them a rod, after the house of their fathers, of all their princes according to the familie of their fathers, euen twelue rods: and thou shalt write euery mans name vpon his rod. 3 And write Aarons name vpon the rod of Leui: for euery rodde shalbe for the head of the house of their fathers. 4 And thou shalt put them in the Tabernacle of the Congregation, before the Arke of the Testimonie, where I wil declare my selfe to you. 5 And the mans rod, whome I chuse, shall blossome: and I will make cease from mee the grudgings of the children of Israel, which grudge against you. 6 Then Moses spake vnto the children of Israel, and al their princes gaue him a rod, one rod for euery Prince, according to the houses of their fathers, euen twelue rods, and the rod of Aaron was among their roddes. 7 And Moses layde the rods before the Lord in the Tabernacle of the Testimonie. 8 And when Moses on the morow went into the Tabernacle of the Testimonie, beholde, the rod of Aaron for the house of Leui was budded, and brought forth buddes, and brought forth blossoms, and bare ripe almondes. 9 Then Moses brought out all the rods from before the Lord vnto all the children of Israel: and they looked vpon them, and tooke euery man his rodde. 10 After, the Lord said vnto Moses, Bring Aarons rod againe before the Testimonie to bee kept for a token to the rebellious children, and thou shalt cause their murmurings to cease from me, that they dye not. 11 So Moses did as the Lord had commanded him: so did he. 12 And the children of Israel spake vnto Moses, saying, Behold, we are dead, we perish, we are all lost: 13 Whosoeuer commeth neere, or approcheth to the Tabernacle of the Lord, shall dye: shall we be consumed and dye?
Aaron's Walking Stick
1 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Tell the people of Israel to give you twelve walking sticks, one from the leader of each tribe. Write each man's name on his stick 3 and then write Aaron's name on the stick representing Levi. There will be one stick for each tribal leader. 4 Take them to the Tent of my presence and put them in front of the Covenant Box, where I meet you. 5 Then the stick of the man I have chosen will sprout. In this way I will put a stop to the constant complaining of these Israelites against you.”
6 So Moses spoke to the Israelites, and each of their leaders gave him a stick, one for each tribe, twelve in all, and Aaron's stick was put with them. 7 Moses then put all the sticks in the Tent in front of the Lord's Covenant Box.
8 The next day, when Moses went into the Tent, he saw that Aaron's stick, representing the tribe of Levi, had sprouted. It had budded, blossomed, and produced ripe almonds! 9 Moses took all the sticks and showed them to the Israelites. They saw what had happened, and each leader took his own stick back. 10 The Lord said to Moses, “Put Aaron's stick back in front of the Covenant Box. It is to be kept as a warning to the rebel Israelites that they will die unless their complaining stops.” 11 Moses did as the Lord commanded.
12 The people of Israel said to Moses, “Then that's the end of us! 13 If anyone who even comes near the Tent must die, then we are all as good as dead!”