The Bible
Numbers Chapter 17
1Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 2"Speak to the children of Israel, and take staffs from them, one for each fathers' house, of all their princes according to their fathers' houses, twelve staffs. Write each man's name on his staff. 3Write Aaron's name on Levi's staff. Have one staff [for each] head of their fathers' houses. 4Lay them up in the Tent of Meeting before the testimony, where I meet with you. 5The staff of the man whom I will choose will bud. I will make the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against you, cease."
6Moses spoke to the children of Israel; and all their princes gave him staffs, for each prince one, according to their fathers' houses, a total of twelve staffs. Aaron's staff was among their staffs. 7Moses laid up the staffs before Yahweh in the Tent of the Testimony.
8The next day, Moses went into the Tent of the Testimony, and look! Aaron's staff for the house of Levi had sprouted, budded, produced blossoms, and bore ripe almonds. 9Moses brought out all the staffs from before Yahweh to all the children of Israel. They looked, and each man took his staff.
10Yahweh said to Moses, "Put back the staff of Aaron before the testimony, to be kept for a token against the children of rebellion; that you may make an end of their murmuring against me, so they don't die." 11Moses did so. As Yahweh commanded him, so he did.
12The children of Israel spoke to Moses, saying, "Behold, we perish! We are undone! We are all undone! 13Everyone who keeps approaching Yahweh's tabernacle, dies! Will we all perish?"
The Bible text is an adaptation of the WEB
to include nuanced meanings of particular ancient words for placenames, God and others of special interest.
In general square brackets:[] are used to indicate words not found in the original text.
They also indicate the 5 books of the Psalms, and the letters in Psalm 119;
and a few passages considered by some to be of questionable authenticity, marked with an asterisk(*).
