1And Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying:
2“Speak to the sons of Israel and take from them a staff, a staff for each ancestral house, from all their leaders according to their ancestral houses—twelve staffs. You shall write each man’s name on his staff.
3And Aaron’s name you shall write on the staff of Levi; for there shall be one staff for the head of their ancestral house.
4And you shall lay them down in the tent of meeting before the testimony, where I meet with you.
5And it shall be that the man whom I choose—his staff will sprout; and I will quiet away from me the grumblings of the sons of Israel, which they grumble against you.”
6And Moses spoke to the sons of Israel, and all their leaders gave to him a staff for each leader, a staff for each leader according to their ancestral houses—twelve staffs; and the staff of Aaron was in the midst of their staffs.
7And Moses laid the staffs before Yahweh in the tent of the testimony.
8And it happened on the next day that Moses came to the tent of the testimony, and behold, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted: it put forth a bud, and blossomed a blossom, and ripened almonds.
9And Moses brought out all the staffs from before Yahweh to all the sons of Israel, and they looked, and each man took his staff.
10And Yahweh said to Moses, “Put back the staff of Aaron before the testimony, to be kept as a sign for the sons of rebellion, that you may bring their grumblings against me to an end, so that they do not die.”
11And Moses did so; just as Yahweh commanded him, so he did.
12And the sons of Israel said to Moses, saying, “Behold, we perish, we are lost, we are all lost!
13Everyone who draws near, who draws near to the dwelling of Yahweh, dies. Are we then to be completely done for, to perish?”
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