Numbers

17 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying 2 “Speak to the sons of Israel and take from them a stick for each family; from all their family princes, twelve sticks. Let each write his name on his stick; 3* and you shall write Aaron’s name on the stick for Levi, because there is one stick for the head of their families. 4 And you shall deposit them in the Tent of Meeting before the Lessons where I meet you, 5 and the stick of the man I choose shall sprout; and I will rid myself of the complaints which the sons of Israel bring against you.”

6 And Moses spoke to the sons of Israel, and all their princes gave him a stick apiece, family by family, twelve sticks; and Aaron’s stick was in the midst of their sticks, 7 and Moses deposited the sticks before Jehovah in the tent of the Lessons. 8 And next day Moses went into the tent of the Lessons and found that Aaron’s stick had sprouted for the family of Levi and had put out shoots and blossomed and matured almonds. 9 And Moses brought out all the sticks from before Jehovah to all the sons of Israel, and they saw them and each took his stick.

10 And Jehovah said to Moses “Put Aaron’s stick back before the Lessons for preservation as a token for the sons of disobedience so as to end their complaints against me and not have them die”; 11 and Moses did it: as Jehovah had commanded him, so he did.

12 And the sons of Israel said to Moses “There, we perish, it is all over with us, it is all over with all of us: 13 everybody who comes near Jehovah’s tabernacle dies; are we done perishing?”