Numbers

17 Then spake Yahweh unto Moses, saying:

2 Speak unto the sons of Israel and take of them one staff each for an ancestral house of all their princes by their ancestral houses, twelve staves,—each man’s name shalt thou write upon his staff;

3 and Aaron’s name shalt thou write upon the staff of Levi,—for one staff shall there be for the head of their ancestral house.

4 Then shalt thou lay them up in the tent of meeting,—before the testimony where I meet with you.

5 So shall it come to pass that the man whom I shall choose his staff shall bud,—so will I cause to cease from against me the murmurings of the sons of Israel, wherewith they are murmuring against you.

6 And Moses spake unto the sons of Israel, and every one of their princes gave unto him a staff apiece for each prince by their ancestral houses, twelve staves,—and the staff of Aaron was in the midst of their staves.

7 So Moses laid up the staves before Yahweh,—in the tent of the testimony.

8 And it came to pass on the morrow that Moses entered into the tent of the testimony; and lo! the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had budded,—yea it had brought forth buds and bloomed blossoms, and borne ripe almonds.

9 So then Moses brought forth all the staves from before Yahweh, unto all the sons of Israel,—and they saw and took each man his own staff.

10 And Yahweh said unto Moses—Put back the rod of Aaron before the testimony, to be kept as a sign unto such as are perverse,—that thou mayest bring to an end their murmurings against me that they die not.

11 Thus did Moses,—as Yahweh commanded him, so did he.

12 Then spake the sons of Israel unto Moses, saying: Lo! we have breathed our last—we are lost, we are all lost:

13 whosoever draweth near—draweth near—unto the habitation of Yahweh dieth,—are we ever to have made an end of breathing our last?