Numbers 17

1The LORD spoke to Moses. He said, 2“Speak to the Israelites and get a staff from them for each ancestral family, one from each of their leaders by their ancestral families: twelve staffs. Write each man’s name on his staff. 3On Levi’s staff you are to write Aaron’s name, because each head of an ancestral family has one staff. 4Then place them in the tent of meeting in front of the testimony, where I meet with you. 5The man I choose is the one whose staff will sprout. So I will make the grumbling of the Israelites against you die down, and it will trouble me no more.” 6So Moses spoke to the Israelites, and all their leaders gave him staffs, one for each leader, by their ancestral families: twelve staffs. Aaron’s staff was among them. 7Moses placed the staffs before the LORD in the tent of the testimony. 8The next day Moses went into the tent of the testimony, and there was Aaron’s staff, the staff for the house of Levi, sprouting. It had put out buds, opened into blossoms, and borne ripe almonds. 9Then Moses brought all the staffs out from before the LORD to all the Israelites. They looked at them, and each leader took back his own staff.

10The LORD said to Moses, “Return Aaron’s staff to its place before the testimony. It is to be kept there as a sign for the rebels, so that you can stop their complaints against me and they do not die.” 11Moses did this. He did just as the LORD had commanded him.

12Then the Israelites said to Moses, “We are dying! We are perishing, every one of us perishing! 13Whoever comes near, anyone who comes near the tabernacle of the LORD, dies. Will we all perish to the last one?”