Numbers 16:36–17:13

³⁶ⁱThen the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ³⁷“Tell Eleazar son of Aaron the priest to take the censers out of the blaze, then scatter the fire far and wide. ³⁸For the censers of these sinners have become holy at the cost of their lives. Make them into hammered plates as a covering for the altar, for they presented them before the Lord and they became holy. Thus they shall be a sign to the Israelites.”^{* 39}So Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers that had been presented by those who were burned, and they were hammered out as a covering for the altar—⁴⁰a reminder to the Israelites that no outsider, who is not of the descendants of Aaron, shall approach to offer incense before the Lord, so as not to become like Korah and his congregation, just as the Lord had said to him through Moses.^*

⁴¹On the next day, however, the whole congregation of the Israelites rebelled against Moses and against Aaron, saying, “You have killed the people of the Lord.”^{* 42}And when the congregation had assembled against them, Moses and Aaron turned toward the tent of meeting; the cloud had covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared.^{* 43}Then Moses and Aaron came to the front of the tent of meeting, ⁴⁴and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ⁴⁵“Get away from this congregation, so that I may consume them in a moment.” And they fell on their faces.^{* 46}Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, put fire on it from the altar and lay incense on it and carry it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them. For wrath has gone out from the Lord; the plague has begun.”^{* 47}So Aaron took it as Moses had ordered and ran into the middle of the assembly, where the plague had already begun among the people. He put on the incense and made atonement for the people.^{* 48}He stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped.^{* 49}Those who died by the plague were fourteen thousand seven hundred, besides those who died in the affair of Korah.^{* 50}When the plague was stopped, Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the tent of meeting.

The Budding of Aaron’s Rod

^17jThe Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²“Speak to the Israelites, and get twelve staffs from them, one for each ancestral house, from all the leaders of their ancestral houses. Write each man’s name on his staff, ³and write Aaron’s name on the staff of Levi. For there shall be one staff for the head of each ancestral house. ⁴Place them in the tent of meeting before the covenant, where I meet with you.^{* 5}And the staff of the man whom I choose shall sprout; thus I will put a stop to the complaints of the Israelites that they continually make against you.”^{* 6}Moses spoke to the Israelites, and all their leaders gave him staffs, one for each leader, according to their ancestral houses, twelve staffs; and the staff of Aaron was among theirs. ⁷So Moses placed the staffs before the Lord in the tent of the covenant.^*

⁸When Moses went into the tent of the covenant on the next day, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted. It put forth buds, produced blossoms, and bore ripe almonds. ⁹Then Moses brought out all the staffs from before the Lord to all the Israelites, and they looked, and each man took his staff. ¹⁰And the Lord said to Moses, “Put back the staff of Aaron before the covenant, to be kept as a warning to rebels, so that you may make an end of their complaints against me, or else they will die.”^{* 11}Moses did so; just as the Lord commanded him, so he did.

¹²The Israelites said to Moses, “We are perishing; we are lost; all of us are lost! ¹³Everyone who approaches the tabernacle of the Lord will die. Are we all to perish?”^*