17 And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, ² Speak unto the children of Israel, and take of them rods, one for each fathers’ house, of all their princes according to their fathers’ houses, twelve rods: write thou every man’s name upon his rod. ³ And thou shalt write Aaron’s name upon the rod of Levi; for there shall be one rod for each head of their fathers’ houses. ⁴ And thou shalt lay them up in the tent of meeting before the testimony, where I meet with you. ⁵ And it shall come to pass, that the rod of the man whom I shall choose shall bud: and I will make to cease from me the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against you. ⁶ And Moses spake unto the children of Israel; and all their princes gave him rods, for each prince one, according to their fathers’ houses, even twelve rods: and the rod of Aaron was among their rods. ⁷ And Moses laid up the rods before Jehovah in the tent of the testimony.

⁸ And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses went into the tent of the testimony; and, behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and put forth buds, and produced blossoms, and bare ripe almonds. ⁹ And Moses brought out all the rods from before Jehovah unto all the children of Israel: and they looked, and took every man his rod. ¹⁰ And Jehovah said unto Moses, Put back the rod of Aaron before the testimony, to be kept for a token against the children of rebellion; that thou mayest make an end of their murmurings against me, that they die not. ¹¹ Thus did Moses: as Jehovah commanded him, so did he.

¹² And the children of Israel spake unto Moses, saying, Behold, we perish, we are undone, we are all undone. ¹³ Every one that cometh near, that cometh near unto the tabernacle of Jehovah, ^[a]dieth: shall we perish all of us?