Numbers 17 — Read & Listen Online

The Father Silences the Grumbling

Chapter 17.

Then our Father spoke to Moses, saying:

Tell Eleazar son of Aaron the priest to take up the censers from the fire, and scatter the fire far away, for they are holy — the censers of these men who sinned against their own lives. Let them be hammered into plates as a covering for the altar, for they were presented before me and so became holy; and they shall be a sign to the sons of Israel.

So Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers that the men who were burned had presented, and they were hammered out as a covering for the altar, a reminder to the sons of Israel that no outsider, anyone not of the offspring of Aaron, should come near to burn incense before our Father, so that he would not become like Korah and his company — as our Father had said to him through Moses.

But the next day the whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying, "You have killed the people of our Father." And when the congregation had gathered against Moses and Aaron, they turned toward the tent of meeting, and behold, the cloud covered it, and the glory of our Father appeared.

Then Moses and Aaron came to the front of the tent of meeting. And our Father spoke to Moses, saying:

"Get away from this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment." And they fell on their faces.

Then Moses said to Aaron, "Take the censer, put fire on it from the altar, and lay incense on it. Carry it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them, for wrath has gone out from before our Father; the plague has begun."

So Aaron took it, as Moses had said, and ran into the midst of the assembly — the plague had begun among the people. He burned the incense and made atonement for the people. And he stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped. ¹ Those who died in the plague were fourteen thousand seven hundred, besides those who died in the matter of Korah. Then Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the tent of meeting, for the plague had been stopped. Then our Father spoke to Moses, saying:

"Speak to the sons of Israel and take from them a staff for each ancestral house, from all their leaders according to their ancestral houses — twelve staffs. Write each man's name on his staff. Write Aaron's name on the staff of Levi, for there shall be one staff for the head of each ancestral house. Place them in the tent of meeting before the testimony, where I meet with you. ² And the staff of the man I choose will sprout, and so I will silence before me the grumblings of the sons of Israel that they grumble against you."

So Moses spoke to the sons of Israel, and all their leaders gave him a staff each, one for each leader according to their ancestral houses — twelve staffs — and Aaron's staff was among them. And Moses placed the staffs before our Father in the tent of the testimony. The next day Moses went into the tent of the testimony, and the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted: it had put forth buds, produced blossoms, and borne ripe almonds. ³ Then Moses brought out all the staffs from before our Father to all the sons of Israel, and they looked, and each man took his own staff.

And our Father said to Moses, "Put Aaron's staff back before the testimony, to be kept as a sign for the rebels, so that you may put an end to their grumblings against me, and they will not die."

And Moses did so; just as our Father had commanded him, so he did. Then the sons of Israel said to Moses, "Look, we are perishing! We are lost, we are all lost! Anyone who comes near, who comes near to the tabernacle of our Father, dies. Are we all going to perish?"

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