The Holy Bible · Numbers

Numbers 17

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1The Lord said to Moses

2and to Eleazar son of Aaron the priest, “Take up the bronze fire pans from among those burned up, and scatter this strange fire there, for they have consecrated

3the fire pans of these sinners at the cost of their lives. Make them into hammered plates as a covering for the altar, because they were presented before the Lord and were made holy, and became a sign to the Israelites.”

4Eleazar son of Aaron the priest took the bronze fire pans presented by those who had been burned, and they applied them as a covering for the altar,

5as a reminder to the Israelites that no outsider who is not a descendant of Aaron should approach to place incense before the Lord, so that he will not become like Korah and his faction, as the Lord had spoken through Moses.

6The next day the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying, “You have killed the Lord’s people!”

7When the congregation banded together against Moses and Aaron, they rushed toward the Tent of Testimony. The cloud covered it, and the Lord’s glory appeared.

8Moses and Aaron came into the area before the Tent of Testimony.

9The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,

10“Withdraw from the midst of this congregation, and I will consume them all at once.” They fell on their faces.

11Moses said to Aaron, “Take the fire pan, put fire from the altar on it, and place incense on it. Carry it quickly into the camp and make propitiation for them, for wrath has gone out from before the Lord; it has begun to strike the people.”

12Aaron took it just as Moses had told him and ran into the congregation. The outbreak had already begun among the people. He placed the incense and made propitiation for the people,

13and stood between the dead and the living, and the outbreak subsided.

14Those who died in the outbreak numbered fourteen thousand seven hundred, apart from those who died because of Korah.

15Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the Tent of Testimony, and the outbreak subsided.

16The Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

17“Speak to the Israelites and take from them one staff for each ancestral house, from all their leaders according to their ancestral houses—twelve staffs. Write each man’s name on his staff.

18Write Aaron’s name on Levi’s staff, for they shall give one staff for each tribe of their ancestral houses.

19Place them in the Tent of Testimony opposite the testimony, where I will make Myself known to you.

20The staff of the man I choose shall sprout. I will remove from Myself the Israelites’ grumbling, which they direct against you.”

21Moses spoke to the Israelites, and all their leaders gave him staffs, one staff for each leader according to their ancestral houses—twelve staffs. Aaron’s staff was among their staffs.

22Moses placed the staffs before the Lord in the Tent of Testimony.

23The next day Moses and Aaron entered the Tent of Testimony, and there Aaron’s staff for the house of Levi had sprouted: it brought forth a shoot, flowered with blossoms, and produced nuts.

24Moses brought all the staffs out from before the Lord to all the Israelites. They looked, and each man took his staff.

25The Lord said to Moses, “Put Aaron’s staff before the testimonies, to be kept as a sign for the sons of the disobedient. Let their grumbling against Me cease, and they shall certainly not die.”

26Moses and Aaron did so. Just as the Lord commanded Moses, so they did.

27The Israelites said to Moses, “Look, we are consumed! We are lost! We are utterly spent!

28Everyone who touches the Lord’s tent dies. Must we die to the very end?”

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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · working draft awaiting specialist review.