Numbers 17

1Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

2Tell Eleazar son of Aaron the priest to lift the censers out from among the burning, and scatter the fire farther away, for they have become holy.

3As for the censers of these men who sinned at the cost of their lives, let them make them into hammered plates as a covering for the altar, because they presented them before Yahweh and they became holy; and they shall be a sign to the sons of Israel.

4So Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers that the burned men had offered, and they were hammered out as a covering for the altar.

5as a reminder for the children of Israel, so that no outsider, who is not from the offspring of Aaron, may come near to burn incense before Yahweh, and so that he may not become like Korah and like his company, just as Yahweh spoke by the hand of Moses to him.

6But on the next day all the congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and against Aaron, saying, “You have killed the people of Yahweh.”

7And it happened, when the congregation assembled against Moses and against Aaron, that they turned toward the tent of meeting, and behold, the cloud covered it, and the glory of Yahweh appeared.

8Then Moses and Aaron came before the Tent of Meeting.

9And Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

10Rise up from the midst of this congregation, so that I may consume them in a moment. And they fell on their faces.

11Then Moses said to Aaron, “Take the censer, and put fire from the altar in it, and put incense on it, and go quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them, because wrath has gone out from before Yahweh; the plague has begun.”

12So Aaron took it, just as Moses had spoken, and ran into the midst of the assembly. And behold, the plague had begun among the people, so he put the incense on and made atonement for the people.

13And he stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped.

14Those who died in the plague were fourteen thousand seven hundred, besides those who died on account of Korah.

15Then Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and the plague was stopped.

16Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

17Speak to the sons of Israel, and take from them one staff for each father's house, from all their leaders according to their fathers' houses, twelve staffs. Each man's name you shall write on his staff.

18And you shall write Aaron’s name on the staff of Levi, for there shall be one staff for the head of their fathers’ house.

19And you shall place them in the tent of meeting before the testimony, where I meet with you.

20And it shall be that the staff of the man whom I choose will bud, and I will put an end to the complaints of the sons of Israel, which they are grumbling against you.

21So Moses spoke to the sons of Israel, and all their leaders gave him a staff, one staff for each leader according to their fathers’ houses, twelve staffs; and Aaron’s staff was among their staffs.

22So Moses placed the staffs before Yahweh in the tent of the testimony.

23And it happened on the next day that Moses went into the tent of the testimony, and behold, Aaron’s staff for the house of Levi had budded: it brought forth blossoms, produced flowers, and ripened almonds.

24So Moses brought out all the staffs from before Yahweh to all the sons of Israel, and they saw, and each man took his staff.

25And Yahweh said to Moses, “Put Aaron’s staff back before the testimony, to be kept as a sign for the sons of rebellion, so that you may put an end to their grumblings against me, and they may not die.”

26And Moses did just as Yahweh commanded him; so he did.

27And the sons of Israel said to Moses, saying, “Look, we perish! We are undone! All of us are undone!”

28Everyone who comes near, who comes near to the tabernacle of Yahweh, will die. Are we all to perish?