Numbers 17

¹ Yahweh spoke to Moses and said,

² ‘Tell Eleazar, son of Aaron, the priest, to pick the censers out of these ashes and take this unlawful fire elsewhere,

³ for these sinful censers are sanctified, at the price of these men’s lives. Since they have been brought before Yahweh and consecrated, let the metal be hammered into sheets to cover the altar. They will be an object-lesson to the sons of Israel.’

⁴ Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers which had been carried by the men who were destroyed by the fire. They were hammered into sheets to cover the altar.

⁵ They are a reminder to the sons of Israel that no layman, no one outside Aaron’s line, may come near Yahweh with incense to burn, under pain of suffering the lot of Korah and his followers, according to the order given by Yahweh through Moses.

⁶ On the following day, the entire community of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying, ‘You have brought death to the people of Yahweh’.

⁷ As the community was banding together against Moses and Aaron, these turned towards the Tent of Meeting, and there was the Cloud covering it, and the glory of Yahweh appeared.

⁸ And Moses and Aaron went to the door of the Tent of Meeting.

⁹ Yahweh spoke to Moses and said,

¹⁰ ‘Stand clear of this community; I am going to destroy them here and now’. They threw themselves face downward on the ground.

¹¹ Then Moses said to Aaron, ‘Take the censer, fill it with fire from the altar, put incense in it and hurry to the community to perform the rite of atonement over them. The wrath has come down from Yahweh and the plague has begun.’

¹² Aaron did as Moses said and ran among the assembly, but the plague was already at work among them. He put in the incense and performed the rite of atonement over the people.

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

¹⁴ There were fourteen thousand seven hundred victims of that plague, not counting those who died because of Korah.

¹⁵ Then Aaron came back to Moses at the Tent of Meeting; the plague had been halted.

¹⁶ Yahweh spoke to Moses and said,

¹⁷ ‘Tell the sons of Israel to give you a branch, one for each patriarchal family; let their leaders together give you twelve branches for their patriarchal families. Write the name of each on his branch; and

¹⁸ on the branch of Levi write the name of Aaron, because the leader of the families of Levi must have a branch too.

¹⁹ Then put them in the Tent of Meeting before the Testimony, the place where I meet you.

²⁰ The man whose branch sprouts will be the one I have chosen; this is how I shall put an end to the complaints that the sons of Israel make against you.’

²¹ Moses spoke to the sons of Israel, and all their leaders gave him one branch each, twelve branches in all for their patriarchal families; Aaron’s branch was among them.

²² Moses placed them before Yahweh in the Tent of the Testimony.

²³ On the following day Moses came to the Tent of the Testimony and there already sprouting, was Aaron’s branch, standing for the House of Levi. Buds had opened, flowers had blossomed, and almonds had already ripened.

²⁴ Moses took all the branches away from before Yahweh and brought them back to all the sons of Israel; they examined them and each one took back his own branch.

²⁵ Then Yahweh said to Moses, ‘Put back Aaron’s branch before the Testimony, where it will have its prescribed place, a sign to these rebels. It will stop them complaining to me any more, and they will not die.’

²⁶ Moses did as Yahweh had ordered. That is what he did.

²⁷ The sons of Israel said to Moses, ‘We are lost! We are dead men! We are all dead men!

²⁸ Anyone who goes near the tabernacle of Yahweh with an offering will die. Are we to be doomed to the last man?’