Numbers 17: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The LORD tells Moses to collect twelve staffs, one from the leader of each tribe, with each man's name written on his own staff, and Aaron's name on the staff of Levi. The staffs are placed in the tent before the Testimony, and the LORD says the staff of the man he chooses will sprout, which will end the people's complaining. The next day Aaron's staff has budded, blossomed, and grown almonds, and the LORD tells Moses to keep it before the Testimony as a sign for the rebels. The chapter ends with the Israelites crying out to Moses in fear that anyone who comes near the tabernacle will die.

Claim by Claim

1. 17:1
   • The LORD spoke to Moses.
   • The LORD's speech to Moses was as follows.
2. 17:2
   • The LORD told Moses to speak to the Israelites.
   • The LORD told Moses to take a staff from them for each ancestral house.
   • The staffs were to come from all their chieftains, according to their ancestral houses.
   • The number of staffs was to be twelve.
   • The LORD told Moses to write each man's name on his own staff.
3. 17:3
   • The LORD told Moses to write Aaron's name on the staff of Levi.
   • There was to be one staff for the head of each ancestral house.
4. 17:4
   • The LORD told Moses to place the staffs in the tent of meeting.
   • The staffs were to be placed in front of the testimony.
   • The LORD said the tent of meeting is where he meets with them.
5. 17:5
   • The LORD said the staff of the man he chooses will sprout.
   • The LORD said he would rid himself of the Israelites' murmurings.
   • The LORD said the Israelites were murmuring against Moses and Aaron.
6. 17:6
   • Moses spoke to the Israelites.
   • Each of their chieftains gave Moses a staff.
   • There was one staff for each chieftain, according to their ancestral houses.
   • The staffs numbered twelve.
   • Aaron's staff was among their staffs.
7. 17:7
   • Moses placed the staffs before the LORD.
   • Moses placed the staffs in the tent of the testimony.
8. 17:8
   • The next day Moses entered the tent of the testimony.
   • Aaron's staff, which was for the house of Levi, had sprouted.
   • The staff had put forth buds.
   • The staff had produced blossoms.
   • The staff had ripened almonds.
9. 17:9
   • Moses brought all the staffs out from before the LORD to all the Israelites.
   • The Israelites looked at the staffs.
   • Each man took his own staff.
10. 17:10
    • The LORD spoke to Moses.
    • The LORD told Moses to put Aaron's staff back in front of the testimony.
    • Aaron's staff was to be kept as a sign for the rebellious.
    • The LORD said this would put an end to the Israelites' murmurings against him.
    • The LORD said the purpose was that the Israelites not die.
11. 17:11
    • Moses did so.
    • Moses did just as the LORD commanded him.
12. 17:12
    • The Israelites spoke to Moses.
    • The Israelites said they were dying.
    • The Israelites said they were perishing.
    • The Israelites said they were all perishing.
13. 17:13
    • The Israelites said that anyone who comes near the tabernacle of the LORD will die.
    • The Israelites asked whether they were to be finished off by dying.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

17:1

In Hebrew Bibles this passage is numbered 17:16–28, because Hebrew chapter 17 begins at what English versions call 16:36. Readers comparing editions will find the verse numbers offset.

17:2

A staff here is not a walking stick but a mark of office: a cut and finished wooden rod carried by the head of a clan or tribe, like a mace or a badge of rank. The Hebrew word for it, *matteh*, also means "tribe", the same word does both jobs, so "twelve staffs" and "twelve tribes" are the same phrase in the original. "Family line" translates "father's house," a descent group traced through the male line.

17:3

Levi was the tribe set apart for service at the sanctuary, and Aaron was its senior figure; his name goes on Levi's staff. This test follows the dispute in the previous chapter, where Korah and others challenged whether Aaron's family alone had the right to serve as priests.

17:4

"The Testimony" is the pair of inscribed stone tablets kept inside the ark, the gold-covered chest in the innermost room of the sanctuary; by extension the word can mean the ark itself. The tent of meeting was the portable sanctuary the people carried with them, so named because it was where God was said to meet with Moses.

17:5

"Murmurings" in 1611 English is stronger than muttering under the breath: it means open, repeated complaint against Moses and Aaron's authority. The test works because a staff is dead wood, cut from a tree long before; flowers on it overnight could not be argued away.

17:6

The Hebrew leaves it slightly open whether Aaron's staff was one of the twelve or a thirteenth added to them. Levi is usually left out of lists of twelve tribes, with Joseph counted twice as Ephraim and Manasseh, so the arithmetic of "twelve" shifts from list to list in these books.

17:7

"The tent that holds the Testimony" (KJV "tabernacle of witness") is the same structure called the tent of meeting in verse 4, the two names are used interchangeably.

17:8

The almond is the first tree in the land to flower, blooming in late winter before its leaves appear. Budding, blossoming and ripening fruit are separate stages spread over months; all four stages appearing on a cut staff overnight is the point of the sign. The Hebrew word for almond, *shaqed*, sounds like the word for "watching" or "being alert," *shoqed*, a play used elsewhere in the Bible.

17:10

"A warning sign" translates a word meaning a token or piece of evidence, something kept and produced later. The staff is to be stored permanently as physical proof, so the question does not have to be reopened.

17:12

The alarm comes straight out of the previous chapter, where a large number of people died after challenging who could approach the sanctuary. The Hebrew piles up the same verb three times for emphasis, which the King James renders "we die, we perish, we all perish."

17:13

"Come near" is a technical term here for approaching the sanctuary to perform service at it, not simply walking past. Only priests could approach the holy objects, and Levites had their own limited access; for anyone else, encroaching carried a death penalty. The people are asking whether that rule leaves any of them safe.