Numbers 17:1-5
Write thou every man’s name upon his rod
The test is designed to be unambiguous. Twelve named staves, one place, one night, and the result announced before it happens.
Objects of the Bible
The rod of Aaron that budded
A dead stick that grew overnight, chosen as an argument because arguments had stopped working.
It comes directly after Korah, and the murmuring has not stopped. Twelve rods are taken, one for each tribe, with every prince’s name written on his own, and Aaron’s name on the rod of Levi. They are laid up in the tabernacle of witness before the testimony, and the terms are stated in advance: the man’s rod whom I shall choose shall blossom, and I will make to cease from me the murmurings.
Scroll down to the story
The movements, in the order the text gives them.
The story of The rod of Aaron that budded
- 01
- 02
Numbers 17:8
Budded, bloomed, and yielded almonds
Four stages are listed rather than one. A rod that should have been dead runs an entire season while the camp sleeps.
- 03
Numbers 17:9
They looked, and took every man his rod
The other eleven are handed back unchanged. The comparison is done by everybody holding their own evidence.
- 04
Numbers 17:10-13
Kept for a token against the rebels
It is put back before the testimony as a permanent exhibit, and the chapter closes with the people afraid of coming near at all.
- 05
Hebrews 9:4
Aaron’s rod that budded
The letter lists it inside the ark with the pot of manna and the tables, which is how the object is remembered centuries later.
Why it matters
What happens overnight is more than a mark. The rod of Aaron was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds. Four stages of a season on a cut piece of wood in one night, and all four are listed, which is the text refusing to summarise. Moses brings out all the rods and every man takes his own back, and Aaron’s is put back before the testimony to be kept for a token, to take away their murmurings from me, that they die not.
2 songs
The music
Every song in the catalogue whose passage falls inside these chapters.
