The Complete Jewish Bible CJB
King James Version KJV
1 ADONAI said to Moshe,
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And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
2 "Speak to the people of Isra'el, and take from them staffs, one for each ancestral tribe from each leader of a tribe, twelve staffs. Write each man's name on his staff;
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Speak unto the children of Israel, and take of every one of them a rod according to the house of their fathers, of all their princes according to the house of their fathers twelve rods: write thou every man's name upon his rod.
3 and write Aharon's name on the staff of Levi, for each tribe's leader is to have one staff.
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And thou shalt write Aaron's name upon the rod of Levi: for one rod shall be for the head of the house of their fathers.
4 Put them in the tent of meeting in front of the testimony, where I meet with you.
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And thou shalt lay them up in the tabernacle of the congregation before the testimony, where I will meet with you.
5 The staff of the man I am going to choose will sprout buds - in this way I will put a stop to the complaints the people of Isra'el keep making against you."
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And it shall come to pass, that the man's rod, whom I shall choose, shall blossom: and I will make to cease from me the murmurings of the children of Israel, whereby they murmur against you.
6 Moshe spoke to the people of Isra'el, and all their leaders gave him staffs, one for each leader, according to their ancestral tribes, twelve staffs. Aharon's staff was among their staffs.
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And Moses spake unto the children of Israel, and every one of their princes gave him a rod apiece, for each prince one, according to their fathers' houses, even twelve rods: and the rod of Aaron was among their rods.
7 Moshe put the staffs before ADONAI in the tent of the testimony.
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And Moses laid up the rods before the LORD in the tabernacle of witness.
8 The next day Moshe went into the tent of the testimony, and there he saw that Aharon's staff for the house of Levi had budded - it had sprouted not only buds but flowers and ripe almonds as well.
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And it came to pass, that on the morrow Moses went into the tabernacle of witness; and, behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds.
9 Moshe brought out all the staffs from before ADONAI to all the people of Isra'el, and they looked, and each man took back his staff.
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And Moses brought out all the rods from before the LORD unto all the children of Israel: and they looked, and took every man his rod.
10 ADONAI said to Moshe, "Return Aharon's staff to its place in front of the testimony. It is to be kept there as a sign to the rebels, so that they will stop grumbling against me and thus not die."
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And the LORD said unto Moses, Bring Aaron's rod again before the testimony, to be kept for a token against the rebels; and thou shalt quite take away their murmurings from me, that they die not.
11 Moshe did this; he did as ADONAI had ordered him.
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And Moses did so: as the LORD commanded him, so did he.
12 But the people of Isra'el said to Moshe, "Oh no! We're dead men! Lost! We're all lost!
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And the children of Israel spake unto Moses, saying, Behold, we die, we perish, we all perish.
13 Whenever anyone approaches the tabernacle of ADONAI, he dies! Will we all perish?"
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Whosoever cometh any thing near unto the tabernacle of the LORD shall die: shall we be consumed with dying?
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
The King James Version is in the public domain.