The Message Bible MSG
King James Version KJV
1 God spoke to Moses:
1
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
2 "Speak to the People of Israel. Get staffs from them - twelve staffs in all, one from the leader of each of their ancestral tribes. 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 Start with Aaron; write Aaron's name on the staff of Levi and then proceed with the rest, a staff for the leader of each ancestral tribe.
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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 Now lay them out in the Tent of Meeting in front of The Testimony where I keep appointments 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 What will happen next is this: The staff of the man I choose will sprout. I'm going to put a stop to this endless grumbling by the People of Israel 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 Moses spoke to the People of Israel. Their leaders handed over twelve staffs, one for the leader of each tribe. And Aaron's staff was one of them.
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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 Moses laid out the staffs before God in the Tent of Testimony.
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And Moses laid up the rods before the LORD in the tabernacle of witness.
8 Moses walked into the Tent of Testimony the next day and saw that Aaron's staff, the staff of the tribe of Levi, had in fact sprouted - buds, blossoms, and even ripe almonds!
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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 Moses brought out all the staffs from God's presence and presented them to the People of Israel. They took a good look. Each leader took the staff with his name on it.
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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 God said to Moses, "Return Aaron's staff to the front of The Testimony. Keep it there as a sign to rebels. This will put a stop to the grumbling against me and save their lives."
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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 Moses did just as God commanded him.
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And Moses did so: as the LORD commanded him, so did he.
12 The People of Israel said to Moses, "We're as good as dead. This is our death sentence.
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And the children of Israel spake unto Moses, saying, Behold, we die, we perish, we all perish.
13 Anyone who even gets close to The Dwelling of God is as good as dead. Are we all doomed?"
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Whosoever cometh any thing near unto the tabernacle of the LORD shall die: shall we be consumed with dying?
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.
The King James Version is in the public domain.