New Revised Standard NRS
The Message Bible MSG
1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
1
God spoke to Moses:
2 Speak to the Israelites, and get twelve staffs from them, one for each ancestral house, from all the leaders of their ancestral houses. Write each man's name on his staff,
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"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.
3 and write Aaron's name on the staff of Levi. For there shall be one staff for the head of each ancestral house.
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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.
4 Place them in the tent of meeting before the covenant, where I meet with you.
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Now lay them out in the Tent of Meeting in front of The Testimony where I keep appointments with you.
5 And the staff of the man whom I choose shall sprout; thus I will put a stop to the complaints of the Israelites that they continually make against you.
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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."
6 Moses spoke to the Israelites; and all their leaders gave him staffs, one for each leader, according to their ancestral houses, twelve staffs; and the staff of Aaron was among theirs.
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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.
7 So Moses placed the staffs before the Lord in the tent of the covenant.
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Moses laid out the staffs before God in the Tent of Testimony.
8 When Moses went into the tent of the covenant on the next day, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted. It put forth buds, produced blossoms, and bore ripe almonds.
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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!
9 Then Moses brought out all the staffs from before the Lord to all the Israelites; and they looked, and each man took his staff.
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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.
10 And the Lord said to Moses, "Put back the staff of Aaron before the covenant, to be kept as a warning to rebels, so that you may make an end of their complaints against me, or else they will die."
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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."
11 Moses did so; just as the Lord commanded him, so he did.
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Moses did just as God commanded him.
12 The Israelites said to Moses, "We are perishing; we are lost, all of us are lost!
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The People of Israel said to Moses, "We're as good as dead. This is our death sentence.
13 Everyone who approaches the tabernacle of the Lord will die. Are we all to perish?"
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Anyone who even gets close to The Dwelling of God is as good as dead. Are we all doomed?"
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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.