¹Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying:

²Speak to the children of Israel, and take from them a staff for each father's house, from all their chiefs, by the house of their fathers, twelve staffs; you shall write each man's name on his staff.

³And the name of Aaron you shall write on the staff of Levi; for there is one staff for the head of the house of their fathers.

⁴You shall lay them down in the tent of meeting, before the testimony, where I will meet with you there.

⁵And it will be that the man whom I choose, his staff will bud; and I will quiet away from me the grumblings of the children of Israel, which they are grumbling against you.

⁶Moses spoke to the children of Israel, and all their chiefs gave him a staff for one chief, a staff for one chief, by the house of their fathers, twelve staffs; and the staff of Aaron was in the midst of their staffs.

⁷Moses laid down the staffs before the face of Yahweh in the tent of the testimony.

⁸It happened on the next day that Moses went into the tent of the testimony, and look, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had budded: it had put out buds, had blossomed into flower, and had ripened almonds.

⁹Moses brought out all the staffs from the face of Yahweh to all the children of Israel; and they saw, and each man took his staff.

¹⁰Yahweh said to Moses: Put back Aaron's staff before the testimony, to be kept as a sign for the children of rebellion; and you will put an end to their grumblings away from me, so they will not die.

¹¹Moses did it; just as Yahweh had commanded him, so he did.

¹²The children of Israel said to Moses, saying: Look, we have breathed our last, we have perished, all of us have perished.

¹³Everyone who comes near, who comes near to the dwelling of Yahweh, will die. Are we to be finished, to breathe our last?