Numberschapter 17
13 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Key verse
The next day Moses entered the Tent of the Testimony and saw that Aaron’s staff, representing the house of Levi, had sprouted, put forth buds, blossomed, and produced almonds.
It stands in Buds, blossoms, and ripe almonds overnight, verses 8 to 11.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Aaron's rod that budded. To end all murmuring about priesthood, each tribe places a rod in the tabernacle of witness, their prince's name written upon it. Overnight Aaron's rod (Levi's rod) buds, brings forth blossoms, and yields almonds. The rods are brought out; each man takes his own; Aaron's rod is brought back before the testimony as a token against the rebels. Priesthood is vindicated not by human vote but by divine life. The people cry, ‘behold, we die, we perish, we all perish. Whosoever cometh any thing near unto the tabernacle of the LORD shall die’. The mediating priesthood is felt in their bones.
Context
Law · Moses · Numbers overview
The world behind this chapter
Numbers 17The history
The chapter belongs to Aaron and to the twelve leaders of the tribes, each of whom handed in the staff he carried. Aaron was the high priest, and his office was the thing in question. His name was written on the staff of Levi rather than on one of his own, because he came of Kohath, the second son of Levi, and so did not head the tribe.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
The time is the wilderness years, within days of the censers and the plague of chapter 16. The chapter gives no date, so the year is held loosely at about 1443 BC on the same chronology the other rows of this book use. The place is the Tent of the Testimony, and the staffs were laid in front of the ark where the LORD met with Moses.
A staff was the token of a chief's authority, carried in the hand and often cut with his name, which is why the test uses one for each tribal house. The fruit was almonds, and the almond is the first tree in that land to flower, waking in late winter before anything else. Its Hebrew name stands next to the word for being awake or hastening, which Jeremiah 1:11 to 12 turns into a sign of its own. Almond blossom was already carved into the bowls of the lampstand at Exodus 25:33 to 34, so the tree stood inside the sanctuary before this staff did.
What it meant to them
Israel had already seen the question settled by fire and by the opening ground. The LORD settled it a second time with a branch in flower, so that the priesthood did not rest on catastrophe alone. The chapter names its own purpose at verse 5, which is to bring the grumbling to an end before it killed anyone else. The camp answered the sign with fear of the tent itself, and that fear is the sentence chapter 18 was given to answer.
Sources cited
- Gordon J. Wenham, Numbers (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries)
- C. F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch
- Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament , on Numbers 17:1 to 3
- Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible , 1871, and Adam Clarke, *Commentary on the Bible*, 1832, on Numbers 17:8
Where the chapter sits
Numbers 17 falls in Wilderness rebellions and instruction (chapters 15–20). Korah's rebellion; Aaron's rod that budded; waters of Meribah; Moses' striking of the rock.
Before it: From Sinai to Kadesh, chapters 11–14. After it: Approach to Moab, chapters 21–25.
The whole shape of Numbers→The structure of this chapter
People1
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. A rod laid up for every prince
1. (vv. 1-3)
Numbers 17:1
“And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... After the plague ceased, for the further confirmation of the priesthood in Aaron's family, another method is directed to by the Lord: saying: as follows.”
Numbers 17:2
“And take of every one of them a rod - מטה matteh, the staff or scepter, which the prince or chief of each tribe bore, and which was the sign of office or royalty among almost all the people of the earth.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
Numbers 17:2
“Every man's name - Every prince's: for they being the first-born, and the chief of their tribes might above all others pretend to the priesthood, if it was communicable to any of their tribes, and besides each prince represented all his tribe: so that this was a full decision of the question.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Numbers 17:2
“Speak unto the children of Israel. They are mistaken who suppose that to the twelve rods there was another added for the tribe of Levi; for, since there was no question here as to the possession of the land, there was no occasion at all for the division of the tribe of Joseph into two parts.”
John Calvin· Commentaries (1554)reformed
Numbers 17:2
“These rods were to be laid in the tabernacle close to the ark (compare Nu 17:10 and Heb 9:4), where a divine token was promised that would for all time terminate the dispute.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Numbers 17:3
“Thou shalt write Aaron’s name upon the rod of Levi - The Levites had taken part in the late outbreak. It was therefore necessary to vindicate the supremacy of the house of Aaron over them; and accordingly his name was written on the rod of Levi, although being the son of Kohath, the second son of Levi (Exo 6:16 ff), he would not be the natural head of the tribe.”
Korah had argued at 16:3 that all the congregation are holy, and his premise came straight out of Exodus 19:6. The answer set up here contains no argument at all: twelve rods from the twelve tribal princes, every man's name written on his own, and one night. Aaron's name goes on the rod of Levi rather than on a rod of his own, which Albert Barnes reads as necessary because Aaron descended from Kohath, the second son of Levi, and would not otherwise have headed the tribe.
2. (vv. 4-5)
Numbers 17:4
“Before the testimony - That is, before the ark of the testimony, close by the ark. I will meet with you - And manifest my mind to you, for the ending of this dispute.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Numbers 17:4
“Before the testimony - See Num 17:10 note.”
Numbers 17:4
“And thou shalt lay them up in the tabernacle of the congregation,....”
Numbers 17:5
“The man’s rod, whom I shall choose, shall blossom - It was necessary that something farther should be done to quiet the minds of the people, and for ever to settle the dispute, in what tribe the priesthood should be fixed. God therefore took the method described in the text, and it had the desired effect; the Aaronical priesthood was never after disputed.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The rods are laid before the testimony and the sign is announced before it happens, so the outcome cannot be read backwards into the promise. God names the same complaint two ways in one verse, as murmuring against Moses and Aaron and as murmuring he will make to cease from me. That is the reading Moses had already given at 16:11, where he asks Korah's company what Aaron is that they should murmur against him.
3. (vv. 6-7)
Numbers 17:6
“Among their rods - Was laid up with the rest, being either one of the twelve, as the Hebrew affirm, or the thirteenth, as others think.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Numbers 17:7
“And Moses laid up the rods before the Lord in the tabernacle of witness. In that part of the tabernacle where the testimony or witness was, that is, the law, which was in the ark, over which was the mercy seat, with the cherubim between which Jehovah dwelt, and this was the most holy place; and the rods being laid here, might be said to be laid before the Lord, who, by making a difference in one of those rods from the rest, would decide the controversy about the priesthood, which was the end of their being laid before him.”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 17:7
“But, since God will have it so, he did his part, and lodged the case before the Lord, to whom the appeal was made by consent, and left it with him. 8 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.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Every prince hands in a rod and Aaron's lies among them, twelve dry sticks with nothing to tell them apart when the door shuts. Calvin holds that the twelve include Levi, since no division of land is in question here and Joseph therefore counts as one tribe; other readers make Aaron's a thirteenth laid beside the twelve. The room is called the tabernacle of the congregation at verse 4 and the tabernacle of witness at verse 7, and the rods are put where the witness is kept.
B. Buds, blossoms, and ripe almonds overnight
1. (v. 8)
Numbers 17:8
“The rod of Aaron - was budded, etc. - That is, on the same rod or staff were found buds, blossoms, and ripe fruit. This fact was so unquestionably miraculous, as to decide the business for ever; and probably this was intended to show that in the priesthood, represented by that of Aaron, the beginning, middle, and end of every good work must be found. The buds of good desires, the blossoms of holy resolutions and promising professions, and the ripe fruit of faith, love, and obedience, all spring from the priesthood of the Lord Jesus.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
Numbers 17:8
“And so He Himself also chose Aaron as priest, that not the will of man but the grace of God should have the chief part in the election of the priest; not the voluntary offering of himself, nor the taking it upon himself, but the vocation from heaven, that he should offer gifts for sins who could be touched for those who sinned, for He Himself, it is said, bears our weakness. No one ought to take this honour upon himself but they are called of God, as was Aaron, and so Christ did not demand but received the priesthood.”
Ambrose of Milan· written before 397· Epistle 63patristic
Numbers 17:8
“For it was no natural circumstance that a branch which derived no sap from the root, and which at that season of the year would have been dry upon the tree, should produce flowers and fruit, when it was east before the Ark of the Covenant, whilst the others, although altogether similar, remained dry and dead.”
John Calvin· Commentaries (1554)reformed
Numbers 17:8
“Moses went into the tabernacle--being privileged to do so on this occasion by the special command of God. And he there beheld the remarkable spectacle of Aaron's rod--which, according to JOSEPHUS, was a stick of an almond tree, bearing fruit in three different stages at once--buds, blossoms, and fruit.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
One night puts buds, open blossom and ripe almonds on the same branch at once, three stages of a season standing together. The almond is the first tree in that land to wake, and its Hebrew name shaqed sits beside shoqed, hastening, in Jeremiah 1:11-12, where a prophet is shown an almond rod and told that God will hasten his word to perform it. Exodus 25:33-34 had already shaped the bowls of the lampstand like almonds, so the tree stood inside the sanctuary before this rod did. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown report Josephus taking the rod for almond wood, and Adam Clarke reads the three stages as a whole work begun, promised and finished.
2. (vv. 9-10)
Numbers 17:9
“And Moses brought out all the rods from before the Lord, unto all the children of Israel,.... He brought them out of the holy place, and showed them to the princes of the several tribes: and they looked, and took every man his rod; which they knew by their names upon them; by their own handwriting, as Aben Ezra; for though Moses is bid to write their names on them, Num 17:2; yet no more may be meant by that than that he should order them to be written, and take care that they were.”
Numbers 17:10
“The testimony - i. e. the two tables of the Law; compare Exo 25:16 note. No doubt the rod lay in front of the tables within the ark. In the days of Solomon 1Ki 8:9 there was nothing in the ark save the Two tables. Aaron’s rod was probably lost when the ark was taken by the Philistines.”
Each prince takes his own rod back and Aaron's returns to the ark, kept for a token against the rebels. Hebrews 9:4 lists the rod that budded inside the ark along with the golden pot of manna and the tables of the covenant, while 1 Kings 8:9 says that when the priests brought the ark into Solomon's temple there was nothing in it save the two tables of stone. Both accounts stand, and Albert Barnes reads the gap as a loss, suggesting the rod went when the Philistines took the ark in 1 Samuel 4. The reason given for keeping it is preventive, that thou shalt quite take away their murmurings from me, that they die not.
3. (v. 11)
Numbers 17:11
“And Moses did so; as the Lord commanded him, even so did he. Took Aaron's rod, and laid it up before the ark for the purpose mentioned, being a faithful servant to God in all his house.”
Numbers 17:11-13
Moses obeys in half a verse and the camp answers the sign with panic. Korah had said that all the congregation are holy and every one of them; the same people now say that whosoever cometh any thing near unto the tabernacle of the Lord shall die. Adam Clarke marks the swing between those two claims and reads the word behind we perish as breath failing rather than plain death. The next chapter answers the cry by laying the charge of the sanctuary on Aaron and his sons, so that there be no wrath any more upon the children of Israel.
C. Shall we all perish?vv. 12-13
Numbers 17:13
“Whosoever cometh anything near unto the tabernacle of the Lord shall die,....”
This page carries no textual note on Numbers 17. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentary on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
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