Numberschapter 17
13 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
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.
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Numbers Overview.
Numbers 17 follows directly on the rebellion of Korah and the plague that came after it. The camp is still grieving its dead and still disputing who may serve God at His tent. This chapter answers the dispute with a sign that could be seen and kept. It is short, and every detail in it is chosen with care, from the names on the staffs to the place where they are laid. Listen for what the LORD says the sign is meant to stop. Listen also for the fear in the people's last words, which the next chapter takes up and answers.
Context
- Who
- A camp that had just buried its dead and was still arguing over who had the right to serve
- What
- A narrative of the sign of twelve staffs, in which Aaron's alone sprouted, blossomed and bore almonds overnight.
- Where
- The Tent of Meeting in the wilderness camp, where the staffs lay before the Testimony.
- When
- Soon after the rebellion of Korah, during the years of wandering, between about 1445 and 1407 BC on the traditional dating.
- Why
- To end the grumbling over the priesthood by showing whom God had chosen, so that no more of the people would die.
Historical context
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.
Show the rest of the historical context, 2 more paragraphs
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.
Significance
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.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
The chapter is read as the answer to the rebellion before it, and Rashi says so at the point where the rod is put away. It is kept "as a reminder that I have chosen Aaron to be the priest and that they should therefore not murmur any more against the priesthood" (Rashi on Numbers 17:25:1). Rashi is quoted in this row from the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, which the corpus marks public domain. The plating of the censers is read the same way. The fire to be scattered is the fire in the censers rather than the fire of the burning (Rashi on Numbers 17:2:1 and 17:2:2). The men are called sinners against their own souls because they rebelled against God (Rashi on Numbers 17:3:1). The plates are a warning that no man should be as Korah was (Rashi on Numbers 17:5:1).
The stopping of the plague carries the chapter's two most striking traditional readings, and both come through Rashi. The first is a secret he says Moses was given. When Moses went up to receive the Torah the Angel of Death told him that the incense holds back a plague, which Rashi takes from Shabbat 89a (Rashi on Numbers 17:11:1). The second is the scene when Aaron ran in with the censer. Aaron seized the Angel of Death and held him. The angel asked to be let go to carry out his commission, and Aaron answered that Moses had told him to stop him. The angel said that he was the messenger of God while Aaron was only the messenger of Moses. Aaron answered that Moses speaks nothing from his own mind, and offered to take him to the entrance of the Tent to ask. Rashi reads the verse about Aaron returning to Moses as the two of them going back together (Rashi on Numbers 17:13:1, citing Midrash Tanchuma, Tetzaveh 15). He then gives a second explanation of why the incense was the means. Israel had been speaking against the incense as a deadly thing, since Nadab and Abihu had died by it and the two hundred and fifty men were burned by it. God answered by showing that the same incense restrains a plague, "and it is only sin that brings death" (Mekhilta on Exodus 17:5). These are the teaching of the rabbis, and this site reports them as theirs.
The test of the staves is read as a trial arranged to leave no opening for complaint. Levi carries one staff although the tribe is divided into priests and Levites, because it is still one tribe (Rashi on Numbers 17:18:1). Aaron's staff was set in the middle of the others, and Rashi gives the reason. His words: "in order that people should not say, It is only because he placed it at the side where the Shechinah is that it blossomed". He cites Midrash Tanchuma, Achrei Mot 8 (Rashi on Numbers 17:21:1). The blossom itself Rashi takes in its plain sense and leaves alone (Rashi on Numbers 17:23:1). The people's cry at the end of the chapter is read as fear carefully stated. All Israel may come into the court of the Tent, and a man who goes further in than his fellow and enters the Tent itself will die (Rashi on Numbers 17:28:1). A Christian reader should notice the shape of the whole. The classical reading takes the budding rod as God settling a question of access by His own choice. It takes the same incense that killed the presumptuous to be what saved the people when a priest carried it at God's command. Ibn Ezra comments at 17:6:1, 17:7:1, 17:8:1, 17:10:1, 17:15:1, 17:17:1, 17:19:1, 17:24:1 and 17:27:1, and Malbim at 17:14:1 and 17:26:1. The corpus holds thirteen kept entries for this chapter, the shortest run of quotable text in the first eighteen measured by length. It holds no English for either of these two under its licence, so both stand cited and unquoted.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited here and never quoted. The Talmudic ones are four. Arakhin 16a:19 is anchored on the twelfth verse, Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 10:8:4 on the sixteenth, Horayot 12a:1 on the twenty-third, and Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 9:7:5 on the twenty-eighth.
The midrashic locators run to thirty-six. Midrash Lekach Tov carries ten, at Numbers 17:1:1, 17:6:1, 17:7:1, 17:8:1, 17:9:1, 17:15:1, 17:16:1, 17:26:1 and 17:27:1, with Leviticus 20:14:1 on the fourth verse. Bamidbar Rabbah carries nine, at 4:20, 5:5, 5:7, 12:7, 15:6, 18:8, 18:20, 18:23 and 19:20. Midrash Aggadah carries five, at Numbers 17:2:1 and 17:2:2, and at Numbers 14:22:1, Leviticus 8:2:1 and Exodus 27:2:2. Otzar Midrashim carries three, at Sefer Tagin 24:123 and 24:126, and at the Book of Gehinnom 4. Yalkut Shimoni on Torah stands twice, at 750:15 and 207:1, and Devarim Rabbah twice, at 6:11 and 2:8. Five more stand alone: Ein Yaakov, Menakhot 11:1, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Tzav 15:1, Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 19:20, Aggadat Bereshit 8:2, and Bereshit Rabbah 71:4. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Numbers 17:2:1 to 17:28:1, the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Numbers 17:6:1 to 17:27:1, cited by ref because the licence Sefaria reports does not permit the text here; Malbim, Malbim on Numbers 17:14:1 and 17:26:1, cited by ref because Sefaria holds no English version; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/numbers/17.json, the 4 Talmud and 36 Midrash locators of this chapter.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A rod laid up for every prince
Numbers 17:1-3
Korah had argued at 16:3 that everyone in the entire congregation is holy, a premise drawn from Exodus 19:6. The answer set up here holds no argument: twelve staffs, each man's name on his own, and one night. Albert Barnes reads Aaron's name on the staff of Levi as needed because Aaron came from Kohath, Levi's second son, and would not otherwise head the tribe.
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.”
The word for staff, matteh, also means tribe, and Adam Clarke explains it as the rod each prince carried as his sign of office. John Wesley notes that the princes, as heads of their tribes, had the strongest claim to the priesthood if any tribe could share it. Their staffs stood for all Israel.
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
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
“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
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
Albert Barnes ties the choice to the recent revolt, since Levites had joined Korah and the house of Aaron had to be shown above them. One staff answers for the whole tribe. The Levite claim and the claims of the other tribes are tested in the same night.
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.”
Numbers 17:4-5
The staffs lie in front of the Testimony, and the sign is announced before it happens, so the outcome cannot be read back into the promise. God names the constant grumbling of the Israelites against you as grumbling He will rid Himself of. Moses had read it the same way at 16:11.
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
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 17:4
“Before the testimony - See Num 17:10 note.”
Choose is the word Moses used at 16:5 and 16:7, and the staff now makes the choice visible. Adam Clarke observes that the sign had its effect, as the priesthood of Aaron's house was never disputed again. Life from dead wood settles the matter.
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
Numbers 17:6-7
Each leader hands in a staff and Aaron’s staff was among them, twelve dry sticks alike when the door shuts. Calvin holds that the twelve include Levi, with Joseph counted as one tribe since no land is divided here, while others make Aaron's a thirteenth. The room is the Tent of Meeting at verse 4 and the Tent of the Testimony at verse 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
Moses alone lays the staffs down, and they stay the night where no other man could enter. John Gill reports Aben Ezra's view that each prince wrote his own name, so every man knew his staff when it came out. No one could claim a switch.
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
Buds, blossoms, and ripe almonds overnight
One night puts buds, blossom and almonds on the same staff, three stages of a season standing together. Exodus 25:33-34 had already shaped the lampstand's cups like almond blossoms, so the tree stood in the sanctuary before this staff did. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown report Josephus taking the staff for almond wood, and Adam Clarke reads the stages as a work begun, promised and finished.
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
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
“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
ConnectionsHebrews 9:4
Numbers 17:9-10
Each man took his own staff, and Aaron's goes back to be kept as a sign for the rebellious. Hebrews 9:4 places Aaron’s staff that had budded inside the ark, while 1 Kings 8:9 says there was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets. Albert Barnes reads the gap as a loss, perhaps when the Philistines took the ark in 1 Samuel 4.
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.”
Its purpose is to spare the rebellious. A people who see the staff need no second plague to learn who is priest. Albert Barnes identifies the Testimony as the two tablets of the law, so the staff lay with the covenant itself.
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.”
Numbers 17:11-13
Moses obeys in half a verse, and the camp answers the sign with panic. The people Korah called holy now say, Anyone who comes near the tabernacle of the LORD will die, and Adam Clarke marks the swing between the two claims. Chapter 18 answers the cry by giving the sanctuary's duties to Aaron and his sons, so that wrath may not fall on the Israelites again.
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.”
Shall we all perish?
The people pile three cries on one another, each wider than the last, until the cry takes in all of them. The fear had grounds, with 14,700 dead in the plague at 16:49 and the earth and the fire before that. Adam Clarke calls the cry folly and extravagance.
The question has its answer in a priest who stands between the people and the holy place. Hebrews 10:19-22 gives the Christian confidence to draw near through the blood of Jesus and a great priest over the house of God. The fear is met by a mediator.
How this psalm is built
The form: Narrative of a sign given to settle in what tribe the priesthood should be fixed, and then kept, as Clarke classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Twelve staffs, each carrying a name | The test is built out of one object repeated. Each leader hands in a staff with his own name written on it, Aaron's name goes on the staff of Levi, and the twelve are laid together in the Tent of the Testimony. Adam Clarke notes that the staff was the sign of office among almost all the peoples of the earth. Each man's authority goes into the room in a form told apart by its writing alone.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Numbers 17:2. | Numbers 17:2, Numbers 17:3, Numbers 17:6 |
| The grumbling the sign is meant to end | The LORD names the complaint twice in this short chapter and both times as the reason for the sign. At verse 5 He says He will rid Himself of the constant grumbling of the Israelites. At verse 10 the staff is put back before the Testimony so that their grumbling may be brought to an end. The same word stands in the chapter before at 16:11 and 16:41, which ties the staff to the day of the censers.John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763), on Numbers 17:4 to 5, cited by the chapter's exposition note. | Numbers 17:5, Numbers 17:10, Numbers 16:11, Numbers 16:41 |
| Before the Testimony, and back before the Testimony | The staffs are placed in front of the Testimony at verses 4 and 7, and at verse 10 Aaron's is ordered back to the same place and kept there. What went in as one dry stick among twelve comes out as the only living one and then returns as a standing sign. The sign is announced at verse 5 before it happens, so the outcome cannot be read back into the promise.John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763), on Numbers 17:4 to 5, cited by the chapter's exposition note. | Numbers 17:4, Numbers 17:7, Numbers 17:10 |
| The tree that wakes first | The fruit at verse 8 is almonds, and the almond is the first tree in that land to flower. Its Hebrew name shaqed stands beside shoqed, hastening, at Jeremiah 1:11 to 12, where a prophet is shown an almond branch and told that God will hasten His word to perform it. Exodus 25:33 to 34 had already shaped the bowls of the lampstand like almond blossoms, so the tree stood inside the sanctuary before this staff did. | Numbers 17:8 |
What is contested
6 more paragraphs on the patterns
How many staffs were laid down is read three ways and the chapter's own quotations carry all three. John Calvin holds that the twelve included Levi, because no division of land was in question here and Joseph therefore counted as one tribe rather than two. Albert Barnes holds that the whole number was twelve besides Aaron's, and says the Vulgate states it expressly. John Wesley reports the Hebrews as making Aaron's staff one of the twelve and others as making it the thirteenth. The text says at verse 6 that there were twelve staffs in all and that Aaron's staff was among them, and each reading is an attempt to fit that sentence with the twelve tribal houses.
Where the staff was afterwards kept is the second question. Hebrews 9:4 lists the staff that budded inside the ark along with the golden pot of manna and the tables of the covenant. The account at 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. Albert Barnes reads the difference as a loss and suggests the staff went when the Philistines took the ark in 1 Samuel 4. Both statements stand in the text and the chapter's exposition note records them side by side without a verdict.
How the New Testament reads it
Hebrews 9:4 is the one place the New Testament names the budding staff, and it names it as a contents of the ark inside the description of the first tabernacle. The writer is listing what stood in the holy places, so the staff appears there as a kept token rather than as an argument.
The sign itself
John Calvin presses the point that a branch cut from its root, dry at that season, produced flowers and fruit while eleven others exactly like it stayed dead. Adam Clarke reads the three stages standing together as a whole work begun, promised and finished. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown report Josephus taking the staff for almond wood and describe the spectacle as fruit in three different stages at once. John Wesley holds that the buds, blossoms and fruit, which could never have grown together except by a miracle, were kept fresh afterwards as the token the LORD ordered.
Keep studying
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 form and classifications
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Numbers 17:5.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; 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; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.