17:1-131 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
2 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.
Tell the Israelites to get twelve rods, one from each tribe, and write the name of a man from each tribe on it.
3 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.
Write Aaron's name on the rod of Levi.
4 And thou shalt lay them up in the tabernacle of the congregation before the testimony, where I will meet with you.
Lay the rods in the tabernacle in front of the testimony.
I'll meet with you there.
5And 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.
I'll choose one of the rods and make it blossom.
That will make the murmurers stop murmuring against you.
6 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 And Moses laid up the rods before the LORD in the tabernacle of witness.
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.
9 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.
Aaron's rod buds, blooms, and yield almonds.
10 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.
God said to Moses,
Put Aaron's rod in front of the testimony, as a sign to the rebels.
That'll stop them from murmuring against me, and stop me from killing them. [1]
11 And Moses did so: as the LORD commanded him, so did he.
Moses did as God commanded.
12And the children of Israel spake unto Moses, saying, Behold, we die, we perish, we all perish.
Behold, we die. We all die.
13Whosoever cometh any thing near unto the tabernacle of the LORD shall die: shall we be consumed with dying?
Whoever gets near God's tabernacle will die.
Shall we be consumed with dying?
God, who just finished killing thousands for murmuring, threatens to kill anyone else that murmurs.
