¹Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ²“Speak to the ⌞Israelites⌟, and take from among them twelve staffs, ⌞a staff from each family⌟ from among all their leaders according to their families’ households. Write the name of each man on his staff, ³and the name of Aaron on the staff of Levi, because one staff is for the head of each of ⌞their families⌟. ⁴You must then put them in the tent of assembly ⌞before⌟ the testimony where I meet with you. ⁵And it will happen, the man whom I will choose, his staff will blossom, and so I will rid from upon myself the grumblings of the ⌞Israelites⌟, who are grumbling against you.” ⁶Moses spoke to the ⌞Israelites⌟, and all their leaders gave him a staff for each leader, one from ⌞each of their families⌟, twelve staffs, and the staff of Aaron was in the midst of their tribes. ⁷And Moses put the staffs before Yahweh in the tent of testimony. ⁸Then the next day, Moses went into the tent of the testimony, and behold the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi blossomed and put forth a flower and produced blossoms, and it produced almonds. ⁹Then Moses brought out to all the ⌞Israelites⌟ all the staffs before the presence of Yahweh, and they saw, and each man took his staff. ¹⁰And Yahweh said to Moses, “Bring back the staff of Aaron before the testimony as a guard and sign for the children of rebellion, and let them finish their grumblings before me and not die.” ¹¹So Moses did; just as Yahweh commanded him, so he did. ¹²And the ⌞Israelites⌟ said to Moses, saying, “Look! We will die! We will be destroyed! All of us will perish! ¹³Anyone who approaches the tabernacle of Yahweh will die. ⌞Will we all die⌟?”