Numbers 17:6-9

17:6 So Moses spoke to the Israelites, and each of their leaders gave him a staff, one for each leader, ¹  according to their tribes ²  – twelve staffs; the staff of Aaron was among their staffs. 17:7 Then Moses placed the staffs before the Lord in the tent of the testimony. ³ 

17:8 On the next day Moses went into the tent of the testimony – and ⁴  the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted, and brought forth buds, and produced blossoms, and yielded almonds! ⁵  17:9 So Moses brought out all the staffs from before the Lord to all the Israelites. They looked at them, ⁶  and each man took his staff.

[17:6]  ¹ tn Heb “a rod for one leader, a rod for one leader.”

[17:6]  ² tn Heb “the house of their fathers.”

[17:7]  ³ tn The name of the tent now attests to the centrality of the ark of the covenant. Instead of the “tent of meeting” (מוֹעֵד, mo’ed) we now find the “the tent of the testimony” (הָעֵדֻת, ha’edut).

[17:8]  ⁴ tn Here too the deictic particle (“and behold”) is added to draw attention to the sight in a vivid way.

[17:8]  ⁵ sn There is no clear answer why the tribe of Levi had used an almond staff. The almond tree is one of the first to bud in the spring, and its white blossoms are a beautiful sign that winter is over. Its name became a name for “watcher”; Jeremiah plays on this name for God’s watching over his people (1:11-12).

[17:9]  ⁶ tn The words “at them” are not in the Hebrew text, but they have been added in the translation for clarity.