1. The Lord instructed Moses:
2. “Speak to the Israelites and take one staff from them for each ancestral house, 12 staffs from all the leaders of their ancestral houses. Write each man’s name on his staff.
3. Write Aaron’s name on Levi’s staff, because there must be one staff for the head of each ancestral house.
4. Then place them in the tent of meeting in front of the testimony where I meet with you.
5. The staff of the man I choose will sprout, and I will rid Myself of the Israelites’ complaints that they have been making about you.”
6. So Moses spoke to the Israelites, and each of their leaders gave him a staff, one for each of the leaders of their ancestral houses, 12 staffs in all. Aaron’s staff was among them.