Numbers 17

²The Lord extends Your mighty scepter from Zion: “Rule in the midst of Your enemies.”

³For the scepter of the wicked will not rest upon the land allotted to the righteous, so that the righteous will not put forth their hands to injustice.

¹⁴Shepherd with Your staff Your people, the flock of Your inheritance. They live alone in a woodland, surrounded by pastures. Let them graze in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.

¹³Surely testing will come! And what if even the scepter, which the sword despises, does not continue?’ declares the Lord God.

¹⁰The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes and the allegiance of the nations is his.

²And the Lord asked him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied.

⁷But only you and your sons shall attend to your priesthood for everything concerning the altar and what is inside the veil, and you are to perform that service. I am giving you the work of the priesthood as a gift, but any outsider who comes near the sanctuary must be put to death.”

¹⁶These were the names of the sons of Levi according to their records: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. Levi lived 137 years.

²⁰And Amram married his father’s sister Jochebed, and she bore him Aaron and Moses. Amram lived 137 years.

²These are the names of the sons of Aaron: Nadab the firstborn, then Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.

³These were Aaron’s sons, the anointed priests, who were ordained to serve as priests.

¹So the Lord said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your father’s house must bear the iniquity involving the sanctuary. And you and your sons alone must bear the iniquity involving your priesthood.

³⁶Grind some of it into fine powder and place it in front of the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, where I will meet with you. It shall be most holy to you.

⁴²For the generations to come, this burnt offering shall be made regularly at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting before the Lord, where I will meet you to speak with you.

⁴³I will also meet with the Israelites there, and that place will be consecrated by My glory.

¹⁶And place inside the ark the Testimony, which I will give you.

¹⁷And you are to construct a mercy seat of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide.

⁷Then Moses placed the staffs before the Lord in the Tent of the Testimony.

⁶Place the altar in front of the veil that is before the ark of the Testimony—before the mercy seat that is over the Testimony—where I will meet with you.

⁵Then he said to Korah and all his followers, “Tomorrow morning the Lord will reveal who belongs to Him and who is holy, and He will bring that person near to Himself. The one He chooses He will bring near to Himself.

⁵I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like the lily and take root like the cedars of Lebanon.

¹¹Therefore, it is you and all your followers who have conspired against the Lord! As for Aaron, who is he that you should grumble against him?”

⁸The next day Moses entered the Tent of the Testimony and saw that Aaron’s staff, representing the house of Levi, had sprouted, put forth buds, blossomed, and produced almonds.

⁴¹Then they will burn down your houses and execute judgment against you in the sight of many women. I will put an end to your prostitution, and you will never again pay your lovers.

¹The wilderness and the dry land will be glad; the desert will rejoice and blossom like a rose.

²It will bloom profusely and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the glory of the Lord, the splendor of our God.

⁴⁴Our fathers had the tabernacle of the Testimony with them in the wilderness. It was constructed exactly as God had directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen.

²¹This is the inventory for the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the Testimony, as recorded at Moses’ command by the Levites under the direction of Ithamar son of Aaron the priest.

²But bring with you also your brothers from the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, that they may join you and assist you and your sons before the Tent of the Testimony.

²⁴Then all the trees of the field will know that I am the Lord. I bring the tall tree down and make the low tree tall. I dry up the green tree and make the withered tree flourish. I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have done it.’”

¹“I am the true vine, and My Father is the keeper of the vineyard.

²He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, and every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes to make it even more fruitful.

¹⁷There I will make a horn grow for David; I have prepared a lamp for My anointed one.

¹⁸I will clothe his enemies with shame, but the crown upon him will gleam.”

⁵The staff belonging to the man I choose will sprout, and I will rid Myself of the constant grumbling of the Israelites against you.”

²On that day the Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of Israel’s survivors.

¹⁰and on the vine were three branches. As it budded, its blossoms opened and its clusters ripened into grapes.

⁶Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience.

⁴containing the golden altar of incense and the gold-covered ark of the covenant. Inside the ark were the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant.

²Listen, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken: “I have raised children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against Me.

¹²Now the sons of Eli were wicked men; they had no regard for the Lord

³⁸As for the censers of those who sinned at the cost of their own lives, hammer them into sheets to overlay the altar, for these were presented before the Lord, and so have become holy. They will serve as a sign to the Israelites.”

²⁴You have been rebelling against the Lord since the day I came to know you.

¹¹However, the line of Korah did not die out.

³A man’s own folly subverts his way, yet his heart rages against the Lord.

⁷For we are consumed by Your anger and terrified by Your wrath.

⁵And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not take lightly the discipline of the Lord, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you.

⁵Then I said: “Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips dwelling among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.”

¹⁶For I will not accuse you forever, nor will I always be angry; for then the spirit of man would grow weak before Me—the breath of life I have made.

¹⁹Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus,

²⁰by the new and living way opened for us through the curtain of His body,

³but about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You must not eat of it or touch it, or you will die.’”

⁴They are to join you and attend to the duties of the Tent of Meeting, doing all the work at the Tent; but no outsider may come near you.

⁵And you shall attend to the duties of the sanctuary and of the altar, so that wrath may not fall on the Israelites again.

¹¹Then David became angry because the Lord had burst forth against Uzzah. So he named that place Perez-uzzah, as it is called to this day.

¹²That day David feared God and asked, “How can I ever bring the ark of God to me?”

¹³It was because you Levites were not with us the first time that the Lord our God burst forth in anger against us. For we did not consult Him about the proper order.”

⁵¹Whenever the tabernacle is to move, the Levites are to take it down, and whenever it is to be pitched, the Levites are to set it up. Any outsider who goes near it must be put to death.

⁵²The Israelites are to camp by their divisions, each man in his own camp and under his own standard.