Numbers 17 WYC
Summary: To settle the question of legitimate priestly authority once and for all, the Lord instructs each tribal leader to place a staff, inscribed with his name, before the ark, with Aaron's staff representing Levi. Overnight, Aaron's staff alone sprouts, buds, blossoms, and produces ripe almonds, a miraculous sign confirming God's choice of Aaron's line for the priesthood. The Lord commands that Aaron's staff be kept permanently before the ark as a sign to future rebels. The people respond with fear, worried that anyone who comes near the tabernacle will die, setting up the priestly and Levitical duties clarified in the following chapter.
1And the Lord spak to Moises, `and seide, Speke thou to the sones of Israel,
2and take thou yerdis, bi her kynredis, bi ech kynrede o yeerde, take thou of alle the princes of the lynagis twelue yerdis; and thou schalt write the name of each lynage aboue his yerde;
3forsothe the name of Aaron schal be in the lynage of Leuy, and o yerde schal conteyne alle the meynees of hem.
4And thou schalt putte tho yerdis in the tabernacle of boond of pees, bifor the witnessyng, where Y schal speke to thee; the yerde of hym schal buriowne, whom Y schal chese of hem;
5and Y schal refreyne fro me the playnyngis of the sones of Israel, bi whiche thei grutchen ayens you.
6And Moyses spak to the sones of Israel; and alle princes yauen to hym yerdis, bi alle lynagis; and the yerdis weren twelue, without the yerde of Aaron.
7And whanne Moises hadde put tho yerdis bifor the Lord, in the tabernacle of witnessyng, he yede ayen in the day suynge,
8and founde that the yerde of Aaron, `in the hows of Leuy, buriounnede; and whanne knoppis weren greet, the blossoms `hadden broke out, whiche weren alargid in leeuys, and weren fourmed in to alemaundis.
9Therfor Moyses brouyte forth alle the yerdis fro the siyt of the Lord to al the sones of Israel; and thei sien, and resseyueden ech his yerde.
10And the Lord seide to Moises, Bere ayen the yerde of Aaron in to the tabernacle of witnessyng, that it be kept there in to `the signe of the rebel sones of Israel, and that her `playntis reste fro me, lest thei dien.
11And Moises dide, as the Lord comaundide.
12Forsothe the sones of Israel seiden to Moises, Lo! we ben wastid, alle we perischiden;
13who euer neiyeth to the tabernacle of the Lord, he dieth; whethir we schulen be doon awei alle `til to deeth?
Also read this chapter in: KJV, WEB, ASV, GNV, WBT, DBY, YLT