Moses

to remind the people of Isra'el that an ordinary person, not descended from Aharon, is not to approach and burn incense before ADONAI, if he wants to avoid the fate of Korach and his group - as ADONAI had said to him through Moshe.

But the very next day, the whole community of the people of Isra'el complained against Moshe and Aharon: "You have killed ADONAI's people!"

However, as the community was assembling against Moshe and Aharon, they looked in the direction of the tent of meeting and saw the cloud cover it and the glory of ADONAI

Moshe and Aharon came to the front of the tent of meeting.

ADONAI said to Moshe,

Moshe said to Aharon, "Take your fire pan, put fire from the altar in it, lay incense on it, and hurry with it to the assembly to make atonement for them, because anger has gone out from ADONAI, and the plague has already begun!"

Aharon took it, as Moshe had said, and ran into the middle of the assembly. There the plague had already begun among the people, but he added the incense and made atonement for the people.

Aharon returned to Moshe at the entrance to the tent of meeting, and the plague was stopped.

ADONAI said to Moshe,

Moshe spoke to the people of Isra'el, and all their leaders gave him staffs, one for each leader, according to their ancestral tribes, twelve staffs. Aharon's staff was among their staffs.

Moshe put the staffs before ADONAI in the tent of the testimony.

The next day Moshe went into the tent of the testimony, and there he saw that Aharon's staff for the house of Levi had budded - it had sprouted not only buds but flowers and ripe almonds as well.

Moshe brought out all the staffs from before ADONAI to all the people of Isra'el, and they looked, and each man took back his staff.

ADONAI said to Moshe, "Return Aharon's staff to its place in front of the testimony. It is to be kept there as a sign to the rebels, so that they will stop grumbling against me and thus not die."

Moshe did this; he did as ADONAI had ordered him.

But the people of Isra'el said to Moshe, "Oh no! We're dead men! Lost! We're all lost!

ADONAI said to Moshe,

ADONAI said to Moshe and Aharon,

Because the community had no water, they assembled themselves against Moshe and Aharon.

The people quarreled with Moshe and said, "We wish we had died when our brothers died before ADONAI.

Moshe and Aharon left the assembly, went to the entrance of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces; and the glory of ADONAI appeared to them.

ADONAI said to Moshe,

Moshe took the staff from the presence of ADONAI, as he had ordered him.

But after Moshe and Aharon had assembled the community in front of the rock, he said to them, "Listen here, you rebels! Are we supposed to bring you water from this rock?"

Then Moshe raised his hand and hit the rock twice with his staff. Water flowed out in abundance, and the community and their livestock drank.