Aaron's rod (Hastings' Dictionary)

Aaron's rod la the centre of interest in an important incident of the desert wanderings — time and place are both uncertain — as recorded by the priestly narrator (P), Nu 17''" (Heb. text n'"""'). The passage sliould be studied in connexion with the more complex narrative in ch. 16, to the events of which the incident in ?uestion forms the sequel (see Driver, LOT 59{.)

n obedience to a divine command, 12 rods, repre- senting the 12 princes of the tribes, each with the name of a prince engraved upon it, together witli a 13th rod (cf. Vulg. fueruntque virga; duodecira absque virga Aaron) to represent the tribe of Levi, but bearing the name of Aaron, were deposited by Moses before ' the testimony,' i.e. before the ark.

The following morning it was found that ' the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and put forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, ant bare ripe almonds' (17 RV), by which it was miracu- lously proved that J" had Himself selected the tribe of Levi to be the exclusive possessors of the priestly prerogatives.

The standpoint of the narrator is thus different from that of a later stratum in the foregoing section, which represents a party of Levites in revolt against the exclusive priesthood of the sons of Aaron. ' Aaron's rod that Dudded ' was ordered to be put back to its former place ' before the [ark of the] testimony ' (17'") as a token to future generations of the divine choice.

A later Jewish tradition, at variance with this command, and with the express statement of 1 K 8", is found in He 9*, and in later Jewisli writers, that the rod, like the pot of manna, had a place with the tables of stone within the ark. A. R. S. Kennedy.