Aaron's Rod Blossoms

Yet this revolt, far from ending with this destruction, grew much stronger and harder to bear. The reason it grew worse was of a kind that made it likely the trouble would never end but would last a long time. For the people, already believing that nothing happens without the providence of God, insisted that these things had not happened without God's favor to Moses. So they blamed him for God's being so angry. This had happened, they said, not so much because of the wickedness of those who were punished as because Moses had procured the punishment; these men had been destroyed through no sin of their own, only because they were zealous for the worship of God; and the man who had caused this loss to the people, by destroying so many men and the most excellent of them all, had not only escaped punishment himself but had now given the priesthood to his brother so firmly that nobody could dispute it with him any longer. For no one else, of course, could now put in for it, having seen those who first did so perish miserably. On top of this, the relatives of those who were destroyed pleaded hard with the people to curb Moses' arrogance, since that would be safest for them.

Moses had been hearing for some time that the people were in an uproar, and he was afraid they would attempt some new upheaval, with some great and grievous disaster as the result. He called the people to an assembly, but he made no defense against what he had been hearing, so as not to provoke them. He only asked the heads of the tribes to bring their rods with the names of their tribes written on them, and proposed that the man in whose rod God gave a sign should receive the priesthood. This was agreed. So the rest brought their rods, and so did Aaron, who had written “the tribe of Levi” on his. Moses laid these rods up in the tabernacle of God. The next day he brought the rods out. They were known from one another by the men who had brought them, since they had marked them clearly, and so had the people. The rest they saw still in the same state in which Moses had received them; but on Aaron's rod they saw buds and branches grown out, with ripe fruit on them — almonds, for the rod had been cut from that tree. The people were so amazed at this strange sight that, though some had hated Moses and Aaron before, they laid that hatred aside and began to admire God's judgment concerning them. From then on they applauded what God had decreed and agreed that Aaron rightly held the high priesthood. So God ordained him priest three separate times, and he kept that honor without further disturbance. And in this way the Hebrews' revolt, which had been a great one and had lasted a long time, was at last settled. [a]

The tribe of Levi had been made free of war and military campaigns and set apart for the worship of God. So that they would not lack the necessities of life and go looking for them, and so neglect the temple, Moses commanded the Hebrews, by the will of God, that when they took possession of the land of Canaan they should assign forty-eight good and fine cities to the Levites, and let them have the use of the land around them, reaching three thousand feet out from the city walls. Besides this, he directed that the people should pay the tithe of their yearly produce both to the Levites and to the priests. This is what that tribe receives from the people; but I think it necessary to set down what everyone pays to the priests in particular. [c]

So he commanded the Levites to give up to the priests thirteen of their forty-eight cities, and to set apart for them a tenth of the tithes they receive every year from the people. It was only right, too, to offer God the firstfruits of the whole produce of the ground. They were to give the firstborn of the four-footed animals appointed for sacrifice, if male, to the priests to be slaughtered, so that they and their whole families might eat them in the holy city. But the owners of firstborn animals that the laws of our country do not allow to be eaten were to bring about three-fifths of an ounce of silver in their place; and for the firstborn of a man, about two ounces. The priests were also to have the firstfruits of the sheep-shearing; and when anyone baked grain and made loaves of it, he was to give them some of what he had baked. Moreover, when people have taken a sacred vow — I mean those called Nazirites, who let their hair grow long and drink no wine — and they consecrate their hair and offer it as a sacrifice, they are to allot that hair to the priests. Those who dedicate themselves to God as a corban — which means what the Greeks call a gift — and want to be released from that service, are to lay down money for the priests: about twelve ounces of silver for a woman and about a pound and a quarter for a man; but if anyone is too poor to pay the set sum, the priests may fix the sum as they think fit. And if anyone slaughters animals at home for a private feast, not a religious one, he must bring the stomach, the jaw and the right shoulder of the animal to the priests. With these Moses arranged for the priests to be plentifully supported, besides what they had from the offerings for sins that the people gave them, as I have set down in the previous book. He also ordered that their servants, their daughters and their wives should share in everything allotted to the priests, as well as the priests themselves — except what came to them from the sacrifices offered for sins; for of those none but the males of the priests' families might eat, and that in the temple, on the same day they were offered. [d]

When Moses had made these ordinances, after the revolt was over, he broke camp with the whole army and came to the borders of Idumea. He sent ambassadors to the king of the Idumeans asking him for passage through his country, and offering to give him whatever guarantees he wanted, to secure him against any harm. He also asked him to let the army buy provisions, and, if he insisted on it, he would pay a price even for the water they drank. But the king was not pleased with Moses' embassy. He refused the army passage and brought his people out armed to meet Moses and stop them, in case they tried to force their way through. Moses then consulted God through the oracle, and God did not want him to begin the war; so he withdrew his forces and went the long way around through the wilderness. [g]

It was then that Miriam, Moses' sister, came to her end, having completed her fortieth year since she left Egypt, on the first day of the lunar month Xanthicus. They gave her a public funeral at great expense, and she was buried on a mountain they call Zin. When they had mourned her thirty days, Moses purified the people in this way. He brought a heifer that had never been put to the plow or to farm work, sound in every part and entirely red, a little way from the camp into a perfectly clean place. The high priest slaughtered the heifer and sprinkled her blood with his finger seven times before the tabernacle of God. Then the whole heifer was burned just as she was, with her hide and entrails, and they threw cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet wool into the middle of the fire. Then a clean man gathered up all her ashes and laid them in a perfectly clean place. So whenever anyone was defiled by a dead body, they put a little of these ashes into spring water, dipped hyssop in it, and sprinkled them with it, both on the third day and on the seventh, and after that they were clean. He ordered them to do this also when the tribes came into their own land. [i]

When this purification, which their leader made at the end of the mourning for his sister as just described, was over, he moved the army on and marched through the wilderness and through Arabia. He came to a place the Arabs regard as their capital, formerly called Arce and now named Petra. At this place, which is surrounded by high mountains, Aaron went up one of them in sight of the whole army, Moses having told him beforehand that he was to die; for the ground sloped down toward them. He took off his high priest's vestments and handed them to Eleazar his son, to whom the high priesthood now belonged because he was the elder brother; and he died while the people watched. He died in the same year in which he lost his sister, having lived 123 years in all. He died on the first day of the lunar month the Athenians call Hecatombaeon, the Macedonians Lous, and the Hebrews Ab. [l]