The Holy Bible

Numbers 17 recounts how the Lord told Moses to take a rod from each of the twelve tribal leaders, with Aaron's name on the rod of Levi, and lay them in the tabernacle before the testimony as a sign against the rebels. The next day Aaron's rod had budded, blossomed, and yielded ripe almonds, proving the Lord's choice of Aaron's priesthood, and that rod was kept before the testimony as a lasting sign. The terrified Israelites then cried out that anyone who came near the tabernacle of the Lord would die, fearing they were all doomed.