to say (used with great latitude) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Numbers 17:1-7
Here we have, I. Orders given for the bringing in of a rod for every tribe (which was peculiarly significant, for the word here used for a rod sometimes signifies a tribe, as particularly Num 34:13), that God by a miracle, wrought on purpose, might make it known on whom he had conferred the honour of the priesthood. 1. It seems then the priesthood was a preferment worth seeking and striving for, even by the princes of the tribes. It is an honour to the greatest of men to be employed in the service of God. Yet perhaps these contended for it rather for the sake of the profit and power that attended the office than for the sake of that in it which was divine and sacred. 2. It seems likewise, af…
And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... After the plague ceased, for the further confirmation of the priesthood in Aaron's family, another method is directed to by the Lord:
saying: as follows.
John Calvin on Numbers 17:1
And the Lord spoke unto Moses. Howsoever stubborn the Israelites might be, yet their hardness of heart being now subdued, and their pride broken down, they ought to have acknowledged the authority of the priesthood, and to have perpetually held it in pious reverence. But it is plain from the confirmation of it, which is now added, that they were not yet thoroughly overcome. For God never appoints anything in vain; the remedy, therefore, was necessary, that He now applied to that disease of obstinacy which He perceived still to maintain its secret hold upon their hearts. Herein we also behold His inestimable goodness, when He not only had regard to the relief of their infirmity, but even stru…
The Lord prescribed another trial to reinforce the lessons taught by the incidents in ch 16 and to introduce the instructions of ch 18.
17:1-5 The shepherd’s staff was a common possession (cp. Ps 23:4) and, like the scepter, was a symbol of authority (cp. Jer 48:17). This trial was especially appropriate because the Hebrew words translated staffs and tribes are homonyms; the Lord’s choice of staff would indicate his choice of tribe.
The Church Fathers
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the sons of Israel, and take from them a rod according to the houses of their families from all their princes, twelve rods; and write the name of each of them upon his own rod. And the name of Aaron write upon the rod of Levi; for there is one rod for the tribe: according to the houses of their families they shall give them to you. And you shall place them in the tabernacle of testimony over against the ark, from which I shall be made known to you there. And it shall be that the man whom I shall choose, his rod shall sprout: and I shall take away from you the murmuring of the sons of Israel, in whatever things they murmur against you. Every prince of a tribe and of a people has a rod; for one cannot rule a people unless he has a rod. Whence also Paul the Apostle, because he was a prince of the people, therefore said: "What will you? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in charity and the spirit of meekness?" All the princes of the tribes, then, must needs have their rods, but there is one alone, as the Scripture relates, the high priest Aaron, whose rod sprouted. But since, as we have often shown, the true high priest is Christ, he alone is the one whose rod of the cross not only sprouted, but also flowered and brought forth all these fruits of the believing peoples. And what is this fruit which it brought forth? "Nuts," it says — a fruit which in its first covering is bitter, in the next is guarded and covered over, and in the third feeds and nourishes the one who takes it. Such, therefore, in the audience-hall of Christ, is the teaching of the law and the prophets: the first face of the letter is bitter enough, which enjoins the circumcision of the flesh, which commands concerning sacrifices and the rest of the things that are designated by the letter that kills. All these things cast away like the bitter husk of the nut. In the second place you will come to the defenses of the shell, in which either moral teaching or the principle of continence is designated. These indeed are necessary for the guarding of those things which are kept within, yet they must at some point be broken and without doubt dissolved. As if, for example, we should say: abstinence from foods and the chastisement of the body, so long as we are in this corruptible and passible body, is without doubt necessary; but when it has been broken and…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Aaron — The eldest son of Amram and Jochebed, a daughter of Levi (Ex. 6:20). Some explain the name as meaning mountaineer, others mountain of strength, illuminator. He was born in Egypt three years before…
Desert, Journey Of Israel Through The · God’s choice of Aaron confirmed — God’s choice of Aaron confirmed
Levites · Of the A — Of the A
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
