Numbers 17:8

And it came to pass, that on the morrow Moses went into the tabernacle of witness,.... Where none but he could go at any time; this was the day after the rods had been placed there: and, behold, the

And it came to pass, that on the morrow Moses went into the tabernacle of witness; and, behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds.

Into the tabernacle of witness; into the most holy place, which he might safely do under the protection of God’ s command, though otherwise none but the high priest might enter there, and that once in a year. Yielded almonds; this being, as Josephus with great probability affirms, a staff of an almond tree, as the rest also were.

Numbers 17:8 And it came to pass, that on the morrow Moses went into the tabernacle of witness; and, behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds.Ver. 8. And bloomed blossoms.] (1.) For a testimony of Aaron’ s calling from God, to the honour of the priesthood; (2) For a type of Christ, the branch growing out of the stem of Jesse; (3) For a figure of the ministry of the gospel, which although to profane persons it seem a dry, barren, and vanishing voice, yet it bloometh and flourisheth in the hearts of God’ s elect; - and surely fruitfulness is the best argument of our election, and that we are called of God, for not only all the plants of his setting, but the very boughs cut off from the body of them will flourish; (4.) For a lively representation of a glorious resurrection. At the French massacre, Aug. 25, 1572, in the churchyard of St Innocent at Paris, a certain bush suddenly bloomed about the middle time of that bloody day, at an unusual time of the year. The Papists boasted, that God by that miracle showed his good liking of that massacre they had made. But the Protestants took it for a confirmation of their religion, and a testimony of their innocency. Epitome Hist. Gallicae, p. 149.

(8) Behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded . . . —As the budding of Aaron’s rod was the divinely appointed proof of the establishment of the priesthood in his person and in his posterity, so our Lord proved Himself to be the true High Priest over the House of God by coming forth as “a rod [or shoot] out of the stem of Jesse” (Isaiah 11:1), and as “a root out of a dry ground” (Isaiah 53:2). The miraculous shooting forth of Aaron’s dry rod may be regarded as a type of the mode of the Spirit’s operation in the Church, and more especially in the work of the ministry; “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6). And yielded almonds.—Better, and brought almonds to maturity, or yielded ripe almonds. The word shaked (almond-tree) is a cognate form of the verb shakad—to keep watch. The name is supposed to have been given to the almond-tree because it blossoms at a time when vegetation is lying in the sleep of winter. (See Jeremiah 1:11-12; also, The Land and the Book, p. 319.)

Verse 8. The rod of Aaron - was budded, c.] That is, on the same rod or staff were found buds, blossoms, and ripe fruit. This fact was so unquestionably miraculous, as to decide the business for ever and probably this was intended to show that in the priesthood, represented by that of Aaron, the beginning, middle, and end of every good work must be found. The buds of good desires, the blossoms of holy resolutions and promising professions, and the ripe fruit of faith, love, and obedience, all spring from the priesthood of the Lord Jesus. It has been thought by some that Aaron's staff (and perhaps the staves of all the tribes) was made out of the amygdala communis, or common almond tree. In a favourable soil and climate it grows to twenty feet in height; is one of the most noble, flourishing trees in nature: its flowers are of a delicate red, and it puts them forth early in March, having begun to bud in January. It has its name שקד shaked from shakad, to awake, because it buds and flowers sooner than most other trees. And it is very likely that the staves of office, borne by the chiefs of all the tribes, were made of this tree, merely to signify that watchfulness and assiduous care which the chiefs should take of the persons committed, in the course of the Divine providence, to their keeping. Every thing in this miracle is so far beyond the power of nature, that no doubt could remain on the minds of the people, or the envious chiefs, of the Divine appointment of Aaron, and of the especial interference of God in this case. To see a piece of wood long cut off from the parent stock, without bark or moisture remaining, laid up in a dry place for a single night, with others in the same circumstances-to see such a piece of wood resume and evince the perfection of vegetative life, budding, blossoming, and bringing forth ripe fruit at the same time, must be such a demonstration of the peculiar interference of God, as to silence every doubt and satisfy every scruple. It is worthy of remark that a sceptre, or staff of office, resuming its vegetative life, was considered an absolute impossibility among the ancients; and as they were accustomed to swear by their sceptres, this circumstance was added to establish and confirm the oath. A remarkable instance of this we have in HOMER, Iliad, lib. i., ver. 233, c., where Achilles, in his rage against Agamemnon, thus speaks: - Αλλ' εκτοιερεω, καιεπιμεγανὁρκονομουμαι· Ναιματοδεσκηπτρον, τομενουποτεφυλλακαιοζους Φυσει, επειδηπρωτατομηνενορεσσιλελοιπεν, Ουδ' αναθηλησει·περιγαρῥαἑχαλκοςελεψε Φυλλατεκαιφλοιον· ὁδετοιμεγαςεσσεταιὁρκος. But hearken: I shall swear a solemn oath: By this same sceptre which shall never bud, Nor boughs bring forth, as once which, having left Its parent on the mountain top, what time The woodman's axe lopp'd off its foliage green, And stripp'd its bark, shall never grow again. COWPER.

8. Stories of the vegetation of dried sticks are not uncommon in legend. Gray (Numb. p. 217) mentions that of ‘Joseph of Arimathea’s stick, which placed in the ground of Weary-all hill, became the miraculous thorn of Glastonbury.’ And he cites other instances.

Yielded almonds - “Ripened almonds,” i. e. “brought forth ripe almonds.” The name almond in Hebrew denotes the “waking-tree,” the “waking-fruit;” and is applied to this tree, because it blossoms early in the season.

8. Budded… bloomed… almonds — The miracle consisted in the sudden vegetation of a dry rod in different stages of growth — buds just appearing, full blossoms, and mature fruit, “ripe almonds,” R.V.