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Numbers 17:17-18
New American Bible (Revised Edition)

17 Speak to the Israelites and get from them a staff[a] for each ancestral house, twelve staffs in all, from all the leaders of their ancestral houses. Write each man’s name on his staff; 18 and write Aaron’s name on Levi’s staff.[b] For each head of an ancestral house shall have a staff.

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Footnotes

  1. 17:17 The staff was not merely an article of practical use, but also a symbol of authority; cf. Gn 49:10; Nm 24:17; Jer 48:17. Therefore, the staff of a leader of a tribe was considered the emblem of the tribe; in fact, certain Hebrew words such as matteh, the word for “staff” here, also mean “tribe.” Perhaps for this reason, to avoid confusion, the author here uses the term bet’ab, “ancestral house,” for “tribe” instead of one of the ordinary words for “tribe.”
  2. 17:18 Levi’s staff: it is not clear whether this is considered as one of the twelve mentioned in the preceding verse, or as a thirteenth staff. Sometimes Levi is reckoned as one of the twelve tribes (e.g., Dt 27:12–13), but more often the number twelve is arrived at by counting the two sub-tribes of Joseph, i.e., Ephraim and Manasseh, as distinct tribes. In this passage also it seems probable that the tribe of Levi is considered apart from the other twelve tribes.
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New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)

Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.