John Gill Commentary Numbers 17

And the Lord spoke to 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.

Speak to the children of Israel
The principal men among them of the several tribes:

and take of everyone of them ;
not of every individual of the people of Israel, but of their princes, as afterwards explained:

a rod, according to the house of [their] fathers ;
or "father", of whom their house or tribe was called, as Reuben, Simeon this rod was either a common walking staff, as some think, or rather the ensign of their princely office and dignity, peculiar to each tribe; though some think it was now freshly cut off from an almond tree, and that all the rods were of one and the same tree; but supposing they were all of the almond kind, as Josephus ^F4 thinks, yet being dry rods, and of long use, served to make the miracle appear the greater:

of all their princes, according to the house of their fathers, twelve
rods ;
this explains who they were to be taken of, the princes of the several tribes, whose names are given, (Numbers 1:5–15) ; and the number of them twelve, according to the number of the twelve tribes:

write every man's name upon his rod ;
the name of each prince, or head of a tribe, either by cutting it into the rod, or fastening a writing to it, after the manner of those times; as, for instance, the name of Elizur for the tribe of Reuben; by which it was made to appear, that to none of these tribes belonged the priesthood, but to the tribe of Levi, and to none of that tribe but the family of Aaron; whereby it should seem that some of all the tribes made pretensions to it, as being all holy, and especially the chief firstborn of every tribe, as such their princes were.

FOOTNOTES:

• F4: Antiqu. l. 4. c. 4. sect. 2.

And you shall write Aaron's name upon the rod of Levi
Or upon the rod that was for the tribe of Levi; the name of "Aaron" was to be written, not the word "Levi", or a "Levite", as Josephus ^F5; for that would not have decided the controversy about the priesthood, which chiefly lay between the Levites and the family of Aaron, who were of the same tribe:

for one rod [shall be] for the head of the house of their fathers;
one rod for the head or prince of every tribe, every prince representing his own tribe he was the head of, and the rod the prince; and though the tribe of Levi was divided into two families, the family of the priests, and the family of the Levites; yet, as Jarchi observes, they were but one tribe, and so one rod for them, as for the other tribes.

FOOTNOTES:

• F5: Antiqu. l. 4. c. 4. sect. 2.

And thou shalt lay them up in the tabernacle of the
congregation
In the most holy place:

before the testimony ;
that is, the ark in which the testimony or the law was; here they were laid as in the presence of God, who was in a miraculous way to decide the controversy by them, and put an end to it; for upon the ark was the mercy seat, over which were the cherubim, the seat of the divine Majesty, and where none could come at them, and where no fraud could be supposed to be committed:

where I will meet with you ;
not with the people in person, who might not go at any time into the most holy place; nor with Aaron, who only might go into it on the day of atonement; but with Moses, the chief ruler and representative of the whole body of the people, and who might go in there at any time, to consult with God about matters of moment and difficulty, and where the Lord had said he would meet him, (Exodus 25:22); and now would, in a miraculous way, clearly show him, and the people of Israel by him, who was the priest he had chosen of all the tribes.

And it shall come to pass, that the man's rod whom I shall
choose
Or make it manifest that he had chosen him, and so confirm the choice he had made of him and his family, for the priesthood to be and continue in:

shall blossom ;
bud and blossom, and yield fruit, as it afterwards did, which is here declared beforehand, that the miracle might appear the greater, exactly answering to a prediction delivered out before of it:

and I will make to cease from me the murmurings of the children of
Israel, whereby they murmur against you ;
against Moses for setting up his brother as an high priest, and establishing the priesthood in his family; and against Aaron for accepting of it, and officiating in it; but by this method now taken, God would for ever silence their murmurings, so that they should never be able, with any face, to object any more to the authority of the Aaronic priesthood, which should appear by the predicted miracle beyond all dispute and contradiction.