(5)
The man's rod, whom I shall choose, shall blossom.--Or,
shall sprout forth or
put forth--
i.e., leaves or blossoms. Achilles, when enraged against Agamemnon, is made to swear a solemn oath by his sceptre which, having once left its stock on the mountains, shall never again grow. King Latinus is represented by Virgil as confirming his covenant with 'neas by a similar oath.
Verse 5. -
Whom I shall choose. For the special duty and service of the priesthood (cf. chapter Numbers 16:5).
I will make to cease. הַשִׁכֹּתִי מֵעָֹלַי. I will cause to sink so that they shall not rise again.
17:1-7 It is an instance of the grace of God, that, having wrought divers miracles to punish sin, he would work one more to prevent it. Twelve rods or staves were to be brought in. It is probable that they were the staves which the princes used as ensigns of their authority; old dry staves, that had no sap in them. They were to expect that the rod of the tribe, or prince, whom God chose to the priesthood, should bud and blossom. Moses did not object that the matter was sufficiently settled already; he did not undertake to determine it; but left the case before the Lord.
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.
