Aaron's Rod

And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Speak unto the children of Israel, and take of every one of them a rod according to the house of their fathers, of all their princes according to the house of their fathers twelve rods: write thou every man's name upon his rod.
And thou shalt write Aaron's name upon the rod of Levi: for one rod shall be for the head of the house of their fathers.

-- Numbers 17: 1-3 (KJV)

All is not well in the wilderness, even as the tribes of Israel near the end of their forty-year journey to the promised land. First, a faction among the Levite tribe rebels against Moses and Aaron. When the Lord causes the ground to swallow up these malcontents, a larger group, blaming their leaders, mounts a second rebellion. This time God unleashes a plague, which Aaron halts by burning some incense, but not before 14,700 Israelites die.

The Lord, aware of how short his temper can be, advises Moses to settle the question of authority once and for all, lest the people be tempted to another suicidal uprising. He instructs Moses to gather from each of the twelve tribes a "rod" or staff inscribed with the name of that tribe's "prince" (chieftain) -- in the case of the Levites, Aaron. These rods are to be laid overnight before the tabernacle, and by morning one will have blossomed to signify the Lord's choice of a leading clan and ultimate authority. Naturally, it is "Aaron's rod" that blossoms, budding with almonds.

This story inspired the familiar English name "Aaron's rod" for several plant species, for example the Great Mullein and Goldenrod (but not almond trees). Most literary references, though, hark back to the rod's appearance in Exodus 7, where Aaron casts it before Pharaoh. Upon striking the ground, it turns into a serpent, devouring the serpents Pharaoh's court magicians had likewise produced. James T. Adams, in Our Business Civilization (1929), blames Alexander Hamilton for creating in America "a vast manufacturing nation with its Federal government eating up all the state governments like an Aaron's rod." If he'd thought about it, he'd have realized this is a compliment.

 
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Michael Macrone is Associate Site Producer of GraceCom and the author of nine books on language, literature, and ideas, including the best-selling Brush Up Your Shakespeare!