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Numbers 17 · a question people ask

The rod was kept "that they not die". So why does the chapter end with the people crying, "we perish"?

In the text

The LORD gives the reason for keeping the rod: "that you may make an end of their complaining against me, that they not die" (17:10). The people answer, "Behold, we perish! We are undone! We are all undone!" (17:12), and "Everyone who keeps approaching the LORD’s tabernacle, dies! Will we all perish?" (17:13). Their own words give their fear: death for those who come near. In the chapter before, fire had devoured the two hundred fifty men who offered incense (16:35), and the plague had killed fourteen thousand seven hundred (16:49). The chapter ends on their question. The next chapter begins with the LORD speaking to Aaron: "You and your sons and your fathers’ house with you shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary" (18:1). They are to "perform the duty of the sanctuary and the duty of the altar, that there be no more wrath on the children of Israel" (18:5), and "Henceforth the children of Israel shall not come near the Tent of Meeting, lest they bear sin, and die" (18:22).

The verses

“The LORD said to Moses, “Put back the rod of Aaron before the covenant, to be kept for a token against the children of rebellion; that you may make an end of their complaining against me, that they not die.””
Numbers 17:10 · World English Bible
“The children of Israel spoke to Moses, saying, “Behold, we perish! We are undone! We are all undone! Everyone who keeps approaching the LORD’s tabernacle, dies! Will we all perish?””
Numbers 17:12-13 · World English Bible
“Fire came out from the LORD, and devoured the two hundred fifty men who offered the incense.”
Numbers 16:35 · World English Bible
“Now those who died by the plague were fourteen thousand seven hundred, in addition to those who died about the matter of Korah.”
Numbers 16:49 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Numbers 17

Numbers 17: The rod that budded

In Hebrew, the word for Aaron's rod is also the word for a tribe, and his name went on Levi's (17:3). By the next day it had "sprouted, budded, produced blossoms, and bore ripe almonds" (17:8), and it was kept "for a token against the children of rebellion… that they not die" (17:10).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions