Numbers 17:10 - Exposition

Before the testimony. By comparison with Numbers 17:7 this should mean before the ark in which the "testimony" lay. In Hebrews 9:4 , however, the rod is said to have been in the ark, although before Solo-men's time it had disappeared ( 1 Kings 8:9 ). We may suppose that after it had been inspected by the princes it was deposited for safer preservation and easier conveyance inside the sacred chest. To be kept for a token against the rebels. Rather, "against the rebellious," literally, "children of rebellion" (cf. Ephesians 2:2 , Ephesians 2:3 ). It could only serve as a token as long as it retained the evidences of having sprouted and fruited, either miraculously in a fresh state, or naturally in a withered state. As a fact, however, it does not appear that the lesson ever needed to be learnt again, and therefore we may suppose that the rod was left first to shrivel with age, and then to be lost through some accident.