Three times I was beaten with a rod. ¹  Once I received a stoning. ²  Three times I suffered shipwreck. A night and a day I spent adrift in the open sea.

Then Moses placed the staffs before the Lord in the tent of the testimony. ¹ 

His arms are like rods of gold set with chrysolite. His abdomen ¹  is like polished ivory inlaid with sapphires.

The crowd joined the attack ¹  against them, and the magistrates tore the clothes ²  off Paul and Silas ³  and ordered them to be beaten with rods. ⁴ 

But Jacob took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond, and plane trees. He made white streaks by peeling them, making the white inner wood in the branches visible.

When the stronger females were in heat, ¹  Jacob would set up the branches in the troughs in front of the flock, so they would mate near the branches.

So Moses spoke to the Israelites, and each of their leaders gave him a staff, one for each leader, ¹  according to their tribes ²  – twelve staffs; the staff of Aaron was among their staffs.

When the sheep mated ¹  in front of the branches, they ²  gave birth to young that were streaked or speckled or spotted.

So Moses brought out all the staffs from before the Lord to all the Israelites. They looked at them, ¹  and each man took his staff.

“Speak to the Israelites, and receive from them a staff from each tribe, ¹  one from every tribal leader, ²  twelve staffs; you must write each man’s name on his staff.

Each man ¹  threw down his staff, and the staffs became snakes. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs.

Its bones are tubes of bronze, its limbs like bars of iron.

Then he set up the peeled branches in all the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink. He set up the branches in front of the flocks when they were in heat and came to drink. ¹ 

He made poles of acacia wood, overlaid them with gold,

the ark of the testimony and its poles, and the atonement lid;

You are to overlay the frames with gold and make their rings of gold to provide places for the bars, and you are to overlay the bars with gold.

All the posts around the courtyard are to have silver bands; ¹  their hooks are to be ²  silver, and their bases bronze.

The wheels were constructed like chariot wheels; their crossbars, rims, spokes, and hubs were made of cast metal.

Your bow is ready for action; ¹  you commission your arrows. ²  Selah. You cause flash floods on the earth’s surface. ³ 

You are to make poles of acacia wood, overlay them with gold,