and Aaron; and in the divine plague that ensued, Aaron showed great faith and courage in obediently going out with his fire holder and making atonement for the people while “standing between the dead and the living,” until the scourge was stopped. (Num. 16:46-50) God now directed that twelve rods, each representing one of the twelve tribes, be placed in the tabernacle, and the rod for the tribe of Levi was inscribed with Aaron’s name. (Num. 17:1-4) On the following day Moses entered the tent of the Testimony and found that Aaron’s rod had budded, blossomed with flowers and bore ripe almonds. (Num. 17:8) This established beyond denial Jehovah’s choice of the Levite sons of Aaron for priestly service and His authorization of Aaron as high priest. Thereafter, the right of Aaron’s house to the priesthood was never seriously challenged. The budded rod of Aaron was placed in the ark of the covenant as a “sign to the sons of rebelliousness,” though it appears that after the death of these rebellious ones and the entry of the nation into the Land of Promise the rod was removed, having served its purpose.—Num. 17:10; Heb. 9:4; 2 Chron. 5:10; 1 Ki. 8:9.

MAJOR SHORTCOMINGS

Despite his privileged position, Aaron had his shortcomings. During Moses’ first forty-day stay on Mount Sinai, “the people congregated themselves about Aaron and said to him: ‘Get up, make for us a god who will go ahead of us, because as regards this Moses, the man who led us up out of the land of Egypt, we certainly do not know what has happened to him.”’ (Ex. 32:1) Aaron acceded and cooperated with these rebellious ones in making a golden calf statue. (Vss. 2-6) When later confronted by Moses, he gave a weak excuse. (Vss. 22-24) However, Jehovah did not single him out as the prime wrongdoer but told Moses: “So now let me be, that my anger may blaze against them and I may exterminate them.” (Vs. 10) Moses brought the matter to a showdown by crying: “Who is on Jehovah’s side? To me!” (Vs. 26) All the sons of Levi responded, and this undoubtedly included Aaron. Three thousand idolaters, probably the prime movers of the rebellion, were slain by them. Nevertheless, Moses later reminded the rest of the people that they too bore guilt. (Vs. 30) Aaron, therefore, was not alone in receiving God’s mercy. His subsequent actions indicate that he was not in heart harmony with the idolatrous movement but simply gave in to the pressure of the rebels. (Vs. 35) Jehovah showed that Aaron had received his forgiveness by maintaining as valid Aaron’s appointment to become high priest.—Ex. 40:12, 13.

After having loyally supported his younger brother through many difficult experiences and having recently been installed as high priest by Moses as God’s representative, Aaron foolishly associated himself with his sister Miriam in criticizing Moses for his marriage to a Cushite woman and in challenging Moses’ unique relationship and position with Jehovah God, saying: “Is it just by Moses alone that Jehovah has spoken? Is it not by us also that he has spoken?” (Num. 12:1, 2) Jehovah swiftly took action, brought the three before him in front of the tent of meeting, and strongly castigated Aaron and Miriam for disrespecting God’s appointment. The fact that only Miriam was stricken with leprosy may mark her as the instigator of the action and may indicate that Aaron again had shown weakness by being induced to join her. However, if Aaron had been similarly struck with leprosy, it would have invalidated his appointment as high priest according to God’s law. (Lev. 21:21-23) His right heart attitude manifested itself by his immediate confession and apology for the foolishness of their act and by his agonized plea for Moses’ intercession on leprous Miriam’s behalf.—Num. 12:10-13.

Aaron again shared responsibility for wrong when he, along with Moses, failed to sanctify and honor God before the congregation in the incident involving the providing of water at Meribah in Kadesh. For this action God decreed that neither of them would enjoy the privilege of seeing the nation enter the Land of Promise.—Num. 20:9-13.

On the first day or the month Ab, in the fortieth year of the exodus, the nation of Israel lay encamped on the frontier of Edom before Mount Hor. Within a matter of months they would be crossing over the Jordan; but not the 123-year-old Aaron. At Jehovah’s instruction, and with all the camp watching, he and Moses and Aaron’s son Eleazar went climbing to the top of Mount Hor. There Aaron let his brother remove his priestly garments from him and put them on his son and successor to the high priesthood, Eleazar. Then Aaron died. He was probably buried there by his brother and his son, and for thirty days Israel mourned his death.—Num. 20:24-29.

It is noteworthy that in each of his three deflections, Aaron does not appear as the principal initiator of the wrong action, but, rather, seems to have allowed the pressure of the circumstances or the influence of others to sway him from a course of rectitude. Particularly in his first trespass, he could have applied more fully the principle underlying the command: “You must not follow after the crowd for evil ends.” (Ex. 23:2) Nevertheless his name is thereafter used in the Scriptures in an honorable way, and, God’s Son, during his earthly lifetime, recognized the legitimacy of the Aaronic priesthood.—Pss. 115:10, 12; 118:3; 133:1, 2; 135:19; Matt. 5:17-19; 8:4.

AARONITES

(Aarʹon·ites).

The expression “Aaronites” appears in AV and Mo at 1 Chronicles 12:27; 27:17. The Masoretic text in Hebrew simply uses the name Aaron. LXX (at 1 Chron. 12:27) says “of the family of Aaron.” It is evident that the word “Aaron” is here used in a collective sense, much as is the name “Israel,” and stands for the house of Aaron or his male descendants in David’s time who were of the tribe of Levi and were serving as priests. (1 Chron. 6:48-53) NW reads: “And Jehoiada was the leader [of the sons] of Aaron, and with him were three thousand seven hundred” (1 Chron. 12:27), bracketing the words “of the sons” to denote that they are supplied.

AB

The postexilic name of the fifth lunar month of the Jewish sacred calendar, but the eleventh of the secular calendar. It corresponds to part of July and part of August. The meaning of the name “Ab” is uncertain. In the Bible it is mentioned, not directly by name, but only as the “fifth month.” The name does appear, however, in the Jewish Talmud and their postexilic writings.

Ab was a month of summer heat, a time when the olives ripened on the trees in the lowlands of Palestine.

It was on the first day of Ab that Aaron died on Mount Hor. (Num. 33:38) Second Kings 25:8 says that it was on the seventh day of this month that Nebuzar-adan, the servant of the king of Babylon, “came to Jerusalem.” However, Jeremiah 52:12 tells us that it was on the tenth day of this month that Nebuzar-adan “came into Jerusalem.” The Soncino Books of the Bible (1949) (Volume of Jeremiah, p. 353) comments on this, saying: “The interval of three days may be accounted for as representing the date of Nebuzaradan’s arrival on the scene and the commencement of operations.” It would appear, then, that Nebuzar-adan arrived at Jerusalem on the seventh day, made his survey from his camp outside the city walls, directed the demolition of the city fortifications, the plundering of its treasures, and, finally, on the tenth day of the month, entered the city and its holy temple. According to Josephus (Wars of the Jews, Book VI, chap. IV, pars. 5 and 8), Herod’s temple was burned by the Romans on the tenth day of the fifth month (70 C.E.), and Josephus makes note of the precise correspondency of this date with the burning of the first temple on the same day by the Babylonians.