אתם המיתם את עם ה'. לדעת, לפי שאמרתם להביא קטרת והוא סם המות שבו נשרפו נדב ואביהוא שהיו כהנים ולכך ויאמר משה אל אהרן קח את המחתה וגו' ושים קטרת ויראו שאין הקטרת ממית אלא החטא ממית אמרו אין כאן הוכחה שאין אלו ראויין לכהונה המטות יוכיחו ולכך צוה הקב"ה דבר אל בני ישראל וקח מאתם מטה מאת כל נשיאיהם וכתיב בתריה והשכותי מעלי את תלונות בני ישראל: 'אתם המיתם את עם ה, “you (Moses and Aaron) have killed the Lord’s people!” The people accused Moses and Aaron as having done this knowingly, as they knew telling them to offer incense outside the sacred soil of the Tabernacle would result in their death. After all, Nadav and Avihu who had been anointed as priests, as opposed to the 250 men Moses told to offer incense had been killed on the spot for doing so in the wrong place and at the wrong time. Moses told Aaron to take the fire-pans that had served these 250 men as the base for their incense and to demonstrate that it was not the incense nor the pans in which it had been offered that killed people but that it was their sins which killed them. When the people heard this, they replied that this was no proof, as they may have died seeing that they were not worthy of becoming priests. G–d therefore ordered Moses to take staffs from each of the leaders of the tribes of Israel and to place them side by side inside the Tent of testimony, (Tabernacle) each staff belonging to the respective leader of their tribe, (verse 17) [people whom they considered most worthy, Ed.]) In this way, from the results of this test, G–d hoped to silence the people’s complaints about nepotism once and for all. (verse 25)