Numbers 16
1 Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Pallu, the son of Reuben, made themselves ready,
Korah, son of Izhar, son of Kohath, son of Levi tried to take over leadership, along with Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, and On, son of Peleth, who were from the tribe of Reuben.
2 And came before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty chiefs of the people, men of good name who had a place in the meeting of the people.
They rebelled against Moses, and were joined by 250 well-respected Israelite leaders and members of the assembly.
3 They came together against Moses and against Aaron, and said to them, You take overmuch on yourselves, seeing that all the people are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them; why then have you put yourselves in authority over the people of the Lord?
They joined together in opposition to Moses and Aaron, telling them, “You've taken too much power for yourselves! Every one of the Israelites is holy, and the Lord is among them. So why do you set yourselves above the Lord's assembly?”
4 And Moses, hearing this, went down on his face;
When Moses heard what they were saying, he fell facedown on the ground.
5 And he said to Korah and his band, In the morning the Lord will make clear who are his, and who is holy, and who may come near him: the man of his selection will be caused to come near him.
Then he told Korah and all those with him, “In the morning the Lord is going to make it clear who is his and who is holy, and allow that person to approach him. He will only allow whoever he chooses to approach him.
6 So do this: let Korah and all his band take vessels for burning perfumes;
This is what you, Korah, and everyone with you are going to do. Take some incense burners,
7 And put spices on the fire in them before the Lord tomorrow; then the man marked out by the Lord will be holy: you take overmuch on yourselves, you sons of Levi.
and tomorrow put incense in them and set it on fire in the presence of the Lord. Then the man the Lord chooses is the one who is holy. It is you Levites who are taking too much power for yourselves!”
8 And Moses said to Korah, Give ear now, you sons of Levi:
Moses also told Korah, “Listen, you Levites!
9 Does it seem only a small thing to you that the God of Israel has made you separate from the rest of Israel, letting you come near himself to do the work of the House of the Lord, and to take your place before the people to do what has to be done for them;
Do you think it's something insignificant that the God of Israel chose you from all the other Israelites and allowed you to approach him and carry out the work in the Lord's Tabernacle, to stand before the Israelites and serve them?
10 Letting you, and all your brothers the sons of Levi, come near to him? and would you now be priests?
He has allowed you the privilege of approaching him, Korah, you and all the other Levites, but now you want to have the priesthood as well!
11 So you and all your band have come together against the Lord; and Aaron, who is he, that you are crying out against him?
So in reality you and those who have joined you are fighting against the Lord—because who is Aaron that you should complain about him?”
12 Then Moses sent for Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab: and they said, We will not come up:
Moses summoned Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, but they replied, “We're not going to appear before you!
13 Is it not enough that you have taken us from a land flowing with milk and honey, to put us to death in the waste land, but now you are desiring to make yourself a chief over us?
Haven't you done enough by taking us away from a land flowing with milk and honey in order to kill us out here in the desert? Do you have to make yourself a dictator as well, someone to rule us?
14 And more than this, you have not taken us into a land flowing with milk and honey, or given us a heritage of fields and vine-gardens: will you put out the eyes of these men? We will not come up.
On top of that you haven't taken us to a land flowing with milk and honey or given us fields and vineyards to own. Do you really think you can fool everyone? No, we will not attend!”
15 Then Moses was very angry, and said to the Lord, Give no attention to their offering: not one of their asses have I taken, or done wrong to any of them.
Moses got really angry and said to the Lord, “Don't accept their offerings. I have never taken even a donkey from them or treated any of them badly.”
16 And Moses said to Korah, You and all your band are to come before the Lord tomorrow, you and they and Aaron:
Moses told Korah, “You and all those who have joined you must appear before the Lord tomorrow—all of you and Aaron too.
17 And let every man take a vessel for burning perfumes, and put sweet spices in them; let every man take his vessel before the Lord, two hundred and fifty vessels; you and Aaron and everyone with his vessel.
Each one will take his incense burner, put incense in it, and offer it before the Lord. All 250 of you will use your incense burners and Aaron will as well.”
18 So every man took his vessel and they put fire in them, with spices, and came to the door of the Tent of meeting with Moses and Aaron.
So each one took his incense burner, put incense in it, set it on fire, and stood together with Moses and Aaron at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
19 And Korah made all the people come together against them to the door of the Tent of meeting: and the glory of the Lord was seen by all the people.
When Korah had gathered all his rebellious group at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, the Lord's glory appeared before the whole congregation.
20 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,
The Lord told Moses and Aaron,
21 Come out from among this people, so that I may send sudden destruction on them.
“Step away from these Israelites and I will destroy them right away.”
22 Then falling down on their faces they said, O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, because of one man's sin will your wrath be moved against all the people?
But Moses and Aaron fell facedown on the ground said, “God—God of everything that lives—when it's just one man who sins, do you have to be angry with the everybody?”
23 And the Lord said to Moses,
Then the Lord told Moses,
24 Say to the people, Come away from the tent of Korah Dathan, and Abiram.
“Tell the people to move away from the homes of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.”
25 So Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the responsible men of Israel went with him.
So Moses went over to Dathan and Abiram, and the Israelite elders of Israel followed him.
26 And he said to the people, Come away now from the tents of these evil men, without touching anything of theirs, or you may be taken in the punishment of their sins.
He ordered the people, “Move away from the tents of these wicked men and don't touch anything that belongs to them, otherwise you will be destroyed along with them in all their sins.”
27 So on every side they went away from the tent of Korah Dathan, and Abiram: and Dathan and Abiram came out to the door of their tents, with their wives and their sons and their little ones.
The people moved away from the homes of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the entrances to their tents along with their wives, children and little ones.
28 And Moses said, Now you will see that the Lord has sent me to do all these works, and I have not done them of myself.
Moses said, “This is how you will know that the Lord did send me to carry out everything I've done, for it wasn't anything I thought up.
29 If these men have the common death of men, or if the natural fate of all men overtakes them, then the Lord has not sent me.
If these men die a natural death, experiencing the destiny of every human being, then the Lord didn't sent me.
30 But if the Lord does something new, opening the earth to take them in, with everything which is theirs, and they go down living into the underworld, then it will be clear to you that the Lord has not been honoured by these men. (Sheol h7585)
But if the Lord does something totally different, and the earth opens up and swallows them down along with everything that belongs to them so that they go down alive into Sheol, then you will know that these men have acted with contempt to the Lord.” (Sheol h7585)
31 And while these words were on his lips, the earth under them was parted in two;
Immediately Moses finished saying all this the ground under the rebels split apart,
32 And the earth, opening her mouth, took them in, with their families, and all the men who were joined to Korah, and their goods.
and the earth opened up and swallowed them and their households down, as well as everyone who was there with Korah and everything that belonged to them.
33 So they and all theirs went down living into the underworld, and the earth was shut over them, and they were cut off from among the meeting of the people. (Sheol h7585)
They went down alive into Sheol with all that they had. The earth closed over them, and they were no more. (Sheol h7585)
34 And all Israel round about them went in flight at their cry, For fear, said they, that we go down into the heart of the earth.
When they heard their cries, all the Israelites nearby ran away, shouting, “Watch out! The earth could swallow us too!”
35 Then fire came out from the Lord, burning up the two hundred and fifty men who were offering the perfume.
Fire burst out from the Lord and burned up the 250 men who were offering incense.
36 And the Lord said to Moses,
Then the Lord said to Moses,
37 Say to Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, that he is to take out of the flames the vessels with the perfumes in them, turning the fire out of them, for they are holy;
“Tell Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, to collect the holy incense burners from among those who have been burned up, and scatter the coals used for the incense well away from the camp.
38 And let the vessels of those men, who with their lives have made payment for their sin, be hammered out into plates as a cover for the altar; for they have been offered before the Lord and are holy; so that they may be a sign to the children of Israel.
Have the incense burners of those who sinned at the expense of their own lives hammered into metal sheets as a covering for the altar, because they were offered before the Lord, and so have become holy. They will be a reminder to Israelites of what happened.”
39 So Eleazar the priest took the brass vessels which had been offered by those who were burned up, and they were hammered out to make a cover for the altar:
So Eleazar the priest collected the bronze incense burners used by those who had been burned up, and had them hammered out as a covering for the altar,
40 To be a sign, kept in memory for ever by the children of Israel, that no man who is not of the seed of Aaron has the right of burning spices before the Lord, so that he may not be like Korah and his band: as the Lord said to him by the mouth of Moses.
following the instructions given to him from the Lord through Moses. This was to remind the Israelites that no one who is not a descendant of Aaron should come and offer incense before the Lord, otherwise they could end up like Korah and those with him.
41 But on the day after, all the children of Israel made an outcry against Moses and against Aaron, saying, You have put to death the Lord's people.
The next day all the Israelites complained to Moses and Aaron, saying, “You have killed the Lord's people!”
42 Now when the people had come together against Moses and Aaron, looking in the direction of the Tent of meeting, they saw the cloud covering it, and the glory of the Lord came before their eyes.
But as the people gathered to confront them, Moses and Aaron went over to the Tent of Meeting, and suddenly the cloud covered it and the Lord's glory appeared.
43 Then Moses and Aaron came to the front of the Tent of meeting.
Moses and Aaron went and stood at the front of the Tent of Meeting,
44 And the Lord said to Moses,
and the Lord said to Moses,
45 Come out from among this people, so that I may send sudden destruction on them. And they went down on their faces.
“Get away from these people and I will finish them off immediately.” Moses and Aaron fell facedown on the ground.
46 And Moses said to Aaron, Take your vessel and put in it fire from the altar, and sweet spices, and take it quickly into the meeting of the people, and make them free from sin: for wrath has gone out from the Lord, and the disease is starting.
Moses told Aaron, “Put some coals from the altar and some incense in your incense burner. Then run to the people and make them right before the Lord, for the Lord is angry with them and a plague has started.”
47 And at the words of Moses, Aaron took his vessel, and went running among the people; and even then the disease had made a start among them; and he put spices in his vessel to take away the sin of the people.
Aaron took the incense burner just as Moses had told him and ran into the middle of the assembly. He saw that the plague had started to affect the people so he offered the incense and made the people right with the Lord.
48 And he took his place between the dead and the living: and the disease was stopped.
He stood between those who had died and those who were still alive, and the plague was stopped.
49 Now fourteen thousand, seven hundred deaths were caused by that disease, in addition to those who came to their end because of what Korah had done.
However, 14,700 died from the plague in addition to those who'd died because of Korah.
50 Then Aaron went back to Moses to the door of the Tent of meeting: and the disease came to a stop.
Then Aaron went back to Moses at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting because the plague had been stopped.
