< 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,
One day Korah, who was the son of Izhar and a descendant of Levi’s son Kohath, conspired with Dathan and Abiram, who were the sons of Eliab, and On, who was the son of Peleth. Those three men 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.
Korah and those other three men incited 250 other people who were leaders among the Israeli people to join them in rebelling against Moses/me.
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 came together to criticize Aaron and Moses/me. They said to them/us, “You two are using more [authority] than you should! Yahweh has set apart all of us Israeli people, and he is with/helping all of us. So why do you act as though you are more important than the rest of us people who belong to Yahweh [RHQ]?”
4 And Moses, hearing this, went down on his face;
When Moses/I heard what they were saying, he/I prostrated himself/myself 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/I said to Korah and those [Israeli leaders] who were with Korah, “Tomorrow morning Yahweh will show us whom he has chosen to be his [priest], and who is holy and allowed to come near to him. Yahweh will permit [only] those whom he chooses to come into his presence.
6 So do this: let Korah and all his band take vessels for burning perfumes;
So Korah, tomorrow you and those who are with you must prepare your pans to burn incense.
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.
Then you must light a fire in them and burn the incense in the presence of Yahweh. Then we will see which one of us Yahweh has chosen to be his holy servant. It is you men who are descendants of Levi who are trying to use more [authority] than you should!”
8 And Moses said to Korah, Give ear now, you sons of Levi:
Then Moses/I spoke again to Korah. He/I said, “You men who are descendants of Levi, listen to me!
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;
The God of us Israelis has chosen all of you to be close to him in order that you can work for him at his Sacred Tent and serve the people. (Is that unimportant/Does that mean nothing) to you [RHQ]?
10 Letting you, and all your brothers the sons of Levi, come near to him? and would you now be priests?
Yahweh has brought you, [Korah], and your fellow descendants of Levi, near to himself. Now are you demanding to become priests also?
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?
It is really Yahweh against whom you and your fellow descendants of Levi are rebelling. Aaron is not the one about whom you are really complaining [RHQ].”
12 Then Moses sent for Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab: and they said, We will not come up:
Then Moses/I summoned Dathan and Abiram, but [they refused to come]. They [sent a message] saying, “We will not come to 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?
You brought us out of Egypt, which was a very fertile [IDM] land, in order to cause us to die here in this desert. That was bad. But now you are also trying to boss us [RHQ], and that is worse.
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.
You have not given us a new land to live in, a land that has good fields and vineyards. You are only trying to [RHQ] trick these people. So we will not come to you.”
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.
Then Moses/I became very angry. He/I said to Yahweh, “Do not accept the grain offerings that they have brought. I have not taken anything from them, not even one donkey, and I have never done anything wrong to them, [so they have no reason to complain about me].”
16 And Moses said to Korah, You and all your band are to come before the Lord tomorrow, you and they and Aaron:
Then Moses/I said to Korah, “You and all those who are with you must come here tomorrow and stand in front of Yahweh. Aaron will also be here.
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.
You and all the 250 men who are with you must each take a pan in which to burn incense, and put incense in it, to [burn it to be] an offering to Yahweh. Aaron will do the same thing.”
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 [the next day] each of those men got a pan to burn incense. They put in it incense and hot coals to light it, and then they all stood at the entrance of the Sacred Tent with Aaron and Moses/me.
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.
Then Korah summoned all the people who supported him and who were against Moses/me, and they also gathered at the entrance of the tent. Then the glory of Yahweh appeared to all of them/us,
20 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,
and Yahweh said to Aaron and Moses/me,
21 Come out from among this people, so that I may send sudden destruction on them.
“Get away from all these people, in order that I can get rid of them immediately!”
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 Aaron and Moses/I prostrated themselves/ourselves on the ground. We pleaded with Yahweh, saying, “God, you are the one who caused all these people to live [MTY]. Only one of these men has sinned; so, (is it right for you to be angry with all the people?/it is not right for you to be angry with all the people!) [RHQ]”
23 And the Lord said to Moses,
Yahweh said to Moses/me,
24 Say to the people, Come away from the tent of Korah Dathan, and Abiram.
“[Okay], but tell all the people to get away from the tents 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/I stood up and went to the tents of Dathan and Abiram. The Israeli leaders followed him/me.
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/I told the people, “Get away from the tents of these wicked men, and do not touch anything that belongs to them! If you touch anything, you will die because of 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.
So all the people moved away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Dathan and Abiram came out of their tents with their wives and children and babies, and stood at the entrances of their tents.
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.
Then Moses/I said, “I was not the one who decided to do all these things that I have done. It was Yahweh who [chose me and] sent me to do them. And now he will prove that to you.
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 in a normal way, then it will be clear that Yahweh did not choose 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 Yahweh does something that has never happened before, if he causes the ground [that is under their feet] to open up and swallow these men [and their families] and all their possessions, and they fall into the opening and are buried while they are still alive, then you will know that these men have insulted Yahweh.” (Sheol h7585)
31 And while these words were on his lips, the earth under them was parted in two;
As soon as Moses/I said this, the ground split open beneath those men.
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.
It swallowed them and their families and all those who were standing there with Korah and all of their possessions.
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 fell into the opening in the ground while they were still alive, and all their possessions fell into the opening also. They disappeared, and the ground closed back up again. (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.
They screamed as they fell, and all the people who were standing nearby heard them scream. The people [were terrified and] cried out as they ran away, saying, “[We do not want] the ground to swallow us also!”
35 Then fire came out from the Lord, burning up the two hundred and fifty men who were offering the perfume.
And then a fire from Yahweh came down [from the sky] and burned up the 250 men who were burning the incense!
36 And the Lord said to Moses,
Then Yahweh said to Moses/me,
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 Aaron’s son Eleazar to take the pans that had incense in them away from the fire and to scatter the burning coals. The pans that those men [were carrying] are (holy/dedicated to me) [because they burned incense to me in them].
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.
Those men have now died because of their sin; so [Eleazar must] take their pans and hammer the metal to make it become very thin. He must make a covering for the altar with that metal. Those pans were used to offer incense to me, so they are (holy/dedicated to me). [What happened to] those pans will now warn the Israeli people.”
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 250 pans for burning incense that had been used by the men who died in the fire. He hammered the pans very thin to make a covering for the altar, as Yahweh told Moses/me should be done.
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.
That warned the Israeli people that only those who were descendants of Aaron were permitted to burn incense for an offering to Yahweh. If anyone else did that, the same thing that happened to Korah and those who were with him would happen to them.
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.
But the following morning, all the Israeli people started to complain against Aaron and Moses/me, saying “You have killed many people who belonged to Yahweh!”
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.
When all the people gathered together to protest about what Aaron and Moses/I had done, they looked at the Sacred Tent and saw that the sacred cloud had covered it, and the glory of Yahweh had appeared.
43 Then Moses and Aaron came to the front of the Tent of meeting.
Aaron and Moses/I went and stood in front of the Sacred Tent.
44 And the Lord said to Moses,
Then Yahweh said to Moses/me,
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, in order that I can get rid of them immediately [without injuring you two]!” But Aaron and Moses/I prostrated themselves/ourselves on the ground [and prayed].
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/I said to Aaron, “Quickly take another pan and put in it some burning/hot coals from the altar. Put incense in the pan, and carry it out among the people to atone for the sins of the people. Yahweh is very angry with them, and [I know that] a (severe plague/bad sickness) has already started among them.”
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.
So Aaron did what Moses/I told him. He took the burning incense out among the people. The plague had already started to strike the people, but Aaron continued to burn the incense so that God would forgive them for the sins they had committed.
48 And he took his place between the dead and the living: and the disease was stopped.
He stood between the people who had already died and those who were still alive, and then the plague 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.
But 14,700 people had already died from that plague/sickness, in addition to the people who died with Korah.
50 Then Aaron went back to Moses to the door of the Tent of meeting: and the disease came to a stop.
Then after the plague had ended, Aaron and Moses/I returned to the entrance of the Sacred Tent.

< Numbers 16 >