Numbers
Chapter 16
1 Now Korah, Izhar’s son, Kohath’s grandson, Levi’s great-grandson, and Dathan and Abiram, Eliab’s sons, and On, Peleth’s son, all from Reuben’s family, gathered people together.
2 They stood up against Moses, together with some Israelites, 250 leaders of the community, well-known and respected men.
3 They joined together against Moses and Aaron, and told them, “You are taking on too much power, while the whole community is holy, each one of them, and God is with them. So why do you raise yourselves above God’s community?”
4 When Moses heard this, he fell on his face.
5 He said to Korah and his group, “Tomorrow God will show who belongs to him and who is holy; he will bring close to him the one he has chosen.”
6 Do this: Take your incense burners, Korah, and everyone with you.
7 Put fire in it and add incense to it before God tomorrow; the man God chooses will be holy. You are overstepping your boundaries, descendants of Levi.
8 Moses said to Korah, “Please listen, you Levites.”
9 Do you think it’s a small thing that the God of Israel chose you from Israel’s people to come close to serve in God’s tent and to serve the people?
10 He brought you close to him, and also all your brother Levites with you: and now do you want to be priests too?
11 You and your group have come together against God. Why are you complaining about Aaron?
12 Moses sent for Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, but they said, “We will not come.”
13 Is it a small matter that you have led us out of a land filled with milk and honey, to let us die in the desert, unless you want to be our total leader?
14 You did not bring us to a land filled with milk and honey, nor give us fields and vineyards as our own. Will you blind these men? We will not go up.
15 Moses was very angry and said to God, “Do not accept their offering: I have not taken a single donkey from them, nor have I harmed any of them.”
16 Moses said to Korah, “You and your group must come before God, along with Aaron, tomorrow.”
17 Each person take their fire pan, add incense to it, and present it before God, 250 fire pans; you and Aaron do the same with your fire pans.
18 Each man took his censer, filled it with fire, added incense, and stood at the entrance of the meeting tent with Moses and Aaron.
19 Korah brought the whole community to the entrance of the meeting tent, and God’s glory was seen by everyone.
20 God spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,
21 Stay away from these people so I can destroy them quickly.
22 They fell to the ground and said, “Oh God, the God of everyone’s spirit, if one person sins, will You be angry with everyone?”
23 God spoke to Moses and said,
24 Tell the people, “Move away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.”
25 Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the leaders of Israel went with him.
26 He told the people, “Please move away from these evil men’s tents and don’t touch their things, or you might get destroyed because of their sins.”
27 They moved away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram on all sides. Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the entrance of their tents with their wives, sons, and young children.
28 Moses said, “You will see that God has sent me to do all these things; I did not do them on my own.”
29 If these men die like everyone else, or if they meet the fate everyone else does, then God has not sent me.
30 But if God does something new, and the ground opens and swallows them with everything they have, and they fall alive into a hole, then you will know that these men have angered God.
31 After he finished saying all these things, the ground split open beneath them.
32 The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their homes, all the men related to Korah, and all their belongings.
33 They and everything that belonged to them went down alive into the hole, and the earth closed over them. They died and were gone from the community.
34 Everyone in Israel around them ran away when they heard the shouting, because they were afraid the ground might swallow them too.
35 A fire came from God and burned up the two hundred and fifty men who were offering incense.
36 God spoke to Moses and said,
37 Tell Eleazar, Aaron’s son and a priest, to pick up the incense burners from the fire and throw the coals far away, because they are holy.
38 Use the incense burners of these sinners who harmed themselves to make thin sheets to cover the altar. Because they presented them before God, they are now holy, and they will be a reminder to the people of Israel.
39 Eleazar the priest took the bronze incense holders used by those who died in the fire, and they were shaped into wide sheets to cover the altar.
40 This will remind the people of Israel that only those from Aaron’s family can come close to burn incense before God, so no one will be like Korah and his followers, just as God told Moses.
41 But the next day, the whole Israelite community complained against Moses and Aaron, saying, “You have killed God’s people.”
42 When the people gathered against Moses and Aaron, they looked at the meeting tent and saw a cloud over it; God’s glory showed.
43 Moses and Aaron went to the meeting tent.
44 God spoke to Moses, saying,
45 Move away from these people, so I can quickly destroy them. And they fell on their faces.
46 Moses told Aaron, “Take a censer, put fire in it from the altar, add incense, and go fast to the people to ask God to forgive them. God is angry and the sickness has started.”
47 Aaron did as Moses said, hurried to where the people were, and saw that the sickness had started among them. He burned incense and asked God to forgive the people.
48 He stood between the dead and the living, and the plague stopped.
49 The ones who died from the sickness were 14,700, not including those who died because of Korah’s issue.
50 Aaron went back to Moses at the entrance of the meeting tent, and the plague stopped.