Numbers 16-18

Modern English Version

Opposition to Moses and Aaron

16 Now Korah the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men, ² and they rose up before Moses and men of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty chiefs of the assembly, famous in the assembly, well-known men. ³ They assembled against Moses and against Aaron, and said to them, “You take too much upon yourselves, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. So why do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?”

⁴ And when Moses heard it, he fell on his face, ⁵ and he spoke to Korah and to all his company, saying, “In the morning the Lord will show who is His and who is holy, and He will bring him to come near to Him. Whom He has chosen He will bring near to Him. ⁶ Do this: Take censers, Korah and all his company; ⁷ put fire in them, and put incense in them before the Lord tomorrow, and it will be that the man whom the Lord chooses, he will be holy. You take too much upon yourselves, sons of Levi.”

⁸ Moses said to Korah, “Listen, please, sons of Levi. ⁹ Does it seem a small thing to you that the God of Israel has separated you from the assembly of Israel to bring you near to Himself to do the service of the tabernacle of the Lord, and to stand before the assembly to minister to them? ¹⁰ And He has brought you near to Him, and all your brothers, the sons of Levi, with you, and you also seek the priesthood? ¹¹ Therefore both you and all your company are gathered together against the Lord, and who is Aaron that you murmur against him?”

¹² And Moses sent for Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, who said, “We will not come up. ¹³ Is it a small thing that you have brought us up out of a land that flows with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness because you make yourself a prince over us? ¹⁴ Moreover you have not brought us into a land that flows with milk and honey nor given us inheritance of fields and vineyards. Will you put out the eyes of these men? We will not come up.”

¹⁵ Moses was very angry and said to the Lord, “Do not respect their offering. I have not taken one donkey from them, nor have I hurt one of them.”

¹⁶ Moses said to Korah, “You and all your company be before the Lord, you and them and Aaron, tomorrow. ¹⁷ Let each man take his censer and put incense in it, and each of you bring his censer before the Lord, two hundred and fifty censers. Also you and Aaron shall each bring his censer.” ¹⁸ Every man took his censer and put fire in it, and laid incense on it, and stood at the door of the tent of meeting with Moses and Aaron. ¹⁹ Korah gathered all the assembly against them to the door of the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the assembly. ²⁰ The Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying: ²¹ Separate yourselves from among this assembly, that I may consume them in a moment.

²² They fell on their faces and said, “O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, will one man sin and You will be angry with all the assembly?”

²³ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ²⁴ Speak to the assembly, saying: Get up from around the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.

²⁵ Moses rose up and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him. ²⁶ He spoke to the assembly, saying, “Depart now from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest you be swept away for all their sins.” ²⁷ So they got up from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, on every side, and Dathan and Abiram came out and stood in the opening of their tents, and their wives, and their sons, and their children.

²⁸ Moses said, “By this you will know that the Lord has sent me to do all these works, because I have not done them of my own mind. ²⁹ If these men die the common death of all men, or if they are visited after the visitation of all men, then the Lord has not sent me. ³⁰ But if the Lord makes a new thing, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the pit, then you will know that these men have despised the Lord.”

³¹ So it was, when he finished speaking all these words, that the ground that was under them split open. ³² And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, and their houses, and all the men that belonged to Korah, and all their goods. ³³ And they and all that belonged to them went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed on them, and they perished from among the assembly. ³⁴ All Israel that was around them fled at their cry because they said, “The earth will swallow us also.”

³⁵ A fire went out from the Lord and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense.

³⁶ The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ³⁷ Tell Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest to take up the censers out of the blaze, for they are holy. Then scatter the fire far and wide. ³⁸ As for the censers of these men who have sinned at the cost of their own lives, make them into hammered plates as a covering for the altar, for they presented them before the Lord and they are holy. They shall be a sign to the children of Israel.

³⁹ So Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers, which those who were burned had offered, and they were hammered out as a covering on the altar, ⁴⁰ to be a memorial to the children of Israel, that no outsider, who is not of the descendants of Aaron, shall approach to offer incense before the Lord, that he might not become like Korah and his company, as the Lord has said to him through Moses.

The People Complain

⁴¹ But the next day all the assembly of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, “You have killed the people of the Lord.”

⁴² When the assembly was gathered against Moses and Aaron, they looked toward the tent of meeting. The cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared. ⁴³ Moses and Aaron went before the tent of meeting. ⁴⁴ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ⁴⁵ “Get up from among this assembly, that I may destroy them in a moment.” And they fell on their faces.

⁴⁶ Moses said to Aaron, “Take a censer and put fire in it from off the altar, and put in incense, and go quickly to the assembly, and make an atonement for them, because wrath has gone out from the Lord. The plague has begun.” ⁴⁷ Aaron took it as Moses commanded and ran into the midst of the assembly, where the plague had begun among the people. He put in incense and made an atonement for the people. ⁴⁸ He stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped. ⁴⁹ Now those who died in the plague were fourteen thousand seven hundred, besides those that died concerning the thing of Korah. ⁵⁰ Aaron returned to Moses, to the door of the tent of meeting, and the plague was stopped.

The Budding of Aaron’s Rod

17 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ² Speak to the children of Israel, and take from them a rod, a rod for the house of their fathers, from all their leaders according to the house of their fathers, twelve rods. Write each man’s name on his rod. ³ You will write the name of Aaron on the rod of Levi, because one rod will be for each father’s house. ⁴ You will lay them in the tent of meeting before the testimony, where I will meet with you. ⁵ It will be that the rod of the man whom I choose will bud. Thus I will rid myself of the complaints of the children of Israel, that they have been making against you.

⁶ Moses spoke to the children of Israel, and each one of their leaders gave him a rod, one for each leader, according to their fathers’ houses, even twelve rods, and the rod of Aaron was among their rods. ⁷ Moses laid the rods before the Lord in the tent of witness.

⁸ When Moses went into the tent of witness the next day, the rod of Aaron, for the house of Levi, had sprouted. It brought forth buds, produced blossoms, and yielded almonds. ⁹ Moses brought out all the rods from before the Lord to all the children of Israel, and they looked, and each man took his rod.

¹⁰ The Lord said to Moses, “Return the rod of Aaron before the testimony, to be kept for a warning to rebels, that you may put an end to their complaints before Me, or else they will die.” ¹¹ Moses did so. As the Lord commanded him, so he did.

¹² The children of Israel spoke to Moses, saying, “Behold, we expire, we perish, we all perish. ¹³ Anyone approaching the tabernacle of the Lord will die. Are we all to perish?”

Duties of Priests and Levites

18 And the Lord said to Aaron: You and your sons and your father’s house with you will bear the iniquity of the sanctuary, and you and your sons with you will bear the iniquity of your priesthood. ² Your brothers also of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, bring with you, and let them be joined with you, and minister to you. But you and your sons with you will minister before the tent of witness. ³ They will perform duties for you and for the whole tent; but they will not come near the vessels of the sanctuary or the altar, so that neither they nor you die. ⁴ They will be joined to you and perform the duties of the tent of meeting, for all the service of the tent; no foreigner will come near you.

⁵ You yourselves will perform the duties of the sanctuary and the duties of the altar, so that wrath may never come upon the children of Israel again. ⁶ I Myself have taken your brothers, the Levites, from among the children of Israel; they are given to you as a gift from the Lord to perform the service of the tent of meeting. ⁷ And you and your sons with you will attend to your priesthood for everything at the altar, and within the veil, and you will serve. I have given your priesthood to you as a gift service, and the foreigner that comes near will be put to death.

Offerings for Priests and Levites

⁸ The Lord spoke to Aaron: I have certainly given you the charge of the offerings made to Me, all the hallowed gifts of the children of Israel. To you and to your sons have I given them as a portion, as an ordinance forever. ⁹ This will be yours of the most holy things, reserved from the fire: All of their offerings, all of their grain offerings and all of their sin offerings, and all of their guilt offerings, which they render to Me, will be most holy for you and for your sons. ¹⁰ In a most holy place shall you eat it; every male shall eat it. It shall be holy to you.

¹¹ This is yours: the offering of their gift, with all the wave offerings of the children of Israel. I have given them to you and to your sons and to your daughters with you, as an eternal statute. Everyone who is clean in your house will eat of it.

¹² All the best of the oil, and all the best of the wine, and of the wheat, the first fruits of what they will offer to the Lord, those have I given to you. ¹³ The first ripe fruit of all which is in their land, which they will bring to the Lord, will be yours. Everyone who is clean in your house will eat of it.

¹⁴ Everything devoted in Israel will be yours. ¹⁵ Everything that opens the womb of all flesh, which they bring to the Lord, whether it is of men or animals, will be yours. However, you will surely redeem the firstborn of man, and the firstborn of unclean beasts you will redeem. ¹⁶ Their redemption price, reckoned from one month of age, is five shekels,^[a] after the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs.

¹⁷ But the firstborn of a herd animal, or the firstborn of a sheep, or the firstborn of a goat, you will not redeem. They are holy. You will splash their blood on the altar and will burn their fat as a fire offering, as a pleasing aroma to the Lord. ¹⁸ Their flesh will be yours, as the wave breast and as the right shoulder are yours. ¹⁹ All the offerings of the holy things which the children of Israel offer to the Lord I have given to you, and to your sons and your daughters with you, as an eternal statute. It is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord, to you and to your seed with you.

²⁰ The Lord said to Aaron: You will not have an inheritance in their land, nor will you have any territory among them. I am your territory and your inheritance among the children of Israel.

Tithes for Supporting the Levites

²¹ I have given the children of Levi all the tithes in Israel for an inheritance, for their service, which they serve, even the service of the tent of meeting. ²² Hereafter, the children of Israel shall not come near the tent of meeting, lest they bear sin and die. ²³ But the Levites will do the service of the tent of meeting, and they will bear their iniquity. It will be an eternal statute throughout your generations, that among the children of Israel they have no inheritance. ²⁴ But the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer as an offering to the Lord, I have given to the Levites to inherit. Therefore I have said to them, among the children of Israel they will have no inheritance.

The Tithe of the Levites

²⁵ The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ²⁶ You will speak to the Levites, and say to them: When you take from the children of Israel the tithes that I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you will offer up an offering of it to the Lord, even one-tenth of the tithe. ²⁷ And this offering will be counted to you, as though it was the grain of the threshing floor, and as the fullness of the winepress. ²⁸ Thus you also will set apart an offering to the Lord from all the tithes which you receive from the children of Israel. Out of them you will give the offering of the Lord to Aaron the priest. ²⁹ Out of all your gifts you shall present every offering due to the Lord, from all the best of them, the consecrated part of them.

³⁰ You will say to them: When you have offered the best from it, then it will be counted to the Levites as the increase of the threshing floor, and as the increase of the winepress. ³¹ You will eat it in every place, you and your households, because it is your reward for your service in the tent of meeting. ³² You will bear no sin because of it, when you have offered the best of it. The holy things of the children of Israel you will not pollute, and you will not die.