Revolt of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram

16 Now Korah son of Izhar son of Kohath son of Levi, along with Dathan and Abiram sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth—descendants of Reuben—took ² two hundred fifty Israelite men, leaders of the congregation, chosen from the assembly, well-known men,^[a] and they confronted Moses. ³ They assembled against Moses and against Aaron, and said to them, “You have gone too far! All the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. So why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?” ⁴ When Moses heard it, he fell on his face. ⁵ Then he said to Korah and all his company, “In the morning the Lord will make known who is his, and who is holy, and who will be allowed to approach him; the one whom he will choose he will allow to approach him. ⁶ Do this: take censers, Korah and all your^[b] company, ⁷ and tomorrow put fire in them, and lay incense on them before the Lord; and the man whom the Lord chooses shall be the holy one. You Levites have gone too far!” ⁸ Then Moses said to Korah, “Hear now, you Levites! ⁹ Is it too little for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel, to allow you to approach him in order to perform the duties of the Lord’s tabernacle, and to stand before the congregation and serve them? ¹⁰ He has allowed you to approach him, and all your brother Levites with you; yet you seek the priesthood as well! ¹¹ Therefore you and all your company have gathered together against the Lord. What is Aaron that you rail against him?”

¹² Moses sent for Dathan and Abiram sons of Eliab; but they said, “We will not come! ¹³ Is it too little that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness, that you must also lord it over us? ¹⁴ It is clear you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Would you put out the eyes of these men? We will not come!”

¹⁵ Moses was very angry and said to the Lord, “Pay no attention to their offering. I have not taken one donkey from them, and I have not harmed any one of them.” ¹⁶ And Moses said to Korah, “As for you and all your company, be present tomorrow before the Lord, you and they and Aaron; ¹⁷ and let each one of you take his censer, and put incense on it, and each one of you present his censer before the Lord, two hundred fifty censers; you also, and Aaron, each his censer.” ¹⁸ So each man took his censer, and they put fire in the censers and laid incense on them, and they stood at the entrance of the tent of meeting with Moses and Aaron. ¹⁹ Then Korah assembled the whole congregation against them at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And the glory of the Lord appeared to the whole congregation.

²⁰ Then the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying: ²¹ Separate yourselves from this congregation, so 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, shall one person sin and you become angry with the whole congregation?”

²³ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ²⁴ Say to the congregation: Get away from the dwellings of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. ²⁵ So Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram; the elders of Israel followed him. ²⁶ He said to the congregation, “Turn away from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, or you will be swept away for all their sins.” ²⁷ So they got away from the dwellings of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram; and Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the entrance of their tents, together with their wives, their children, and their little ones. ²⁸ And Moses said, “This is how you shall know that the Lord has sent me to do all these works; it has not been of my own accord: ²⁹ If these people die a natural death, or if a natural fate comes on them, then the Lord has not sent me. ³⁰ But if the Lord creates something new, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up, with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men have despised the Lord.”

³¹ As soon as he finished speaking all these words, the ground under them was split apart. ³² The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, along with their households—everyone who belonged to Korah and all their goods. ³³ So they with all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol; the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly. ³⁴ All Israel around them fled at their outcry, for they said, “The earth will swallow us too!” ³⁵ And fire came out from the Lord and consumed the two hundred fifty men offering the incense.

^36 [c] Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ³⁷ Tell Eleazar son of Aaron the priest to take the censers out of the blaze; then scatter the fire far and wide. ³⁸ For the censers of these sinners have become holy at the cost of their lives. Make them into hammered plates as a covering for the altar, for they presented them before the Lord and they became holy. Thus they shall be a sign to the Israelites. ³⁹ So Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers that had been presented by those who were burned; and they were hammered out as a covering for the altar— ⁴⁰ a reminder to the Israelites that no outsider, who is not of the descendants of Aaron, shall approach to offer incense before the Lord, so as not to become like Korah and his company—just as the Lord had said to him through Moses.

⁴¹ On the next day, however, the whole congregation of the Israelites rebelled against Moses and against Aaron, saying, “You have killed the people of the Lord.” ⁴² And when the congregation had assembled against them, Moses and Aaron turned toward the tent of meeting; the cloud had covered it and the glory of the Lord appeared. ⁴³ Then Moses and Aaron came to the front of the tent of meeting, ⁴⁴ and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ⁴⁵ “Get away from this congregation, so that I may consume them in a moment.” And they fell on their faces. ⁴⁶ Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, put fire on it from the altar and lay incense on it, and carry it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them. For wrath has gone out from the Lord; the plague has begun.” ⁴⁷ So Aaron took it as Moses had ordered, and ran into the middle of the assembly, where the plague had already begun among the people. He put on the incense, and made atonement for the people. ⁴⁸ He stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stopped. ⁴⁹ Those who died by the plague were fourteen thousand seven hundred, besides those who died in the affair of Korah. ⁵⁰ When the plague was stopped, Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the tent of meeting.

The Budding of Aaron’s Rod

17 ^[d] The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ² Speak to the Israelites, and get twelve staffs from them, one for each ancestral house, from all the leaders of their ancestral houses. Write each man’s name on his staff, ³ and write Aaron’s name on the staff of Levi. For there shall be one staff for the head of each ancestral house. ⁴ Place them in the tent of meeting before the covenant,^[e] where I meet with you. ⁵ And the staff of the man whom I choose shall sprout; thus I will put a stop to the complaints of the Israelites that they continually make against you. ⁶ Moses spoke to the Israelites; and all their leaders gave him staffs, one for each leader, according to their ancestral houses, twelve staffs; and the staff of Aaron was among theirs. ⁷ So Moses placed the staffs before the Lord in the tent of the covenant.^[f]

⁸ When Moses went into the tent of the covenant^[g] on the next day, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted. It put forth buds, produced blossoms, and bore ripe almonds. ⁹ Then Moses brought out all the staffs from before the Lord to all the Israelites; and they looked, and each man took his staff. ¹⁰ And the Lord said to Moses, “Put back the staff of Aaron before the covenant,^[h] to be kept as a warning to rebels, so that you may make an end of their complaints against me, or else they will die.” ¹¹ Moses did so; just as the Lord commanded him, so he did.

¹² The Israelites said to Moses, “We are perishing; we are lost, all of us are lost! ¹³ Everyone who approaches the tabernacle of the Lord will die. Are we all to perish?”

Psalm 78

God’s Goodness and Israel’s Ingratitude

A Maskil of Asaph.

²⁶ “My brothers, you descendants of Abraham’s family, and others who fear God, to us^[a] the message of this salvation has been sent. ²⁷ Because the residents of Jerusalem and their leaders did not recognize him or understand the words of the prophets that are read every sabbath, they fulfilled those words by condemning him. ²⁸ Even though they found no cause for a sentence of death, they asked Pilate to have him killed. ²⁹ When they had carried out everything that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. ³⁰ But God raised him from the dead; ³¹ and for many days he appeared to those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, and they are now his witnesses to the people. ³² And we bring you the good news that what God promised to our ancestors ³³ he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising Jesus; as also it is written in the second psalm,

³⁴ As to his raising him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way,

³⁵ Therefore he has also said in another psalm,

³⁶ For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, died,^[b] was laid beside his ancestors, and experienced corruption; ³⁷ but he whom God raised up experienced no corruption. ³⁸ Let it be known to you therefore, my brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you; ³⁹ by this Jesus^[c] everyone who believes is set free from all those sins^[d] from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. ⁴⁰ Beware, therefore, that what the prophets said does not happen to you:

⁴² As Paul and Barnabas^[e] were going out, the people urged them to speak about these things again the next sabbath. ⁴³ When the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who spoke to them and urged them to continue in the grace of God.

⁴⁴ The next sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.^{[f] 45} But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy; and blaspheming, they contradicted what was spoken by Paul. ⁴⁶ Then both Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you. Since you reject it and judge yourselves to be unworthy of eternal life, we are now turning to the Gentiles. ⁴⁷ For so the Lord has commanded us, saying,

⁴⁸ When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and praised the word of the Lord; and as many as had been destined for eternal life became believers. ⁴⁹ Thus the word of the Lord spread throughout the region. ⁵⁰ But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, and stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their region. ⁵¹ So they shook the dust off their feet in protest against them, and went to Iconium. ⁵² And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.