Numbers 16:23-50

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

²³ And the Lord spoke to Moses: ²⁴ “Speak to the congregation, saying: 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 spoke to the congregation, saying, “Turn away from the tents of these wicked men and touch nothing of theirs, or you will be swept away for all their sins.”^{(A) 27} So they got away from the dwellings of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the entrances 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:^{(B) 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.”^(C)

³¹ As soon as he finished speaking all these words, the ground under them was split apart.^{(D) 32} The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, along with their households—everyone who belonged to Korah and all their goods.^{(E) 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.^(F)

^36 [a]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.”^{(G) 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 congregation, just as the Lord had said to him through Moses.^(H)

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.”^{(I) 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.^{(J) 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.^{(K) 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.”^{(L) 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.^{(M) 48} He stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped.^{(N) 49} Those who died by the plague were fourteen thousand seven hundred, besides those who died in the affair of Korah.^{(O) 50} When the plague was stopped, Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the tent of meeting.