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1 Korah, * son of Izhar, son of Kohath, son of Levi tried to take over leadership, along with Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, and On, son of Peleth, who were from the tribe of Reuben. 2 They rebelled against Moses, and were joined by 250 well-respected Israelite leaders and members of the assembly. 3 They joined together in opposition to Moses and Aaron, telling them, “You've taken too much power for yourselves! Every one of the Israelites is holy, and the Lord is among them. So why do you set yourselves above the Lord's assembly?”
4 When Moses heard what they were saying, he fell facedown on the ground. 5 Then he told Korah and all those with him, “In the morning the Lord is going to make it clear who is his and who is holy, and allow that person to approach him. He will only allow whoever he chooses to approach him. 6 This is what you, Korah, and everyone with you are going to do. Take some incense burners, 7 and tomorrow put incense in them and set it on fire in the presence of the Lord. Then the man the Lord chooses is the one who is holy. It is you Levites who are taking too much power for yourselves!”
8 Moses also told Korah, “Listen, you Levites! 9 Do you think it's something insignificant that the God of Israel chose you from all the other Israelites and allowed you to approach him and carry out the work in the Lord's Tabernacle, to stand before the Israelites and serve them? 10 He has allowed you the privilege of approaching him, Korah, you and all the other Levites, but now you want to have the priesthood as well! 11 So in reality you and those who have joined you are fighting against the Lord—because who is Aaron that you should complain about him?”
12 Moses summoned Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, but they replied, “We're not going to appear before you!† 13 Haven't you done enough by taking us away from a land flowing with milk and honey in order to kill us out here in the desert? Do you have to make yourself a dictator as well, someone to rule us? 14 On top of that you haven't taken us to a land flowing with milk and honey or given us fields and vineyards to own. Do you really think you can fool everyone?‡ No, we will not attend!”
15 Moses got really angry and said to the Lord, “Don't accept their offerings. I have never taken even a donkey from them or treated any of them badly.”
16 Moses told Korah, “You and all those who have joined you must appear before the Lord tomorrow—all of you and Aaron too. 17 Each one will take his incense burner, put incense in it, and offer it before the Lord. All 250 of you will use your incense burners and Aaron will as well.”
18 So each one took his incense burner, put incense in it, set it on fire, and stood together with Moses and Aaron at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. 19 When Korah had gathered all his rebellious group at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, the Lord's glory appeared before the whole congregation.
20 The Lord told Moses and Aaron, 21 “Step away from these Israelites and I will destroy them right away.”
22 But Moses and Aaron fell facedown on the ground said, “God—God of everything that lives—when it's only one man who sins, must you be angry with everybody?”
23 Then the Lord told Moses, 24 “Tell the people to move away from the homes of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.”
25 So Moses went over to Dathan and Abiram, and the Israelite elders of Israel followed him. 26 He ordered the people, “Move away from the tents of these wicked men and don't touch anything that belongs to them, otherwise you will be destroyed along with them in all their sins.”
27 The people moved away from the homes of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the entrances to their tents along with their wives, children and little ones.
28 Moses said, “This is how you will know that the Lord did send me to carry out everything I've done, for it wasn't anything I thought up.§ 29 If these men die a natural death, experiencing the destiny of every human being, then the Lord didn't send me. 30 But if the Lord does something totally different, and the earth opens up and swallows them down along with everything that belongs to them so that they go down alive into Sheol, then you will know that these men have acted with contempt to the Lord.”
31 Immediately after Moses had finished saying all this, the ground under the rebels split apart, 32 and the earth opened up and swallowed them and their households down, as well as everyone who was there with Korah and everything that belonged to them. 33 They went down alive into Sheol with all that they had. The earth closed over them, and they were no more.
34 When they heard their cries, all the Israelites nearby ran away, shouting, “Watch out! The earth could swallow us too!” 35 Fire burst out from the Lord and burned up the 250 men who were offering incense.
36 Then the Lord said to Moses, 37 “Tell Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, to collect the holy incense burners from among those who have been burned up, and scatter the coals used for the incense well away from the camp. 38 Have the incense burners of those who sinned at the expense of their own lives hammered into metal sheets as a covering for the altar, because they were offered before the Lord, and so have become holy. They will be a reminder to Israelites of what happened.”
39 So Eleazar the priest collected the bronze incense burners used by those who had been burned up, and had them hammered out as a covering for the altar, 40 following the instructions given to him from the Lord through Moses. This was to remind the Israelites that no one who is not a descendant of Aaron should come and offer incense before the Lord, otherwise they could end up like Korah and those with him.
41 The next day all the Israelites complained to Moses and Aaron, saying, “You have killed the Lord's people!” 42 But as the people gathered to confront them, Moses and Aaron went over to the Tent of Meeting, and suddenly the cloud covered it and the Lord's glory appeared. 43 Moses and Aaron went and stood at the front of the Tent of Meeting, 44 and the Lord said to Moses, 45 “Get away from these people and I will finish them off immediately.” Moses and Aaron fell facedown on the ground.
46 Moses told Aaron, “Put some coals from the altar and some incense in your incense burner. Then run to the people and make them right before the Lord, for the Lord is angry with them and a plague has started.”
47 Aaron took the incense burner just as Moses had told him and ran into the middle of the assembly. He saw that the plague had started to affect the people so he offered the incense and made the people right with the Lord. 48 He stood between those who had died and those who were still alive, and the plague was stopped. 49 However, 14,700 died from the plague in addition to those who'd died because of Korah.
50 Then Aaron went back to Moses at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting because the plague had been stopped.
* 16:1 Korah was a cousin of Moses and Aaron, and jealousy of their position may have been behind his rebellion. † 16:12 In other words they refused to acknowledge Moses' authority to require them to appear before him to be judged. ‡ 16:14 The expression used here “Will you gouge out the eyes of these men?” is taken to mean something like “Are you going to pull the wool over their eyes?” § 16:28 “It wasn't anything I thought up”: literally, “not from my heart,” because it was believed that the heart was the place where thinking occurred.