Numbers 15–17

LAWS ABOUT OFFERINGS

15The Lord instructed Moses, ²“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you enter the land I am giving you to settle in,^{n 3}and you make a food offering^o to the Lord from the herd or flock—either a burnt offering or a sacrifice, to fulfill a vow,^p or as a freewill offering, or at your appointed festivals—to produce a pleasing aroma for the Lord,^{q 4}the one presenting his offering to the Lord is also to present a grain offering of two quarts^D of fine flour mixed with a quart of oil. ⁵Prepare a quart of wine as a drink offering^r with the burnt offering or sacrifice of each lamb.

⁶“If you prepare a grain offering with a ram, it is to be four quarts^A of fine flour mixed with a third of a gallon of oil.^{s 7}Also present a third of a gallon of wine for a drink offering as a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

⁸“If you prepare a young bull as a burnt offering or as a sacrifice, to fulfill a vow, or as a fellowship offering to the Lord, ⁹a grain offering of six quarts^C of fine flour mixed with two quarts of oil is to be presented with the bull.^{t 10}Also present two quarts of wine as a drink offering. It is a food offering of pleasing aroma to the Lord. ¹¹This is to be done for each ox, ram, lamb, or goat. ¹²This is how you are to prepare each of them, no matter how many.

¹³“Every Israelite is to prepare these things in this way when he presents a food offering as a pleasing aroma to the Lord. ¹⁴When an alien resides with you or someone else is among you and wants to prepare a food offering as a pleasing aroma to the Lord, he is to do exactly as you do throughout your generations. ¹⁵The assembly is to have the same statute for both you and the resident alien as a permanent statute throughout your generations.^a You and the alien will be alike before the Lord. ¹⁶The same law and the same ordinance will apply to both you and the alien who resides with you.”^b

¹⁷The Lord instructed Moses, ¹⁸“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: After you enter the land where I am bringing you, ¹⁹you are to offer a contribution to the Lord when you eat from the food of the land. ²⁰You are to offer a loaf from your first batch of dough^c as a contribution; offer it just like a contribution from the threshing floor.^{d 21}Throughout your generations, you are to give the Lord a contribution from the first batch of your dough.

²²“When you sin unintentionally and do not obey all these commands that the Lord spoke to Moses^e—²³all that the Lord has commanded you through Moses, from the day the Lord issued the commands and onward throughout your generations—²⁴and if it was done unintentionally without the community’s awareness, the entire community is to prepare one young bull for a burnt offering as a pleasing aroma to the Lord, with its grain offering and drink offering according to the regulation, and one male goat as a sin offering. ²⁵The priest will then make atonement for the entire Israelite community so that they may be forgiven,^f for the sin was unintentional. They are to bring their offering, a food offering to the Lord, and their sin offering before the Lord for their unintentional sin. ²⁶The entire Israelite community and the alien who resides among them will be forgiven, since it happened to all the people unintentionally.

²⁷“If one person sins unintentionally,^g he is to present a year-old female goat as a sin offering. ²⁸The priest will then make atonement before the Lord on behalf of the person who acts in error sinning unintentionally, and when he makes atonement for him, he will be forgiven. ²⁹You are to have the same law for the person who acts in error, whether he is an Israelite or an alien who resides among you.

³⁰“But the person who acts defiantly,^A whether native or resident alien, blasphemes the Lord.^h That person is to be cut off from his people. ³¹He will certainly be cut off, because he has despised the Lord’s word and broken his command; his guilt remains on him.”

SABBATH VIOLATION

³²While the Israelites were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day.^{i 33}Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses, Aaron, and the entire community. ³⁴They placed him in custody because it had not been decided what should be done to him. ³⁵Then the Lord told Moses, “The man is to be put to death. The entire community is to stone him outside the camp.”^{j 36}So the entire community brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the Lord had commanded Moses.

TASSELS FOR REMEMBRANCE

³⁷The Lord said to Moses, ³⁸“Speak to the Israelites and tell them that throughout their generations they are to make tassels^k for the corners of their garments, and put a blue cord on the tassel at each corner. ³⁹These will serve as tassels for you to look at, so that you may remember all the Lord’s commands and obey them and not prostitute yourselves by following your own heart^l and your own eyes.^{m 40}This way you will remember and obey all my commands and be holy to your God. ⁴¹I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God; I am the Lord your God.”ⁿ

KORAH INCITES REBELLION

16Now Korah son of Izhar, son of Kohath, son of Levi,^o with Dathan and Abiram,^p sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took ²two hundred fifty prominent Israelite men who were leaders of the community and representatives in the assembly, and they rebelled against Moses. ³They came together against Moses and Aaron and told them, “You have gone too far! Everyone in the entire community is holy, and the Lord is among them.^a Why then do you exalt yourselves above the Lord’s assembly?”

⁴When Moses heard this, he fell facedown. ⁵Then he said to Korah and all his followers, “Tomorrow morning the Lord will reveal who belongs to him, who is set apart, and the one he will let come near^b him. He will let the one he chooses^c come near him. ⁶Korah, you and all your followers are to do this: take firepans,^d and tomorrow ⁷place fire in them and put incense on them before the Lord.^e Then the man the Lord chooses will be the one who is set apart.^f It is you Levites who have gone too far!”

⁸Moses also told Korah, “Now listen, Levites! ⁹Isn’t it enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the Israelite community to bring you near to himself,^g to perform the work at the Lord’s tabernacle, and to stand before the community to minister to them?^{h 10}He has brought you near, and all your fellow Levites who are with you, but you are pursuing the priesthoodⁱ as well. ¹¹Therefore, it is you and all your followers who have conspired against the Lord!^j As for Aaron, who is he^A that you should complain about him?”

¹²Moses sent for Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, but they said, “We will not come! ¹³Is it not enough that you brought us up from a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness?^k Do you also have to appoint yourself as ruler over us? ¹⁴Furthermore, you didn’t bring us to a land flowing with milk and honey or give us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Will you gouge out the eyes of these men?^l We will not come!”

¹⁵Then Moses became angry and said to the Lord, “Don’t respect their offering. I have not taken one donkey from them or mistreated a single one of them.” ¹⁶So Moses told Korah, “You and all your followers are to appear before the Lord tomorrow—you, they, and Aaron. ¹⁷Each of you is to take his firepan, place incense on it, and present his firepan before the Lord—250 firepans. You and Aaron are each to present your firepan also.”

¹⁸Each man took his firepan, placed fire in it, put incense on it, and stood at the entrance to the tent of meeting along with Moses and Aaron. ¹⁹After Korah assembled the whole community against them at the entrance to the tent of meeting, the glory of the Lord^m appeared to the whole community. ²⁰The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, ²¹“Separate yourselves from this community so I may consume them instantly.”ⁿ

²²But Moses and Aaron fell facedown^o and said, “God, God who gives breath to all,^Bp when one man sins, will you vent your wrath on the whole community?”^q

²³The Lord replied to Moses, ²⁴“Tell the community: Get away from the dwellings of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.”

²⁵Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him. ²⁶He warned the community, “Get away now from the tents of these wicked men. Don’t touch anything that belongs to them,^r or you will be swept away because of all their sins.”^{s 27}So they got away from the dwellings of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Meanwhile, Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the entrance of their tents with their wives, children, and infants.

²⁸Then Moses said, “This is how you will know that the Lord sent me^t to do all these things and that it was not of my own will: ²⁹If these men die naturally as all people would, and suffer the fate of all, then the Lord has not sent me. ³⁰But if the Lord brings about something unprecedented, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them along with all that belongs to them so that they go down alive into Sheol,^u then you will know that these men have despised the Lord.”

³¹Just as he finished speaking all these words, the ground beneath them split open. ³²The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households, all Korah’s people,^v and all their possessions. ³³They went down alive into Sheol with all that belonged to them. The earth closed over them, and they vanished from the assembly. ³⁴At their cries, all the people of Israel who were around them fled because they thought, “The earth may swallow us too!” ³⁵Fire also came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men who were presenting the incense.^w

³⁶Then the Lord spoke to Moses: ³⁷“Tell Eleazar son of Aaron the priest to remove the firepans from the burning debris, because they are holy, and scatter the fire far away. ³⁸As for the firepans of those who sinned at the cost of their own lives, make…