Numbers 16:32–50

³²And opening her mouth, devoured them with their tents and all their substance.

³³And they went down alive into hell, the ground closing upon them, and they perished from among the people.

³⁴But all Israel, that was standing round about, fled at the cry of them that were perishing: saying: Lest perhaps the earth swallow us up also.

³⁵And a fire coming out from the Lord, destroyed the two hundred and fifty men that offered the incense.

³⁶And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

³⁷Command Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest to take up the censers that lie in the burning, and to scatter the fire of one side and the other: because they are sanctified

³⁸In the deaths of the sinners: and let him beat them into plates, and fasten them to the altar, because incense hath been offered in them to the Lord, and they are sanctified, that the children of Israel may see them for a sign and a memorial.

³⁹Then Eleazar the priest took the brazen censers, wherein they had offered, whom the burning fire had devoured, and beat them into plates, fastening them to the altar:

⁴⁰That the children of Israel might have for the time to come wherewith they should be admonished, that no stranger or any one that is not of the seed of Aaron should come near to offer incense to the Lord, lest he should suffer as Core suffered, and all his congregation, according as the Lord spoke to Moses.

⁴¹The following day all the multitude of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying: You have killed the people of the Lord.

⁴²And when there arose a sedition, and the tumult increased,

⁴³Moses and Aaron fled to the tabernacle of the covenant. And when they were gone into it, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared.

⁴⁴And the Lord said to Moses:

⁴⁵Get you out from the midst of this multitude, this moment will I destroy them. And as they were lying on the ground,

⁴⁶Moses said to Aaron: Take the censer, and putting fire in it from the altar, put incense upon it, and go quickly to the people to pray for them: for already wrath is gone out from the Lord, and the plague rageth.

⁴⁷When Aaron had done this, and had run to the midst of the multitude which the burning fire was now destroying, he offered the incense:

⁴⁸And standing between the dead and the living, he prayed for the people, and the plague ceased.

⁴⁹And the number of them that were slain was fourteen thousand and seven hundred men, besides them that had perished in the sedition of Core.

⁵⁰And Aaron returned to Moses to the door of the tabernacle of the covenant after the destruction was over.