Numbers 15–17

Laws about Sacrifice

15The Lord gave Moses ²the following regulations for the people of Israel to observe in the land that he was going to give them. ³A bull, a ram, a sheep, or a goat may be presented to the Lord as a burnt offering or as a sacrifice in fulfilment of a vow or as a freewill offering or as an offering at your regular religious festivals; the smell of these food offerings is pleasing to the Lord. ^4–5Whoever presents a sheep or a goat as a burnt offering to the Lord is to bring with each animal a kilogramme of flour mixed with a litre of olive oil as a grain offering, together with a litre of wine. ⁶When a ram is offered, 2 kilogrammes of flour mixed with one and a half litres of olive oil are to be presented as a grain offering, ⁷together with one and a half litres of wine. The smell of these sacrifices is pleasing to the Lord. ⁸When a bull is offered to the Lord as a burnt offering or as a sacrifice in fulfilment of a vow or as a fellowship offering, ⁹a grain offering of 3 kilogrammes of flour mixed with 2 litres of olive oil is to be presented, ¹⁰together with 2 litres of wine. The smell of this sacrifice is pleasing to the Lord.

¹¹That is what shall be offered with each bull, ram, sheep, or goat. ¹²When more than one animal is offered, the accompanying offering is to be increased proportionately. ¹³All native Israelites are to do this when they present a food offering, a smell pleasing to the Lord. ¹⁴And if at any time foreigners living among you, whether on a temporary or a permanent basis, make a food offering, a smell that pleases the Lord, they are to observe the same regulations. ¹⁵For all time to come, the same^m rules are binding on you and on the foreigners who live among you. You and they are alike in the Lord’s sight; ^16*the same laws and regulations apply to you and to them.

¹⁷The Lord gave Moses ¹⁸the following regulations for the people of Israel to observe in the land that he was going to give them. ¹⁹When any food produced there is eaten, some of it is to be set aside as a special contribution to the Lord. ²⁰When you bake bread, the first loaf of the first bread made from the new corn is to be presented as a special contribution to the Lord. This is to be presented in the same way as the special contribution you make from the corn you thresh. ²¹For all time to come, this special gift is to be given to the Lord from the bread you bake.

²²But suppose someone unintentionally fails to keep some of these regulations which the Lord has given Moses. ²³And suppose that in the future the community fails to do everything that the Lord commanded through Moses. ²⁴If the mistake was made because of the ignorance of the community, they are to offer a bull as a burnt offering, a smell that pleases the Lord, with the proper grain offering and wine offering. In addition, they are to offer a male goat as a sin offering. ²⁵The priest shall perform the ritual of purification for the community, and they will be forgiven, because the mistake was unintentional and they brought their sin offering as a food offering to the Lord. ²⁶The whole community of Israel and the foreigners living among them will be forgiven, because everyone was involved in the mistake.

^27*If an individual sins unintentionally, he is to offer a one-year-old female goat as a sin offering. ^28*At the altar the priest shall perform the ritual of purification to purify the person from his sin, and he will be forgiven. ²⁹The same regulation applies to all who unintentionally commit a sin, whether they are native Israelites or resident foreigners.

³⁰But any person who sins deliberately, whether he is a native or a foreigner, is guilty of treating the Lord with contempt, and he shall be put to death, ³¹because he has rejected what the Lord said and has deliberately broken one of his commands. He is responsible for his own death.

The Man Who Broke the Sabbath

³²Once, while the Israelites were still in the wilderness, a man was found gathering firewood on the Sabbath. ³³He was taken to Moses, Aaron, and the whole community, ³⁴and was put under guard, because it was not clear what should be done with him. ³⁵Then the Lord said to Moses, “The man must be put to death; the whole community is to stone him to death outside the camp.” ³⁶So the whole community took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the Lord had commanded.

Rules about Tassels

³⁷The Lord commanded Moses ^38*to say to the people of Israel: “Make tassels on the corners of your garments and put a blue cord on each tassel. You are to do this for all time to come. ³⁹The tassels will serve as reminders, and each time you see them you will remember all my commands and obey them; then you will not turn away from me and follow your own wishes and desires. ⁴⁰The tassels will remind you to keep all my commands, and you will belong completely to me. ⁴¹I am the Lord your God; I brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord.”

The Rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram

16Korah son of Izhar, from the Levite clan of Kohath, rebelled against the leadership of Moses. He was joined by three members of the tribe of Reuben—Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth—and by 250 other Israelites, well-known leaders chosen by the community. ³They assembled before Moses and Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! All the members of the community belong to the Lord, and the Lord is with all of us. Why, then, Moses, do you set yourself above the Lord’s community?”

⁴When Moses heard this, he threw himself on the ground and prayed. ⁵Then he said to Korah and his followers, “Tomorrow morning the Lord will show us who belongs to him; he will let the one who belongs to him, that is, the one he has chosen, approach him at the altar. ^6–7Tomorrow morning you and your followers take firepans, put live coals and incense on them, and take them to the altar. Then we will see which of us the Lord has chosen. You Levites are the ones who have gone too far!”

⁸Moses continued to speak to Korah. “Listen, you Levites! ⁹Do you consider it a small matter that the God of Israel has set you apart from the rest of the community, so that you can approach him, perform your service in the Lord’s Tent, and minister to the community and serve them? ¹⁰He has let you and all the other Levites have this honour—and now you are trying to get the priesthood too! ¹¹When you complain against Aaron, it is really against the Lord that you and your followers are rebelling.”

¹²Then Moses sent for Dathan and Abiram, but they said, “We will not come! ¹³Isn’t it enough that you have brought us out of the fertile land of Egypt to kill us here in the wilderness? Do you also have to lord it over us? ¹⁴You certainly have not brought us into a fertile land or given us fields and vineyards as our possession, and now you are trying to deceive us. We will not come!”

¹⁵Moses was angry and said to the Lord, “Do not accept any offerings these men bring. I have not wronged any of them; I have not even taken one of their donkeys.”

¹⁶Moses said to Korah, “Tomorrow you and your 250 followers must come to the Tent of the Lord’s presence; Aaron will also be there. ¹⁷Each of you will take his firepan, put incense on it, and then present it at the altar.” ¹⁸So every man took his firepan, put live coals and incense on it, and stood at the entrance of the Tent with Moses and Aaron. ¹⁹Then Korah gathered the whole community, and they stood facing Moses and Aaron at the entrance of the Tent. Suddenly the dazzling light of the Lord’s presence appeared to the whole community, ²⁰and the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ²¹“Stand back from these people, and I will destroy them immediately.”

²²But Moses and Aaron bowed down with their faces to the ground and said, “O God, you are the source of all life. When one person sins, do you get angry with the whole community?”

²³The Lord said to Moses, ²⁴“Tell the people to move away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.”

²⁵Then Moses, accompanied by the leaders of Israel, went to Dathan and Abiram. ²⁶He said to the people, “Stand away from the tents of these wicked men and don’t touch anything that belongs to them. Otherwise, you will be wiped out with them for all their sins.” ²⁷So they moved away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.

Dathan and Abiram had come out and were standing at the entrance of their tents, with their wives and children. ²⁸Moses said to the people, “This is how you will know that the Lord has sent me to do all these things and that it is not by my own choice that I have done them. ²⁹If these men die a natural death without some punishment from God, then the Lord did not send me. ³⁰But if the Lord does something unheard of, and the earth opens up and swallows them with all they own, so that they go down alive to the world of the dead, you will know that these men have rejected the Lord.”

³¹As soon as he had finished speaking, the ground under Dathan and Abiram split open ³²and swallowed them and their families, together with all of Korah’s followers and their possessions. ³³So they went down alive to the world of the dead, with their possessions. The earth closed over them, and they vanished. ³⁴All the people of Israel who were there fled when they heard their cry. They shouted, “Run! The earth might swallow us too!”

³⁵Then the Lord sent a fire that blazed out and burnt up the 250 men who had presented the incense.

The Firepans

³⁶Then the Lord said to Moses, ³⁷“Tell Eleazar son of Aaron the priest to remove the bronze firepans from the remains of the men who have been burnt, and scatter the coals from the firepans somewhere else, because the firepans are holy. ³⁸They became holy when they were presented at the Lord’s altar. So take the firepans of these men who were put to death for their sin, beat them into thin plates, and make a covering for the altar. It will be a warning to the people of Israel.” ³⁹So Eleazar the priest took the firepans…