Numbers 16–17

Chapter 16

Korah’s Rebellion

¹Now ^aKorah the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with ^bDathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took action,

²and they rose up before Moses, ¹together with some of the sons of Israel, two hundred and fifty leaders of the congregation, ^2achosen in the assembly, men of renown.

³They assembled together ^aagainst Moses and Aaron, and said to them, “^1bYou have gone far enough, for all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and ^cthe Lord is in their midst; so why do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?”

⁴When Moses heard this, ^ahe fell on his face;

⁵and he spoke to Korah and all his company, saying, “Tomorrow morning the Lord will show who is His, and ^awho is holy, and will bring him near to Himself; even ^bthe one whom He will choose, He will bring near to Himself.

⁶“Do this: take censers for yourselves, Korah and all ¹your company,

⁷and put fire in them, and lay incense upon them in the presence of the Lord tomorrow; and the man whom the Lord chooses shall be the one who is holy. ^1aYou have gone far enough, you sons of Levi!”

⁸Then Moses said to Korah, “Hear now, you sons of Levi,

^9ais it ¹not enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the rest of the congregation of Israel, ^bto bring you near to Himself, to do the service of the tabernacle of the Lord, and to stand before the congregation to minister to them;

¹⁰and that He has brought you near, Korah, and all your brothers, sons of Levi, with you? And are you ^aseeking for the priesthood also?

¹¹“Therefore you and all your company are gathered together ^aagainst the Lord; but as for Aaron, ¹who is he that ^byou grumble against him?”

¹²Then Moses sent ¹a summons to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab; but they said, “We will not come up.

¹³“Is it ¹not enough that you have brought us up out of a ^aland flowing with milk and honey ^bto have us die in the wilderness, but you would also lord it over us?

¹⁴“Indeed, you have not brought us ^ainto a land flowing with milk and honey, nor have you given us an inheritance of ^bfields and vineyards. Would you ^1cput out the eyes of ²these men? We will not come up!”

¹⁵Then Moses became very angry and said to the Lord, “^aDo not regard their offering! ^bI have not taken a single donkey from them, nor have I done harm to any of them.”

¹⁶Moses said to Korah, “You and all your company be present before the Lord tomorrow, both you and they along with Aaron.

¹⁷“Each of you take his firepan and put incense on ¹it, and each of you bring his censer before the Lord, two hundred and fifty firepans; also you and Aaron shall each bring his firepan.”

¹⁸So they each took his own censer and put fire on ¹it, and laid incense on it; and they stood at the doorway of the tent of meeting, with Moses and Aaron.

¹⁹Thus Korah assembled all the congregation against them at the doorway of the tent of meeting. And ^athe glory of the Lord appeared to all the congregation.

²⁰Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,

²¹“^aSeparate yourselves from among this congregation, ^bthat I may consume them instantly.”

²²But they fell on their faces and said, “O God, ^aGod of the spirits of all flesh, ^bwhen one man sins, will You be angry with the entire congregation?”

²³Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

²⁴“Speak to the congregation, saying, ‘^aGet back from around the dwellings of Korah, Dathan and Abiram.’ ”

²⁵Then Moses arose and went to Dathan and Abiram, with the elders of Israel following him,

²⁶and he spoke to the congregation, saying, “^aDepart now from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing that belongs to them, ^bor you will be swept away in all their sin.”

²⁷So they got back from around the dwellings of Korah, Dathan and Abiram; and Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the doorway of their tents, along with their wives and ^atheir sons and their little ones.

²⁸Moses said, “By this you shall know that ^athe Lord has sent me to do all these deeds; for this is not ¹my doing.

²⁹“If these men die ¹the death of all men or ²if they suffer the ^afate of all men, then the Lord has not sent me.

³⁰“But ^aif the Lord ¹brings about an entirely new thing and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that is theirs, and they ^bdescend alive into ²Sheol, then you will understand that these men have spurned the Lord.”

³¹As he finished speaking all these words, the ground that was under them split open;

³²and ^athe earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, and their households, and ^ball the men who belonged to Korah with their possessions.

³³So they and all that belonged to them went down alive to ¹Sheol; and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly.

³⁴All Israel who were around them fled at their ¹outcry, for they said, “The earth may swallow us up!”

^35aFire also came forth from the Lord and consumed the ^btwo hundred and fifty men who were offering the incense.

³⁶¹Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

³⁷“Say to Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, that he shall take up the censers out of the midst of the ¹blaze, for they are holy; and you scatter the ²burning coals abroad.

³⁸“As for the censers of these ¹men who have sinned at the cost of their lives, let them be made into hammered sheets for a plating of the altar, since they did present them before the Lord and they are holy; and ^athey shall be for a sign to the sons of Israel.”

³⁹So Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers which the men who were burned had offered, and they hammered them out as a plating for the altar,

⁴⁰as a ¹reminder to the sons of Israel that ^ano ²layman who is not of the ³descendants of Aaron should come near ^bto burn incense before the Lord; so that he will not become like Korah and his company—just as the Lord had spoken to him ⁴through Moses.

Murmuring and Plague

⁴¹But on the next day all the congregation of the sons of Israel ^agrumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying, “You are the ones who have caused the death of the Lord’s people.”

⁴²It came about, however, when the congregation had assembled against Moses and Aaron, that they turned toward the tent of meeting, and behold, the cloud covered it and ^athe glory of the Lord appeared.

⁴³Then Moses and Aaron came to the front of the tent of meeting,

⁴⁴and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

⁴⁵“^1aGet away from among this congregation, that I may consume them instantly.” Then they fell on their faces.

⁴⁶Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer and put in it fire from the altar, and lay incense on it; then bring it quickly to the congregation and ^amake atonement for them, for ^bwrath has gone forth from the Lord, the plague has begun!”

⁴⁷Then Aaron took it as Moses had spoken, and ran into the midst of the assembly, for behold, the plague had begun among the people. ^aSo he put on the incense and made atonement for the people.

⁴⁸He took his stand between the dead and the living, so that the plague was checked.

^49aBut those who died by the plague were 14,700, besides those who ^bdied on account of Korah.

⁵⁰Then Aaron returned to Moses at the doorway of the tent of meeting, for the plague had been checked.

Chapter 17

Aaron’s Rod Buds

¹¹Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

²“Speak to the sons of Israel, and get from them a rod for each father’s household: twelve rods, from all their leaders according to their fathers’ households. You shall write each name on his rod,

³and write Aaron’s name on the rod of Levi; for there is one rod for the head of each of their fathers’ households.

⁴“You shall then deposit them in the tent of meeting in front of ^athe testimony, where I meet with you.

⁵“It will come about that the rod of ^athe man whom I choose will sprout. Thus I will lessen from upon Myself the grumblings of the sons of Israel, who are grumbling against you.”

⁶Moses therefore spoke to the sons of Israel, and all their leaders gave him a rod apiece, for each leader according to their fathers’ households, twelve rods, with the rod of Aaron among their rods.

⁷So Moses deposited the rods before the Lord in ^athe tent of the testimony.

⁸Now on the next day Moses went into the tent of the testimony; and behold, ^athe rod of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted and put forth buds and produced blossoms, and it bore ripe almonds.

⁹Moses then brought out all the rods from the presence of the Lord to all the sons of Israel; and they looked, and each man took his rod.

¹⁰But the Lord said to Moses, “Put back the rod of Aaron ^abefore the testimony ¹to be kept as a sign against the ^2brebels, that you may put an end to their grumblings against Me, so that they will not die.”

¹¹Thus Moses did; just as the Lord had commanded him, so he did.

¹²Then the sons of Israel spoke to Moses, saying, “^aBehold, we perish, we are dying, we are all dying!

¹³“^aEveryone who comes near, who comes near to the tabernacle of the Lord, must die. Are we to perish completely?”