^16:32and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, along with their households, and all Korah’s men, and all their goods. ^16:33They and all that they had went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed over them. So they perished from among the community. ^16:34All the Israelites⁴⁵ who were around them fled at their cry,⁴⁶ for they said, “What if⁴⁷ the earth swallows us too?” ^16:35Then a fire⁴⁸ went out from the Lord and devoured the 250 men who offered incense.

The Atonement for the Rebellion

^{16:36 (17:1)}⁴⁹ The Lord spoke to Moses: ^16:37“Tell⁵⁰ Eleazar son of Aaron the priest to pick up⁵¹ the censers out of the flame, for they are holy, and then scatter the coals of fire⁵² at a distance. ^16:38As for the censers of these men who sinned at the cost of their lives,⁵³ they must be made⁵⁴ into hammered sheets for covering the altar, because they presented them before the Lord and sanctified them. They will become a sign to the Israelites.” ^16:39So Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers presented by those who had been burned up, and they were hammered out as a covering for the altar. ^16:40It was a memorial for the Israelites, that no outsider who is not a descendant of⁵⁵ Aaron should approach to burn incense before the Lord, that he might not become like Korah and his company—just as the Lord had spoken by the authority⁵⁶ of Moses. ^16:41But on the next day the whole community of Israelites murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying, “You have killed the Lord’s people!”⁵⁷^16:42When the community assembled⁵⁸ against Moses and Aaron, they turned toward the tent of meeting—and⁵⁹ the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared. ^16:43Then Moses and Aaron stood before the tent of meeting.

^16:44The Lord spoke to Moses: ^16:45“Get away from this community, so that I can consume them in an instant!” But they threw themselves down with their faces to the ground.⁶⁰^16:46Then Moses said to Aaron, “Take the censer, put burning coals from the altar in it, place incense on it, and go quickly into the assembly and make atonement for them, for wrath has gone out from the Lord—the plague has begun!” ^16:47So Aaron did⁶¹ as Moses commanded⁶² and ran into the middle of the assembly, where the plague was just beginning among the people. So he placed incense on the coals and made atonement for the people. ^16:48He stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped. ^16:49Now 14,700 people died in the plague, in addition to those who died in the event with Korah. ^16:50Then Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and the plague was stopped.

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Footnotes

45 Heb “all Israel.”
46 Heb “voice.”
47 Heb “lest.”
48 For a discussion of the fire of the Lord, see J. C. H. Laughlin, “The Strange Fire of Nadab and Abihu,” 95 (1976): 559–65.
49 Beginning with 16:36, the verse numbers through 17:13 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (), with 16:36 = 17:1 , 16:37 = 17:2 , 17:1 = 17:16 , etc., through 17:13 = 17:28 . With 18:1 the verse numbers in the and are again the same. But in the English chap. 17 there are two parts: Aaron’s rod budding (1–9), and the rod preserved as a memorial (10–13). Both sections begin with the same formula.
50 Heb “say to.”
51 The verb is the jussive with a vav (ו) coming after the imperative; it may be subordinated to form a purpose clause (“that he may pick up”) or the object of the imperative.
52 The Hebrew text just has “fire,” but it would be hard to conceive of this action apart from the idea of coals of fire.
53 The expression is “in/by/against their life.” That they sinned against their life means that they brought ruin to themselves.
54 The form is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive. But there is no expressed subject for “and they shall make them,” and so it may be treated as a passive (“they shall [must] be made”).
55 Heb “from the seed of.”
56 Heb “hand.”
57 The whole congregation here is trying to project its guilt on Moses and Aaron. It was they and their rebellion that brought about the deaths, not Moses and Aaron. The Lord had punished the sinners. The fact that the leaders had organized a rebellion against the Lord was forgotten by these people. The point here is that the Israelites had learned nothing of spiritual value from the event.
58 The temporal clause is constructed with the temporal indicator (“and it was”) followed by the Niphal infinitive construct and preposition.
59 The verse uses וְהִנֵּה (véhinneh, “and behold”). This is the deictic particle—it is used to point things out, suddenly calling attention to them, as if the reader were there. The people turned to look toward the tent—and there is the cloud!
60 Heb “they fell on their faces.”
61 Heb “took.”
62 Or “had spoken” (); “had ordered.”