³⁶Then the Lord said to Moses, ³⁷“Tell Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest to take up the censers out of the blaze; then scatter the fire far and wide. For they are holy, ³⁸the censers of these men who have sinned at the cost of their lives; so let them be made into hammered plates as a covering for the altar, for they offered them before the Lord; therefore they are holy. Thus they shall be a sign to the people of Israel.” ³⁹So Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers, which those who were burned had offered; and they were hammered out as a covering for the altar, ⁴⁰to be a reminder to the people of Israel, so that no one who is not a priest, who is not of the descendants of Aaron, should draw near to burn incense before the Lord, lest he become as Korah and as his company—as the Lord said to Eleazar through Moses.

⁴¹But on the morrow all the congregation of the people of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, “You have killed the people of the Lord.” ⁴²And when the congregation had assembled against Moses and against Aaron, they turned toward the tent of meeting; and behold, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared. ⁴³And Moses and Aaron came to the front of the tent of meeting, ⁴⁴and the Lord said to Moses, ⁴⁵“Get away from the midst of this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.” And they fell on their faces. ⁴⁶And Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and lay incense on it, and carry it quickly to the congregation, and make atonement for them; for wrath has gone forth from the Lord, the plague has begun.” ⁴⁷So Aaron took it as Moses said, and ran into the midst of the assembly; and behold, the plague had already begun among the people; and he put on the incense, and made atonement for the people. ⁴⁸And he stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stopped. ⁴⁹Now those who died by the plague were fourteen thousand seven hundred, besides those who died in the affair of Korah. ⁵⁰And Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the tent of meeting, when the plague was stopped.

Chapter 17

¹The Lord said to Moses, ²“Speak to the people of Israel, and get from them rods, one for each fathers’ house, from all their leaders according to their fathers’ houses, twelve rods. Write each man’s name upon his rod, ³and write Aaron’s name upon the rod of Levi. For there shall be one rod for the head of each fathers’ house. ⁴Then you shall deposit them in the tent of meeting before the testimony, where I meet with you. ⁵And the rod of the man whom I choose shall sprout; thus I will make to cease from me the murmurings of the people of Israel, which they murmur against you.” ⁶Moses spoke to the people of Israel; and all their leaders gave him rods, one for each leader, according to their fathers’ houses, twelve rods; and the rod of Aaron was among their rods. ⁷And Moses deposited the rods before the Lord in the tent of the testimony.

⁸And on the morrow Moses went into the tent of the testimony; and behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted and put forth buds, and produced blossoms, and it bore ripe almonds. ⁹Then Moses brought out all the rods from before the Lord to all the people of Israel; and they looked, and each man took his rod. ¹⁰And the Lord said to Moses, “Put back the rod of Aaron before the testimony, to be kept as a sign for the rebels, that you may make an end of their murmurings against me, lest they die.” ¹¹Thus did Moses; as the Lord commanded him, so he did.

¹²And the people of Israel said to Moses, “Behold, we perish, we are undone, we are all undone. ¹³Every one who comes near, who comes near to the tabernacle of the Lord, shall die. Are we all to perish?”

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