Numbers 16

_1-2Korah, Dathan, Abiram and On rebelled_against Moses. Korah was the son of Izhar, son of Kohath, son of Levi. Dathan and Abiram were the sons of Eliab, and On was the son of Peleth. They were descendants of Reuben. There were 250 Israelites, who were leaders of the people, with them. The congregation had chosen them as leaders and everyone knew them. ₃They came together to rebel_against Moses and Aaron and said to them: ‘You want to do everything yourselves. Everyone in the nation is holy and the Lord is with them. Why do you think that you are better and why do you want to be rulers over the people of God?’

₄When Moses heard this, he bowed down and lay with his face to the ground. ₅He told Korah and all the people with him: ‘Tomorrow the Lord will show us who belongs to Him and who is holy. He will show us whom He has chosen to bring offerings to Him. ₆Korah, you and everyone with you, this is what you must do: Tomorrow, you must take pans ₇and put burning coals in the pans. Then put incense on the coals and bring the pans to the altar. The Lord will choose who is holy and who may be priests. Korah, you and these Levites may not do what you want to do.’

₈Moses told Korah and the people with him: ‘Levites, listen to what I am saying. ₉The God of Israel has chosen you from all the Israelites to be his special people, to serve Him in the tent of the Lord for the people of God. This is a very important work, don't you think so? ₁₀Korah, the Lord told you and all the Levites with you to help the priests with their work. But now you want to become priests. ₁₁You must know that you and everyone with you are rebelling_against the Lord Himself, not against Aaron.’

₁₂Then Moses called Korah, Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, to come to him, but they said: ‘We will not come. ₁₃You have taken us away from fertile land to let us die here in the desert. What more do you want to do? Do you want us to suffer even more? ₁₄You did not take us to a fertile land and give us wheat_fields and vineyards that belong to us. Do you want to keep on deceiving these people? We will not come.’

₁₅Moses became very angry. He said to the Lord: ‘Please do not accept the offerings that they want to give You. I have taken nothing from them and I have not done anything wrong to them.’

₁₆Then Moses said to Korah: ‘Tomorrow you and Aaron and all the people with you will stand before the Lord. ₁₇Each of you must have a pan with incense in it to give to the Lord. Each of you must have your own pan. There will be 250 pans and you and Aaron must each have a pan.’

₁₈The next morning everyone took his pan with coals and put incense on it. They went to the entrance of the tent of the Lord and they stood there, with Moses and Aaron. ₁₉Korah called all the people of the congregation to come together at the entrance of the tent of the Lord. He made the congregation rebel_against Moses and Aaron. But then all the people saw the light of the glory of God, the King, who appeared to the people. ₂₀Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron: ₂₁‘Go away from these people. I want to kill them all immediately.’

₂₂But Moses and Aaron bowed down and fell with their faces to the ground and said: ‘O God, You give life to everyone. It is only a few who have sinned. Why are You angry with all your people?’

₂₃Then the Lord said to Moses: ₂₄‘Tell the people to go away from Korah, Dathan and Abiram's tents.’

₂₅Moses went to Dathan and Abiram and the leaders_of_Israel went with him. ₂₆Moses warned the people and said: ‘Please, go away from the tents of these bad people, and do not touch anything that belongs to them, so that you will not be destroyed because of the sin they have done.’

₂₇The people went away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. Dathan and Abiram came and stood at the doors of their tents with their wives and children and their other people. ₂₈Then Moses said: ‘Now you will know that the Lord has sent me to do all these things, and you will know that it was not I who decided them. ₂₉If these people die like people always die, and if the same happens to them that happens to all people, then God has not sent me. ₃₀But if the Lord makes something happen that is different, if the earth opens its mouth and swallows them with everything they have, if they go down alive into the underworld, then you will know that these people have sinned and turned away from God.’

₃₁After Moses said that, the ground under those people opened. ₃₂The earth opened its mouth and swallowed Korah and all the people with him and their families and everything that belonged to them. ₃₃They and everyone who belonged to them went down alive into the underworld. The ground covered them and they disappeared from the people of God. ₃₄All of the Israelites who were near them ran away when they heard the people shouting. The Israelites were afraid that the earth would swallow them too. ₃₅Then the Lord sent a fire and it burnt the 250 men who wanted to sacrifice the incense.

₃₆The Lord said to Moses: ₃₇‘Tell the priest Eleazar, son of Aaron, that he must pick up the pans and throw away the coals ₃₈because the pans of these sinners who have died are consecrated. You must beat the pans with a hammer until they are flat, and cover the altar with the plates. The men have taken the pans near the altar and that is why the pans are consecrated. The plates must be a sign for the Israelites so that they can remember this.’

₃₉Eleazar, the priest, took the bronze pans and he beat them with a hammer and made plates from them, then he covered the altar with the plates. ₄₀When the Israelites saw the plates, they had to remember that only the descendants of Aaron could come to the altar to burn incense. If someone else came to burn incense there, the same would happen to them as what happened to Korah and the people who were with him. The Lord told Moses to tell this to all of the Israelites.

₄₁The next day all the people from the congregation of the Israelites accused Moses and Aaron. They said: ‘You have killed the people of God.’

₄₂The Israelites rebelled_against Moses and Aaron, but when they looked at the tent of the Lord, they saw the cloud was over the tent and they saw the light that was shining from the Lord, the King. ₄₃When Moses and Aaron came to the tent, ₄₄the Lord said to Moses: ₄₅‘You must leave the congregation now. I want to punish them.’

But Moses and Aaron bowed down and fell with their faces to the ground. ₄₆Then Moses said to Aaron: ‘Take a pan and put some of the coals from the altar into the pan. Then put incense on the coals and go to the congregation and make atonement for them quickly. The Lord is very angry and some of the people have already died.’

₄₇Aaron did what Moses told him to do. Some people had already died, but Aaron ran among them and he burnt incense and made atonement for them. ₄₈While he was standing there among the people who had died and those who were still_alive, no more died. ₄₉There were 14 700 people who had died, as well as Korah and the people who were with him. ₅₀Aaron went back to Moses at the tent of the Lord when the disease stopped.