Numbers Lesson 7: Korach and authority

 Wandering in the Wilderness: Reflections from the book of Numbers: 3500 years to Covid-19

Lesson Seven (Chapters 15-17) 

To view this online as a video:  https://youtu.be/pLXu7ek7WHo 

Lesson Seven:  Korach and authority

A.               Introduction

1.     Greetings

Shalom to each of you here on the Zoom call and those who will watch this class lecture on YouTube later. Our usual program during these talks is to conduct an overview of the Bible section in the first 25 minutes and then let everyone on the call into a conversation about all the themes or ideas that I will bring up for the last 30 minutes or so. Further discussion happens even deeper in our D-Groups that happen over the next week or maybe some will conduct a D-Group on Shabbat. 

I’m going to recommend that you who are watching this on YouTube should read the next three Bible chapters before you listen/ watch the rest of this. They are chapters 15-17. Then press play on your machine and re-join us. Thanks. 

2.     Overview

[For those online, see this book overview from The Bible Project (https://youtu.be/tp5MIrMZFqo)] 

Some of you are new to our Zoom call and I especially welcome you, whether here in Australia or from overseas. You are muted at the beginning, but in a short while, our host will allow the usually lively conversations and questions. We are looking at the traveling of the Jewish people in the book of Numbers, titled in Hebrew “Bamidbar” or “In the wilderness.” This reminds me today as COVID continues to kill thousands of Americans every day in what is called a pandemic, or the Bible calls a plague. The world is still in a wilderness and God’s answers for us are found in the pages of this book.

There are three theses that pop up often in this book of the Bible:

1)    The goal of our wandering was another place: Israel

2)    God is to be central to our marching and in our living

3)    Authority of the Lord and his anointed is not to be missed

In today’s study, the third thesis is front and centre. It’s all about the authority of the Lord and you can’t miss it. Let’s get started.

B. Today’s study:

            1. New Normal

 Chapter 15. Verse 1-3, I love this. 

“God calls Moses (into his office) and says, speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you enter the land where you are to live, which I am giving you, ³ then make an offering by fire to the LORD.”

Look what God is saying. Even though you rejected me. Even though you went to war without my pillar of smoke and fire, and even though you adults will all die off in the wilderness, I say to the rest of you, to the sons of Israel, you will live, you will enter the land, you will have plenty, you will make an offering. Life will go on. There will be a tomorrow. And I’m giving you the Land. 

Listen, God is the God of promises, and the thing about God is that he can not only make promises, he will bring them to fulfillment. Awesome is our God!

He reiterates the promise of the Land and demonstrates his authority. And we who are wise will follow him and the two surveyors (Caleb and Joshua) and finally reject the majority report of the last chapter and the 10 spies who rallied the people into failure).

Then we learn about sacrifices and precision again. If you are keen to follow the Almighty, the mundane matters. Yes, you will find out about surveying and about the peoples of the land, you will learn about troubles and encounter difficulties, but here’s the deal, when you enter the land, you will have to do some regular and normal activities. You will perform sacrifices to God. You will have to fulfill vows and bring certain animals and certain products at certain times. Normalcy will follow all this wandering in the wilderness in which you currently find yourself. 

And that, dear friends, is key for us in this Covid-time. When the wilderness wandering of 2020 and into 2^nd quarter of 2021 is finally over, and things return or rather, migrate to the new normal, it will entail normal readings, normal offerings, normal wear-and-tear, normal conversations…the wilderness will be behind us. Toilet paper and flour will be available on grocery shelves every time. You won’t think about walking away from people on the footpaths. Life will be normal again. 

And God will be central and have commands which we need to embrace and follow. And we will be in our land again. The land of normal. At least the land of new normal. And we will adjust to what is, remembering that God is the Centre of it all. 

2.     The Gentiles with us

There are congregations around the globe of Jews and non-Jews who call themselves “Torah observant.” They like to keep Jewish holidays like Hanukkah in which we are speaking today, and Passover and they like to use Hebrew words in normal conversation like Ruach Hakodesh instead of Holy Spirit and Moshe for Moses and such. They often have what they call Davidic dance in their gatherings which always take place on Shabbat. And they make no distinction between Jews and Gentiles in regard to Torah observance, which more often than not, involves diet and days. What is true for the Jewish people viz. kosher laws also applies to the non-Jews among them. And they demonstrate that this is a requirement by citing our text today. Specifically verses 11-16, and more specifically verse 16. 

I want you to know that I’m fine with that, if a Gentile has joined the Jewish community and chooses kosher foods and 800 metre walks on Shabbat and such. What I’m never fine with, and here I think I agree with Rabbi Saul, is the imposition of religious rules on Gentiles which “neither we nor our fathers were able to bear.” (Acts 15.10) If a person wants to become Korean and eat bibimbap daily and speak Hangul, that’s just fine with me. If that person wants all of us to be Koreans and we all have to eat his diet and learn his language; that’s another story altogether. 

Paul wrote the Romans (chapter 14) ‘“One person regards one day above another; another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind.”

Diet and days… those are often the milestones or benchmarks by which some evaluate another person’s spirituality. Those, however, according to the apostle, are out-of-bounds. For instance, many of you will know some folks who will celebrate next Friday the holiday of Christmas. There are hundreds of traditions surrounding the holiday including foods and trees, singing and worship services, clothing to wear and purchases to make to satisfy the requirements of the festivities. But of course, none of those are from either Mt Sinai or the Bible itself. Some will say that the holiday is pagan in its origin and is to be resisted in all its forms and traditions. What does Paul say to those folks? 

“One person regards one day above another; another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind.”

We have to let each person and each family, and each community exercise their right to regard or disregard as they have been persuaded in their own heart and mind. 

3.     Unintentional sinning

Now the Bible moves us into the arena of unintentional sinning. (15.22ff). It’s plural first, then singular. 22-26 has to do with the whole congregation, whereas 27-31 is about a single person sinning inadvertently I like what Rudd says on this:

“The author’s purpose in discussing inadvertent sin at this point is not hard to discover. Faith in the ultimate purpose of God for Israel and the land is one thing (vv 1–21), but Israel must be ready to reckon with certain hard realities. There are indeed sacrifices for sins of inadvertence, but there is no sacrifice for sin “with a high hand”—defiant and deliberate sin. The rejection of the land, and the presumptuousness which led to the debacle at Hormah (Num 14) both fall within this category. Faith in the good purpose of God cannot be allowed to become a form of complacency or presumptuousness. There are further illustrations of defiant and deliberate sin to follow, in Num 16–17. If these hard realities are unrecognized by Israel, then the judgment of God is both appropriate and unavoidable.”

As I have stated previously, the Lord is making a way for exceptional conversation and living. When we fail, and we will, God has to make a way for us to be in communion with him. Isn’t that awesome? 

4.     The gathering of sticks (32-36) and Tzitzit (37-41)

I read about this unnamed man who gathered sticks and am scandalized. What? There had not been a previous injunction against stick gathering and yet this man is sentenced to death for it. So, the question has to be asked—on what basis is Moses killing this sinner? 

Exodus 35.3 says “You shall not kindle a fire in any of your dwellings on the sabbath day.”

As we will later learn in law and every legal code of every society going forward, laws are derived from previous decisions and previous codification. Thus, if this wood gatherer knew that no fire was to be kindled on Shabbat, then the gathering of wood, which would have been for this activity, should have been avoided as well. 

Think back to the Garden of Eden. God told Adam (not Eve) not to eat from the tree “in the middle of the Garden lest you die” (Genesis 2.17). Now we assume that Adam told Eve and then we read that Eve finds herself near the wrong tree. She’s intriguing and teasing herself, to be sure. What’s the closest I can get without crossing the sin barricade? 

Sure enough, the serpent tells her that if she eats or touches the tree, she won’t die. He was right, of course, since the rule from heaven didn’t include not touching the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Even so, she did listen to the serpent, did touch and eat from the tree, and of course, did die. 

There is a hedge about Torah that the rabbis have learned and taught. Dan Juster from Tikkun Ministries, said, “The famous rabbinical maxim to “build a fence around the law” was originally published in the Talmudic tract, Pirkey Avot (Ethics of the Fathers). The basic thinking is as follows: We do not want to violate the Torah. If we create extra laws to protect the Torah, and we obey those extra laws, then we will not come close to disobeying the Torah. Numerous Rabbinical requirements can be understood as attempts to protect the Torah in this way.”

Halacha is Jewish law, derived first from Mt Sinai and then from other rulings of the generations before. This story is a primary evidence of that enacted in the days of the wilderness and still being employed in our day.

Should we drive on Shabbat or ride a lift? The halacha says, “don’t touch the button.”

Moses sought God. Please don’t miss this. Seeking God is the way to make decisions about your future, about your manner of life, about your friends and employment, about so many things. Moses makes that a reality in his life and is an example for us as well. When God answered, Moses did what he was told. He was a man under Authority.

Similarly, the fringes that Jewish men are to wear on their outer garment is a sign of authority and a reminder of the Torah of Moses. When Jewish men pass each other on the footpath, in the Westfield, at the footy, we should see that we are men under authority and remind ourselves of this. 

 Tzitzit are not about the length, the number, the details of size, but rather about being under God’s ordinance and about reminding ourselves of such. Like this ring doesn’t make me married, but it serves another purpose—it tells myself and others around me that I am. I must act differently. I’m taken. They show this in the movies when men go wayward and wander into adultery, that they take off their ring, as if that changes the reality. 

Tzitzit are designed to remind ourselves and others we meet that we belong to a Higher Authority and his word matters.

5.     Rebellion in the ranks and God’s authority demonstrated (chapter 16-17)

Korach is introduced to us as a noble man who is able to gather not sticks, but 250 men of renown from the other tribes. His is a long genealogy listed. He is a Levite from Kohath, like Moses and Aaron were.

They sound right in their statement of verse 3. “All the congregation are holy.” Isn’t this what the Lord wants for all Israel? But keep listening to the opening gambit by Korah—why do you exalt yourselves? In other words, Korah was saying “You aren’t the boss of me!” and he jealous; he wasn’t content to be a Levite and serve both the people and the priests; he wanted to be a priest. Again, not a bad thing to aspire to a role of service, but if it’s for personal gain and personal exaltation—not a good thing. 

Dathan and Abiram are invited to join the community in humility again, but they reject Moses’ offer with degrading comment. Moses, you failed. Moses, you promised. Moses, you didn’t deliver and now we are going to die out here.  You are a failure. You are the problem. You have to go!

Moses sets up a ‘show and tell’ moment using the pans of incense as a heavenly demonstration of who is the anointed (authority) and should be heeded. The earth ends up swallowing the 250, and Moses tells Aaron that his people (the priests) should gather the pans of incense after the very specific earthquake, the most interesting supralocal hole-in-the-ground.

 

         “14. הַעֵינֵי הָאֲנָשִֹׁים הָהֵם תְּנַקֵר “Will you continue to mislead these men?” The Hebrew root speaks literally of “boring out the eyes” (cf. 1 Sam 11:2; Prov 30:17). The meaning appears to be metaphorical (for a literal use cf. Judg 16:21). In Deut 16:19 taking a bribe blinds the eyes, and something similar is probably intended here (A. Dillmann, Numeri, 92; B. Baentsch, Numeri, 546; G. B. Gray, Numbers, 201; A. H. McNeile, Numbers, 87; L. E. Binns, Numbers, 112; M. Noth, Numbers, 125–26; N. H. Snaith, Numbers, 257; J. Sturdy, Numbers, 117). Moses is a deceiver, beguiling the people with false promises. Gray (Numbers, 201) draws attention to the modern expression—“to throw dust in the eyes.” (Rudd)

The reality is clear. So, what does Moses say? Move out of the way, everyone… lightning is going to hit. (16.24) Verse 19 has the glory of God sitting in judgment, which is a new way for many of us to see this, you know? 

            The Lord hears the announcement of his messenger and in one fell swoop, Korah and the 250 are swallowed up into Sheol, or OT hell. (16.31) They are the only ones in the Bible who descend in such a way. Their ending is clear—their judgment is clear. What caused it is clear – they sought to enact a coup against the godly leadership and were decimated as a result. Authority matters. 

            The censers were collected as instructed by Aaron and his priests and they were beaten into a plating for the altar as a permanent reminder both of the authority of the priests and the penalty for casting that authority aside.

            And if you want to see that in the next episode, it’s equally clear. Aaron and his family are the chosen. But the people grumbled again, and God said, “move” as he was going to judge the complainers again. This time Moses told Aaron to use the pans, and Aaron used the pans of incense as an intercession for the people, and Aaron saved the day.

            God sometimes is negotiable; sometimes he is not. The issue is that we should ever seek him. I love that the leaders didn’t say, “Great, I agree. Get rid of these people.” Although Moses might say that at times (11.10ff), he and his brother interceded here. 

            If you are a leader, then your job for your people, those oxen whom you lead (Prov. 14.4), is to pray for them. 

            Then look at chapter 17. The same thing happens. The complaints and bother from the people. After 14,000 Jews died in the grumbling in the previous chapter. God is going to set up the ‘show and tell’ moment with sticks. God is going to attest to the authority he has established and make it clear as clear can be. 

            The purpose? “Thus, I will lessen from upon Myself the grumblings of the sons of Israel, who are grumbling against you.” (17.5)

            The leaders of each tribe bring a stick, set it in place at the Ohel Mo’ed with the leader’s name written on it. God will cause the anointed to sprout, and sure enough, Aaron’s rod budded. And it even produced almonds already!

            Aaron’s rod, by the way, remained in the Ark of the Covenant as a perpetual reminder of this day and this episode. God had demonstrated his authority and his representatives who would carry that authority among the Jewish people. 

            Think about Yeshua, who similarly is regularly challenged again and again in the record of the Newer Testament, and who demonstrates his authority with miracle and forgiveness and miracle and power, and God demonstrates that he is with Yeshua, but some folks just knock it back, and knock him back again and again. 

            Yeshua like Aaron prays as an intercessor for the people. “Father forgive them; they do not know what they are doing!” he cried from the cross. (Luke 23.34)

            God’s authority is something not to miss. It’s clear to those with eyes to see. Don’t be a mocker.

Invitation

Dear friends, if you have never asked Yeshua to be your Saviour, today on this last day of Hanukkah 5781, on these days of dedication, would you choose to believe the Lord of life? Would you choose to believe in the One whom God sent? Will you choose to believe the One who on this day, Hanukkah nearly 2,000 years ago, Yeshua stood in the Portico of Solomon in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. He declared “I and the Father are one.” (John 10.30) Some folks picked up stones to stone him because Yeshua was declaring himself equal with the Father. Whose report will you believe? 

If you want to receive Yeshua as your messiah and boss, and saviour, then pray with me just now. Ask him to save and deliver you. Repent of your sins and accept his love and mercy and forgiveness. That’s it. And then let us know of your profession by writing straightaway, won’t you? Bob@JewsforJesus.org.au We’d love to hear from you.

 

Conclusion

We will not be having a class the next two Fridays. But afterwards, please stay with us during these next 8 weeks and learn with the others how you can stay on track in 2021 and beyond. And in the D-Groups, you will work this out with others, as a community on the march. If you have not yet joined a weekly Discipleship Group, please re-consider that and join us as we dig deeper.

I hope to see you after two weeks on Friday 10 am Sydney time 8^th of January 2021, as we study chapters 18, 19 and 20, and learn about priests again and even a large red cow.  Hope to see you then, and until then, have a happy new year, a merry Messiah-mas, and please guard your lips from kvetching, learn to thank God, believe even if the report is the minority report, and shout Hallelujah to the Lord of life for all he has done for us all. Shabbat shalom!

 

The three theses:

4)    The goal of our wandering was another place: Israel

5)    God is to be central to our marching and in our living

6)    Authority of the Lord and his anointed is not to be missed

 

 

Bibliography

Budd, Philip, Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 5. Numbers. Word, Waco, 1984.

Hertz, Rabbi Dr JH, The Pentateuch and Haftorahs, Soncino, London, 1978. 

Pakula, Martin, Numbers: Homeward Bound, Aquilla Press, Sydney, 2006.

Weirsbe, Warren. Be Counted. David C. Cook Publishing, Colorado Springs,1999.

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D-Groups for this week

1)             Tuesday 11 am Sydney time. Led by James Howse

2)             Monday 10 am Sydney time, led by Rebekah Bronn

3)             Thursday 7 pm, Sydney time, led by James White

(Contact our office for zoom details)

If you’d like to host a D-Group either online or in person, please contact bob@jewsforjesus.org.au for further details. It’s time to step up. Ponder this—who will be in your D-Group?

15 Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you enter the land where you are going to live, which I am giving you, ³ and you make an offering by fire to the Lord, a burnt offering or a sacrifice to fulfill a special vow, or as a voluntary offering or at your appointed times, to make a soothing aroma to the Lord from the herd or from the flock, ⁴ then the one who presents his offering shall present to the Lord a grain offering of a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a fourth of a hin of oil, ⁵ and you shall prepare wine for the drink offering, a fourth of a hin, with the burnt offering or for the sacrifice, for each lamb. ⁶ Or for a ram you shall prepare as a grain offering two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a third of a hin of oil; ⁷ and for the drink offering you shall offer a third of a hin of wine as a soothing aroma to the Lord. ⁸ And when you prepare a bull as a burnt offering or a sacrifice, to fulfill a special vow, or for peace offerings to the Lord, ⁹ then you shall offer with the bull a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with half a hin of oil; ¹⁰ and you shall offer as the drink offering half a hin of wine as an offering by fire, as a soothing aroma to the Lord.

¹¹ ‘This is how it shall be done for each ox, or for each ram, or for each of the male lambs, or of the goats. ¹² According to the number that you prepare, so you shall do for each one according to their number.¹³ Everyone who is a native shall do these things in this way, in presenting an offering by fire as a soothing aroma to the Lord.

Law for the Stranger

¹⁴ Now if a stranger resides among you, or one who may be among you throughout your generations, and he wants to make an offering by fire, as a soothing aroma to the Lord, just as you do so shall he do. ¹⁵ As for the assembly, there shall be one statute for you and for the stranger who resides among you, a permanent statute throughout your generations; as you are, so shall the stranger be before the Lord. ¹⁶ There is to be one law and one ordinance for you and for the stranger who resides with you.’”

¹⁷ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁸ “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you enter the land where I am bringing you, ¹⁹ then it shall be, that when you eat from the food of the land, you shall lift up an offering to the Lord. ²⁰ Of the first of your dough you shall lift up a loaf as an ^[j]offering; as an offering of the threshing floor, so you shall lift it up.²¹ From the first of your dough you shall give to the Lord an offering throughout your generations.

²² ‘But when you unintentionally do wrong and fail to comply with all these commandments which the Lord has spoken to Moses, ²³ that is, all that the Lord has commanded you ^[o]through Moses from the day that the Lord gave commandments and onward, throughout your generations,²⁴ then it shall be, if it is done unintentionally, ^[p]without the knowledge of the congregation, that all the congregation shall offer one bull as a burnt offering, as a soothing aroma to the Lord, with its grain offering and its drink offering, according to the ordinance, and one male goat as a sin offering. ²⁵ Then the priest shall make atonement for all the congregation of the sons of Israel, and they will be forgiven; for it was an unintentional wrong, and they have brought their offering, an offering by fire to the Lord, and their sin offering before the Lord, for their unintentional wrong. ²⁶ So all the congregation of the sons of Israel will be forgiven, as well as the stranger who resides among them, for guilt was attributed to all the people through an unintentional wrong.

²⁷ ‘Also, if one person sins unintentionally, then he shall offer a one-year-old female goat as a sin offering. ²⁸ And the priest shall make atonement before the Lord for the person who goes astray by an unintentional sin, making atonement for him ^[q]so that he may be forgiven. ²⁹ You shall have one law for the native among the sons of Israel and for the stranger who resides among them, for one who does anything wrong unintentionally. ³⁰ But the person who does wrong ^[r]defiantly, whether he is a native or a stranger, that one is blaspheming the Lord; and that person shall be cut off from among his people. ³¹ Since he has despised the word of the Lord and has broken His commandment, that person shall be completely cut off; his ^[s]guilt will be on him.’”

Sabbath-breaking Punished

³² Now while the sons of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day. ³³ And those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to all the congregation; ³⁴ and they placed him in custody, because it had not been decided what should be done to him. ³⁵ Then the Lord said to Moses, “The man must be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.”³⁶ So all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him ^[t]to death with stones, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

³⁷ The Lord also spoke to Moses, saying, ³⁸ “Speak to the sons of Israel and tell them that they shall make for themselves tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and that they shall put on the tassel of each corner a violet thread. ³⁹ It shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord, so that you will do them and not follow your own heart and your own eyes, which led you to prostitute yourselves, ⁴⁰ so that you will remember and do all My commandments and be holy to your God. ⁴¹ I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt to be your God; I am the Lord your God.”

16 Now Korah the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men, ² and they stood before Moses, ^[a]together with some of the sons of Israel, 250 leaders of the congregation ^[b]chosen in the assembly, men of renown. ³ They assembled together against Moses and Aaron, and said to them, “^[c]You have gone far enough! For all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is in their midst; so why do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?”

⁴ When Moses heard this, he fell on his face; ⁵ and he spoke to Korah and all his group, saying, “Tomorrow morning the Lord will make known who is His, and who is holy, and will bring that one near to Himself; indeed, the one whom He will choose, He will bring near to Himself. ⁶ Do this: take censers for yourselves, Korah and ^[d]your whole group, ⁷ and put fire in them, and place incense upon them in the presence of the Lord tomorrow; and the man whom the Lord chooses shall be the one who is holy. ^[e]You have gone far enough, you sons of Levi!”

⁸ Then Moses said to Korah, “Hear now, you sons of Levi: ⁹ Is it too small an honor for you that the God of Israel has singled you out from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to Himself, to perform the service of the tabernacle of the Lord, and to stand before the congregation to minister to them; ¹⁰ and that He has brought you near, Korah, and all your brothers, sons of Levi, with you? But are you seeking the priesthood as well? ¹¹ Therefore you and your whole group are the ones gathered together against the Lord; but as for Aaron, ^[f]who is he, that you grumble against him?”

¹² Then Moses sent ^[g]a summons to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab; but they said, “We will not come up. ¹³ Is it ^[h]not enough that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to have us die in the wilderness, but you would also appoint yourself as master over us?¹⁴ Indeed, you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor have you given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Would you gouge out the eyes of ^[i]these men? We will not come up!”

¹⁵ Then Moses became very angry and said to the Lord, “Pay no attention to their offering! I have not taken a single donkey from them, nor have I done harm to any of them.” ¹⁶ Moses said to Korah, “You and all your group be present before the Lord tomorrow, you and they along with Aaron.¹⁷ And each of you take his censer and put incense on ^[j]it, and each of you bring his censer before the Lord, 250 censers; also you and Aaron shall each bring his censer.” ¹⁸ So they took, each one his own censer, and put fire on it, and placed incense on it; and they stood at the entrance of the tent of meeting, with Moses and Aaron. ¹⁹ So Korah assembled all the congregation against them at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And the glory of the Lord appeared to all the congregation.

²⁰ Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, ²¹ “Separate yourselves from among this congregation, so that I may consume them instantly.” ²² But they fell on their faces and said, “God, the God of the spirits of humanity, when one person sins, will You be angry with the entire congregation?”

²³ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁴ “Speak to the congregation, saying, ‘Get away from the areas around the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.’”

²⁵ Then Moses arose and went to Dathan and Abiram, with the elders of Israel following him, ²⁶ and he spoke to the congregation, saying, “Get away now from the tents of these wicked men, and do not touch anything that belongs to them, or you will be swept away in all their sin!” ²⁷ So they moved away from the areas around the ^[o]tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram; and Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the entrances of their tents, along with their wives, their sons, and their little ones. ²⁸ Then Moses said, “By this you shall know that the Lord has sent me to do all these deeds; for it is not ^[p]my doing. ²⁹ If these men die ^[q]the death of all mankind, or ^[r]if they suffer the fate of all mankind, then the Lord has not sent me. ³⁰ But if the Lord ^[s]brings about an entirely new thing and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them with everything that is theirs, and they descend alive into ^[t]Sheol, then you will know that these men have been disrespectful to the Lord.”

³¹ And as he finished speaking all these words, the ground that was under them split open; ³² and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, and all the people who belonged to Korah with all their possessions. ³³ So they and all that belonged to them went down alive to Sheol; and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly. ³⁴ Then all Israel who were around them fled at their outcry, for they said, “The earth might swallow us!” ³⁵ Fire also came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men who were offering the incense.

³⁶ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ³⁷ “Tell Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, that he shall pick up the censers from the midst of the burned area, because they are holy; and you are to scatter the ^[x]burning coals further away. ³⁸ As for the censers of these ^[y]men who have sinned at the cost of their own lives, have them made into hammered sheets as plating for the altar, since they did present them before the Lord and they are holy; and they shall ^[z]serve as a sign to the sons of Israel.” ³⁹ So the priest Eleazar took the bronze censers which the men who were burned had offered, and they hammered them out as plating for the altar, ⁴⁰ as a reminder to the sons of Israel so that no layman, anyone who was not of the descendants of Aaron, would approach to burn incense before the Lord; then he would not become like Korah and his group—just as the Lord had spoken to him through Moses.

Murmuring and Plague

⁴¹ But on the next day all the congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying, “You are the ones who have caused the death of the Lord’s people!” ⁴² It 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 the glory of the Lord appeared. ⁴³ Then Moses and Aaron came to the front of the tent of meeting, ⁴⁴ and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ⁴⁵ “Get away from among this congregation so that I may consume them instantly.” Then they fell on their faces. ⁴⁶ And Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer and put fire in it from the altar, and place incense on it; then bring it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them, for wrath has gone out from the Lord, the plague has begun!” ⁴⁷ Then Aaron took it just as Moses had spoken, and he ran into the midst of the assembly; and behold, the plague had begun among the people. So he put on the incense and made atonement for the people. ⁴⁸ And he took his stand between the dead and the living, so that the plague was brought to a halt. ⁴⁹ But those who died by the plague were 14,700 in number, besides those who died on account of Korah. ⁵⁰ Then Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the tent of meeting, for the plague had been brought to a halt.

17 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to the sons of Israel, and obtain from them a staff for each father’s household: twelve staffs, from all their leaders for their fathers’ households. You shall write each man’s name on his staff, ³ and write Aaron’s name on the staff of Levi; for there is to be one staff for the head of each of their fathers’ households.⁴ You shall then leave them in the tent of meeting in front of the testimony, where I meet with you. ⁵ And it will come about that the staff of the man whom I choose will sprout. So I will relieve Myself of the grumblings of the sons of Israel, who are grumbling against you.” ⁶ So Moses spoke to the sons of Israel, and all their leaders gave him a staff, one for each leader, for their fathers’ households, twelve staffs in all, with the staff of Aaron among their staffs. ⁷ Then Moses left the staffs before the Lord in the tent of the testimony.

⁸ Now on the next day Moses went into the tent of the testimony; and behold, Aaron’s staff for the house of Levi had sprouted and produced buds and bloomed with blossoms, and it yielded ripe almonds. ⁹ Moses then brought out all the staffs from the presence of the Lord to all the sons of Israel; and they looked, and each man took his staff. ¹⁰ But the Lord said to Moses, “Put the staff of Aaron back in front of the testimony to be kept as a sign against the rebels, so that you may put an end to their grumblings against Me and they do not die.” ¹¹ Moses did so; just as the Lord had commanded him, so he did.

¹² Then the sons of Israel spoke to Moses, saying, “Behold, we are passing away, we are perishing, we are all perishing! ¹³ Everyone who comes near, who comes near to the tabernacle of the Lord, must die. Are we to perish completely?”