Numbers 16
16
1And Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, made bold, and with him Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, the sons of Reuben; 2and they rose up against Moses, with two hundred and fifty men of the children of Israel, princes of the assembly, summoned to the council, men of renown; 3and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said to them, It is enough; for all the assembly, all of them are holy, and Jehovah is among them; and why do ye lift up yourselves above the congregation of Jehovah? 4When Moses heard this, he fell on his face. 5And he spoke to Korah and to all his band, saying, Even to-morrow will Jehovah make known who is his, and who is holy; and he will cause him to come near to him; and him whom he has chosen, him will he cause to come near to him. 6This do: take you censers, Korah, and all his band, 7and put fire therein, and lay incense thereon before Jehovah to-morrow; and it shall be that the man whom Jehovah doth choose, he shall be holy. It is enough, ye sons of Levi! 8And Moses said to Korah, Hear, I pray you, ye sons of Levi! 9Is it too little for you, that the God#GodHebrew: Elohim of Israel has separated you from the assembly of Israel, to bring you near to himself to do the work of the tabernacle of Jehovah, and to stand before the assembly to minister to them? 10— that he has brought thee near, and all thy brethren the sons of Levi with thee; and seek ye now the priesthood also? 11For which cause thou and all thy band are banded together against Jehovah; and Aaron, who is he that ye murmur against him?
12And Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab; but they said, We will not come up! 13Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, that thou must make thyself altogether a ruler over us? 14Moreover, thou hast not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, or given us inheritance of fields and vineyards: wilt thou put out the eyes of these men? we will not come up! 15Then Moses was very wroth, and said to Jehovah, Have no regard to their oblation: not one ass have I taken from them, neither have I hurt one of them. 16And Moses said to Korah, Be thou and all thy band before Jehovah, thou, and they, and Aaron, to-morrow. 17And take each his censer, and put incense thereon, and present before Jehovah every man his censer, two hundred and fifty censers; and thou, and Aaron, each his censer. 18And they took each his censer, and put fire on them, and laid incense thereon, and stood before the entrance to the tent of meeting, as well as Moses and Aaron. 19And Korah gathered the whole assembly against them to the entrance of the tent of meeting. And the glory of Jehovah appeared to all the assembly. 20And Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 21Separate yourselves from the midst of this assembly, and I will consume them in a moment. 22And they fell on their faces, and said, O ·God#GodHebrew: El the God#GodHebrew: Elohim of the spirits of all flesh! shall one man sin, and wilt thou be wroth with the whole assembly?
23And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, 24Speak unto the assembly, saying, Get you up from about the habitation of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. 25And Moses rose up and went to Dathan and Abiram; and the elders of Israel followed him. 26And he spoke to the assembly, saying, Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye perish in all their sins. 27And they got up from the habitation of Koran, Dathan, and Abiram, on every side. And Dathan and Abiram came out, and stood in the entrance of their tents, and their wives, and their sons, and their little ones. 28And Moses said, Hereby ye shall know that Jehovah has sent me to do all these deeds, for they are not out of my own heart: 29if these men die as all men die, and are visited with the visitation of all men, Jehovah has not sent me; 30but if Jehovah make a new thing, and the ground open its mouth, and swallow them up, and all that they have, and they go down alive into Sheol, then ye shall know that these men have despised Jehovah. 31And it came to pass when he had ended speaking all these words, that the ground clave apart that was under them. 32And the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed them up, and their households, and all the men that belonged to Korah, and all their property. 33And they went down, they and all that they had, alive into Sheol, and the earth covered them; and they perished from among the congregation. 34And all Israel that were round about them fled at their cry; for they said, Lest the earth swallow us up!
35And there came out a fire from Jehovah, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that had presented incense. 36And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, 37Speak to Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, that he take up the censers out of the burning; and scatter the fire afar; for they are hallowed, 38the censers of these sinners who have forfeited their life; and they shall make them into broad plates for the covering of the altar; for they presented them before Jehovah, therefore they are hallowed; and they shall be a sign unto the children of Israel. 39And Eleazar the priest took the copper censers, which they that were burnt had presented; and they were made broad plates for a covering of the altar: 40as a memorial to the children of Israel, that no stranger who is not of the seed of Aaron come near to burn incense before Jehovah, that he be not as Korah, and as his band, — as Jehovah had said to him through Moses.
41And the whole assembly of the children of Israel murmured on the morrow against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of Jehovah. 42And it came to pass, when the assembly was gathered together against Moses and against Aaron, that they looked toward the tent of meeting, and behold, the cloud covered it, and the glory of Jehovah appeared. 43And Moses and Aaron went before the tent of meeting. 44And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, 45Get you up from the midst of this assembly, and I will consume them in a moment. And they fell on their faces. 46And Moses said to Aaron, Take the censer, and put fire thereon from off the altar, and lay on incense, and carry it quickly to the assembly, and make atonement for them; for there is wrath gone out from Jehovah: the plague is begun. 47And Aaron took as Moses had said, and ran into the midst of the congregation; and behold, the plague had begun among the people; and he put on incense, and made atonement for the people. 48And he stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed. 49Now they that died in the plague were fourteen thousand seven hundred, besides them that had died because of the matter of Korah. 50And Aaron returned to Moses to the entrance of the tent of meeting; and the plague was stayed.
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Numbers 16: DARBY
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First published in 1890. This edition is maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.
Numbers 16
16
Korah, Dathan, and Abiram Lead a Rebellion
1-2 #
Si 45.18-20. #Jd 11. Korah son of Izhar was a Levite from the Kohathite clan. One day he called together Dathan, Abiram, and On#16.1,2 Dathan, Abiram, and On: Hebrew “Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth.” from the Reuben tribe, and the four of them decided to rebel against Moses. So they asked 250 respected Israelite leaders for their support, and together they went to Moses 3and Aaron and said, “Why do you think you're so much better than everyone else? We're part of the Lord's holy people, and he's with all of us. What makes you think you're the only ones in charge?”
4When Moses heard this, he knelt down to pray.#16.4 he knelt down to pray: Or “he fell to his knees in sorrow.” 5Then he said to Korah and his followers:
Tomorrow morning the Lord will show us the person he has chosen to be his priest, and that man will faithfully serve him.
6-7Korah, here is what you and your followers must do: Get some fire pans, fill them with coals and incense, and place them near the sacred tent. And the man the Lord chooses will be his priest.#16.6,7 Get some fire pans … his priest: Only priests could offer incense at the sacred altar; anyone else who tried would be killed. In this case, the man who lived would be the one the Lord had chosen. Korah, this time you Levites have gone too far!
8-9You know that the God of Israel has chosen you Levites from all Israel to serve him by being in charge of the sacred tent and by helping the community to worship in the proper way. What more do you want? 10The Lord has given you a special responsibility, and now, Korah, you think you should also be his priest. 11You and your followers have rebelled against the Lord, not against Aaron.
12Then Moses sent for Dathan and Abiram, but they sent back this message: “We won't come! 13It's bad enough that you took us from our rich farmland in Egypt to let us die here in the desert. Now you also want to boss us around! 14You keep promising us rich farmlands with fertile fields and vineyards—but where are they? Stop trying to trick these people. No, we won't come to see you.”
15Moses was very angry and said to the Lord, “Don't listen to these men! I haven't done anything wrong to them. I haven't taken as much as a donkey.”
16Then he said to Korah, “Tomorrow you and your followers must go with Aaron to the Lord's sacred tent. 17Each of you take along your fire pan with incense in it and offer the incense to the Lord.”
18The next day the men placed incense and coals in their fire pans and stood with Moses and Aaron at the entrance to the sacred tent. 19Meanwhile, Korah had convinced the rest of the Israelites to rebel against their two leaders.
When that happened, the Lord appeared in all his glory 20and said to Moses and Aaron, 21“Get away from the rest of the Israelites so I can kill them at once!”
22But the two men bowed down and prayed, “Our God, you gave these people life. Why would you punish everyone here when only one man has sinned?”
23The Lord answered Moses, 24“Tell the people to stay away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.”
25Moses walked over to Dathan and Abiram, and the other leaders of Israel followed. 26Then Moses warned the people, “Get away from the tents of these sinful men! Don't touch anything that belongs to them or you'll be wiped out.” 27So everyone moved away from those tents, except Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and their families.
28Moses said to the crowd, “The Lord has chosen me and told me to do these things—it wasn't my idea. And here's how you will know: 29If these men die a natural death, it means the Lord hasn't chosen me. 30But suppose the Lord does something that has never been done before. For example, what if a huge crack appears in the ground, and these men and their families fall into it and are buried alive, together with everything they own? Then you will know they have turned their backs on the Lord!”
31As soon as Moses said this, the ground under the men opened up 32-33and swallowed them alive, together with their families and everything they owned. Then the ground closed back up, and they were gone.
34The rest of the Israelites heard their screams, so they ran off, shouting, “We don't want that to happen to us!”
35Suddenly the Lord sent a fire that burned up the 250 men who had offered incense to him.
36Then the Lord said to Moses, 37“Tell Aaron's son Eleazar to take the fire pans from the smoldering fire and scatter the coals. The pans are now sacred, 38because they were used for offering incense to me. Have them hammered into a thin layer of bronze as a covering for the altar. Those men died because of their sin, and now their fire pans will become a warning for the rest of the community.”
39Eleazar collected the pans and had them hammered into a thin layer of bronze as a covering for the altar, 40just as the Lord had told Moses. The pans were a warning to the Israelites that only Aaron's descendants would be allowed to offer incense to the Lord. Anyone else who tried to would be punished like Korah and his followers.
The Israelites Rebel and Are Punished
41The next day the people of Israel again complained against Moses and Aaron, “The two of you killed some of the Lord's people!”
42As the people crowded around them, Moses and Aaron turned toward the sacred tent, and the Lord appeared in his glory in the cloud covering the tent. 43So Moses and Aaron walked to the front of the tent, 44#Ws 18.20-25. where the Lord said to them, 45“Stand back! I am going to wipe out these Israelites once and for all.”
They immediately bowed down and prayed. 46Then Moses told Aaron, “Grab your fire pan and fill it with hot coals from the altar. Put incense in it, then quickly take it to where the people are and offer it to the Lord, so they can be forgiven. The Lord is very angry, and people have already started dying!”
47-48Aaron did exactly what he had been told. He ran over to the crowd of people and stood between the dead bodies and the people who were still alive. He placed the incense on the pan, then offered it to the Lord and asked him to forgive the people's sin. The disease immediately stopped spreading, and no one else died from it. 49But 14,700 Israelites were dead, not counting those who had died with Korah and his followers.
50Aaron walked back and stood with Moses at the sacred tent.
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
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