The Wilderness · c. 1445–1407 BC
Chapter 6
Korah
He stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed.
For parents
A man found gathering sticks on the Sabbath is stoned to death at the Lord’s command (Numbers 15:32–36). When Korah, Dathan and Abiram rise up against Moses, the ground swallows them alive with their households, wives and little children too, and fire from the Lord burns up 250 men (16:25–35). The next day a plague kills 14,700 (16:41–50). It is all told plainly, without detail. One law also compares following your own heart and eyes to acting like a prostitute (15:39).
The spoke to and gave him a message for the . It was for the time when they had come into the land where they would live, the land he was giving them. They would bring the Lord offerings made by fire, from the herd or from the flock, to make a pleasant smell for the Lord. It might be a or a . It might be brought to keep a , or as a freewill offering, a gift given by choice, or at one of their set feasts. Whenever someone brought one, he was to offer the Lord a with it. With each lamb, the meal offering was a tenth of an of fine flour, a little over two quarts, mixed with a quarter of a of oil, nearly two quarts. He was also to get ready a quarter of a hin of wine as the , to go with the burnt offering or the sacrifice.
For a ram, the meal offering was two tenths of an ephah of fine flour with a third of a hin of oil mixed in. The drink offering was a third of a hin of wine, a pleasant smell to the Lord. When someone got a bull ready for a burnt offering or a sacrifice, to keep a vow or as to the Lord, he was to offer a meal offering with the bull. It was three tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with half a hin of oil. He was also to offer half a hin of wine for the drink offering, an offering made by fire, a pleasant smell to the Lord.
It was to be done this way for each bull, each ram, and each of the male lambs or the young goats. However many they prepared, they were to do the same for every one.
Everyone born an Israelite was to do these things in this way when he brought an offering made by fire, a pleasant smell to the Lord. A foreigner might be living with them, or someone else might be among them, in any generation. If he brought an offering made by fire, a pleasant smell to the Lord, he was to do it just the way they did. “The assembly is to have one rule, the same for you and for the foreigner who lives with you,” the Lord said, “a rule forever, through all your generations. The foreigner is to be the same as you in the Lord’s presence. You and the foreigner living with you are to have the same law and the same rules.”
The Lord gave Moses another message for the Israelites. When they came into the land where he was bringing them, and ate bread from that land, they were to offer up a to the Lord. From the first of their dough they were to offer up a cake as a wave offering. They were to lift it up the same way as the wave offering from the . Through all their generations, they were to give the Lord a wave offering from the first of their dough.
The Lord also said what was to be done if they went wrong and didn’t keep all these commandments the Lord had spoken to Moses. That meant everything the Lord had commanded them through Moses, from the day he gave his commands and on through their generations. If it was done without meaning to, and the community didn’t know about it, the whole community was to offer one young bull as a burnt offering, a pleasant smell to the Lord, with its meal offering and its drink offering, as the rule said. They were also to offer one male goat as a .
The would make for the whole community of Israel, and they would be forgiven, because it was a mistake. They had brought their offering for their mistake, an offering made by fire to the Lord, and their sin offering in the Lord’s presence. The whole community of Israel would be forgiven, and so would the foreigner living among them, because all the people had done it without meaning to.
If one person sinned without meaning to, he was to offer a year-old female goat for a sin offering. Then the priest would make atonement in the Lord’s presence for the person who went wrong without meaning to, and he would be forgiven. There was to be one law for anyone who did something without meaning to, whether he was born an Israelite or was a foreigner living among them.
But a person who did something with a high hand, defiantly, was the Lord, whether he was born an Israelite or was a foreigner. That person was to be from among his people. “He has looked down on the Lord’s word and broken his commandment,” the Lord said, “so that person is to be completely cut off. He will carry his own guilt.”
While the Israelites were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the day.
The people who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and , and to the whole community. They kept him under guard, because nothing had been said about what was to be done to him.
The Lord said to Moses, “The man is to be put to death. All the community is to kill him with stones outside the camp.”
So the whole community brought him out of the camp and threw stones at him until he died, as the Lord had commanded Moses.
The Lord told Moses to speak to the Israelites. In every generation they were to make themselves tassels on the edges of their clothes, and they were to put a blue cord on the tassel at each edge.
“The tassel is there for you to see,” the Lord said, “so that you remember all the Lord’s commandments and do them, and don’t follow your own heart and your own eyes. You used to chase after them like a . It is so that you will remember and do all my commandments, and be to your God.
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of to be your God. I am the Lord your God.”
was the son of . Izhar was the son of , and Kohath was the son of . Korah took some men, and with him were and , the sons of , and , the son of . These three were descendants of . They rose up in front of Moses, together with some of the Israelites: two hundred fifty leaders of the community, men called to the assembly, well-known men.
They gathered together against Moses and against Aaron and said to them, “You take too much on yourselves! All the community is holy, every single one, and the Lord is among them. Why do you put yourselves above the Lord’s assembly?”
When Moses heard it, he fell face down. He spoke to Korah and his whole group. “In the morning,” he said, “the Lord will show which people are his, and who is holy, and he will bring that man near to himself. He will bring the one he chooses near to himself.
“Here is what to do, Korah, you and all your followers. Take , put fire in them, and put on them in the Lord’s presence tomorrow. The man the Lord chooses will be holy. You have gone too far, you !”
Moses said to Korah, “Listen, you sons of Levi! The God of Israel has separated you from the community of Israel. He has brought you near to himself to do the work of the Lord’s , and to stand in front of the community and serve them. Isn’t that enough for you? He has brought you near, you and all your brothers, the sons of Levi, with you. Are you after the priesthood too?
“So you and all your followers have gathered together against the Lord! And who is Aaron, that you should complain against him?”
Moses sent word for Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, to come. But they answered, “We won’t come up! You have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness. Isn’t that enough? Do you have to make yourself ruler over us too? What’s more, you haven’t brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, and you haven’t given us fields and vineyards as our inheritance. Will you put out these men’s eyes? We won’t come up.”
Moses was very angry. He said to the Lord, “Don’t look kindly on their offering. I haven’t taken a single donkey from them, and I haven’t harmed one of them.”
Moses said to Korah, “Tomorrow, go into the Lord’s presence, you and all your followers, and Aaron too. Every man is to take his censer, put incense on it, and bring it into the Lord’s presence: two hundred fifty censers. You and Aaron are each to bring your censer too.”
So each man took his censer, put fire in it and laid incense on it, and they stood at the door of the with Moses and Aaron. Korah gathered the whole community at the door of the Tent of Meeting, facing them. Then the Lord’s appeared to the whole community.
The Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron. “Separate yourselves from this community,” he said, “so that I can destroy them in a moment!”
Moses and Aaron fell face down. “God,” they said, “the God of the spirits of every living creature, if one man sins, will you be angry with the whole community?”
The Lord said to Moses, “Tell the community, ‘Get away from around the tent of Korah, Dathan and Abiram!’”
Then Moses stood up and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the of Israel followed him. He spoke to the community. “Please move away from the tents of these wicked men!” he said. “Don’t touch anything they own, or you may be destroyed along with them for all their sins!”
So the people moved away from all around the tent of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the doors of their tents, with their wives, their sons and their little children.
Moses said, “Here is how you will know that it was the Lord who sent me to do all these things. None of it was my own idea. If these men die the way everyone dies, or if what happens to everyone happens to them, then the Lord hasn’t sent me. But the Lord may do something new. The ground may open its mouth and swallow them up with everything they have, and they may go down alive into . If that happens, you will understand that these men have despised the Lord.”
As soon as he finished saying all these words, the ground under them split apart. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households, all of Korah’s men, and all their goods. They and everything that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol, the place of the dead. The earth closed over them. They perished, and were gone from the assembly.
All the Israelites around them ran away at the sound of their cry. “The earth might swallow us up!” they said.
Fire came out from the Lord and burned up the two hundred fifty men who were offering the incense.
The Lord said to Moses, “Tell , the son of Aaron the priest, to pick the censers up out of the fire and scatter the fire away from the camp, because the censers are holy. They are the censers of the men who sinned and lost their own lives. Have them beaten flat into plates to cover the . They were offered in the Lord’s presence, and so they are holy. They are to be a sign for the Israelites.”
So Eleazar the priest took up the bronze censers that had been offered by the men who were burned, and they were beaten out into a covering for the altar. It was to be a reminder for the Israelites: no stranger, no one outside Aaron’s family line, was to come near and burn incense in the Lord’s presence, so that he would not end up like Korah and his followers. It was all done as the Lord had said through Moses.
But the next day the whole community of Israel complained against Moses and against Aaron. “You have killed the Lord’s people!” they said.
When the community had gathered against Moses and Aaron, they looked toward the Tent of Meeting. The cloud was covering it, and the Lord’s glory appeared. Moses and Aaron came to the front of the Tent of Meeting.
“Get away from this community,” the Lord said to Moses, “so that I can destroy them in a moment!” Moses and Aaron fell face down.
Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, put fire from the altar in it, and lay incense on it. Hurry to the community with it and make atonement for them, because anger has gone out from the Lord! The has begun.”
Aaron did as Moses said and ran into the middle of the assembly. The plague had already begun among the people. He offered the incense and made atonement for the people. He stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was held back.
Fourteen thousand seven hundred people died in the plague, besides those who died because of what happened with Korah. Then Aaron went back to Moses at the door of the Tent of Meeting, and the plague had been stopped.
The Lord spoke to Moses. “Speak to the Israelites,” he said, “and take staffs from all their leaders, twelve staffs, one for each family line. Write each man’s name on his staff. Aaron’s name goes on Levi’s staff. There is to be one staff for each head of a family line.
“Put them inside the Tent of Meeting, in front of the , the stone tablets of the law, where I meet with you. Then the staff of the man I choose will bud. I will put a stop to the Israelites’ grumbling against you, so that it no longer reaches me.”
So Moses spoke to the Israelites, and every one of their leaders gave him a staff, family line by family line, twelve staffs in all. Aaron’s staff was one of them. Moses laid the staffs in the Lord’s presence in the Tent of the Testimony.
The next day Moses went into the Tent of the Testimony, and there was Aaron’s staff, the one for the house of Levi. It had sprouted and budded. It had flowers on it, and it had grown ripe almonds.
Then Moses took all the staffs from the Lord’s presence and brought them out to all the Israelites. They looked, and each man took his own staff.
The Lord said to Moses, “Put Aaron’s staff back in front of the covenant, to be kept as a sign against the rebels. That way you will put an end to their complaining against me, so that they don’t die.” Moses did it. He did just as the Lord commanded him.
“Look, we’re dying!” the Israelites said to Moses. “We’re finished! We’re all finished! Everyone who keeps coming near the Lord’s tabernacle dies! Will we all perish?”