Numbers 16

1Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men:

2And they rose up against Moses. With them were 250 Israelite men, well-known community leaders, famous in the church and some mighty men.

3They came together to rebel against Moses and Aaron and said to them: ‘You want to do everything yourselves. To make sure everyone in the nation is holy and the Lord is with them. Why do you think that you are better then the people of Lord?

4When Moses heard this, he bowed down and lay with his face to the ground.

5Then Moses said to Korah and all his followers, “Tomorrow morning the Lord will show who belongs to him. He will show who is holy, and he will bring that man near to him. He will choose him and bring that man near to him.

6Korah, you and all your followers must prepare your firepan for offering.

7Tomorrow put fire and incense in some pans. Then bring those pans before the Lord. The man whom the LORD chooses shall be the one who is holy. You have gone far enough, you sons of Levi.

8Moses also said to Korah, “You Levites, listen to me.

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? Numbers 16: 10 He brought you Levites near to him to help the priests, but now you are trying to become priests also. Numbers 16: 11 You and your followers have joined together and turned against the Lord! Did Aaron do anything wrong? No, so why are you complaining against Aaron?”

12Then Moses called Korah, Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, to come to him, but they said: ‘We will not come.

13Is it not enough that you brought us out of Egypt, a land flowing with milk and honey, you brought us to the desert to kill us. And now you want to show that you have even more power over us.

14Why should we follow you? You did not bring us into the new land filled with many good things. You did not give us the land God promised. You did not give us the fields or the vineyards. Are you trying to fool these men? No! 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 also gathered all the people together at the entrance of the tabernacle. Then the Glory of the Lord appeared to everyone there.20Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron:

20Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron:

21Go 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:

24Tell 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.

29These men will die, but if they die in a normal way the way people always die then that will show that the Lord did not really send 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.’

31When Moses finished saying these things, the ground under the men 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 went down into their grave alive. Everything they owned went with them. Then the earth closed over them. They disappeared from the people of God.

34The Israelites heard the cries of the men being destroyed. So, they all ran in different directions and said, the earth will swallow us too!

35Then a fire came from the Lord and destroyed the 250 men who were offering the incense.