1And Korah son of Izhar, son of Kohath, son of Levi, will take, and Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab; and On, son of Peleth, sons of Reuben; 2And they will rise up before Moses, and men from the sons of Israel, fifty and two hundred chiefs of the assembly, called by appointment, and men of name: 3And they will gather together against Moses, and against Aaron, and they will say to them, Much to you for all the assembly, all of them are holy, and Jehovah in the midst of them: and wherefore shall be lifted up over the gathering of Jehovah? 4And Moses will hear, and will fall upon his face: 5And he will speak to Korah and to all his assembly, saying, The morning Jehovah will make known who is to him, and the holy; and bring near to him: and whom he will choose for him he will bring near to himself. 6This do ye: take to you censers, Korah and all his assembly: 7And ye shall give fire in them and put upon them incense, before Jehovah to-morrow: and it was the man whom Jehovah shall choose, he is holy: much to you, ye sons of Levi. 8And Moses will say to Korah, Hear, now, ye sons of Levi: 9Is this small for you that the God of Israel separated you from the assembly of Israel to bring you near to him to serve the services of the dwelling of Jehovah, and to stand before the assembly to serve them? 10He will bring thee near, and all thy brethren the sons of Levi with thee: and did ye seek also the priesthood? 11For this thou and all thine assembly being collected together against Jehovah: and Aaron, what is he that ye shall murmur against him? 12And Moses will send to call for Dathan and for Abiram, sons of Eliab and they will say, We will not come up. 13Is this small that thou broughtest us up from a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the desert, that thou ruling also wilt rule over us? 14But not to a land flowing with milk and honey didst thou bring us; and wilt thou give to us the inheritance of field and vineyard? the eyes of these men wilt thou bore out? we will not come up. 15And it will be kindled to Moses greatly, and he will say to Jehovah, Thou wilt not turn to their gift: not one ass did I take from them, and I did not evil to one of them. 16And Moses will say to Korah, Be thou and all thine assembly before Jehovah, thou and they, and Aaron, to-morrow: 17And take each his censer and put incense upon them, and bring them near before Jehovah, each his censer and put incense upon them, and bring them near before Jehovah, each his censer, fifty and two hundred censers; and thou and Aaron, each his censer. 18And they will take each his censer and will give upon them fire, and will put incense upon them, and they will stand at the door of the tent of appointment, and Moses and Aaron. 19And Korah will gather against them all the assembly at the door of the tent of appointment; and the glory of Jehovah will be seen to all the assembly. 20And Jehovah will speak to Moses, and to Aaron, saying, 21Separate yourselves from the midst of this assembly, and I will consume them as in a moment, 22And they shall fall upon their faces, and they will say, God, the God of the spirits for all flesh, shall one man sin, and wilt thou be angry against all the assembly. 23And Jehovah will speak to Moses, saying, 24Speak to all the assembly, saying, Go up from round about the dwelling of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. 25And Moses will rise up and go to Dathan and Abiram; and the old men of Israel will go after him. 26And he will speak to the assembly, saying, Remove, now, from the tents of these guilty men, and ye shall not touch upon any thing which is to them lest ye shall he destroyed in all their sin. 27And they will go up from the tent of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, from round about; and Dathan and Abiram will come forth, standing at the door of their tents, and their wives and their sons and their little ones. 28And Moses will say, By this shall ye know that Jehovah sent me to do all these works; for not from my heart 29If according to the death of all men these shall die, if the providence of all men shall be reviewed upon them, Jehovah sent me not 30And if Jehovah shall create a creation, and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them and all which is to them, and they went down living to hades; and ye know that these men rejected Jehovah, 31And it shall be as he finished to speak all these words, the earth shall cleave asunder which is under them: 32And the earth shall open her mouth and shall swallow them and their houses, and all the men which to Korah, and all the possessions. 33And they went down, and all which is to them, living, to hades, and the earth shall cover over them; and they shall perish from the midst of the gathering. 34And all Israel which were round about them fled at their voice: for they said, Lest the earth shall swallow us. 35And a fire will come forth from Jehovah and will consume the fifty and two hundred men bringing the incense 36And Jehovah will speak to Moses, saying, 37Say to Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, and he shall take up the censers from the midst of the burning, and scatter the fire afar off; for they were consecrated. 38The censers of these sinners against their souls, and they made them beaten plates, a covering for the altar: for they brought them before Jehovah, and they will be consecrated: and they will be for a sign to the sons of Israel. 39And Eleazar the priest will take the brazen censers, which they being burnt brought near; and they shall beat them out a covering for the altar, 40A remembrance to the sons of Israel, so that a man, a stranger, shall not come near, he who is not from the seed of Aaron, to burn incense before Jehovah; and he shall not be as Korah and as his assembly: as Jehovah spake to him by the hand of Moses. 41And all the assembly of the sons of Israel will murmur on the morrow against Moses, and against Aaron, saying, Ye killed the people of Jehovah. 42And it shall be in the gathering together of the assembly against Moses and against Aaron, and they shall turn towards the tent of appointment; and behold, the cloud covered it, and the glory of Jehovah will be seen. 43And Moses will go, and Aaron, before the tent of appointment 44And Jehovah will speak to Moses, saying, 45Lift up yourselves from the midst of this assembly, and I will consume them as in a moment. And they will fall upon their faces. 46And Moses will say to Aaron, Take a censer and give upon it fire from off the altar, and put incense, and go quickly to the assembly, and expiate for them: for anger went forth from before Jehovah; for it began smiting. 47And Aaron will take as Moses spake, and he will run into the midst of the assembly; and behold, it began smiting among the people: and he will give incense and will expiate for the people. 48And he will stand between the dead and between the living; and the smiting will be withheld. 49And they dying in the smiting will be fourteen thousand and seven hundred, besides they dying for the words of Korah. 50And Aaron will turn back to Moses to the door of the tent of appointment: and the smiting was withheld.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 THE REBELLION OF KORAH. (Num. 16:1-30)
Now Korah, the son of Izhar--Izhar, brother of Amram (
Exod 6:18), was the second son of Kohath, and for some reason unrecorded he had been supplanted by a descendant of the fourth son of Kohath, who was appointed prince or chief of the Kohathites (
Num 3:30). Discontent with the preferment over him of a younger relative was probably the originating cause of this seditious movement on the part of Korah.
Dathan and Abiram, . . . and On--These were confederate leaders in the rebellion, but On seems to have afterwards withdrawn from the conspiracy [compare
Num 16:12,
Num 16:24-
Num 16:25,
Num 16:27;
Num 26:9;
Deut 11:6;
Ps 106:17].
took men--The latter mentioned individuals, being all sons of Reuben, the eldest of Jacob's family, had been stimulated to this insurrection on the pretext that Moses had, by an arbitrary arrangement, taken away the right of primogeniture, which had vested the hereditary dignity of the priesthood in the first-born of every family, with a view of transferring the hereditary exercise of the sacred functions to a particular branch of his own house; and that this gross instance of partiality to his own relations, to the permanent detriment of others, was a sufficient ground for refusing allegiance to his government. In addition to this grievance, another cause of jealousy and dissatisfaction that rankled in the breasts of the Reubenites was the advancement of Judah to the leadership among the tribes. These malcontents had been incited by the artful representations of Korah (
Jude 1:11), with whom the position of their camp on the south side afforded them facilities of frequent intercourse. In addition to his feeling of personal wrongs, Korah participated in their desire (if he did not originate the attempt) to recover their lost rights of primogeniture. When the conspiracy was ripe, they openly and boldly declared its object, and at the head of two hundred fifty princes, charged Moses with an ambitious and unwarrantable usurpation of authority, especially in the appropriation of the priesthood, for they disputed the claim of Aaron also to pre-eminence [
Num 16:3].
3 they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron--The assemblage seems to have been composed of the whole band of conspirators; and they grounded their complaint on the fact that the whole people, being separated to the divine service (
Exod 19:6), were equally qualified to present offerings on the altar, and that God, being graciously, present among them by the tabernacle and the cloud, evinced His readiness to receive sacrifices from the hand of any others as well as from theirs.
4 when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face--This attitude of prostration indicated not only his humble and earnest desire that God would interpose to free him from the false and odious imputation, but also his strong sense of the daring sin involved in this proceeding. Whatever feelings may be entertained respecting Aaron, who had formerly headed a sedition himself [
Num 12:1], it is impossible not to sympathize with Moses in this difficult emergency. But he was a devout man, and the prudential course he adopted was probably the dictate of that heavenly wisdom with which, in answer to his prayers, he was endowed.
5 he spake unto Korah and unto all his company--They were first addressed, not only because they were a party headed by his own cousin and Moses might hope to have more influence in that quarter, but because they were stationed near the tabernacle; and especially because an expostulation was the more weighty coming from him who was a Levite himself, and who was excluded along with his family from the priesthood. But to bring the matter to an issue, he proposed a test which would afford a decisive evidence of the divine appointment.
Even to-morrow--literally, "in the morning," the usual time of meeting in the East for the settlement of public affairs.
the Lord will show who are his, . . . even him whom he hath chosen will he cause to come near unto him--that is, will bear attestation to his ministry by some visible or miraculous token of His approval.
6 Take your censers, Korah, and all his company, &c.--that is, since you aspire to the priesthood, then go, perform the highest function of the office--that of offering incense; and if you are accepted well. How magnanimous the conduct of Moses, who was now as willing that God's people should be priests, as formerly that they should be prophets (
Num 11:29). But he warned them that they were making a perilous experiment.
12 Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram--in a separate interview, the ground of their mutiny being different; for while Korah murmured against the exclusive appropriation of the priesthood to Aaron and his family, they were opposed to the supremacy of Moses in civil power. They refused to obey the summons; and their refusal was grounded on the plausible pretext that their stay in the desert was prolonged for some secret and selfish purposes of the leader, who was conducting them like blind men wherever it suited him.
15 Moses was very wroth--Though the meekest of all men [
Num 12:3], he could not restrain his indignation at these unjust and groundless charges; and the highly excited state of his feeling was evinced by the utterance of a brief exclamation in the mixed form of a prayer and an impassioned assertion of his integrity. (Compare
1Sam 12:3).
and said unto the Lord, Respect not thou their offering--He calls it their offering, because, though it was to be offered by Korah and his Levitical associates, it was the united appeal of all the mutineers for deciding the contested claims of Moses and Aaron.
16 Moses said unto Korah, Be thou and all thy company before the Lord--that is, at "the door of the tabernacle" (
Num 16:18), that the assembled people might witness the experiment and be properly impressed by the issue.
17 two hundred fifty censers--probably the small platters, common in Egyptian families, where incense was offered to household deities and which had been among the precious things borrowed at their departure [
Exod 12:35-
Exod 12:36].
20 the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, saying, Separate yourselves from among this congregation--Curiosity to witness the exciting spectacle attracted a vast concourse of the people, and it would seem that the popular mind had been incited to evil by the clamors of the mutineers against Moses and Aaron. There was something in their behavior very offensive to God; for after His glory had appeared--as at the installation of Aaron (
Lev 9:23), so now for his confirmation in the sacred office--He bade Moses and Aaron withdraw from the assembly "that He might consume them in a moment."
22 they fell upon their faces, and said, O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh--The benevolent importunity of their prayer was the more remarkable that the intercession was made for their enemies.
24 Speak unto the congregation, . . . Get you up from about the tabernacle--Moses was attended in the execution of this mission by the elders. The united and urgent entreaties of so many dignified personages produced the desired effect of convincing the people of their crime, and of withdrawing them from the company of men who were doomed to destruction, lest, being partakers of their sins, they should perish along with them.
27 the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram--Korah being a Kohathite, his tent could not have been in the Reubenite camp, and it does not appear that he himself was on the spot where Dathan and Abiram stood with their families. Their attitude of defiance indicated their daring and impenitent character, equally regardless of God and man.
28 Moses said, Hereby ye shall know that the Lord hath sent me to do all these works--The awful catastrophe of the earthquake which, as predicted by Moses, swallowed up those impious rebels in a living tomb, gave the divine attestation to the mission of Moses and struck the spectators with solemn awe.
35 there came out a fire from the Lord--that is, from the cloud. This seems to describe the destruction of Korah and those Levites who with him aspired to the functions of the priesthood. (See
Num 26:11,
Num 26:58;
1Chr 6:22,
1Chr 6:37).
37 Speak unto Eleazar--He was selected lest the high priest might contract defilement from going among the dead carcasses.
39 the brazen censers . . . made broad plates to be a memorial--The altar of burnt offerings, being made of wood and covered with brass, this additional covering of broad plates not only rendered it doubly secure against the fire, but served as a warning beacon to deter all from future invasions of the priesthood.
41 the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the Lord--What a strange exhibition of popular prejudice and passion--to blame the leaders for saving the rebels! Yet Moses and Aaron interceded for the people--the high priest perilling his own life in doing good to that perverse race.
48 he stood between the living and the dead--The plague seems to have begun in the extremities of the camp. Aaron, in this remarkable act, was a type of Christ.
