1And KorAh (the son of IsaAr, of CaAth, of Levi), Dathan, AbiRam (the sons of EliAb), and Aun (the son of Phaleth of Reuben) started talking 2in rebellion against Moses, along with two hundred and fifty men from the sons of Israel who were chiefs of the assembly, chosen advisors, and men of fame. 3They came up against Moses and Aaron, and said, ‘That’s enough of you! Why, the whole gathering of Israel is holy, and Jehovah is among them; so why have you set yourselves up over the gathering of Jehovah?’ 4Well when Moses heard this, he fell to his face. 5Then he spoke to KorAh and his group and said, ‘God has visited us, and He knows who are His, who are holy, who are set aside to Him, who He has chosen, and who He has purchased for Himself. 6So do this: KorAh and his entire group should take their censors 7and put fire and incense in them to stand before Jehovah tomorrow. Then we will let Jehovah choose who will be holy. And may this settle the matter, you sons of Levi.’ 8Then Moses addressed KorAh, saying, ‘Listen to me, you sons of Levi. 9Is it unimportant to you that the God of Israel has separated you from the rest of the gathering of Israel and brought you close to Him to serve His people in His Tent, 10so that you and all your brothers (the sons of Levi) also want to become the Priests? 11Why, you and your group have gathered against God! Just who is Aaron that you should be complaining against him?’ 12Then Moses sent for Dathan and AbiRam (the sons of EliAb), and they replied; ‘We aren’t coming. 13Doesn’t it matter to you that you brought us to a land flowing with milk and honey, [then you decided] to kill us here in the desert? And now do you want to rule over us too? 14Why, if you’re our leader, then why didn’t you bring us into the land that’s flowing with milk and honey, and give us our inheritance of land and vineyards? Couldn’t you have just blinded the eyes of the men [in that land]? No! We aren’t coming!’ 15Well, this upset Moses, and he said to Jehovah, ‘Don’t accept their sacrifices, because I haven’t taken anything that they want away from them, nor have I harmed any of them.’ 16Then Moses told KorAh, ‘Be sure that your whole group is holy, then get them ready to stand before Jehovah with Aaron tomorrow. 17Each man must bring his censer, then you must each put incense in them and carry the censers before Jehovah… two hundred and fifty censers in all. Then you and Aaron must also bring your censers.’ 18So, each man brought his censer, put fire and incense in them, then they stood beside Moses and Aaron at the entrance to the Tent of Proofs. 19There KorAh and his group stood defiantly as the glory of Jehovah appeared to the whole gathering. 20Then Jehovah spoke to Moses and Aaron and said, 21‘Stand away from the entire gathering [of Israel], for I am getting ready to consume them all!’ 22Well, they fell to their faces, and begged, ‘Oh God; the God of all the spirits and flesh; If just one man has sinned, must You bring Your rage against the whole gathering?’ 23And Jehovah spoke to Moses and said, 24‘Then tell the gathering to get away from KorAh and his group!’ 25So Moses got up and walked over to Dathan and AbiRam, and all the elders of Israel went with him. 26Then he spoke to the gathering and said, ‘Get away from the tents of these stubborn men, and don’t touch anything that belongs to them. Otherwise, you’ll be consumed along with them for their sins!’ 27So, everyone got away from their tents, and KorAh, Dathan, and AbiRam went over and stood at the entrances to their tents, along with their wives, their children, and all their belongings. 28Then Moses said, ‘Now you will know that; when Jehovah sent me to do these things, it wasn’t on my own. 29If these men just die a natural death, and if what happens to them is the same as what happens to all men, then Jehovah hasn’t sent me. 30But if Jehovah brings a miracle and the earth opens her mouth and swallows them, their homes, their tents, and everything that belongs to them, and they go down into their graves alive, then you must know that these men have angered Jehovah!’ 31And just as he finished saying those words, the ground rumbled beneath them. 32Then the ground opened and swallowed them, their homes, all the men that were with KorAh, and all their cattle… 33they and all that they had went down into their graves alive. Then the ground covered them, and they perished there in the midst of the gathering. 34Well at that, all the Israelites who were standing nearby fled from the noise, shouting: ‘[Run], so the earth doesn’t swallow us too!’ 35Then fire came from Jehovah and it consumed the two hundred and fifty men who were offering the incense. 36Thereafter, Jehovah spoke to 37EliEzer (the son of Aaron the Priest) through Moses, and said, ‘Now, pick up the bronze censers from where the men were burned, then melt them down, because they are holy, 38[and use them as a sign against] those sinners and against their lives. Beat [the metal] into plates to cover the Altar, for these [censors] were brought before Jehovah as holy, so they must be used as a sign to the children of Israel!’ 39So, EliEzer (the son of Aaron the Priest) took the bronze censers that the men who had been burned had carried, and he formed them into a covering for the Altar. 40This was to serve as a reminder to the children of Israel that no one other than the seed of Aaron might come close to offer incense before Jehovah, so what happened to KorAh and those who conspired with him doesn’t happen to them. [And he did just] as Jehovah told him through Moses. 41Well, the next day, the people started grumbling against Moses and Aaron again, and they shouted, ‘You’ve killed the people of Jehovah!’ 42Then a mob gathered against Moses and Aaron, and they foolishly ran into the Tent of Proofs. And at that, the cloud covered it and the glory of Jehovah appeared! 43Then Moses and Aaron entered through the front of the Tent of Proofs, 44and Jehovah spoke to Moses and Aaron and said, 45‘Get away from the whole gathering [of the children of Israel], because I am consuming them!’ And immediately they fell to their faces, 46and Moses said to Aaron, ‘Take a censer, put some fire from the Altar and some incense in it, and quickly carry it into the camp to pay for their sins. Because, Jehovah’s rage has come upon us and He is already destroying the people!’ 47So Aaron took it (just as Moses told him), and ran around throughout the gathering, because a plague had already started among them, and he used the incense to pay for the sins of the people. 48Then he stood between the living and the dead, and the plague stopped. 49All together, fourteen thousand, seven hundred died from the plague… in addition to those who died because of KorAh. 50And when Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance to the Tent of Proofs, the plague ended.
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.