Study

a Bible passage

Click a verse to see commentary

Select a resource above

Revolt of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram

Now Korah son of Izhar son of Kohath son of Levi, along with Dathan and Abiram sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth—descendants of Reuben—took ²two hundred fifty Israelite men, leaders of the congregation, chosen from the assembly, well-known men, and they confronted Moses. ³They assembled against Moses and against Aaron, and said to them, “You have gone too far! All the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the L ord is among them. So why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the L ord?” ⁴When Moses heard it, he fell on his face. ⁵Then he said to Korah and all his company, “In the morning the L ord will make known who is his, and who is holy, and who will be allowed to approach him; the one whom he will choose he will allow to approach him. ⁶Do this: take censers, Korah and all your company, ⁷and tomorrow put fire in them, and lay incense on them before the L ord; and the man whom the L ord chooses shall be the holy one. You Levites have gone too far!” ⁸Then Moses said to Korah, “Hear now, you Levites! ⁹Is it too little for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel, to allow you to approach him in order to perform the duties of the L ord’s tabernacle, and to stand before the congregation and serve them? ¹⁰He has allowed you to approach him, and all your brother Levites with you; yet you seek the priesthood as well! ¹¹Therefore you and all your company have gathered together against the L ord. What is Aaron that you rail against him?”

¹² Moses sent for Dathan and Abiram sons of Eliab; but they said, “We will not come! ¹³Is it too little that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness, that you must also lord it over us? ¹⁴It is clear you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Would you put out the eyes of these men? We will not come!”

¹⁵ Moses was very angry and said to the L ord, “Pay no attention to their offering. I have not taken one donkey from them, and I have not harmed any one of them.” ¹⁶And Moses said to Korah, “As for you and all your company, be present tomorrow before the L ord, you and they and Aaron; ¹⁷and let each one of you take his censer, and put incense on it, and each one of you present his censer before the L ord, two hundred fifty censers; you also, and Aaron, each his censer.” ¹⁸So each man took his censer, and they put fire in the censers and laid incense on them, and they stood at the entrance of the tent of meeting with Moses and Aaron. ¹⁹Then Korah assembled the whole congregation against them at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And the glory of the L ord appeared to the whole congregation.

²⁰ Then the L ord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying: ²¹Separate yourselves from this congregation, so that I may consume them in a moment. ²²They fell on their faces, and said, “O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one person sin and you become angry with the whole congregation?”

²³ And the L ord spoke to Moses, saying: ²⁴Say to the congregation: Get away from the dwellings of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. ²⁵So Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram; the elders of Israel followed him. ²⁶He said to the congregation, “Turn away from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, or you will be swept away for all their sins.” ²⁷So they got away from the dwellings of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram; and Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the entrance of their tents, together with their wives, their children, and their little ones. ²⁸And Moses said, “This is how you shall know that the L ord has sent me to do all these works; it has not been of my own accord: ²⁹If these people die a natural death, or if a natural fate comes on them, then the L ord has not sent me. ³⁰But if the L ord creates something new, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up, with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men have despised the L ord.”

³¹ As soon as he finished speaking all these words, the ground under them was split apart. ³²The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, along with their households—everyone who belonged to Korah and all their goods. ³³So they with all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol; the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly. ³⁴All Israel around them fled at their outcry, for they said, “The earth will swallow us too!” ³⁵And fire came out from the L ord and consumed the two hundred fifty men offering the incense.

³⁶ Then the L ord spoke to Moses, saying: ³⁷Tell Eleazar son of Aaron the priest to take the censers out of the blaze; then scatter the fire far and wide. ³⁸For the censers of these sinners have become holy at the cost of their lives. Make them into hammered plates as a covering for the altar, for they presented them before the L ord and they became holy. Thus they shall be a sign to the Israelites. ³⁹So Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers that had been presented by those who were burned; and they were hammered out as a covering for the altar— ⁴⁰a reminder to the Israelites that no outsider, who is not of the descendants of Aaron, shall approach to offer incense before the L ord, so as not to become like Korah and his company—just as the L ord had said to him through Moses.

⁴¹ On the next day, however, the whole congregation of the Israelites rebelled against Moses and against Aaron, saying, “You have killed the people of the L ord.” ⁴²And when the congregation had assembled against them, Moses and Aaron turned toward the tent of meeting; the cloud had covered it and the glory of the L ord appeared. ⁴³Then Moses and Aaron came to the front of the tent of meeting, ⁴⁴and the L ord spoke to Moses, saying, ⁴⁵“Get away from this congregation, so that I may consume them in a moment.” And they fell on their faces. ⁴⁶Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, put fire on it from the altar and lay incense on it, and carry it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them. For wrath has gone out from the L ord; the plague has begun.” ⁴⁷So Aaron took it as Moses had ordered, and ran into the middle of the assembly, where the plague had already begun among the people. He put on the incense, and made atonement for the people. ⁴⁸He stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stopped. ⁴⁹Those who died by the plague were fourteen thousand seven hundred, besides those who died in the affair of Korah. ⁵⁰When the plague was stopped, Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the tent of meeting.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

42. And it came to pass when the congregation. From the fact that Moses and Aaron were protected by the covering of the cloud, we gather how uncontrollable was the rage of the people. For, although the glory of God only stood over the tabernacle, so that Moses and Aaron were still exposed to stoning, and any other acts of violence, yet it so dazzled the eyes of these wicked men, that they could not touch the holy persons. Nor can we doubt but that they betook themselves to the sanctuary, because, in the extremity of their danger, the only hope that remained to them was in the help of God. When, therefore, they had fled to this sacred asylum, God received them under the shadow of His wings. Thus did He testify, that the prayers and hopes of His people are never in vain, but that He succors them whenever they call upon Him. For although, now-a-days, He does not appear in a visible abode, still He is nigh unto all those who cast their cares upon Him. It might, indeed, have been the case that the sign of God’s glory was seen by none but Moses and Aaron, in order that they might be fully assured that God was near to help them; but, since the expression is indefinite, it is probable that God threatened also the frantic multitude, lest they should proceed to any further acts of violence, although the light was presented in vain to them in their blindness.

45. Get you up from among this congregation. I have expounded the meaning of this expression a little above, namely, that as God regards His people with constant and peculiar love, so He defers His vengeance against the wicked, until these people are set apart, and placed in safety. For tie declares that, as soon as Moses and Aaron have secured themselves, all the rest shall perish in a moment. But incredible was the kindness of both of them, thus humbly to intercede for so ungrateful a people, who deserved to die a hundred times over; for, forgetful of their own lives, which they saw to be imperiled, they were ready to make atonement for the guilt, so as to rescue from death those abandoned wretches who were plotting their destruction. I do not, however, understand this, “Get you up,” merely with reference to place, for they were already separated, having taken refuge in the tabernacle; but it is just as if God had commanded them to sever themselves from the people, and, quitting them altogether, and casting away all care for the public welfare, to provide for their own private safety.

46. And Moses said unto Aaron. The expiation of so great a sin did not indeed depend on the incense-offering, nor are we to imagine that God is appeased by the savor of frankincense; but thus was a symbol set before this grosshearted people, whereby they might be alike aroused to repentance and faith; for however insensible they might be in their rebellion, yet the dignity of the priesthood was so conspicuous in the censer, that they ought to have been awakened by it to reverence. For who would not view his impiety with horror, when he is made conscious of having despised and violated that sanctity wherein the Divine power displays itself for life or death? The sight of the censer might have justly availed to subdue their hardness of heart, so that at last they might begin to condemn and detest their unrighteous act. The second warning which it gave them was no less profitable, i.e., that they might perceive that God was only propitiated towards them by virtue of a mediator; but., in so far as the actual state of things allowed, the visible type directed them to the absent Savior. Since, however, men corrupt and obscure the truth by their fond inventions, His majesty is asserted by the Divine institution of sacrifice. Whilst Aaron, the typical priest, stands forth, until the true, and only, and perpetual Mediator shall be revealed.

The verb כפר, caphar, properly signifies, as I have said elsewhere, to reconcile God to men through the medium of an expiation (piaculum;) but, since here it refers to the people, the sense of Moses is rightly expressed by a single word, as one may say, to purge, or lustrate from pollution.

48. And he stood between the living and the dead. If you understand that the living were everywhere mingled with the dead, you may conjecture that God’s wrath did not so fall upon one part of the camp, as to destroy all that came in its way without exception, as had been the case in the other revolt, but that He selected those who had sinned most grievously. But it is probable that Aaron proceeded so far as to leave behind those who still remained uninjured, and, in the very place where the destruction had occurred, encountered the wrath of God, and arrested its course. Hence it was that both the fervor of his zeal might be the better perceived, and his office of appeasing God was more fully confirmed by its actual success. For what more evident miracle could be required, than when the slaughter, which had both begun to rage suddenly, and then to proceed in a course no less rapid than continuous, was stopped by the arrival of Aaron, exactly as if a hedge had been set up against it? The efficacy of the priesthood in propitiating God, is therefore both clearly and briefly set before us; and hence we are taught, that though we are so dose to the reprobate when they perish, as that their destruction should reach to ourselves, still that we shall be safe from all evil, if only Christ intercede for us.

49. Now they that died in the plague. Already three hundred, or thereabouts, had been destroyed on account of the conspiracy made with Korah; now a much larger number was added. And this, forsooth, is what the wicked reap from their obstinacy, that God being more and more provoked redoubles His punishments; even as He threatens that, unless those whom He chastises shall repent, he will deal “seven times more” severely with them. (Leviticus 26:18.) Wherefore let us learn, when we are warned by His rebukes, to humble ourselves betimes beneath His mighty hand, since nothing is worse than to kick against the pricks; and let us always bear in mind what the psalm says,

“Be ye not as the horse or as the mute, whose mouth must be held with bit and bridle; (because) many sorrows shall be to the wicked.” (Psalm 32:9, 10.)

They rebelliously exclaimed that the people of the Lord were slain, when three hundred had perished; they now experience how much better it would have been to be dumb before God, and to give glory to His holy severity, than, instead of three hundred, to devote to destruction nearly fifty times as many. Let us, then, remember the admonition of Paul:

“Let us beware lest we murmur, lest perchance the destroyer should destroy us,” ¹⁰²¹⁰² It will be seen that he gives the substance, and not the actual words, of St. Paul’s exhortation. (1 Corinthians 10:10;)

for nothing is less tolerable in us than that we should frowardly presume to speak evil of God, when Scripture so often exhorts us to be silent in His presence.

¹⁰² It will be seen that he gives the substance, and not the actual words, of St. Paul’s exhortation.