Now ^aKorah the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with ^bDathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men, 2 and they stood before Moses, ¹together with some of the sons of Israel, 250 leaders of the congregation ^2achosen in the assembly, men of renown. 3 They assembled together ^aagainst Moses and Aaron, and said to them, “^1bYou have gone far enough! For all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and ^cthe LORD is in their midst; so why do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?”

4 When Moses heard this, ^ahe fell on his face; 5 and he spoke to Korah and all his group, saying, “Tomorrow morning the LORD will make known who is His, and ^awho is holy, and will bring that one near to Himself; indeed, ^bthe one whom He will choose, He will bring near to Himself. 6 Do this: take censers for yourselves, Korah and ¹your whole group, 7 and put fire in them, and place incense upon them in the presence of the LORD tomorrow; and the man whom the LORD chooses shall be the one who is holy. ^1aYou have gone far enough, you sons of Levi!”

8 Then Moses said to Korah, “Hear now, you sons of Levi: 9 ^aIs it too small an honor for you that the God of Israel has singled you out from the congregation of Israel, ^bto bring you near to Himself, to perform the service of the tabernacle of the LORD, and to stand before the congregation to minister to them; 10 and that He has brought you near, Korah, and all your brothers, sons of Levi, with you? But are you ^aseeking the priesthood as well? 11 Therefore you and your whole group are the ones gathered together ^aagainst the LORD; but as for Aaron, ¹who is he, that ^byou grumble against him?”

12 Then Moses sent ¹a summons to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab; but they said, “We will not come up. 13 Is it ¹not enough that you have brought us up out of a ^aland flowing with milk and honey ^bto have us die in the wilderness, but you would also appoint yourself as master over us? 14 Indeed, you have not brought us ^ainto a land flowing with milk and honey, nor have you given us an inheritance of ^bfields and vineyards. Would you ^cgouge out the eyes of ¹these men? We will not come up!”

15 Then Moses became very angry and said to the LORD, “^aPay no attention to their offering! ^bI have not taken a single donkey from them, nor have I done harm to any of them.” 16 Moses said to Korah, “You and all your group be present before the LORD tomorrow, you and they along with Aaron. 17 And each of you take his censer and put incense on ¹it, and each of you bring his censer before the LORD, 250 censers; also you and Aaron shall each bring his censer.” 18 So they took, each one his own censer, and put fire on ¹it, and placed incense on ²it; and they stood at the entrance of the tent of meeting, with Moses and Aaron. 19 So Korah assembled all the congregation against them at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And ^athe glory of the LORD appeared to all the congregation.

20 Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 21 “^aSeparate yourselves from among this congregation, ^bso that I may consume them instantly.” 22 But they fell on their faces and said, “God, ^athe God of the spirits of ¹humanity, ^bwhen one person sins, will You be angry with the entire congregation?”

23 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 24 “Speak to the congregation, saying, ‘^aGet away from the areas around the ¹tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.’”

25 Then Moses arose and went to Dathan and Abiram, with the elders of Israel following him, 26 and he spoke to the congregation, saying, “^aGet away now from the tents of these wicked men, and do not touch anything that belongs to them, ^bor you will be swept away in all their sin!” 27 So they moved away from the areas around the ¹tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram; and Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the entrances of their tents, along with their wives, ^atheir sons, and their little ones. 28 Then Moses said, “By this you shall know that ^athe LORD has sent me to do all these deeds; for it is not ¹my doing. 29 If these men die ¹the death of all mankind, or ²if they suffer the ^afate of all mankind, then the LORD has not sent me. 30 But ^aif the LORD ¹brings about an entirely new thing and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them with everything that is theirs, and they ^bdescend alive into ²Sheol, then you will know that these men have been disrespectful to the LORD.”

31 And as he finished speaking all these words, the ground that was under them split open; 32 and ^athe earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, and ^ball the people who belonged to Korah with all their possessions. 33 So they and all that belonged to them went down alive to ¹Sheol; and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly. 34 Then all Israel who were around them fled at their ¹outcry, for they said, “The earth might swallow us!” 35 ^aFire also came out from the LORD and consumed the ^b250 men who were offering the incense.

36 ¹Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 37 “Tell Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, that he shall pick up the censers from the midst of the burned area, because they are holy; and you are to scatter the ¹burning coals farther away. 38 As for the censers of these ¹men who have sinned at the cost of their own lives, have them made into hammered sheets as plating for the altar, since they did present them before the LORD and they are holy; and ^athey shall ²serve as a sign to the sons of Israel.” 39 So the priest Eleazar took the bronze censers which the men who were burned had offered, and they hammered them out as plating for the altar, 40 as a reminder to the sons of Israel so that ^ano ¹layman, anyone who was not of the ²descendants of Aaron, would approach ^bto burn incense before the LORD; then he would not become like Korah and his group—just as the LORD had spoken to him ³through Moses.

41 But on the next day all the congregation of the sons of Israel ^agrumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying, “You are the ones who have caused the death of the LORD’S people!” 42 It came about, however, when the congregation had assembled against Moses and Aaron, that they turned toward the tent of meeting, and behold, the cloud covered it and ^athe glory of the LORD appeared. 43 Then Moses and Aaron came to the front of the tent of meeting, 44 and the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 45 “^aGet away from among this congregation so that I may consume them instantly.” Then they fell on their faces. 46 And Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer and put fire in it from the altar, and place incense on it; then bring it quickly to the congregation and ^amake atonement for them, for ^bwrath has gone out from the LORD, the plague has begun!” 47 Then Aaron took it just as Moses had spoken, and he ran into the midst of the assembly; and behold, the plague had begun among the people. ^aSo he put on the incense and made atonement for the people. 48 And he took his stand between the dead and the living, so that the plague was brought to a halt. 49 ^aBut those who died by the plague were 14,700 in number, besides those who ^bdied on account of Korah. 50 Then Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the tent of meeting, for the plague had been brought to a halt.