Numbers 16:32-41

Korah’s Rebellion

³²and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, and all the people who belonged to Korah with all their possessions. ³³So they and all that belonged to them went down alive to Sheol; and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly. ³⁴Then all Israel who were around them fled at their outcry, for they said, “The earth might swallow us!” ³⁵Fire also came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men who were offering the incense.

³⁶Then 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 burning coals farther away. ³⁸As for the censers of these men 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 they shall serve as a sign to the sons of Israel.” ³⁹So 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, ⁴⁰as a reminder to the sons of Israel so that no layman, anyone who was not of the descendants of Aaron, would approach to burn incense before the Lord; then he would not become like Korah and his group—just as the Lord had spoken to him through Moses.

Murmuring and Plague

⁴¹But on the next day all the congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying, “You are the ones who have caused the death of the Lord’s people!”