Study Desk

You said that your children would be taken and killed. But I will bring them in, and they will know the land you have turned away from.

I the Lord have spoken. For sure I will do this to all these sinful people who are gathered together against Me. They will be destroyed in this desert. And there they will die.'"

Moses had sent men to spy out the land. They returned and made all the people complain against him by bringing bad news about the land.

They got up early in the morning and went up to the top of the hill country, saying, "Here we are. It is true we have sinned. But we will go up to the place which the Lord has promised."

But they would not listen and went up to the top of the hill country. The special box with the Law of the Lord, and Moses, did not leave the tents.

Then the religious leader will pay for the sins of all the people of Israel, and they will be forgiven. Because it was a mistake, they brought their gift, a gift by fire to the Lord, and their sin gift to the Lord, for their mistake.

"Speak to the people of Israel. Tell them that they and all their children-to-come are to make tassels for themselves on the corners of their clothing. And they are to put a blue rope on the tassel of each corner.

They all gathered together against Moses and Aaron, and said to them, "You have gone too far! For all the people are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. So why do you honor yourselves more than the people of the Lord?"

Then Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab. But they said, "We will not come up.

Then Moses said to Korah, "You and all who are with you be before the Lord tomorrow, you and they, and Aaron.

So each man took his fire pot and put fire in it and put special perfume on it. And they stood at the door of the meeting tent with Moses and Aaron.

But they fell on their faces, and said, "O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, when one man sins, will You be angry with all the people?"

So they went away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. And Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the door of their tents, with their wives, their sons, and their little ones.

But the Lord will do something new. The ground will open its mouth and take them with all that belongs to them. And they will go down alive into the place of the dead. Then you will understand that these men have turned against the Lord."

They and all that belonged to them went down alive to the place of the dead, and the earth closed over them. They were destroyed from among the people.

And all Israel who were around them ran away at their cry. For they said, "The earth may take us too!"

Let the fire pots of these men who have sinned and lost their lives be made into beaten plates to cover the altar. For they did bring them to the Lord and they are holy. They will be something special for the people of Israel to see."

So Eleazar the religious leader took the brass fire pots which the men who were burned had brought. And they beat them into plates to cover the altar.

They were to make the people of Israel remember that no man who is not a religious leader and a son of Aaron should come to burn special perfume before the Lord. Or he might become like Korah and those who were with him, as the Lord said to Eleazar through Moses.

When the people had gathered against Moses and Aaron, they turned toward the meeting tent. There the cloud covered it and they saw the shining-greatness of the Lord.