Study Desk

So the whole community took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, just as the Lord commanded Moses.

You must have this tassel so that you may look at it and remember all the commandments of the Lord and obey them and so that you do not follow after your own heart and your own eyes that lead you to unfaithfulness.

Moses was very angry, and he said to the Lord , "Have no respect for their offering! I have not taken so much as one donkey from them, nor have I harmed any one of them!"

So everyone took his censer, put fire in it, and set incense on it, and stood at the entrance of the tent of meeting, with Moses and Aaron.

So the Lord spoke to Moses:

So they got away from the homes of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram on every side, and Dathan and Abiram came out and stationed themselves in the entrances of their tents with their wives, their children, and their toddlers.

They and all that they had went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed over them. So they perished from among the community.

So Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers presented by those who had been burned up, and they were hammered out as a covering for the altar.

"Get away from this community, so that I can consume them in an instant!" But they threw themselves down with their faces to the ground.

So Aaron did as Moses commanded and ran into the middle of the assembly, where the plague was just beginning among the people. So he placed incense on the coals and made atonement for the people.

And the staff of the man whom I choose will blossom; so I will rid myself of the complaints of the Israelites, which they murmur against you."

So Moses spoke to the Israelites, and each of their leaders gave him a staff, one for each leader, according to their tribes—twelve staffs; the staff of Aaron was among their staffs.

So Moses brought out all the staffs from before the Lord to all the Israelites. They looked at them, and each man took his staff.

The Lord said to Moses, "Bring Aaron's staff back before the testimony to be preserved for a sign to the rebels, so that you may bring their murmurings to an end before me, that they will not die."

So Moses did as the Lord commanded him—this is what he did.

"Bring with you your brothers, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, so that they may join with you and minister to you while you and your sons with you are before the tent of the testimony.

You will be responsible for the care of the sanctuary and the care of the altar, so that there will be no more wrath on the Israelites.

You must give it to Eleazar the priest so that he can take it outside the camp, and it must be slaughtered before him.

He must purify himself with water on the third day and on the seventh day, and so will be clean. But if he does not purify himself on the third day and the seventh day, then he will not be clean.

But the man who is unclean and does not purify himself, that person must be cut off from among the community, because he has polluted the sanctuary of the Lord ; the water of purification was not sprinkled on him, so he is unclean.