Numbers 16:19-45

¹⁹And had drawn up all the multitude against them to the door of the tabernacle, the glory of the Lord appeared to them all.

²⁰And the Lord speaking to Moses and Aaron, said:

²¹Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may presently destroy them.

²²They fell flat on their face, and said: O most mighty, the God of the spirits of all flesh, for one man’s sin shall thy wrath rage against all?

²³And the Lord said to Moses:

²⁴Command the whole people to separate themselves from the tents of Core and Dathan and Abiron.

²⁵And Moses arose, and went to Dathan and Abiron: and the ancients of Israel following him,

²⁶He said to the multitude: Depart from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest you be involved in their sins.

²⁷And when they were departed from their tents round about, Dathan and Abiron coming out stood in the entry of their pavilions with their wives and children, and all the people.

²⁸And Moses said: By this you shall know that the Lord hath sent me to do all things that you see, and that I have not forged them of my own head:

²⁹If these men die the common death of men, and if they be visited with a plague, wherewith others also are wont to be visited, the Lord did not send me.

³⁰But if the Lord do a new thing, and the earth opening her mouth swallow them down, and all things that belong to them, and they go down alive into hell, you shall know that they have blasphemed the Lord.

³¹And immediately as he had made an end of speaking, the earth broke asunder under their feet:

³²And opening her mouth, devoured them with their tents and all their substance.

³³And they went down alive into hell the ground closing upon them, and they perished from among the people.

³⁴But all Israel, that was standing round about, fled at the cry of them that were perishing: saying: Lest perhaps the earth swallow us up also.

³⁵And a fire coming out from the Lord, destroyed the two hundred and fifty men that offered the incense.

³⁶And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

³⁷Command Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest to take up the censers that lie in the burning, and to scatter the fire of one side and the other: because they are sanctified

³⁸In the deaths of the sinners: and let him beat them into plates, and fasten them to the altar, because incense hath been offered in them to the Lord, and they are sanctified, that the children of Israel may see them for a sign and a memorial.

³⁹Then Eleazar the priest took the brazen censers, wherein they had offered, whom the burning fire had devoured, and beat them into plates, fastening them to the altar:

⁴⁰That the children of Israel might have for the time to come wherewith they should be admonished, that no stranger or any one that is not of seed of Aaron should come near to offer incense to the Lord, lest he should suffer as Core suffered, and all his congregation, according as the Lord spoke to Moses.

⁴¹The following day all the multitude of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying: You have killed the people of the Lord.

⁴²And when there arose a sedition, and the tumult increased,

⁴³Moses and Aaron fled to the tabernacle of the covenant. And when the were gone into it, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared.

⁴⁴And the Lord said to Moses:

⁴⁵Get you out from the midst of this multitude, this moment will I destroy them. And as they were lying on the ground,