Numbers 16:28-46

²⁸Moses said, “Hereby you shall know that the LORD has sent me to do all these works; for they are not from my own mind.

²⁹If these men die the common death of all men, or if they experience what all men experience, then the LORD hasn’t sent me.

³⁰But if the LORD makes a new thing, and the ground opens its mouth, and swallows them up with all that belong to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall understand that these men have despised the LORD.”

³¹As he finished speaking all these words, the ground that was under them split apart.

³²The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up with their households, all of Korah’s men, and all their goods.

³³So they, and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol. The earth closed on them, and they perished from among the assembly.

³⁴All Israel that were around them fled at their cry; for they said, “Lest the earth swallow us up!”

³⁵Fire came out from the LORD, and devoured the two hundred fifty men who offered the incense.

³⁶The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

³⁷“Speak to Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, that he take up the censers out of the burning, and scatter the fire away from the camp; for they are holy,

³⁸even the censers of those who sinned against their own lives. Let them be beaten into plates for a covering of the altar, for they offered them before the LORD. Therefore they are holy. They shall be a sign to the children of Israel.”

³⁹Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers which those who were burned had offered; and they beat them out for a covering of the altar,

⁴⁰to be a memorial to the children of Israel, to the end that no stranger who isn’t of the offspring of Aaron, would come near to burn incense before the LORD, that he not be as Korah and as his company; as the LORD spoke to him by Moses.

⁴¹But on the next day all the congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and against Aaron, saying, “You have killed the LORD’s people!”

⁴²When the congregation was assembled against Moses and against Aaron, they looked toward the Tent of Meeting. Behold, the cloud covered it, and the LORD’s glory appeared.

⁴³Moses and Aaron came to the front of the Tent of Meeting.

⁴⁴The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

⁴⁵“Get away from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment!” They fell on their faces.

⁴⁶Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, put fire from the altar in it, lay incense on it, carry it quickly to the congregation, and make atonement for them; for wrath has gone out from the LORD! The plague has begun.”