The People Rebel

14 Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. ² And all the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron; the whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness!^{(A) 3} Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder; would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” ⁴ So they said to one another, “Let us choose a captain and go back to Egypt.”

⁵ Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the Israelites.^{(B) 6} And Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes ⁷ and said to all the congregation of the Israelites, “The land that we went through as spies is an exceedingly good land.^{(C) 8} If the Lord is pleased with us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey.^{(D) 9} Only, do not rebel against the Lord, and do not fear the people of the land, for they are no more than bread for us; their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.”^{(E) 10} But the whole congregation threatened to stone them.

Then the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites.^{(F) 11} And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?^{(G) 12} I will strike them with pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”^(H)

Moses Intercedes for the People

¹³ But Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for in your might you brought up this people from among them,^{(I) 14} and they will tell the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you, O Lord, are in the midst of this people, for you, O Lord, are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them and you go in front of them, in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night.^{(J) 15} Now if you kill this people as one, then the nations who have heard about you will say, ¹⁶ ‘It is because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land he swore to give them that he has slaughtered them in the wilderness.’^{(K) 17} And now, therefore, let the power of the Lord be great in the way that you promised when you spoke, saying,

¹⁹ “Forgive the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have pardoned this people, from Egypt even until now.”^(M)

²⁰ Then the Lord said, “I do forgive, just as you have asked;^{(N) 21} nevertheless, as I live and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord,^{(O) 22} none of the people who have seen my glory and the signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness and yet have tested me these ten times and have not obeyed my voice ²³ shall see the land that I swore to give to their ancestors; none of those who despised me shall see it. ²⁴ But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me wholeheartedly, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it.^{(P) 25} Now, since the Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valleys, turn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.”^[a](Q)

An Attempted Invasion Is Repulsed

²⁶ And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, ²⁷ “How long shall this wicked congregation complain against me? I have heard the complaints of the Israelites, which they complain against me.^{(R) 28} Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘I will do to you the very things I heard you say:^{(S) 29} your dead bodies shall fall in this very wilderness, and of all your number included in the census from twenty years old and up who have complained against me,^{(T) 30} not one of you shall come into the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.^{(U) 31} But your little ones, who you said would become plunder, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have despised.^{(V) 32} But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness.^{(W) 33} And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness.^{(X) 34} According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day a year, you shall bear your iniquity, forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.’^{(Y) 35} I the Lord have spoken; surely I will do thus to all this wicked congregation gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.”^(Z)

³⁶ And the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land who returned and made all the congregation complain against him by bringing a bad report about the land,^{(AA) 37} the men who brought an unfavorable report about the land died by a plague before the Lord. ³⁸ But Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh alone remained alive, of those men who went to spy out the land.^(AB)

³⁹ When Moses told these words to all the Israelites, the people mourned greatly.^{(AC) 40} They rose early in the morning and went up to the heights of the hill country, saying, “Here we are. We will go up to the place that the Lord has promised, for we have sinned.”^{(AD) 41} But Moses said, “Why do you continue to transgress the command of the Lord? That will not succeed. ⁴² Do not go up, for the Lord is not with you; do not let yourselves be struck down before your enemies.^{(AE) 43} For the Amalekites and the Canaanites will confront you there, and you shall fall by the sword; because you have turned back from following the Lord, the Lord will not be with you.” ⁴⁴ But they presumed to go up to the heights of the hill country, even though the ark of the covenant of the Lord and Moses had not left the camp.^{(AF) 45} Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and defeated them, pursuing them as far as Hormah.^(AG)

Revolt of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram

16 Now Korah son of Izhar son of Kohath son of Levi, along with Dathan and Abiram sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth son^[a] of Reuben, took^{(A) 2} two hundred fifty Israelite men, leaders of the congregation, chosen from the assembly, well-known men, and they confronted Moses.^{(B) 3} They assembled against Moses and against Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! All the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. So why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?”^{(C) 4} When Moses heard it, he fell on his face.^{(D) 5} Then he spoke to Korah and all his congregation, saying, “In the morning the Lord will make known who is his and who is holy and who will be allowed to approach him; the one whom he will choose he will allow to approach him.^{(E) 6} Do this: take censers, Korah and all your^[b] congregation, ⁷ and tomorrow put fire in them, and lay incense on them before the Lord, and the man whom the Lord chooses shall be the holy one. You Levites have gone too far!” ⁸ Then Moses said to Korah, “Hear now, you Levites! ⁹ Is it too little for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel to allow you to approach him in order to perform the duties of the Lord’s tabernacle and to stand before the congregation and serve them?^{(F) 10} He has allowed you to approach him, and all your brother Levites with you, yet you seek the priesthood as well! ¹¹ Therefore you and all your congregation have gathered together against the Lord. What is Aaron that you rail against him?”^(G)

¹² Moses sent for Dathan and Abiram sons of Eliab, but they said, “We will not come! ¹³ Is it too little that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness, that you must also lord it over us?^{(H) 14} It is clear you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Would you put out the eyes of these men? We will not come!”^(I)

¹⁵ Moses was very angry and said to the Lord, “Pay no attention to their offering. I have not taken one donkey from them, and I have not harmed any one of them.”^{(J) 16} And Moses said to Korah, “As for you and all your congregation, be present tomorrow before the Lord, you and they and Aaron,^{(K) 17} and let each one of you take his censer and put incense on it and each one of you present his censer before the Lord, two hundred fifty censers, you also, and Aaron, each his censer.” ¹⁸ So each man took his censer, and they put fire in the censers and laid incense on them, and they stood at the entrance of the tent of meeting with Moses and Aaron. ¹⁹ Then Korah assembled the whole congregation against them at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And the glory of the Lord appeared to the whole congregation.^(L)

²⁰ Then the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, ²¹ “Separate yourselves from this congregation, so that I may consume them in a moment.”^{(M) 22} They fell on their faces and said, “O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one person sin and you become angry with the whole congregation?”^(N)

²³ And the Lord spoke to Moses: ²⁴ “Speak to the congregation, saying: Get away from the dwellings of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.” ²⁵ So Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram; the elders of Israel followed him. ²⁶ He spoke to the congregation, saying, “Turn away from the tents of these wicked men and touch nothing of theirs, or you will be swept away for all their sins.”^{(O) 27} So they got away from the dwellings of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the entrances of their tents, together with their wives, their children, and their little ones. ²⁸ And Moses said, “This is how you shall know that the Lord has sent me to do all these works; it has not been of my own accord:^{(P) 29} If these people die a natural death or if a natural fate comes on them, then the Lord has not sent me. ³⁰ But if the Lord creates something new and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up, with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men have despised the Lord.”^(Q)

³¹ As soon as he finished speaking all these words, the ground under them was split apart.^{(R) 32} The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, along with their households—everyone who belonged to Korah and all their goods.^{(S) 33} So they with all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol; the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly. ³⁴ All Israel around them fled at their outcry, for they said, “The earth will swallow us, too!” ³⁵ And fire came out from the Lord and consumed the two hundred fifty men offering the incense.^(T)

^36 [c]Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ³⁷ “Tell Eleazar son of Aaron the priest to take the censers out of the blaze, then scatter the fire far and wide. ³⁸ For the censers of these sinners have become holy at the cost of their lives. Make them into hammered plates as a covering for the altar, for they presented them before the Lord and they became holy. Thus they shall be a sign to the Israelites.”^{(U) 39} So Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers that had been presented by those who were burned, and they were hammered out as a covering for the altar— ⁴⁰ a reminder to the Israelites that no outsider, who is not of the descendants of Aaron, shall approach to offer incense before the Lord, so as not to become like Korah and his congregation, just as the Lord had said to him through Moses.^(V)

⁴¹ On the next day, however, the whole congregation of the Israelites rebelled against Moses and against Aaron, saying, “You have killed the people of the Lord.”^{(W) 42} And when the congregation had assembled against them, Moses and Aaron turned toward the tent of meeting; the cloud had covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared.^{(X) 43} Then Moses and Aaron came to the front of the tent of meeting, ⁴⁴ and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ⁴⁵ “Get away from this congregation, so that I may consume them in a moment.” And they fell on their faces.^{(Y) 46} Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, put fire on it from the altar and lay incense on it and carry it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them. For wrath has gone out from the Lord; the plague has begun.”^{(Z) 47} So Aaron took it as Moses had ordered and ran into the middle of the assembly, where the plague had already begun among the people. He put on the incense and made atonement for the people.^{(AA) 48} He stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped.^{(AB) 49} Those who died by the plague were fourteen thousand seven hundred, besides those who died in the affair of Korah.^{(AC) 50} When the plague was stopped, Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the tent of meeting.

The Budding of Aaron’s Rod

17 ^[a]The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to the Israelites, and get twelve staffs from them, one for each ancestral house, from all the leaders of their ancestral houses. Write each man’s name on his staff, ³ and write Aaron’s name on the staff of Levi. For there shall be one staff for the head of each ancestral house. ⁴ Place them in the tent of meeting before the covenant, where I meet with you.^{(A) 5} And the staff of the man whom I choose shall sprout; thus I will put a stop to the complaints of the Israelites that they continually make against you.”^{(B) 6} Moses spoke to the Israelites, and all their leaders gave him staffs, one for each leader, according to their ancestral houses, twelve staffs; and the staff of Aaron was among theirs. ⁷ So Moses placed the staffs before the Lord in the tent of the covenant.^(C)

⁸ When Moses went into the tent of the covenant on the next day, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted. It put forth buds, produced blossoms, and bore ripe almonds. ⁹ Then Moses brought out all the staffs from before the Lord to all the Israelites, and they looked, and each man took his staff. ¹⁰ And the Lord said to Moses, “Put back the staff of Aaron before the covenant, to be kept as a warning to rebels, so that you may make an end of their complaints against me, or else they will die.”^{(D) 11} Moses did so; just as the Lord commanded him, so he did.

¹² The Israelites said to Moses, “We are perishing; we are lost; all of us are lost! ¹³ Everyone who approaches the tabernacle of the Lord will die. Are we all to perish?”^(E)