¹Then Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took matters into their own hands ²and rose up before Moses, with two hundred and fifty men from the sons of Israel, leaders of the congregation, selected men of the assembly, men of renown, ³and they were convened against Moses and against Aaron, and they said to them, “It is too much for you, seeing that the whole congregation is all holy, and the Lord is in their midst, so why do you elevate yourselves above the Lord's convocation?” ⁴And when Moses heard it, he fell face down. ⁵And he spoke to Korah and to the whole of his company and said, “In the morning, let the Lord make known who are his, and who is holy, and he will bring them near to him. So he will bring near to himself him whom he has chosen for himself. ⁶Do this: take your censers, Korah and all his company, ⁷and put fire in them, and put incense in them before the Lord tomorrow, and it will come to pass that the man whom the Lord chooses will be the one who is holy. It is too much for you, you sons of Levi.” ⁸Then Moses said to Korah, “Listen, please, you sons of Levi. ⁹Is it a small matter to you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel to bring you near to him, to do the work of the Lord's tabernacle, and to stand before the congregation to serve them? ¹⁰And he has brought you near, and all your brothers the sons of Levi with you, and yet you seek the priesthood too? ¹¹Therefore, you and all your company which is gathered against the Lord – as regards Aaron, what is he that you should murmur against him?” ¹²Then Moses sent for Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, but they said, “We will not come up. ¹³Is it a small matter that you have brought us up from a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the desert? For you have most definitely set yourself up as a ruler over us. ¹⁴But you have not brought us to a land flowing with milk and honey, nor have you given us an inheritance of a field or a vineyard. Will you poke out the eyes of these men? We will not come up.” ¹⁵Then Moses became very angry, and he said to the Lord, “Do not respect their meal-offering. I have not taken one donkey from them, nor have I harmed a single one of them.” ¹⁶And Moses said to Korah, “You and all your company, be present before the Lord, you and they, and Aaron, tomorrow. ¹⁷And let each man take his censer, and you will put incense in them, and let each man bring his censer before the Lord – two hundred and fifty censers – both you and Aaron, each man with his censer.” ¹⁸So each man took his censer, and they put fire in them, and they put incense in them, and they stood at the entrance to the tent of contact, as did Moses and Aaron. ¹⁹And Korah convened all the company against them, to the entrance to the tent of contact, and the glory of the Lord appeared to the whole congregation. ²⁰Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and said, ²¹“Be separated from the midst of this company, and I will destroy them in an instant.” ²²And they fell face down and said, “O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, one man has sinned, and will you be angry with the whole congregation?” ²³Then the Lord spoke to Moses and said, ²⁴“Speak to the congregation and say, ‘Get away from the vicinity of the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan and Abiram.’ ” ²⁵Then Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him. ²⁶And he spoke to the congregation and said, “Please depart from the tents of these wicked men, and do not touch anything that is theirs, in case you are destroyed in all their sins.” ²⁷So they withdrew from the vicinity of the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan and Abiram, while Dathan and Abiram went out and stood at the entrance of their tents with their wives and their sons and their little ones. ²⁸Then Moses said, “By this you will know whether the Lord has sent me to do all these works, for they are not from my heart: ²⁹if these men die as all men ordinarily die, and death is visited on them as on all men, then the Lord did not send me. ³⁰But if the Lord produces something entirely new, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with everything that is theirs, and they go down alive to the grave, then you will know that these men despised the Lord.” ³¹And it came to pass, as he finished speaking all these words, that the ground under them split apart, ³²and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, and their dwellings, and every man who was of Korah's company, and all their property. ³³And they and all those who were of their company went down alive to the grave, and the earth covered them, and they were eliminated from the convocation. ³⁴And all of Israel that was round about them fled at their cry, for they said, “Flee so that the earth does not swallow us up.” ³⁵And fire went out from the Lord and consumed the two hundred and fifty men who offered incense. ³⁶Then the Lord spoke to Moses and said, ³⁷“Say to Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest that he should lift out the censers from the blaze and scatter the fire further away, for they have become holy. ³⁸As for the censers of these sinners against themselves, let them be made into beaten-out plates as an overlay for the altar, for they offered them before the Lord, so they have become holy, and they will serve as a sign to the sons of Israel.” ³⁹So Eleazar the priest took the copper censers with which those who were burnt up had offered, and they beat them into an overlay for the altar, ⁴⁰and as a reminder to the sons of Israel that a foreigner who is not of the seed of Aaron must not approach to burn incense before the Lord, and he must not be like Korah and his company, as the Lord had said to him through the intermediacy of Moses. ⁴¹But the next day the whole congregation of the sons of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron and said, “You are killing the Lord's people.” ⁴²And it came to pass, when the congregation was convened against Moses and against Aaron, that they looked at the tent of contact, and what they saw was that the cloud had covered it and the glory of the Lord had appeared. ⁴³Then Moses and Aaron went to the front of the tent of contact, ⁴⁴and the Lord spoke to Moses and said, ⁴⁵“Get away from this congregation, and I will consume them in an instant.” And they fell face down. ⁴⁶And Moses said to Aaron, “Take the censer and put fire in it from the altar, and put incense in it and go quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them, for anger has gone out from the Lord. An onslaught has begun.” ⁴⁷So Aaron took it as Moses had said, and he ran to the middle of the convocation, and he saw that the onslaught on the people had begun, and he took the incense, and he atoned for the people. ⁴⁸And he stood between the dead and the living, and the onslaught stopped. ⁴⁹And those who died in the onslaught came to fourteen thousand seven hundred, excluding those who died in the incident with Korah. ⁵⁰Then Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the tent of contact, and the onslaught stopped.

Reference(s) in Chapter 16: v.1 ↔ Jude 1:11 ● v.5 ↔ 2 Timothy 2:19.