The Complete Jewish Bible CJB
The Bible in Basic English BBE
1 Now Korach the son of Yitz'har, the son of K'hat, the son of Levi, along with Datan and Aviram, the sons of Eli'av, and On, the son of Pelet, descendants of Re'uven, took men and
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Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Pallu, the son of Reuben, made themselves ready,
2 rebelled against Moshe. Siding with them were 250 men of Isra'el, leaders of the community, key members of the council, men of reputation.
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And came before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty chiefs of the people, men of good name who had a place in the meeting of the people.
3 They assembled themselves against Moshe and Aharon and said to them, "You take too much on yourselves! After all, the entire community is holy, every one of them, and ADONAI is among them. So why do you lift yourselves up above ADONAI's assembly?"
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They came together against Moses and against Aaron, and said to them, You take overmuch on yourselves, seeing that all the people are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them; why then have you put yourselves in authority over the people of the Lord?
4 When Moshe heard this he fell on his face.
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And Moses, hearing this, went down on his face;
5 Then he said to Korach and his whole group, "In the morning, ADONAI will show who are his and who is the holy person he will allow to approach him. Yes, he will bring whomever he chooses near to himself.
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And he said to Korah and his band, In the morning the Lord will make clear who are his, and who is holy, and who may come near him: the man of his selection will be caused to come near him.
6 Do this: take censers, Korach and all your group;
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So do this: let Korah and all his band take vessels for burning perfumes;
7 put fire in them; and put incense in them before ADONAI tomorrow. The one whom ADONAI chooses will be the one who is holy! It is you, you sons of Levi, who are taking too much on yourselves!"
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And put spices on the fire in them before the Lord tomorrow; then the man marked out by the Lord will be holy: you take overmuch on yourselves, you sons of Levi.
8 Then Moshe said to Korach, "Listen here, you sons of Levi!
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And Moses said to Korah, Give ear now, you sons of Levi:
9 Is it for you a mere trifle that the God of Isra'el has separated you from the community of Isra'el to bring you close to himself, so that you can do the work in the tabernacle of ADONAI and stand before the community serving them?
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Does it seem only a small thing to you that the God of Israel has made you separate from the rest of Israel, letting you come near himself to do the work of the House of the Lord, and to take your place before the people to do what has to be done for them;
10 He has brought you close and all your brothers the sons of Levi with you. Now you want the office of cohen too!
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Letting you, and all your brothers the sons of Levi, come near to him? and would you now be priests?
11 That's why you and your group have gathered together against ADONAI! After all, what is Aharon that you complain against him?"
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So you and all your band have come together against the Lord; and Aaron, who is he, that you are crying out against him?
12 Then Moshe sent to summon Datan and Aviram, the sons of Eli'av. But they replied, "We won't come up!
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Then Moses sent for Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab: and they said, We will not come up:
13 Is it such a mere trifle, bringing us up from a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the desert, that now you arrogate to yourself the role of dictator over us?
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Is it not enough that you have taken us from a land flowing with milk and honey, to put us to death in the waste land, but now you are desiring to make yourself a chief over us?
14 You haven't at all brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, and you haven't put us in possession of fields and vineyards. Do you think you can gouge out these men's eyes and blind them? We won't come up!"
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And more than this, you have not taken us into a land flowing with milk and honey, or given us a heritage of fields and vine-gardens: will you put out the eyes of these men? We will not come up.
15 Moshe was very angry and said to ADONAI, "Don't accept their grain offering! I haven't taken one donkey from them, I've done nothing wrong to any of them."
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Then Moses was very angry, and said to the Lord, Give no attention to their offering: not one of their asses have I taken, or done wrong to any of them.
16 Moshe said to Korach, "You and your group, be there before ADONAI tomorrow -you, they and Aharon.
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And Moses said to Korah, You and all your band are to come before the Lord tomorrow, you and they and Aaron:
17 Each of you take his fire pan and put incense in it; every one of you, bring before ADONAI his fire pan, 250 fire pans, you too, and Aharon - each one his fire pan."
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And let every man take a vessel for burning perfumes, and put sweet spices in them; let every man take his vessel before the Lord, two hundred and fifty vessels; you and Aaron and everyone with his vessel.
18 Each man took his fire pan, put fire in it, laid incense on it and stood at the entrance to the tent of meeting with Moshe and Aharon.
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So every man took his vessel and they put fire in them, with spices, and came to the door of the Tent of meeting with Moses and Aaron.
19 Korach assembled all the group who were against them at the entrance to the tent of meeting. Then the glory of ADONAI appeared to the whole assembly.
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And Korah made all the people come together against them to the door of the Tent of meeting: and the glory of the Lord was seen by all the people.
20 ADONAI said to Moshe and Aharon,
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And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,
21 "Separate yourselves from this assembly; I'm going to destroy them right now!"
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Come out from among this people, so that I may send sudden destruction on them.
22 They fell on their faces and said, "Oh God, God of the spirits of all humankind, if one person sins, are you going to be angry with the entire assembly?"
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Then falling down on their faces they said, O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, because of one man's sin will your wrath be moved against all the people?
23 ADONAI answered Moshe,
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And the Lord said to Moses,
24 "Tell the assembly to move away from the homes of Korach, Datan and Aviram."
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Say to the people, Come away from the tent of Korah Dathan, and Abiram.
25 Moshe got up and went to Datan and Aviram, and the leaders of Isra'el followed him.
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So Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the responsible men of Israel went with him.
26 There he said to the assembly, "Leave the tents of these wicked men! Don't touch anything that belongs to them, or you may be swept away in all their sins."
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And he said to the people, Come away now from the tents of these evil men, without touching anything of theirs, or you may be taken in the punishment of their sins.
27 So they moved away from all around the area where Korach, Datan and Aviram lived. Then Datan and Aviram came out and stood at the entrance to their tents with their wives, sons and little ones.
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So on every side they went away from the tent of Korah Dathan, and Abiram: and Dathan and Abiram came out to the door of their tents, with their wives and their sons and their little ones.
28 Moshe said, "Here is how you will know that ADONAI has sent me to do all these things and that I haven't done them out of my own ambition:
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And Moses said, Now you will see that the Lord has sent me to do all these works, and I have not done them of myself.
29 if these men die a natural death like other people, only sharing the fate common to all humanity, then ADONAI has not sent me.
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If these men have the common death of men, or if the natural fate of all men overtakes them, then the Lord has not sent me.
30 But if ADONAI does something new - if the ground opens up and swallows them with everything they own, and they go down alive to Sh'ol - then you will understand that these men have had contempt for ADONAI."
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But if the Lord does something new, opening the earth to take them in, with everything which is theirs, and they go down living into the underworld, then it will be clear to you that the Lord has not been honoured by these men.
31 The moment he finished speaking, the ground under them split apart -
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And while these words were on his lips, the earth under them was parted in two;
32 the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up with their households, all the people who had sided with Korach and everything they owned.
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And the earth, opening her mouth, took them in, with their families, and all the men who were joined to Korah, and their goods.
33 So they and everything they owned went down alive into Sh'ol, the earth closed over them and their existence in the community ceased.
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So they and all theirs went down living into the underworld, and the earth was shut over them, and they were cut off from among the meeting of the people.
34 All Isra'el around them fled at their shrieks, shouting, "The earth might swallow us too!"
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And all Israel round about them went in flight at their cry, For fear, said they, that we go down into the heart of the earth.
35 Then fire came out from ADONAI and destroyed the 250 men who had offered the incense.
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Then fire came out from the Lord, burning up the two hundred and fifty men who were offering the perfume.
36 ADONAI said to Moshe,
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And the Lord said to Moses,
37 "Tell El'azar the son of Aharon the cohen to remove the fire pans from the fire, and scatter the smoldering coals at a distance, because they have become holy.
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Say to Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, that he is to take out of the flames the vessels with the perfumes in them, turning the fire out of them, for they are holy;
38 Also the fire pans of these men, whose sin cost them their lives, have become holy, because they were offered before ADONAI. Therefore, have them hammered into plates to cover the altar. This will be a sign for the people of Isra'el."
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And let the vessels of those men, who with their lives have made payment for their sin, be hammered out into plates as a cover for the altar; for they have been offered before the Lord and are holy; so that they may be a sign to the children of Israel.
39 El'azar the cohen took the brass fire pans which the men who had been burned to death had offered, and they hammered them into a covering for the altar,
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So Eleazar the priest took the brass vessels which had been offered by those who were burned up, and they were hammered out to make a cover for the altar:
40 to remind the people of Isra'el that an ordinary person, not descended from Aharon, is not to approach and burn incense before ADONAI, if he wants to avoid the fate of Korach and his group - as ADONAI had said to him through Moshe.
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To be a sign, kept in memory for ever by the children of Israel, that no man who is not of the seed of Aaron has the right of burning spices before the Lord, so that he may not be like Korah and his band: as the Lord said to him by the mouth of Moses.
41 But the very next day, the whole community of the people of Isra'el complained against Moshe and Aharon: "You have killed ADONAI's people!"
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But on the day after, all the children of Israel made an outcry against Moses and against Aaron, saying, You have put to death the Lord's people.
42 However, as the community was assembling against Moshe and Aharon, they looked in the direction of the tent of meeting and saw the cloud cover it and the glory of ADONAI
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Now when the people had come together against Moses and Aaron, looking in the direction of the Tent of meeting, they saw the cloud covering it, and the glory of the Lord came before their eyes.
43 Moshe and Aharon came to the front of the tent of meeting.
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Then Moses and Aaron came to the front of the Tent of meeting.
44 ADONAI said to Moshe,
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And the Lord said to Moses,
45 "Get away from this assembly, and I will destroy them at once!" But they fell on their faces.
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Come out from among this people, so that I may send sudden destruction on them. And they went down on their faces.
46 Moshe said to Aharon, "Take your fire pan, put fire from the altar in it, lay incense on it, and hurry with it to the assembly to make atonement for them, because anger has gone out from ADONAI, and the plague has already begun!"
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And Moses said to Aaron, Take your vessel and put in it fire from the altar, and sweet spices, and take it quickly into the meeting of the people, and make them free from sin: for wrath has gone out from the Lord, and the disease is starting.
47 Aharon took it, as Moshe had said, and ran into the middle of the assembly. There the plague had already begun among the people, but he added the incense and made atonement for the people.
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And at the words of Moses, Aaron took his vessel, and went running among the people; and even then the disease had made a start among them; and he put spices in his vessel to take away the sin of the people.
48 He stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped.
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And he took his place between the dead and the living: and the disease was stopped.
49 Those dying from the plague numbered 14,700 - besides those who died in the Korach incident.
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Now fourteen thousand, seven hundred deaths were caused by that disease, in addition to those who came to their end because of what Korah had done.
50 Aharon returned to Moshe at the entrance to the tent of meeting, and the plague was stopped.
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Then Aaron went back to Moses to the door of the Tent of meeting: and the disease came to a stop.
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.