Numbers 16:17-40

17Each man will take his incense burner and put incense in it. They will offer all 250 incense burners to the Lord. Then you and Aaron offer your incense burners.”

18So each man took his incense burner, put burning coals and incense in it, and stood with Moses and Aaron at the entrance to the tent of meeting.

19When Korah had gathered all his followers—those who opposed Moses and Aaron—at the entrance to the tent of meeting, the glory of the Lord appeared to the whole group.

20The Lord said to Moses and Aaron,

21“Move away from these men, and I’ll destroy them in an instant.”

22Immediately, they bowed with their faces touching the ground and said, “O God, you are the God who gives the breath of life to everyone! If one man sins, will you be angry with the whole community?”

23Then the Lord said to Moses,

24“Tell the community: Move away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.”

25Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the leaders of Israel followed him.

26He said to the community, “Move away from the tents of these wicked men. Don’t touch anything that belongs to them, or you’ll be swept away because of all their sins.”

27So they moved away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Dathan and Abiram had come out and were standing at the entrances to their tents with their wives and children.

28Moses said, “This is how you will know that the Lord sent me to do all these things and that it wasn’t my idea:

29If these men die like all other people—if they die a natural death—then the Lord hasn’t sent me.

30But if the Lord does something totally new—if the ground opens up, swallows them and everything that belongs to them, and they go down alive to their graves—then you’ll know that these men have treated the Lord with contempt.”

31As soon as he had finished saying all this, the ground under them split,

32and the earth opened up to swallow them, their families, the followers of Korah, and all their property.

33They went down alive to their graves with everything that belonged to them. The ground covered them, and so they disappeared from the assembly.

34All the Israelites around them ran away when they heard their screams. They thought the ground would swallow them, too.

35Fire came from the Lord and consumed the 250 men who were offering incense.

36Then the Lord said to Moses,

37“Tell Eleazar, son of the priest Aaron, to take the incense burners out of the fire and scatter the coals and incense somewhere else, because the incense burners have become holy.

38The incense burners of these men who sinned and lost their lives are holy, because they were offered to the Lord. Hammer them into thin metal sheets to cover the altar. This will be a sign to the Israelites.”

39So the priest Eleazar took the bronze incense burners which had been brought by those who had been burned to death. The incense burners were then hammered into thin metal sheets to cover the altar,

40following the command that the Lord had given through Moses. The bronze-covered altar will remind Israel that no one but a descendant of Aaron can come near to burn incense to the Lord. Everyone else will die like Korah and his followers.