Korah's Rebellion

Korah, a Levite, with Dathan, Abiram and On of Reuben and 250 leaders, confront Moses and Aaron: "Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves?" Dathan and Abiram refuse to come: "Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a land that floweth with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness?"

Moses proposes a test: let each man bring a censer of incense, and the LORD will choose. Moses says: "If these men die the common death of all men… then the LORD hath not sent me." The ground splits under the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram and swallows them; fire consumes the 250. Their bronze censers are hammered into a covering for the altar, a warning.

The next day the whole community blames Moses: "Ye have killed the people of the LORD." A plague breaks out; Aaron runs with incense into the crowd, "and he stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed."

The sons of Korah

"Notwithstanding the children of Korah died not" (26:11). Their descendants became Temple singers and gatekeepers. Eleven psalms are headed "for the sons of Korah," including "As the hart panteth after the water brooks" (Psalm 42) and "How amiable are thy tabernacles" (Psalm 84). An ostracon from the Judahite fortress of Arad (8th–7th century BC) mentions "the sons of Korah," probably a priestly or Levitical family serving there.

Two rebellions in one?

Read closely, the chapter has two groups with different complaints. Korah, a Levite, and the 250 claim the priesthood: their test is incense, and fire consumes them. Dathan and Abiram, Reubenites, reject Moses' leadership itself ("thou… make thyself altogether a prince over us"), refuse to come, and are swallowed in their tents. Other passages remember only one group: Deuteronomy 11:6 and Psalm 106:17 name Dathan and Abiram as swallowed, not Korah, and Numbers 26:11 notes that "the children of Korah died not." Many scholars see two traditions woven together; others read one coordinated revolt with two wings. A third named rebel, On son of Peleth, appears in 16:1 and is never mentioned again.

The censers

The 250 bronze censers, "hallowed" because they had been offered before the LORD, are hammered into plates to cover the altar, "to be a memorial unto the children of Israel, that no stranger, which is not of the seed of Aaron, come near to offer incense." Bronze incense shovels, the likely form of these censers, have been found at Tel Dan and other Iron Age sanctuaries. In Hebrew Bibles this paragraph begins chapter 17, so Numbers 16:36–50 in English is 17:1–15 in Hebrew.