24. “Tell the community: Move away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.”
25. Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the leaders of Israel followed him.
26. He 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.”
27. So 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.
28. Moses said, “This is how you will know that the Lord sent me to do all these things and that it wasn’t my idea:
29. If these men die like all other people—if they die a natural death—then the Lord hasn’t sent me.
30. But 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.”
31. As soon as he had finished saying all this, the ground under them split,
32. and the earth opened up to swallow them, their families, the followers of Korah, and all their property.
33. They went down alive to their graves with everything that belonged to them. The ground covered them, and so they disappeared from the assembly.
34. All the Israelites around them ran away when they heard their screams. They thought the ground would swallow them, too.
35. Fire came from the Lord and consumed the 250 men who were offering incense.
36. Then 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.
38. The 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.”
39. So 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,