28. Moses said to the people, “This is how you will know that the Lord has sent me to do all these things and that it is not by my own choice that I have done them.
29. If these men die a natural death without some punishment from God, then the Lord did not send me.
30. But if the Lord does something unheard of, and the earth opens up and swallows them with all they own, so that they go down alive to the world of the dead, you will know that these men have rejected the Lord.”
31. As soon as he had finished speaking, the ground under Dathan and Abiram split open
32. and swallowed them and their families, together with all of Korah's followers and their possessions.
33. So they went down alive to the world of the dead, with their possessions. The earth closed over them, and they vanished.
34. All the people of Israel who were there fled when they heard their cry. They shouted, “Run! The earth might swallow us too!”
35. Then the Lord sent a fire that blazed out and burnt up the 250 men who had presented the incense.
36. Then the Lord said to Moses,
37. “Tell Eleazar son of Aaron the priest to remove the bronze firepans from the remains of the men who have been burnt, and scatter the coals from the firepans somewhere else, because the firepans are holy.
38. They became holy when they were presented at the Lord's altar. So take the firepans of these men who were put to death for their sin, beat them into thin plates, and make a covering for the altar. It will be a warning to the people of Israel.”
39. So Eleazar the priest took the firepans and had them beaten into thin plates to make a covering for the altar.
40. This was a warning to the Israelites that no one who was not a descendant of Aaron should come to the altar to burn incense for the Lord. Otherwise he would be destroyed like Korah and his men. All this was done as the Lord had commanded Eleazar through Moses.