31. When he had finished speaking all these words, the ground that was under them split open,
32. and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, along with their households, and all Korah’s men, and all their goods.
33. They and all that they had went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed over them. So they perished from among the community.
34. All the Israelites who were around them fled at their cry, for they said, “What if the earth swallows us too?”
35. Then a fire went out from the Lord and devoured the 250 men who offered incense.
36. (17:1) The Lord spoke to Moses:
37. “Tell Eleazar son of Aaron the priest to pick up the censers out of the flame, for they are holy, and then scatter the coals of fire at a distance.
38. As for the censers of these men who sinned at the cost of their lives, they must be made into hammered sheets for covering the altar, because they presented them before the Lord and sanctified them. They will become a sign to the Israelites.”
39. So Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers presented by those who had been burned up, and they were hammered out as a covering for the altar.
40. It was a memorial for the Israelites, that no outsider who is not a descendant of Aaron should approach to burn incense before the Lord, that he might not become like Korah and his company – just as the Lord had spoken by the authority of Moses.
41. But on the next day the whole community of Israelites murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying, “You have killed the Lord’s people!”
42. When the community assembled against Moses and Aaron, they turned toward the tent of meeting – and the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared.
43. Then Moses and Aaron stood before the tent of meeting.
44. The Lord spoke to Moses:
45. “Get away from this community, so that I can consume them in an instant!” But they threw themselves down with their faces to the ground.
46. Then Moses said to Aaron, “Take the censer, put burning coals from the altar in it, place incense on it, and go quickly into the assembly and make atonement for them, for wrath has gone out from the Lord – the plague has begun!”