Korach

Korach son of Izhar, a Levite, with the Reubenites Dathan and Abiram and 250 leaders of the congregation, rises against Moses and Aaron: "All the congregation is holy, every one of them, and the LORD is in their midst — why do you exalt yourselves?" Moses falls on his face, then sets the test: tomorrow, fire pans with incense before the LORD, and the LORD will make known who is His. To Korach he adds: is it a small thing that the God of Israel brought you near for the service of the tabernacle — must you seek the priesthood also? Dathan and Abiram refuse even to come up.

At the tents of the rebels, Moses declares the sign: if these men die a natural death, the LORD has not sent me — but if the earth opens its mouth and swallows them, you will know. The ground splits beneath Dathan and Abiram and their households, and fire consumes the 250 offering incense. Their bronze pans, become holy, are hammered into plating for the altar — a reminder that no outsider draws near to burn incense. The next day the whole congregation complains, "You have killed the people of the LORD"; a plague breaks out, and Aaron, at Moses' word, runs with his pan of incense and stands between the dead and the living until it is stopped — 14,700 besides those who died with Korach.

The question of who stands before God is settled a second way: twelve staffs, one for each tribe's chieftain and Aaron's for Levi, are placed before the testimony overnight. In the morning Aaron's staff has sprouted — buds, blossoms, and ripe almonds — and it is kept before the testimony as a sign. The portion closes with the duties and dues of priests and Levites: the priests keep the charge of the sanctuary and receive the holy portions, the firstfruits, and the firstborn's redemption; the Levites receive the tithe of Israel for their service — and from it lift out a tithe of the tithe for the priests — for they have no inheritance of land among the children of Israel.