Numbers 16:36-50  New English Translation

The Atonement for the Rebellion

³⁶ (17:1)^[a] The Lord spoke to Moses: ³⁷ “Tell^[b] Eleazar son of Aaron the priest to pick up^[c] the censers out of the flame, for they are holy, and then scatter the coals of fire^[d] at a distance. ³⁸ As for the censers of these men who sinned at the cost of their lives,^[e] they must be made^[f] 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^[g] 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^[h] 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!”^{[i] 42} When the community assembled^[j] against Moses and Aaron, they turned toward the tent of meeting—and^[k] 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.^{[l] 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!” ⁴⁷ So Aaron did^[m] as Moses commanded^[n] and ran into the middle of the assembly, where the plague was just beginning among the people. So he placed incense on the coals and made atonement for the people. ⁴⁸ He stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped. ⁴⁹ Now 14,700 people died in the plague, in addition to those who died in the event with Korah. ⁵⁰ Then Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and the plague was stopped.