The Censer and the Trust: When God Steps In to Save

GOD spoke to Moses, saying: Order Eleazar son of Aaron the priest to remove the fire pans—for they have become sacred—from among the charred remains; and scatter the coals abroad. [Remove] the fire pans of those who have sinned at the cost of their lives, and let them be made into hammered sheets as plating for the altar—for once they have been used for offering to GOD, they have become sacred—and let them serve as a warning to the people of Israel. Eleazar the priest took the copper fire pans that had been used for offering by those who died in the fire; and they were hammered into plating for the altar, as GOD had ordered him through Moses. It was to be a reminder to the Israelites, so that no outsider—one not of Aaron’s offspring—should presume to offer incense before GOD and suffer the fate of Korah and his band. Next day the whole Israelite community railed against Moses and Aaron, saying, “You two have brought death upon GOD’s people!” But as the community gathered against them, Moses and Aaron turned toward the Tent of Meeting; the cloud had covered it and the Presence of GOD appeared. When Moses and Aaron reached the Tent of Meeting, GOD spoke to Moses, saying, “Remove yourselves from this community, that I may annihilate them in an instant.” They fell on their faces. Then Moses said to Aaron, “Take the fire pan, and put on it fire from the altar. Add incense and take it quickly to the community and make expiation for them. For wrath has gone forth from GOD: the plague has begun!” Aaron took it, as Moses had ordered, and ran to the midst of the congregation, where the plague had begun among the people. He put on the incense and made expiation for the people; he stood between the dead and the living until the plague was checked. Those who died of the plague came to fourteen thousand and seven hundred, aside from those who died on account of Korah. Aaron then returned to Moses at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, since the plague was checked. GOD spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the Israelite people and take from them—from the chieftains of their ancestral houses—one staff for each chieftain of an ancestral house: twelve staffs in all. Inscribe each one’s name on his staff, there being one staff for each head of an ancestral house; also inscribe Aaron’s name on the staff of Levi. Deposit them in the Tent of Meeting before the Pact, where I meet with you. The staff of the man whom I choose shall sprout, and I will rid uncertain. Myself of the incessant mutterings of the Israelites against you. Moses spoke thus to the Israelites. Their chieftains gave him a staff for each chieftain of an ancestral house, twelve staffs in all; among these staffs was that of Aaron. Moses deposited the staffs before GOD, in the Tent of the Pact. The next day Moses entered the Tent of the Pact, and there the staff of Aaron of the house of Levi had sprouted: it had brought forth sprouts, produced blossoms, and borne almonds. Moses then brought out all the staffs from before GOD to all the Israelites; each identified and recovered his staff. GOD said to Moses, “Put Aaron’s staff back before the Pact, to be kept as a lesson to rebels, so that their mutterings against Me may cease, lest they die.” This Moses did; just as GOD had commanded him, so he did. But the Israelites said to Moses, “Lo, we perish! We are lost, all of us lost! Everyone who so much as ventures near GOD’s Tabernacle must die. Alas, we are doomed to perish!”

Numbers 17 (some Hebrew Bibles count these verses as Numbers 17:1–20) records the aftermath of Korah's rebellion. The bronze censers of the rebels are hammered into plating for the altar as a perpetual sign, and Aaron the priest runs with incense and fire to stand between the dead and the living until the plague is checked. The passage shows that faith in the wilderness is trust in a God who both judges and provides atonement through a priest.