1 Then, behold, Korah the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and also On the son of Peleth, of the sons of Ruben,
2 rose up against Moses, with two hundred fifty others of the sons of Israel, leading men of the assembly, and who, at the time of a council, would be called by name.
3 And when they had stood against Moses and Aaron, they said: “Let it be sufficient for you that the entire multitude is of holy ones, and that the Lord is among them. Why do you elevate yourselves above the people of the Lord?”
4 When Moses had heard this, he fell prone on his face.
5 And speaking to Korah, and to the entire multitude, he said: “In the morning, the Lord will cause it to be known who belongs to him, and which holy ones he will join to himself. And whomever he will choose, they shall be close to him.
6 Therefore, do this: Each one of you, Korah and all your associates, take your censer,
7 and drawing fire into it tomorrow, place incense upon it before the Lord. And whomever he will choose, the same shall be holy. You sons of Levi have been raised up greatly.”
8 And he said again to Korah: “Listen, sons of Levi.
9 Is it a small thing to you, that the God of Israel has separated you from all the people, and has joined you to himself, so that you would serve him in the rituals of the tabernacle, and stand before gatherings of the people, and minister to him?
10 Was the reason that he caused you and all your brothers, the sons of Levi, to approach him, so that you would even claim for yourselves the priesthood too,
11 and so that your entire group would stand against the Lord? For what is Aaron that you should murmur against him?”
12 Therefore, Moses sent to call for Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, who responded: “We will not come.
13 Is it a small matter to you, that you have led us away from a land that was flowing with milk and honey, so as to kill us in the desert, unless you could also be a ruler over us?
14 You have led us, it is true, to a land that flows with streams of milk and honey, and you have given us possession of fields and vineyards. But will you also tear out our eyes? We will not come.”
15 And Moses, being very angry, said to the Lord: “Do not look with favor on their sacrifices. You know that I have not accepted from them, at any time, so much as a young donkey, nor have I afflicted any of them.”
16 And he said to Korah: “You and your congregation, stand alone before the Lord, and apart from Aaron, tomorrow.
17 Let each one of you take censers, and place incense in them, offering to the Lord two hundred fifty censers. Let Aaron also hold his censer.”
18 When they had done this, Moses and Aaron stood up,
19 and, having crowded the entire multitude close to them at the door of the tabernacle, the glory of the Lord appeared to them all.
20 And the Lord, speaking to Moses and Aaron, said:
21 Separate yourselves from the midst of this congregation, so that I may suddenly destroy them.
22 But they fell prone on their faces, and they said, “O most strong One, the God of the spirits of all flesh, should your anger rage against all, for the sin of one?”
23 And the Lord said to Moses:
24 Instruct the entire people to separate from the tents of Korah, and Dathan, and Abiram.
25 And Moses rose up and went to Dathan and Abiram. And the elders of Israel followed him,
26 and he said to the crowd, “Withdraw from the tabernacles of these impious men, and touch nothing which pertains to them, lest you become involved in their sins.”
27 And when they had withdrawn from their tents all around, Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the entrance of their pavilions, with their wives and children, and with all their associates.
28 And Moses said: “By this shall you know that the Lord has sent me to do all that you discern, and that I have not brought these things out of my own heart:
29 If these men pass away by the common death of men, or if they will be visited by a scourge, of a kind by which others are often visited, then the Lord did not send me.
30 But if the Lord accomplishes something new, so that the earth opens its mouth and swallows them whole, along with everything that belongs to them, and they descend alive into the underworld, then you shall know that they have blasphemed the Lord.”
31 Therefore, as soon as he had ceased to speak, the earth broke open under their feet.
32 And opening its mouth, it devoured them with their tabernacles and their entire substance.
33 And they descended alive, the ground closing around them, into the underworld, and they perished from the midst of the mulititude.
34 Yet truly, all of Israel, which was standing all around, took flight at the clamor of those who were perishing, saying, “Lest perhaps the earth may swallow us whole also.”
35 Then, too, a fire, going forth from the Lord, put to death the two hundred fifty men who were offering the incense.
36 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
37 Instruct Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, to take up the censers which lie in the burning, and to scatter the fire to one side and another, because they were sanctified
38 in the deaths of these sinners. And let him form them into plates, and affix them to the altar, because incense had been offered in them to the Lord, and they were sanctified, and so that the sons of Israel may discern in them a sign and a memorial.”
39 Therefore, Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers, by which those whom the burning devoured had made an offering, and he formed them into plates, affixing them to the altar,
40 so that the sons of Israel would have, thereafter, something to admonish them, lest any stranger, or anyone who is not of the offspring of Aaron, might approach to offer incense to the Lord, and lest he endure what happened to Korah, and to all his congregation, when the Lord spoke to Moses.
41 Then, the following day, the entire multitude of the sons of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying: “You have put to death the people of the Lord.”
42 And when there arose a sedition, and the tumult increased,
43 Moses and Aaron fled to the tabernacle of the covenant. But after they had entered it, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared.
44 And the Lord said to Moses:
45 Withdraw from the midst of this multitude, and I will destroy them immediately. And while they were lying on the ground,
46 Moses said to Aaron: “Take the censer, and draw fire into it from the altar; place incense upon it, and continue on, quickly, to the people, to pray for them. For already wrath has gone forth from the Lord, and the scourge rages.”
47 When Aaron had done this, and he ran into the midst of the multitude, which the burning fire was now destroying, and he offered the incense.
48 And standing between the dead and the living, he prayed for the people, and the scourge ceased.
49 But the number of those who were struck down was fourteen thousand men, and seven hundred, aside from those who had perished in the sedition of Korah.
50 And Aaron returned to Moses at the door of the tabernacle of the covenant, after the destruction quieted.
1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
2 Speak to the sons of Israel, and receive from each of them a rod by their kinships, from all the leaders of the tribes, twelve rods, and write the name of each one on his rod.
3 But the name of Aaron shall be for the tribe of Levi, and one rod separately shall contain all their families.
4 And you shall place these in the tabernacle of the covenant before the testimony, where I will speak to you.
5 Whomever of these I will choose, his rod will germinate, and so shall I restrain the complaints of the sons of Israel before me, by which they murmur against you.”
6 And Moses spoke to the sons of Israel. And all the leaders gave him rods, one for each tribe. And there were twelve rods, aside from the rod of Aaron.
7 And when Moses had placed these before the Lord, in the tabernacle of the testimony,
8 returning on the following day, he found that the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi, had germinated, and that the swelling buds had opened into flowers, which, spreading their petals, were formed into those of an almond tree.
9 Therefore, Moses brought out all the rods, from the sight of the Lord, to all the sons of Israel. And they saw, and each one received their rods.
10 And the Lord said to Moses: “Carry back the rod of Aaron into the tabernacle of the testimony, so that it may be kept there as a sign of the rebellion of the sons of Israel, and so that their complaints may be quieted before me, lest they die.”
11 And Moses did just as the Lord had instructed.
12 Then the sons of Israel said to Moses: “Behold, we have been consumed; we have been ruined.
13 Whoever approaches to the tabernacle of the Lord dies. Will we all be wiped away, even to total annihilation?”
&
1 Thus says the Lord: “Go, and take a potter’s earthen bottle from the elders of the people and from the elders of the priests.
2 And go out to the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is near the entrance to the earthen gate, and there you shall proclaim the words that I will speak to you.
3 And you shall say: Listen to the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will lead an affliction over this place, so much so that it will ring in the ears of all who hear about it.
4 For they have abandoned me, and they have made this place foreign, and they have offered libations in it to foreign gods, whom neither they, nor their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known. And they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.
5 And they have built the exalted places of Baal, in order to burn their children with fire as a holocaust to Baal, something that I did not instruct or speak of, nor did it enter into my heart.
6 Because of this, behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when this place will no longer be called Topheth, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.
7 And I will scatter the counsel of Judah and of Jerusalem in this place. And I will overthrow them with the sword, in the sight of their enemies and by the hand of those who seek their lives. And I will give their carcasses to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the land as food.
8 And I will set this city amid stupor and hissing. Everyone who passes by it will be stupefied, and they will hiss over all its wounds.
9 And I will feed them with the flesh of their sons and with the flesh of their daughters. And each one of them will eat the flesh of his friend during the blockade and the embargo by which their enemies, and those who seek their lives, will enclose them.
10 And you shall crush the bottle in the sight of the men who will go with you.
11 And you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts: In the same way, I will crush this people and this city, just as the potter’s vessel was crushed and cannot be made whole again. And they will be buried at Topheth, because there will be no other place for burial.
12 So will I do to this place and to its inhabitants, says the Lord. And I will make this city to be like Topheth.
13 And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be unclean, just like the place of Topheth: all the houses on whose roofs they sacrificed to all the armies of heaven and poured out libations to strange gods.”
14 Then Jeremiah arrived from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the atrium of the house of the Lord, and he said to all the people:
15 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will lead over this community, and over all its cities, all the evils that I have spoken against it. For they have hardened their necks, so that they would not heed my words.
7 Surely man passeth as an image: yea, and he is disquieted in vain. He storeth up: and he knoweth not for whom he shall gather these things.
8 And now what is my hope? is it not the Lord? and my substance is with thee.
9 Deliver thou me from all my iniquities: thou hast made me a reproach to the fool.
10 I was dumb, and I opened not my mouth, because thou hast done it.
11 Remove thy scourges from me. The strength of thy hand hath made me faint in rebukes:
12 Thou hast corrected man for iniquity. And thou hast made his soul to waste away like a spider: surely in vain is any man disquieted.
13 Hear my prayer, O Lord, and my supplication: give ear to my tears. Be not silent: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner as all my fathers were.
14 O forgive me, that I may be refreshed, before I go hence, and be no more.
17 His winnowing fan is in his hand. And he will purify his threshing floor. And he will gather the wheat into the barn. But the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
18 Indeed, he also proclaimed many other things, exhorting the people.
19 But Herod the tetrarch, when he was corrected by him concerning Herodias, his brother’s wife, and concerning all the evils that Herod had done,
20 added this also, above all else: that he confined John to prison.
21 Now it happened that, when all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized; and as he was praying, heaven was opened.
22 And the Holy Spirit, in a corporal appearance like a dove, descended upon him. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my beloved Son. In you, I am well pleased.”
23 And Jesus himself was beginning to be about thirty years old, being (as it was supposed) the son of Joseph, who was of Heli, who was of Matthat,
24 who was of Levi, who was of Melchi, who was of Jannai, who was of Joseph,
25 who was of Mattathias, who was of Amos, who was of Nahum, who was of Esli, who was of Naggai,
26 who was of Maath, who was of Mattathias, who was of Semein, who was of Josech, who was of Joda,
27 who was of Joanan, who was of Rhesa, who was of Zerubbabel, who was of Shealtiel, who was of Neri,
28 who was of Melchi, who was of Addi, who was of Cosam, who was of Elmadam, who was of Er,
29 who was of Joshua, who was of Eliezer, who was of Jorim, who was of Matthat, who was of Levi,
30 who was of Simeon, who was of Judah, who was of Joseph, who was of Jonam, who was of Eliakim,
31 who was of Melea, who was of Menna, who was of Mattatha, who was of Nathan, who was of David,
32 who was of Jesse, who was of Obed, who was of Boaz, who was of Salmon, who was of Nahshon,
33 who was of Amminadab, who was of Aram, who was of Hezron, who was of Perez, who was of Judah,
34 who was of Jacob, who was of Isaac, who was of Abraham, who was of Terah, who was of Nahor,
35 who was of Serug, who was of Reu, who was of Peleg, who was of Eber, who was of Shelah,
36 who was of Cainan, who was of Arphaxad, who was of Shem, who was Of Noah, who was of Lamech,
37 who was of Methuselah, who was of Enoch, who was of Jared, who was of Mahalalel, who was of Cainan,
38 who was of Enos, who was of Seth, who was of Adam, who was of God.
