This do; Take you censers, Korah, and all his company;
Parallel translations
- WEB Do this: take censers, Korah, and all his company;
- BSB You, Korah, and all your followers are to do as follows: Take censers,
- NKJV Do this: Take censers, Korah and all your company;
- NASB Do this: take censers for yourselves, Korah and your whole group,
- NLT Korah, you and all your followers must prepare your incense burners.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Moses commanded Korah and his company to take censers for a test before the LORD. The dispute over priesthood would be decided in God's presence.
Overview
Moses sets up a test involving censers, the priestly instruments for offering incense, to let God reveal whom he accepts. By proposing this, Moses places the outcome wholly in God's hands. The episode underscores that no one may presume to approach God in worship except as he ordains, a truth fulfilled in Christ, the only acceptable way to the Father.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Lev 10:1And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not.
- 1 Kgs 18:21–23And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.
- Num 16:35–40And there came out a fire from the LORD, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense.
- Lev 16:12–13And he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the LORD, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the vail:
- Num 16:46–48And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense, and go quickly unto the congregation, and make an atonement for them: for there is wrath gone out from the LORD; the plague is begun.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
In the wilderness Christ is the water from the rock, the bronze serpent lifted up that the dying might look and live (John 3:14), and the star and scepter that Balaam saw rising out of Jacob.
How Numbers 16:6 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.