Korah, you and all your followers must prepare your incense burners.
Parallel translations
- WEB Do this: take censers, Korah, and all his company;
- KJV This do; Take you 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,
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 10:1Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer, and put fire in it, and laid incense on it, and offered strange fire before Yahweh, which he had not commanded them.
- 1 Kgs 18:21–23Elijah came near to all the people, and said, “How long will you waver between the two sides? If Yahweh is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” The people didn’t say a word.
- Num 16:35–40Fire came out from Yahweh, and devoured the two hundred fifty men who offered the incense.
- Lev 16:12–13He shall take a censer full of coals of fire from off the altar before Yahweh, and two handfuls of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the veil:
- Num 16:46–48Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, and put fire from off the altar in it, and lay incense on it, and carry it quickly to the congregation, and make atonement for them; for wrath has gone out from Yahweh! The plague has 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.