And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods.

They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation.

And all Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them: for they said, Lest the earth swallow us up also.

And there came out a fire from the LORD, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense.

Speak unto Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, that he take up the censers out of the burning, and scatter thou the fire yonder; for they are hallowed.

And let the vessels of those men, who with their lives have made payment for their sin, be hammered out into plates as a cover for the altar; for they have been offered before the Lord and are holy; so that they may be a sign to the children of Israel.

And Eleazar the priest took the brasen censers, wherewith they that were burnt had offered; and they were made broad plates for a covering of the altar:

To be a memorial unto the children of Israel, that no stranger, which is not of the seed of Aaron, come near to offer incense before the LORD; that he be not as Korah, and as his company: as the LORD said to him by the hand of Moses.

And it came to pass, when the congregation was gathered against Moses and against Aaron, that they looked toward the tabernacle of the congregation: and, behold, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the LORD appeared.

Get you up from among this congregation, that I may consume them as in a moment. And they fell upon their faces.

So Aaron took his firepan as Moses had ordered, ran into the middle of the assembly, and saw that the plague had begun among the people. After he added incense, he made atonement for the people.

He took his stand between the dead and the living, so that the plague was checked.

Now they that died in the plague were fourteen thousand and seven hundred, beside them that died about the matter of Korah.

Say to the children of Israel that they are to give you rods, one for every family, for every chief, the head of his father's house, making twelve rods; let every man's name be placed on his rod.

And it shall come to pass, that the man's rod, whom I shall choose, shall blossom: and I will make to cease from me the murmurings of the children of Israel, whereby they murmur against you.

And it came to pass, that on the morrow Moses went into the tabernacle of witness; and, behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds.

And the LORD said unto Moses, Bring Aaron's rod again before the testimony, to be kept for a token against the rebels; and thou shalt quite take away their murmurings from me, that they die not.

Every one that cometh near, that cometh near unto the tabernacle of Jehovah, dieth: shall we perish all of us?

So the Lord said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your father’s household (family) with you shall bear the guilt in connection with the sanctuary [that is, through your service as priests you will atone for the offenses which the people unknowingly commit when brought into contact with the manifestations of God’s presence]; and you and your sons with you shall bear the guilt in connection with your priesthood [that is, your own unintentional offenses].

And thy brethren also of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring thou with thee, that they may be joined unto thee, and minister unto thee: but thou and thy sons with thee shall minister before the tabernacle of witness.

And they shall keep thy charge, and the charge of all the tabernacle: only they shall not come nigh the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar, that neither they, nor ye also, die.

And ye shall keep the charge of the sanctuary, and the charge of the altar: that there be no wrath any more upon the children of Israel.

Notice that I've taken your brothers, the descendants of Levi, from among the Israelis, giving them to you as a gift from the LORD to perform the service of the Tent of Meeting.

Therefore thou and thy sons with thee shall keep your priest's office for every thing of the altar, and within the vail; and ye shall serve: I have given your priest's office unto you as a service of gift: and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death.

A portion of the holiest offerings kept from the fire will be yours; every one of their offerings that they give Me, whether the grain offering, sin offering, or restitution offering will be most holy for you and your sons.

And ye shall eat it in the most holy place: all that are males shall eat of it, for it shall be holy unto thee.

And this is thine; the heave offering of their gift, with all the wave offerings of the children of Israel: I have given them unto thee, and to thy sons and to thy daughters with thee, by a statute for ever: every one that is clean in thy house shall eat of it.

All [the] finest olive oil and all the finest new wine and their best grain that they have given to Yahweh, I have given them to you.

And whatsoever is first ripe in the land, which they shall bring unto the LORD, shall be thine; every one that is clean in thine house shall eat of it.

Every devoted thing in Israel [everything that has been promised to the Lord with an oath] shall be yours.

Every thing that openeth the matrix in all flesh, which they bring unto the LORD, whether it be of men or beasts, shall be thine: nevertheless the firstborn of man shalt thou surely redeem, and the firstling of unclean beasts shalt thou redeem.

And those that are to be redeemed from a month old shalt thou redeem, according to thine estimation, for the money of five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs.

All the offerings of the holy things, which the Israelites offer to the Lord I have given to you and to your sons and your daughters with you as a continual allotment. It is an everlasting covenant of salt [that cannot be dissolved or violated] before the Lord to you and to your descendants with you.”

As to the descendants of Levi, certainly I've given all the tithes in Israel as their inheritance in return for their services that they perform at the Tent of Meeting.

In future the children of Israel are not to come near the Tent of meeting, so that death may not come to them because of sin.

But the Levites shall do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they shall bear their iniquity: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations, that among the children of Israel they have no inheritance.

because the tithes of the {Israelites} that are {offered} to Yahweh as a contribution, I have given to the Levites as an inheritance; therefore I said to them, 'They will not receive an inheritance in the midst of the {Israelites}.'"

"You will speak to the Levites and say to them, 'When you receive the tithe from the {Israelites} that I have given to you from them for your inheritance, {you will present} a contribution from it to Yahweh, a tithe from a tithe.

So {you will present} your own contribution to Yahweh from all your tithes that you receive from the {Israelites}; from it you will give the contribution of Yahweh to Aaron the priest.

Out of all that is given you ye shall offer the whole heave-offering of Jehovah, of all the best thereof the hallowed part thereof.

Tell them that when they bring the best from it, as far as the descendants of Levi are concerned, it is to be considered like produce from the threshing floors and wine vats.

And ye shall bear no sin by reason of it, when ye have heaved from it the best thereof: and ye shall not profane the holy things of the children of Israel, that ye die not.

This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke:

And ye shall give her unto Eleazar the priest, that he may bring her forth without the camp, and one shall slay her before his face:

Then the priest must wash his clothes and bathe his body in water; after that he may enter the camp, but he will remain ceremonially unclean until evening.

And he that burneth her shall wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and shall be unclean until the even.

And a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up without the camp in a clean place, and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for a water of separation: it is a purification for sin.

And he that gathereth the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even: and it shall be unto the children of Israel, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among them, for a statute for ever.

He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days.

That one shall purify himself from uncleanness with the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and then he will be clean; but if he does not purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not be clean.

Whosoever toucheth the dead body of any man that is dead, and purifieth not himself, defileth the tabernacle of the LORD; and that soul shall be cut off from Israel: because the water of separation was not sprinkled upon him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is yet upon him.

This is the law, when a man dieth in a tent: all that come into the tent, and all that is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days.

Every container that is opened that does not have a lid cord on it [is] unclean.

And whosoever toucheth one that is slain with a sword in the open fields, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.

And they shall take for the unclean of the ashes of the purification-offering that hath been burned, and shall put running water thereon in a vessel;

And a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it upon the tent, and upon all the vessels, and upon the persons that were there, and upon him that touched a bone, or one slain, or one dead, or a grave:

But the man that shall be unclean, and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from among the congregation, because he hath defiled the sanctuary of the LORD: the water of separation hath not been sprinkled upon him; he is unclean.

And it shall be a perpetual statute unto them, that he that sprinkleth the water of separation shall wash his clothes; and he that toucheth the water of separation shall be unclean until even.

And whatsoever the unclean person toucheth shall be unclean; and the soul that toucheth it shall be unclean until even.

And the people chode with Moses, and spake, saying, Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the LORD!

And why have ye brought up the congregation of the LORD into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there?

Take the rod, and assemble the congregation, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes, that it give forth its water; and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock; so thou shalt give the congregation and their cattle drink.

Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff, so that a great amount of water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.

And Jehovah said to Moses and to Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to hallow me before the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land that I have given them.

These are the waters of Meribah; because the children of Israel went against the Lord, and they saw that he was holy among them.

And Moses sent messengers from Kadesh unto the king of Edom, Thus saith thy brother Israel, Thou knowest all the travail that hath befallen us:

that our fathers go down to Egypt, and we dwell in Egypt many days, and the Egyptians do evil to us and to our fathers;

Let us pass over, we pray thee, through thy land; we pass not over through a field, or through a vineyard, nor do we drink waters of a well; the way of the king we go, we turn not aside -- right or left -- till that we pass over thy border.'

That's how Edom refused Israel passage through their territory. So Israel turned away from there.

Aaron shall be gathered unto his peoples; for he shall not enter into the land that I have given unto the children of Israel, because ye rebelled against my commandment at the waters of Meribah.

And when all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead, they mourned for Aaron thirty days, even all the house of Israel.

And when king Arad the Canaanite, which dwelt in the south, heard tell that Israel came by the way of the spies; then he fought against Israel, and took some of them prisoners.

And the Lord, in answer to the voice of Israel, gave the Canaanites up to them; and they put them and their towns completely to destruction: and that place was named Hormah.

and the people spoke against God, and against Moses, Why have ye brought us up out of Egypt that we should die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, and no water, and our soul loathes this light bread.

Then the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and they bit them so that many Israelites died.

Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.

And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.

And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

And they removed from Oboth, and encamped at Ijim-Abarim, in the wilderness that is before Moab, toward the sun-rising.

From thence they removed, and pitched on the other side of Arnon, which is in the wilderness that cometh out of the coasts of the Amorites: for Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.

That is why it is said in the Book of the Wars of the Lord:

“Waheb in Suphah,
And the wadis of the Arnon [River],

And at the stream of the brooks that goeth down to the dwelling of Ar, and lieth upon the border of Moab.

And from thence they went to Beer: that is the well whereof the LORD spake unto Moses, Gather the people together, and I will give them water.

That's also where Israel sang this song: Rise up, well! Sing to it!

The well which the leaders dug,
Which the nobles of the people hollowed out
With the scepter and with their staffs.”

And from the wilderness Israel journeyed to Mattanah,

And from Bamoth in the valley, that is in the country of Moab, to the top of Pisgah, which looketh toward Jeshimon.

'Let me pass through thy land, we do not turn aside into a field, or into a vineyard, we do not drink waters of a well; in the king's way we go, till that we pass over thy border.'

And Israel took all these cities and dwelt in all the cities of the Amorites: in Heshbon and in all the towns that long thereto.

Wherefore they that speak in proverbs say, Come into Heshbon, let the city of Sihon be built and prepared:

Woe to thee, Moab! thou art undone, O people of Chemosh: he hath given his sons that escaped, and his daughters, into captivity unto Sihon king of the Amorites.

And Moses sent to spy out Jaazer, and they took the villages thereof, and drove out the Amorites that were there.

And they smote him, and his sons, and all his people, so that they left him none remaining, and took possession of his land.

And Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites.

And Moab said unto the elders of Midian, Now shall this company lick up all that are round about us, as the ox licketh up the grass of the field. And Balak the son of Zippor was king of the Moabites at that time.

At that time, Zippor's son Balak was the king of Moab. He sent messengers to Beor's son Balaam in Pethor, near the Euphrates River, the land where the descendants of his people originated, to summon his aid. He said, "Look! A group of people have escaped from Egypt. They cover the surface of the whole earth, and are sitting here right in front of me.

Come now therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people; for they are too mighty for me: peradventure I shall prevail, that we may smite them, and that I may drive them out of the land: for I wot that he whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom thou cursest is cursed.

Balaam said to them, “Spend the night here and I will bring word back to you as the Lord may speak to me.” So the leaders of Moab stayed with Balaam [that night].

Behold, the people that is come out of Egypt, it covereth the face of the earth: now, come curse me them; peradventure I shall be able to fight against them, and shall drive them out.

In response, Balak sent more officers higher ranking ones, at that!

for very greatly I honour thee, and all that thou sayest unto me I do; and come, I pray thee, pierce for me this people.'