Commentaria in Numeros
Chapter the Sixteenth
Core, Dathan, Abiron and Hon rebel against Moses, and, with 250 others, aspire to the priesthood, whence they themselves are swallowed alive by the earth; but their associates, 250 incense-burners, are struck by divine fire. Hence, verse 41, the people murmur: whereupon God consumes 14,700 of them with fire; Aaron by his prayer restrains the raging fire.
1. Behold, Core the son of Isaar, the son of Caath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiron the sons of Eliab, and Hon the son of Pheleth, of the children of Ruben, 2. rose up against Moses, and with them two hundred and fifty other of the children of Israel, noble men of the synagogue, and who in the time of assembly were called by name. 3. And when they had stood up against Moses and Aaron, they said: Let it be enough for you, that all the multitude consists of holy ones, and the Lord is among them: why lift you up yourselves above the people of the Lord? 4. When Moses heard this, he fell on his face: 5. and speaking to Core and to all the multitude, he said: In the morning the Lord will shew who belong to him, and the holy he will join to himself: and they whom he shall choose shall approach to him. 6. Do this therefore: Let every man take his censer, thou Core, and all thy company: 7. and to-morrow, putting fire in them, put incense upon it before the Lord: and whomsoever he shall choose, the same shall be holy: you take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi. 8. And he said again to Core: Hear ye, sons of Levi: 9. Is it a small thing unto you that the God of Israel hath separated you from all the people, and joined you to himself, to serve him in the service of the tabernacle, and to stand before the congregation of the people, and to minister to him? 10. Did he therefore make thee and all thy brethren the sons of Levi to approach to him, that you should challenge to yourselves the priesthood also, 11. and that all thy company should stand against the Lord? for what is Aaron that you mutter against him? 12. Then Moses sent to call for Dathan and Abiron the sons of Eliab: who answered: We will not come. 13. Is it a small thing to thee that thou hast brought us out of a land that flowed with milk and honey, to kill us in the desert, unless thou rule also like a lord over us? 14. Thou hast indeed brought us into a land that floweth with rivers of milk and honey, and hast given us possessions of fields and vineyards: wilt thou also pull out our eyes? We will not come. 15. And Moses being exceeding angry, said to the Lord: Respect not their sacrifices: thou knowest that I never took so much as a young ass from them, nor hurt any of them. 16. And he said to Core: Do thou and all thy company stand apart before the Lord, and Aaron to-morrow severally. 17. Take every one of you your censers, and put incense on them, offering to the Lord two hundred and fifty censers: Aaron also shall hold his censer. 18. When they had done this, Moses and Aaron standing, 19. and had gathered together all the multitude against them to the door of the tabernacle, the glory of the Lord appeared to all. 20. And the Lord speaking to Moses and Aaron, said: 21. Separate yourselves from the midst of this congregation, that I may destroy them in a moment. 22. They fell flat on the ground, and cried: Most mighty God of the spirits of all flesh, shall thy wrath rage against all for the sin of one? 23. And the Lord said to Moses: 24. Command the whole people to separate themselves from the tents of Core, and Dathan, and Abiron. 25. And Moses arose, and went to Dathan and Abiron: and the ancients of Israel following him, 26. he said to the multitude: Depart from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest you be involved in their sins. 27. And when they were departed from their tents round about, Dathan and Abiron coming out stood in the entry of their pavilions with their wives and children, and all their train. 28. And Moses said: In this you shall know that the Lord hath sent me to do all things that you see, and that I have not forged them of my own heart: 29. if these men die the common death of men, and if they be visited with a plague wherewith others also are wont to be visited, the Lord did not send me: 30. but if the Lord do a new thing, that the earth opening her mouth swallow them down, and all things that belong to them, and they go down alive into hell, you shall know that they have blasphemed the Lord. 31. Immediately as he had made an end of speaking, the earth broke asunder under their feet: 32. and opening her mouth, devoured them with their tents and all their substance, 33. and they went down alive into hell, the ground closing upon them, and they perished from among the multitude. 34. But all Israel that were standing round about, fled at the cry of them that were perishing: saying: Lest perhaps the earth swallow us up also. 35. And a fire coming out from the Lord, destroyed the two hundred and fifty men that offered the incense. 36. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 37. Bid Eleazar the priest, the son of Aaron, take up the censers that lie in the burning, and scatter the fire hither and thither: because they are sanctified 38. in the deaths of the sinners: and let him beat them into broad plates, and fix them to the altar, because incense hath been offered in them to the Lord, and they are become sanctified, that the children of Israel may see them for a sign and a monument. 39. Eleazar the priest therefore took the brazen censers, wherein they that were burnt had offered, and beat them into plates, fixing them to the altar: 40. that the children of Israel might have hereafter wherewith to be put in mind, that no stranger, and who is not of the seed of Aaron, may come near to offer incense to the Lord, lest he suffer as Core suffered, and all his congregation, according to the word of the Lord spoken to Moses. 41. And the next day all the multitude of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying: You have killed the people of the Lord. 42. And when a sedition was rising, and the tumult growing, 43. Moses and Aaron fled to the tabernacle of the covenant. And when they were gone into it, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared. 44. And the Lord said to Moses: 45. Get you away from the midst of this multitude, this moment will I destroy them. And as they lay on the ground, 46. Moses said to Aaron: Take the censer, and putting fire in it from off the altar, put incense upon it, and go quickly to the people to pray for them: for now wrath is gone out from the Lord, and the plague rageth. 47. When Aaron had done this, and was run to the midst of the multitude which the burning fire was now destroying, he offered the incense: 48. and standing between the dead and the living, he prayed for the people, and the plague ceased. 49. And there were that were slain, fourteen thousand seven hundred men, besides them that had perished in the sedition of Core. 50. And Aaron returned to Moses at the door of the tabernacle of the covenant, after the destruction was over.
Verse 1. “Behold Core the son of Isaar, the son of Caath, the son of Levi.”
Hence it is plain that Core was a cousin of Moses and Aaron, and so Moses and Core were the sons of two brothers, namely of Amram and Isaar. For Caath begat Amram and Isaar; Amram begat Moses and Aaron; but Isaar begat Core, as is plain partly from this place, partly from Exodus vi, 18.
Verse 2. “They rose up against Moses,” not so much seeking his principate as envying the priesthood of Aaron, as if it had been unjustly taken from themselves, as the firstborn (for in the law of nature the priesthood belonged to the firstborn), and transferred by his brother Moses to Aaron alone; but most of all Core, who was the firstborn of Isaar, as is plain from Exodus vi, 21, and a cousin of Aaron, he envied that he was preferred to himself, and that he was chosen priest, while he himself was only a Levite. This is plain from verse 10, where Moses charges him with ambition for the priesthood; hence also he commanded this quarrel to be settled by censers, by burning incense, which certainly belonged to the priesthood.