Numbers 16 Study Notes

16:1-19:22 The second cycle of rebellion focuses on a challenge to the Aaronic priesthood. The insurrection resulted in the deaths of the 250 followers of Korah and an additional 14,700 from the plague that followed. This section warns against violation of the holiness of the sanctuary.

16:1-2 In patriarchal tribal societies in the ancient Near East, the firstborn son often carried on the religious traditions for the family. This could be why Dathan and Abiram, who were from the tribe of Reuben, the firstborn of Jacob, decided to join the rebellion. But the leader of the insurrection was Korah, a Levite from the Kohathite clan. The Kohathites had been granted responsibilities in 3:27-32; 4:1-20, but Korah wanted a higher status (16:8-10).

16:3 Korah’s claim that everyone in the entire community is holy, and the Lord is among them had an element of truth, since God had called Israel to be “my kingdom of priests and my holy nation” (Ex 19:6). But that role was based on Israel’s faithful obedience to God’s revelation. God had ordained Moses and Aaron’s exalted positions; they had not assigned themselves these roles.

16:4-7 The firepans were pans or shallow bowls with long handles (Lv 10:1) in which the priests carried hot coals upon which incense was sprinkled. Incense enhanced the sweet-smelling aroma of burning sacrifices that ascended into the heavens, symbolically entering into the nostrils of God (Lv 1:9,13,17; 2:2,9; 3:5,16). Moses’s words the man the Lord chooses will be the one who is set apart set the challenge in the court of God to identify and defend the truly faithful servant.

16:8-10 Korah and the Kohathites had a favored status among the three Levite clans in handling the holy things of the tabernacle (3:27-32), but they desired greater glory for themselves.

16:11-14 The rebels claimed Moses had failed to bring the people to a place of rest and abundance. They would not admit that it was their rebellion that led to the wilderness judgment.

16:15-19 T. R. Ashley suggests that Moses’s reference to a donkey was an idiomatic statement meaning that Moses had not exalted himself over another.

16:18-19 The glory of the Lord, probably manifest as a cloud (v. 42), dramatically intervened in the sight of the entire Israelite congregation.

16:20-22 Only the true servants of God—Moses and Aaron—fell facedown and, risking their own lives, appealed to his graciousness so the whole community might not suffer his wrath. The true servant of God puts the needs of the people before his own welfare.

16:23-33 By God’s grace, in response to Moses’s and Aaron’s plea, only the instigators of the insurrection were consumed.

16:26 The tents, families, and property of the rebellious leaders had effectively been dedicated to destruction (Hb cherem), and anyone who touched any of these things would be swallowed up in the devastation.

16:33-35 The grave (Sheol) at this point in Israel’s history was perceived to be a shadowy, unknowable realm of the dead, the netherworld of both good and evil where a person was gathered among ancestors at death. In this incident the bodies of the leading rebels, their families, and their possessions plummeted into the gaping abyss. A judgmental fire . . . consumed the other 250 insurrectionists. The second census informs us that Korah’s fate was the same as that of Dathan and Abiram (26:10). Sheol is described as opening its mouth to receive the dead (Pr 1:12; Is 5:14; Hab 2:5). In the Pentateuch the realm of Sheol and the dead is under the sovereign power of the God of Israel. Since Moses pronounced the curse before it happened, no one could mistake the judgment as accidental.

16:36-40 Divine instruction (Then the Lord spoke to Moses) came to the faithful recipient who had followed the Lord’s commands throughout this miraculous event. Death can have both contaminating and cleansing effects. Touching and even being in close proximity to the dead could render a person unclean. Yet in the conclusion to this section in chap. 19, impurity from the dead was cleansed with a mixture of holy water and the ashes of a burned red cow. God commanded Moses to remove the firepans from the burning debris, because they are holy. . . . They will be a sign to the Israelites. The fiery death of the 250 rebellious collaborators brought purification to the bronze censers. Now the raw materials could be used to produce an additional bronze covering for the sacrificial altar.

16:41-50 The lesson of the previous day was soon forgotten as the entire Israelite community complained about Moses and Aaron, citing them as the reason for the judgment against the rebellious Korah and his conspirators. God’s reaction followed the judgment sequence of the previous day with a call for the people to separate themselves from the insurgents as God’s glory descended, lest they be consumed in the judgment. Aaron’s act on behalf of the people portrays the concept of propitiatory atonement as he literally stood as the mediator between the dead and the living to ward off the wrath of God.