The Earth and the Fire

When Moses had said this, the people dropped the unruly behavior they had indulged in and their suspicion of Moses, and praised what he had said; for the proposals were good, and the people thought them so. So for the time being they broke up the assembly. But the next day they came to the gathering, to be present at the sacrifice and at the decision to be made between the candidates for the priesthood. This gathering proved a turbulent one, and the crowd was in great suspense, waiting to see what would be done. Some would have been pleased if Moses had been convicted of wrongdoing; but the wiser sort wanted to be delivered from the present disorder and disturbance, for they were afraid that if this revolt went on, the good order of their constitution would be destroyed. But the whole body of the people naturally delights in outcries against its rulers, and by changing its mind at every speaker's harangue, disturbs the public peace. Moses then sent messengers for Abiram and Dathan, ordering them to come to the assembly, as had been agreed, and wait there for the sacred rites that were to be performed. But they answered the messenger that they would not obey his summons; no, they would not stand by and ignore the conduct of Moses, who was making himself great over the whole people by wicked practices. When Moses heard their answer, he asked the leaders of the people to follow him, and he went to Dathan's faction, not thinking it at all a fearful thing to go to these insolent men; and the leaders made no objection but went along with him. When Dathan and his associates learned that Moses and the chief men of the people were coming to them, they came out with their wives and children, stood in front of their tents, and watched to see what Moses would do. They also had their servants around them to defend themselves, in case Moses should use force against them. [a]

But he came near, lifted up his hands to heaven, and cried out in a loud voice so that the whole crowd could hear him: “Master of all that is in heaven, on earth and in the sea! You are the most reliable witness to what I have done: that it has all been done by your appointment, that it was you who gave us help whenever we attempted anything, and you who showed mercy to the Hebrews in all their distresses. Come now, and hear all that I say, for no action or thought escapes your knowledge; so you will not disdain to speak the truth in my defense, without regard to these men's ungrateful accusations. What was done before I was born you know best, not by hearsay, but because you saw it and were present when it was done. But as for what has been done lately — things these men know well enough, though they unjustly pretend to suspect them — be my witness. By my own merit and your counsel I had settled into a quiet private life, which my father-in-law Reuel had left to me; yet I gave up the enjoyment of those good things. I gave myself up to this people and endured many miseries for their sake. I bore great toil, first to win them their liberty and now to keep them safe, and I have always shown myself ready to help them in every distress. [b]

“Now, since I am suspected of wrongdoing by the very men who owe their existence to my labors, come, as it is reasonable to hope you will — you, I say, who showed me that fire at Mount Sinai, and made me hear your own voice and see the many wonders of that place; you who commanded me to go to Egypt and declare your will to this people; you who overturned the happy state of the Egyptians, gave us the chance to escape from our slavery under them, and made the rule of Pharaoh weaker than mine; you who made the sea dry land for us when we did not know where to go, and overwhelmed the Egyptians with the destroying waves that had been divided for us; you who gave us the security of weapons when we were unarmed; you who made spoiled springs flow fit for drinking, and supplied us with water out of the rocks when we were in want of it; you who kept us alive with food from the sea when the fruits of the ground failed us; you who sent us food from heaven such as had never been seen before; you who taught us your laws and appointed us a form of government — come, I say, Master of all things, as a Judge and a Witness to me who cannot be bribed. Show that I never accepted a gift against justice from any of the Hebrews; that I never gave judgment against a poor man who deserved to win, in favor of a rich one; and that I never tried to harm this commonwealth.

“And now I am suspected of the thing furthest from my intentions — that I gave the priesthood to Aaron not at your command but out of my own favor to him. Show at this time that all things are administered by your providence, and that nothing happens by chance, but everything is governed by your will and so reaches its end. Show too that you care for those who have done good to the Hebrews. Show it, I say, by the punishment of Abiram and Dathan, who condemn you as a being without feeling, one outwitted by my schemes. You will do this by bringing on these men, who so madly fly in the face of your glory, a punishment so open that it will take them out of the world — not in an ordinary way, but so that it will be seen they do not die as other men die. Let the ground they tread on open around them and swallow them, with their families and their goods. This will show your power to all men, and the manner of their suffering will teach wisdom to those who think profanely of you. In this way I will be shown a good servant in the commands you have given through me.

“But if the slanders they have raised against me are true, may you keep these men safe from every misfortune, and bring on me all the destruction I have called down on them. And when you have punished those who tried to deal unjustly with this people, give the people harmony and peace. Save this multitude that follows your commandments; keep them free from harm, and do not let them share the punishment of those who have sinned; for you know yourself that it is not just for the whole body of the Israelites to be punished for the wickedness of those men.”

As Moses said this, with tears in his eyes, the ground suddenly moved, and the shaking that set it in motion was like the motion the wind raises in the waves of the sea. All the people were terrified. The ground around the rebels' tents sank down with a great noise and a terrible sound, and took into itself everything the rebels held dear. They perished so completely that there was not the slightest sign that any man had ever been seen there: the earth that had opened around them closed again and became whole as before, so that those who saw the place afterward could not tell that anything of the kind had happened to it. So these men perished, and became a demonstration of the power of God. Anyone would pity them, not only for the disaster that came on them, which still deserves our sympathy, but also because their own relatives were glad at their sufferings. They forgot their kinship with them, and at the sight of this sad event approved the judgment passed on them; they thought Dathan's people had perished as men accursed for their sin, and did not even grieve for them. [f]

Then Moses called for those who were contending for the priesthood, so that a trial could be made of who should be priest, and the man whose sacrifice God was best pleased with could be ordained to that office. Two hundred and fifty men attended, men honored by the people both for their fathers' virtue and for their own, in which they surpassed even their fathers. Aaron and Korah came forward too, and they all offered incense before the tabernacle in the censers they had brought with them. Then such a fire blazed out as no one has ever seen in any fire made by human hands, nor in the eruptions that come out of the earth from fires burning underground, nor in the fires that start of themselves in the woods when the force of the wind rubs the trees against one another. This fire was very bright and had a terrible flame, such as is kindled at the command of God. Its onrush destroyed the whole company, and Korah himself, so completely that not even their bodies left any remains behind. Aaron alone was preserved, unhurt by the fire, because it was God who sent the fire to burn only those who ought to be burned. After these men were destroyed, Moses wanted the memory of this judgment handed down to posterity, so that future ages would know of it. So he commanded Eleazar, Aaron's son, to put their censers beside the bronze altar, as a memorial to later generations of what these men suffered for supposing that the power of God could be cheated. And so Aaron was no longer thought to hold the high priesthood by Moses' favor, but by the public judgment of God; and from then on he and his children held that honor securely. [g]