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17 ‎[1] **The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: **
‎[2] **Say to Elazar son of Aaron the priest that he shall lift up the fire-pans, **in which the incense was sacrificed, **from the midst of the fire **that consumed the men who brought it, **and the fire **of the incense, which was still burning in the coals, he should **cast onwards **to a distant location; **for they, **these fire-pans, **became holy **to God by being designated for sacrifice, despite the fact that the incense was brought unlawfully. 12
‎[3] **The fire-pans of these sinners **who sinned **with their lives, they shall render them, **the fire-pans, **beaten sheet metal, **flattened until they can be used as **a covering for the altar; for they brought them before the Lord, and they became holy. **Consequently, they must remain near the altar and **they shall be as a sign to the children of Israel **that they must not rebel against the sanctity of the priesthood again.
‎[4] **Elazar the priest took the bronze fire-pans that those who were burned **had **brought **near with the incense, **and they beat them as a covering for the altar. **
‎[5] This covering served as
**a remembrance to the children of Israel, so that a non-priestly man who is not from the descendants of Aaron shall not draw near to burn incense before the Lord, and he will not be like Korah and like his congregation as the Lord spoke **with regard **to him at the hand of Moses. **
‎[6] All of these events, the opening of the ground and the descent of the heavenly fire, occurred on a single day. However, despite these miraculous punishments, the arguments that Korah and his congregation voiced had left an impression upon the people. Consequently,
**the entire congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and against Aaron the next day, saying: You have killed the people of the Lord. **Although you turned to God in order to protect yourselves, you should not have decreed death upon the rebels.
‎[7] **It was when the congregation was assembled **and complaining **against Moses and against Aaron, they turned toward the Tent of Meeting and behold, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared **within the cloud.
‎[8] **Moses and Aaron came before the Tent of Meeting **to hear the word of God.
‎[9] **The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: **
‎[10] **Remove yourselves from among this congregation, and I will destroy them, **the entire congregation, **in a moment. They, **Moses and Aaron, **fell upon their faces, **beseeching God not to do so. However, a plague had already begun to spread among the people, and some had already died.
‎[11] **Moses said to Aaron: Take the fire-pan, put fire on it from upon the altar and place incense, and go quickly **with the fire-pan and the incense **to the congregation and atone for them; for the rage has emerged from before the Lord: The plague has begun. **
‎[12] **Aaron took **a fire-pan **as Moses had spoken, and ran to the midst of the assembly **with it; **and behold, the plague had begun among the people; he placed the incense, and atoned for the people **by means of the incense.
‎[13] **He stood between the dead **from the plague **and the living; and the plague was stopped. **
‎[14] **The dead in the plague were fourteen thousand seven hundred; besides the **previous **dead over the matter of Korah. **
‎[15] **Aaron returned to Moses to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, and the plague was stopped. **
‎[16] **The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: **
‎[17] **Speak to the children of Israel, and take from them one staff for each patrilineal house, from each of their princes according to their patrilineal house, twelve staffs; each man’s name you shall write upon his staff. **
‎[18] **You shall write Aaron’s name upon the staff of Levi, for there shall be one staff for the head of their patrilineal house. **In addition to Aaron’s other roles, he is also the prince and representative of his tribe. This division of the tribes is not based on military camps, as it is for the encampments and the travels of the Israelites. Rather, it follows the original tribes of Israel. Consequently, it includes the tribe of Levi, and it is likely that Joseph was not split into two tribes. 13
‎[19] **You shall place them, **the staffs, **in the Tent of Meeting before the testimony, **the covenant that was inside the Ark, **where I will meet with you, **in the Holy of Holies.
‎[20] **It shall be **that **the man whom I shall choose, his staff will blossom and I will quell from upon Me the complaints of the children of Israel that they bring against you. **
‎[21] **Moses spoke **these matters **to the children of Israel, and all their princes gave him one staff for each prince according to their patrilineal house, twelve staffs **in total; **and the staff of Aaron was among their staffs. **Moses did not place Aaron’s staff at any particular spot, but simply as one staff among the others, so that no one could argue that it blossomed due to its position. 14
‎[22] **Moses placed the staffs before the Lord in the Tent of the Testimony. **
‎[23] **It was on the next day, and Moses came into the Tent of the Testimony and behold, the staff of Aaron of the house of Levi had blossomed; it had produced a blossom, and had sprouted a bud, **the first part of the fruit that develops from a blossom after the petals have fallen off, **and had brought forth almonds. **Unlike the natural gradual process, where the almonds ripen only six months after blossoming, here the blossom, bud, and almonds all miraculously appeared together.
‎[24] **Moses took out all the staffs from before the Lord to all the children of Israel and they saw, and each took his staff. **In this manner, all the princes saw proof that they had not been chosen to serve as priests in the Sanctuary.
‎[25] **The Lord said to Moses: Return the staff of Aaron before the testimony. **After such a unique miracle has occurred with it, it may no longer be used for non-sacred purposes. Instead, it must be returned to the Sanctuary **for safekeeping, as a sign for the defiant ones, **for anyone who might consider rebelling in the future. **And their complaints will **thereby **cease from Me, and they will not die, **as the plague came due to their complaints.
‎[26] **Moses did as the Lord had commanded him; so he did. **From that point onward Aaron’s staff was kept at the side of the Ark of the Covenant.
‎[27] Although the Tabernacle was at the heart of the Israelites’ national life, the people saw that it was not merely a source of security and shelter. On the contrary, the swallowing of Korah and his congregation by the ground, the burning of those who brought the incense, the plague that afflicted the people, and the earlier deaths of Nadav and Avihu,
15 all combined with the repeated warnings against the approach of non-priests to the Sanctuary (1:51, 3:10, 38, 8:19) to produce a feeling of terror. **The children of Israel spoke to Moses, saying: Behold, we perish, we are lost, all of us are lost. **
‎[28] **Anyone who approaches the Tabernacle of the Lord will die. Have we ceased to perish, **or will the tremendous power of the Tabernacle of God continue to claim victims?
Version: The Steinsaltz Tanakh - English
Source: https://korenpub.com/collections/the-steinsaltz-tanakh/products/steinsaltz-tanakh
License: Copyright: Steinsaltz Center