Numbers 16:31-40

New International Version

³¹ As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart^{(A) 32} and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them^(B) and their households, and all those associated with Korah, together with their possessions. ³³ They went down alive into the realm of the dead,^(C) with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community. ³⁴ At their cries, all the Israelites around them fled, shouting, “The earth is going to swallow us too!”

³⁵ And fire came out from the Lord^(D) and consumed^(E) the 250 men who were offering the incense.

³⁶ The Lord said to Moses, ³⁷ “Tell Eleazar^(F) son of Aaron, the priest, to remove the censers^(G) from the charred remains and scatter the coals some distance away, for the censers are holy— ³⁸ the censers of the men who sinned at the cost of their lives.^(H) Hammer the censers into sheets to overlay the altar,^(I) for they were presented before the Lord and have become holy. Let them be a sign^(J) to the Israelites.”

³⁹ So Eleazar the priest^(K) collected the bronze censers brought by those who had been burned to death,^(L) and he had them hammered out to overlay the altar, ⁴⁰ as the Lord directed him through Moses. This was to remind the Israelites that no one except a descendant of Aaron should come to burn incense^(M) before the Lord,^(N) or he would become like Korah and his followers.^(O)