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NUMBERS CHAPTER 16
Korah, Dathan, and Abiram raise sedition against Moses and Aaron, Num_16:1-3. Moses reproving them, Num_16:4-11, sends for Dathan and Abiram; their refusal and answer, Num_16:12-14. The manneer of their punishment, Num_16:15-35. Their perfuming censers are kept for a memorial and warning, Num_16:36-40. The people murmur against Moses and Aaron, for which they are consumed by the plague, which Aaron by Moses’s order stays, Num_16:41-50.
Korah, the first and chief author of this rebellion, Num_16:11 Jud_1:11.
Izhar was Amram’s brother, Exo_6:18, therefore Moses and he were cousin-germans. Moreover Izhar was the second son of Kohath, whereas Elizaphan, whom Moses had preferred before him, and made prince or ruler of the Kohathites, Num_3:30, was the son of Uzziel, the fourth son of Kohath. This, the Jewish writers say, made him malcontent, which at last broke forth into sedition.
Sons of-Reuben: these are drawn into confederacy with Korah, partly because they were his next neighbours, both being encamped on the south side, and therefore could easily communicate counsels; partly in hopes to recover their rights of primogeniture, in which the priesthood was comprehended, which was given away from their father.
Took men, to wit, those two hundred and fifty mentioned Num_16:2. In the Hebrew there is nothing but took, and the Hebrew words are placed and may well be rendered thus, Now Korah—took both Dathan and Abiram, &c., or took Dathan, &c., the particle vau being here superfluous, as it is Gen_8:6, and elsewhere.