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Numbers 16
The circumstances of the time being thus so favorable to the conspirators, the conspiracy which comes before us was formed by the very persons who might be expected to move in it. The sacred writer does not, indeed, evince any solicitude to set forth the motives of the parties engaged; but his plain recital, and the circumstances and names which he sets down, give us a clear insight into the nature of the case.
We discover two interests at work—one against the sacerdotal, and the other against the political, power and pre-eminence—and we find the two coalescing to produce the objects sought by both. We do not discover that they desired to disturb the institutions as established; but that they aspired to take to themselves the power which these institutions gave to others.
Previously to its separation for sacerdotal services, the tribe of Levi, like the other tribes, was governed as to its internal matters, and as to the part it should take in general matters, by the patriarchal chief or emir—called in Scripture the prince of the tribe, who seems to have been the representative of the eldest branch of the tribe—the one, in short, who was to be regarded as the heir of the founder. Now, to this ruling branch Moses and Aaron did not belong; and the representative of that elder branch would find himself deprived of his special and peculiar powers under the new institutions which made the high-priest the virtual head of the tribe, and saw himself and connections merged in the general Levitical body—the priesthood, which had become the part of Aaron in the tribe, being given to another family. Korah was a Kohathite, descended from a brother of the progenitor of Aaron, probably an older son of the common ancestor; and the feeling seems to have been, that the priesthood should, by right of birth, have belonged to his family, and by consequence that he should have been high-priest. This point of his personal ambition was not indeed obtruded at the first view, but seems to have been sagaciously kept back by him, in the knowledge that if he succeeded in establishing the claims of his family to become the priestly house, the other result would follow of course. Indeed, he set himself forth as the champion of the whole Levitical body, less asserting the claims of his own family, than contesting the invidious distinction conferred on Aaron’s family over the whole tribe. He was aware, that if this family were deposed, it would soon become necessary to appropriate another to the particular service; and that then the claims of his own family would be paramount—for the grounds on which that of Aaron had been deposed, would leave room for no other claim but that hereditary one which he and his family could advance. We are thus enabled to sound the depths of this plot, as to the part which certain of the Levitical body took in it.
Some of the same grounds which led the eldest family of Levi to claim the rights which were conceived to belong to it in that tribe, would exist also in leading the chiefs of the eldest tribe, that of Reuben, to murmur at that practical deposition of that tribe from its natural birthright, which had indeed been announced long ago by the dying Jacob—but which was now first practically enforced as a reality and an accomplished fact. Inasmuch as the chiefs of the tribes represented the patriarchal power which the sons of Jacob, during their lifetime, exercised over the tribes which sprang from them—the chief of the eldest tribe represented not only the founder of the particular tribe, but the common founder of all the tribes, whose heir he was. This gave him some general right of counsel and control over all the tribes—and of taking a certain initiatory part in measures of common concernment to the whole nation, and in his person, more than that of any other man, was found the tie which bound the tribes together. Certain rights of precedence also belonged to him; and the performance of priestly acts—that is, of taking the leading part in acts of public worship by sacrifice or otherwise—had always been considered as no mean part of the birthright of the eldest born. But in forming the arrangements of the new government, the tribe of Reuben was altogether overlooked, and its pride must have been much wounded (considering how highly the rank of primogeniture was valued) by the precedence assigned to the tribe of Judah in all the encampments used on the march—and this perhaps galled it more sorely than the absorption of all sacerdotal influence and office, as well as of considerable political power, by the Levitical tribe. Hence we are not surprised to find that the other leaders not of the tribe of Levi, were of that of Reuben; their names were Dathan, Abiram, and On, and the manner in which the Levitical conspirators keep their own private claims as much as possible in the background—generalizing them to the utmost—may strongly suggest to the mind that this was done to keep their Reubenite allies in good humor by not strongly putting forward their own claims to the exercise of a function which these allies considered as belonging of right to the first-born, In fact, no one can look closely into this transaction without perceiving that the Levitical conspirators were playing a deep game, in which not only the people generally, but their own Reubenite friends, were little more than the tools with which they sought to work out their own objects—and that in fact they had ulterior objects of special advantage which they did not, and dared not, then openly avow, or even disclose to their companions. There may perhaps be ground to suppose that the Reubenites suspected something of this—for although we find On’s name among the leading conspirators, it does not appear when the names are repeated in the subsequent proceedings, and in the final judgment, and this may suggest that he became suspicious and dissatisfied, and hence seceded from the conspiracy in good time.
It deserves to be noticed, that in a camp which must have covered an extent of many miles, the situation of the two parties in relation to one another, when encamped, was such as to afford them all facilities for exciting one another’s passions and of maturing the plot. The allotted place of the tents of Reuben was on the south side of the central area in which the tabernacle stood; and between them and the tabernacle was the encampment of the Kohathites—the division of the Levitical family to which Korah belonged. Our judgment of historical incidents must often be materially influenced by small circumstances like this, which are apt to escape common notice.
Considering the nature of this conspiracy, the objects at which it aimed, and the importance of the men engaged in it, it was in the highest degree necessary that it should not only be frustrated, but brought to nothing by some such signal and terrible judgment as should effectually repress the tendency to such baleful manifestations of private ambition and popular discontent, and afford the infant state the protection needful to prevent its welfare from being subject to perpetual hazards, machinations, and broils.
On hearing the charges daringly brought against his conduct and designs by the conspirators, Moses fell on his face before the Lord, and having obtained the requisite directions, he appointed the next day for the trial of this great matter. They complained of the usurpation of the priesthood; but to show whether this appointment had been of man or of God—let them come to the tabernacle and perform the priestly function of offering incense, and the Lord would make it known who were the objects of his choice. Accordingly on the next day, “Korah and his company” appeared at the tabernacle. Moses also sent for the Reubenite leaders—and although they returned an insolent refusal to attend, their curiosity to witness the result, induced them to come out and stand in the door of their tents, where they could command a perfect view of the proceedings. Moses then arose, awful from his supplicating knees—and directed the people to stand clear of the tents of Dathan and Abiram; and the habit of obedience to the voice of their great leader caused his command to be followed—though from the manner of encampment, these persons must for the most part have been their friends and neighbors. The man of God then spoke: “Hereby ye shall know that the Lord hath sent me to do all these works. If these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men—then the Lord hath not sent me. But if the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, then shall ye understand that these men have provoked the Lord.” From the beginning of the world unto this day, no man ever made so bold and noble an assertion of Divine approval, or subjected his claims, in the presence of a nation, to a test so immediate and so infallible. But the response to this awful appeal was not for a moment delayed. The earth did open; and Dathan and Abiram—they, their tents, and all they had, went down, and the earth closed over them—they were seen no more. At the same moment a fire went forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote down with instant death the men with their censers at the door of the tabernacle—in number two hundred and fifty. Thus both branches of the great conspiracy were at once extinguished by a judgment most signal, immediate, and miraculous.