Korah and His Co-conspirators Dispute the Positions of Moses and Aaron (Numbers 16:1-3).
‘Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men, and they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the congregation, called to the assembly, men of renown,'
Korah is mentioned first because he acted as the front man, and it was his aim that illustrated the point that the writer is concerned to get over. It is because he was connected with the tribe of Levi, and made claims on that basis, that his fuller genealogy is given. He was a Kohathite, and a distant cousin of Moses and Aaron. Thus he shared in the important task of bearing the sacred furniture of the Dwellingplace, including the sacred Ark. He should have known better than to dispute the priesthood. His sons are not said to have joined with him in the dispute.
Dathan and Abiram were closely related, being sons of Eliab. On was the son of Peleth, but he disappears from the story immediately. He was probably mentioned so as to make up a threesome, emphasising the completeness of the rebellion of the Reubenites. All three were of the tribe of Reuben. Thus they played no part in the question of the censers and the priesthood. They had a deeper motive.
It was in fact very much common sense for Dathan and Abiram, in planning their coup, to recognise that they had to consider the religious aspect. They had two obstacles to deal with, Moses the overall leader and Aaron who provided the support of the cult. No rebellion could be successful which did not succeed in both fields. Furthermore, by allowing the ambitious Korah to act as front man they could present themselves as simply wanting to honour Yahweh and see fair play. The account brings their duplicity out well.
“Took men.” The Hebrew text lacks ‘men' which is read in. It could equally be translated ‘took up a position of treason' or ‘took action'. Compare 2 Samuel 18:18 for a similar construction. We could more accurately translate, ‘took and rose up'.
“With certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the congregation, called to the assembly, men of renown.” With them they had ‘two hundred and fifty' influential men of high standing. In view of the fact that large numbers were probably not used arithmetically, but were used as adjective in order to give an impression, the ‘two hundred and fifty' probably simply means a large group strongly involved in the covenant. 5 x 5 x 10 is five doubly intensified, and 5 is the number of the covenant.
The first impression is also that these were influential men from all the tribes (‘of the children of Israel'), but in what follows Moses addresses them as ‘you sons of Levi' (Numbers 16:7-8) and speaks of ‘your (thy) brothers, the sons of Levi'. So either (1) they were all Levites, or (2) Moses is calling them such because they were following Korah in seeking to act like sons of Levi, or (3) the phrase ‘sons of Levi' has in mind the leaders of the two hundred and fifty who were sons of Levi and were putting forth the case for all of them. Why not then call them the sons (followers) of Korah? It may be because he was using the phrase sarcastically, “you who put yourselves forward as ‘sons of Levi'.” Some see the weight as being on the side of the suggestion that they were all Levites, and it may be that as Moses was aware that the actual sons of Korah were not involved in the dispute, he did not wish to give a wrong impression and malign innocent people. If the second view is considered correct ‘band of Israelites' should be seen as the strict interpretation of a sarcastic ‘sons of Levi'.
‘And they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said to them, “You take too much on you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and Yahweh is among them. Why then do you lift yourselves up above the assembly of Yahweh?” '
The four leaders appear to have called together an assembly in order to meet with Moses in order to level their accusations. This would probably be at the Dwellingplace, at which assemblies usually took place. And there they attacked Moses and Aaron with the claim that they were making too much of themselves.
Their argument, probably the idea of the Levite Korah, argued that as all Israelites, ‘every one of them', were holy (Exodus 19:5-6), and now even wore tassels which declared that they were holy (Numbers 15:40), and as Yahweh was among them as a people (compare Numbers 14:14; Exodus 29:45-46; Leviticus 26:12), Moses and Aaron had no ground for claiming special holiness and ‘lifting themselves up above the assembly of Israel'. This argument was only carried through by Korah and his ‘sons of Levi'. Thus it would appear that as far as Dathan and Abiram were concerned it was only a ploy. But to the others it was deadly serious.
Moses recognised that they were intending to trespass on holy things and was distraught. He knew only too well the consequences of such behaviour. It was not he and Aaron who had done the lifting up but Yahweh. And the Levites should have known that, for while their status was lower than that of the priests, they did have a holy status that was above that of the other tribes. But he was also aware of the hostility of the Reubenites, and that this was not just a technical argument. Thus he recognised that he needed to confer with a higher authority. He no doubt told them that he would consult Yahweh, and went into the Holy Place where the Voice spoke to him from the mercy seat (Numbers 7:89). And there he fell on his face before Yahweh.