352
Patriarchs and Prophets
without, to await the result. It was not Moses who assembled the
congregation to behold the defeat of Korah and his company, but the
rebels, in their blind presumption, had called them together to witness
their victory. A large part of the congregation openly sided with Korah,
whose hopes were high of carrying his point against Aaron.
As they were thus assembled before God, “the glory of the Lord
appeared unto all the congregation.” The divine warning was com-
municated to Moses and Aaron, “Separate yourselves from among
this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.” But they
fell upon their faces, with the prayer, “O God, the God of the spirits
of all flesh, shall one man sin, and wilt Thou be wroth with all the
congregation?”
Korah had withdrawn from the assembly to join Dathan and Abi-
ram when Moses, accompanied by the seventy elders, went down
with a last warning to the men who had refused to come to him. The
multitudes followed, and before delivering his message, Moses, by
divine direction, bade the people, “Depart, I pray you, from the tents
of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye be consumed
in all their sins.” The warning was obeyed, for an apprehension of
impending judgment rested upon all. The chief rebels saw themselves
abandoned by those whom they had deceived, but their hardihood was
unshaken. They stood with their families in the door of their tents, as
if in defiance of the divine warning.
In the name of the God of Israel, Moses now declared, in the
hearing of the congregation: “Hereby ye shall know that the Lord
hath sent me to do all these works; for I have not done them of mine
own mind. 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, and they go
down quick into the pit, then ye shall understand that these men have
provoked the Lord.”
The eyes of all Israel were fixed upon Moses as they stood, in terror
and expectation, awaiting the event. As he ceased speaking, the solid
earth parted, and the rebels went down alive into the pit, with all that
[401]
pertained to them, and “they perished from among the congregation.”
The people fled, self-condemned as partakers in the sin.