The quarrel between Korah and Moses began with a poor woman and her single ewe-lamb. She fed the lamb from her own bread and let it drink from her own cup. When she sheared its wool, Aaron the priest came and took it, claiming the firstling of the fleece as his priestly due. The woman ran to Korah and wept. Korah confronted Aaron, but Aaron refused to bend the law. When the lamb bore its first offspring, Aaron took that too. The woman came to Korah again, broken. Korah used her grief as kindling for a rebellion.
According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses Gaster in 1899, Korah gathered 250 leaders and challenged Moses and Aaron's authority. Moses proposed a test: each man would bring a fire-pan with incense before God, and God would choose. The next morning the earth answered for God. The ground split open beneath Korah's feet. He, his household, and all his followers plunged into the chasm alive. The earth swallowed them whole and sealed shut above them.
The chronicle then turns to Balaam and Balak, king of Moab. Balak hired Balaam to curse the Israelites, but every time Balaam opened his mouth to curse, blessings came out instead. God literally reversed the words on Balaam's tongue. Humiliated, Balaam offered Balak a darker strategy: send the Moabite women to seduce the Israelite men and lead them into idol worship. The plan worked. The Israelites sinned with the daughters of Moab and bowed to their gods.
A plague struck the camp, killing 24,000 men. The priests and elders sat weeping, paralyzed. Then Phineas saw Zimri brazenly parading with a Midianite woman in front of the entire congregation. Phineas grabbed a spear from Moses' hand, chased Zimri, and drove the spear through both of them. The plague stopped. God rewarded Phineas with an eternal covenant of priesthood, because one man's decisive action saved the nation when everyone else froze.
LV. (1) And the children of Israel went up from the sea,
and they came to the wilderness. While they were
journeying in the wilderness a quarrel broke out between
Korah and Moses. A certain woman had a ewe-lamb which
she fed from her bread and gave to drink from her own cup,
so that it was as a daughter to her. When she one day
sheared the wool of her lamb, Aaron the priest came and
took the wool away. Going immediately to Korah, she
said to him, ' 0 my lord, I am exceedingly poor, my whole
possession being but one ewe-lamb. When I sheared its
wool for the purpose of clothing myself, for I am naked,
Aaron the priest came up and took it away by force.'
(2) Korah then went up to Aaron and said to him, ' Hast
thou not sufficient with the tithes and heave-oflferings of the
Israelites, that thou must needs take away the wool of this
poor w^oman, who is esteemed as a dead person ?' But Aaron
retorted, ' Thou shalt not die in the natural way. I shall
not annul, for thy sake, one letter of the law. It is written
therein, " The first of the shearing of thy flock shall be
given to me." ' In three months' time the ewe bore a
lamb, and Aaron came and took it away. The woman
immediately went again to Korah and complained, ' 0 my
lord, behold Aaron has no compassion on me, for but
yesterday he took away the W'Ool, and to-day he has taken
the firstborn.' And he replied, ' The law says that every
male firstborn of thy cattle and of thy sheep shall be
dedicated to the Lord thy God.' (3) The woman thenw^ent
forth and slew the ew'e, and Aaron immediately came and
took the shoulder, the jaws and the maw. Seeing this, the
w^oman, sorely troubled, cried, saying, ' Thou hast all the
flesh.' ' I take all the flesh,' added Aaron, it has now
become our portion, as it is said, " The flesh of everything
that is dedicated belongs to thee." '
(4) The woman, going to Korah, related all that had
happened, and Korah, exceedingly enraged, said to Aaron,
' What claim hast thou upon this poor woman ? Thou
didst first take the wool, then the firstborn, and now the
whole ewe itself.^ ' I shall not transgress one letter of the
law on account of thy anger, for it is said, '' All the flesh
shall be the priest's." ' (5) Korah was then filled with wrath,
and when God commanded Moses to tell the children of
Israel to make for themselves fringes, Korah arose in the
night, and w^eaving 400 garments of blue, put them on 400
men. Then, standing before Moses, he said to him, ' Do
these garments require fringes, as they are now made
wholly of the rh'2r\' (blue)? Moses replied, 'Korah, does
a house full of holy books require a Mezuzah.' 'Yes,' said
Korah. ' So also do these garments require fringes.'
(6) Thus the jealousy (envy) between them grew to such
an extent that God said to Moses, ' Take the Levites, and
thus thou shalt do to purify them.' He then made four
decrees concerning the Levites, two of which they accepted
and two of which they did not accept. They then said to
Moses, ' Sprinkle upon us the water of the sin-offering, and
w^e shall also wash our clothes, but to the heaving and the
razor w^e shall not submit.' (7) Moses then forcibly lifted
162 [LV. 8
them up from the ground agamst their will. When it came
to the decree of the shaving their bodies, Moses was not able
to attend to them alone, so he said to the Israelites, *A
decree has been issued concerning the Levites to pass the
razor over their flesh, and they have refused to submit.'
Thereupon, all the Israelites stood up, laid hold of the
Levites by force, and made them submit.
(8) At that time the wife of Korah said to her husband,
' The King of Life makes both you and Moses subservient
to Him, but now, having passed the razor over your own
flesh and over your beards, you will be a reproach and a
shame to all. It is surely preferable to die than to live.'
Concerning this Scripture says, ' The wisdom of woman
buildeth her house, but the hands of the foolish one over-
throw it.' (9) ' The wisdom of woman buildeth her
house.' This refers to the wife of On, the son of Peleth,
who, when she saw that the quarrel was coming to a head,
said to her husband, ' My lord, hearken to my counsel:
whether Korah is the prince and thou art the pupil, or
Moses is the prince and thou art the pupil, what avails
thee this quarrel ? It is surely better to free thy soul from
the punishment.' ' But what shall I do now,' he answered,
* since I have already sworn to Korah that I shall abide by
his counsel?' ' Thy oath will be fulfilled,' she replied, ' if
thou sidest with Moses, since all the Israelites are holy.'
' May I trust thee ?' said he. She answered: ' Yes.'
Thereupon, on the day of visitation, she killed a lamb, and
gave him to eat and to drink until he was drunk. She then
put him to bed, and while he slept she sat at the street-
door and uncovered her head, and combed her hair; and
whoever came to call for On, the son of Peleth, saw his wife
with uncovered head, and being shamed, turned aw^ay until
the time passed, and On was thus saved. With reference to
this the text says, ' Hide thyself for a moment until the
anger has passed away.'
' But the foolish woman overthroweth it (her house) with
her hands.' This alludes to the wife of Korah, who wickedly
counselled her husband to quarrel with Moses, and thus he
perished from this world and from the next also, as it is
said, 'And they perished from the midst of the congregation.'
(10) The sages say that through the deep counsel of
Balaam the Israelites were diminished, for the sons of
Moab and Midian took counsel together, and, gathering all
the beautiful women of their land, they made tents for them
and placed them therein close by the camp of the Israelites.
And the women dwelling within the tents were decked with
all conceivable kinds of ornaments and had every kind of
saleable garment. At the door of the tent stood an old
woman holding a garment for sale. Whenever any Israelite
passed by and asked the old woman the price, she placed a
very high value upon it, but said, ' Step inside the tent, and
there you can choose what you desire at a low price.' As
soon as he entered a beautiful maiden would stand up,
beautifully decked and sprayed with scent, and, looking at
him, say, ' I will sell thee these ornaments at a very low
price; and if thou desirest, I will give thee these others for
nothing.' Before her was placed excellent strong wine.
She would then say to him, ' Drink this cup of wine for my
love, and I will present thee with any precious ornament
thou mayest wish.' At this time the wine of the heathen
was not yet a prohibited thing. He therefore would accept
the offer and drink the wine, and as soon as he had finished
it he would be very drunk. She then would take hold of
him and begin kissing him, so that the evil inclination should
burn within him, and he would lie with her. For the great
love that sprang up between them, she would not leave him
until at length she would say to him, ' Worship this idol for
the love you bare me;' and he would worship it.
(11) Thus the Israelites sinned through fornication as it
is said, ' And the people began to commit fornication with
the daughters of Moab, who enticed the people to sacrifice
to their god; and the people ate of their sacrifices and
bowed down to their gods.' The Lord was therefore angry
with Israel, so that there died by a plague 24,000 men.
(12) And all the Israelites, and all the princes, and
Eleazar, and Pinehas, seeing the angel of destruction among
11—2
164 [LV. 12
the people, sat down and wept, and did not know how to act.
Pmehas saw Zimri pubHcly going with a Midianite woman,
and, burning with zeal, he snatched the spear from Moses.
Some say that, raising his spear, he ran after him from
behind, and pierced them both, so that it entered the stomach
of the woman. On account of this God gave him and his
sons the maw of the animals as his reward, and strengthened
his arm. He fixed the spear in the ground, and both
were found on the top of it, one above the other. Then
Pinehas smote the young men of Israel without remorse,
and dragged them, scourging them all the while, through the
whole camp of Israel, that all should see and fear. E.
Eleazar of Modai relates that Pinehas cast the ban of
excommunication upon all Israel by means of the secret of
the Ineffable Name as written upon the tables of the law —
the terrestrial and celestial Tribunal sanctioned an excom-
munication prohibiting every man of Israel to drink of the
wine of the heathen.
