Korah

Korah was the son of Izhar of the tribe of Levi, a kinsman of Moses and Aaron. With Dathan and Abiram of the tribe of Reuben, and On the son of Peleth, he gathered two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly—famous men of renown—to challenge Moses and Aaron: "Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord?"

Moses fell upon his face and proposed a test: let Korah and his company come on the morrow with censers and incense before the Lord, and the Lord would show whom He had chosen. Moses also rebuked Korah for despising the priestly service already entrusted to the Levites: "Seek ye the priesthood also?"

When the morrow came, the glory of the Lord appeared. The Lord commanded Moses to warn the congregation to depart from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Moses declared, "If the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up... then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord." Hardly had he finished speaking when the ground clave asunder. Korah, Dathan, Abiram, their households, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, with all their goods, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them.

Fire then came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men offering incense. Their bronze censers were beaten into broad plates for a covering of the altar—a perpetual memorial that no stranger should come near to offer incense before the Lord. The sons of Korah, however, were not swept away (Numbers 26:11), and their descendants later served as singers and gatekeepers, even writing several of the Psalms.