God Kills 14,700 People for Protesting  🔗 **Source:** [God Kills 14,700 People for Protesting](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWUVX6VWKIM) > [!note]+ Document Notes > --- > tags: [biblical-studies, source-criticism, hebrew-bible, religious-studies, textual-criticism, priesthood] > author: Dan McClellan and Dan Beecher > source: Data Over Dogma > reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWUVX6VWKIM > date created: 2026-08-31 19:00 > --- > > [!info] Generated analysis — not the author's words. Sections below are machine-written > > from the captured source. Only text inside `> [!quote]` blocks is verbatim from the author. > > Do not quote or attribute any other line to the named author. > # 🏷️ Title: God Kills 14,700 People for Protesting > ## 🧭 Table of Contents > - [📝 Summary](#-summary) > - [📖 Main Content](#-main-content) > - [🗒️ Notes](#️-notes) > - [📚 References](#-references) > - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#️-paraphrase) > - [📰 Newsletter](#-newsletter) > - [✅ Action Items](#-action-items) > - [🧪 Hypotheses](#-hypotheses) > - [📊 Methodology](#-methodology) > - [❓ Questions](#-questions) > - [🔮 Future Research](#-future-research) > - [💡 Implications](#-implications) > - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment) > - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#-accessibility-assessment) > - [🌍 DEIB Assessment](#-deib-assessment) > - [✅ Logical Validity](#-logical-validity) > - [🛡️ DARVO Analysis](#-darvo-analysis) > - [🎯 Conclusion](#-conclusion) > ### 🔗 References > - [The episode under analysis](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWUVX6VWKIM) — Data Over Dogma, 33:55, published 2026-08-31 > - [Numbers 16](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+16&version=NRSVUE) — the chapter under discussion > - [Numbers 26:9–11](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+26%3A9-11&version=NRSVUE) — the contradicting account > - [Dr. Dan McClellan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_McClellan_(biblical_scholar)) — co-host; Oxford and Exeter, author of *YHWH's Divine Images* > ## 📝 Summary > - **What happened.** A "chapter and verse" walkthrough of **Numbers 16** — the Korah rebellion — by Dr. Dan McClellan (biblical scholar) and Dan Beecher (the non-specialist co-host). Following on from an earlier episode on Numbers 17 and Aaron's budding staff, they read the chapter closely and argue it is a **composite text**: two or three originally separate revolt traditions woven together and imperfectly harmonized. They then explain a contradiction between Numbers 16 and Numbers 26 by pointing at an external constraint — the existence of eleven psalms attributed to the sons of Korah. > - **Why it matters.** This is mainstream source criticism delivered accessibly, and the central argument is genuinely well built. The seams they identify are visible in the text itself rather than imposed on it: a character who appears once and vanishes, a cast that changes size between verses, two incompatible complaints, two different punishments, and a death report that conspicuously omits the man whose name the rebellion carries. > - **Key stakeholders.** Anyone reading the Hebrew Bible critically. Readers examining inherited assumptions about scriptural unity. The show's stated mission is *"to increase public access to the academic study of the Bible and religion and combat the spread of misinformation about the same."* > - **Risks and tradeoffs.** The scholarship is sound and almost entirely unattributed — *"there are scholars who have argued"* recurs without a single name, which for a show branded on academic access leaves listeners unable to follow anything up. The comedic register is heavy and mostly works, though it does carry them past 14,700 deaths fairly quickly. And the title promises a moral question the episode does not take up. > - **Bottom line.** Strong, accessible textual analysis whose best moment is the Korahite psalms argument — a contradiction explained by a constraint the harmonizer could not remove rather than by ad hoc reconciliation. Take the method; supply your own citations, because the episode gives you none. > ## 📖 Main Content > **Where the episode sits.** It picks up from a previous discussion of Numbers 17, where Aaron's staff buds and his line is confirmed for the priesthood — resolved, as Beecher puts it, *"in a nice way. It was like, look, your stick is prettier than everyone else's stick."* Numbers 16 is what precedes that, and the contrast is the hook: the same dispute settled first by mass death and then, redundantly, by a horticultural contest. > **The composite thesis, and the evidence for it.** McClellan flags the reading early and then builds it from textual observations rather than asserting it. The signals accumulate. > *A character appears and evaporates.* Verse 1 names Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and **On son of Peleth**. On is never mentioned again — not in the confrontation, not in the punishment, not in the aftermath. He exists to establish a Reubenite connection and then, in Beecher's line, is *"the only one of the Israelites that Thanos snapped away."* A name introduced with genealogical care and immediately abandoned is the kind of residue that source-critical readings are built to explain. > *The cast keeps changing size.* Verse 1 has four named men plus 250 *"leaders of the congregation, chosen from the assembly, well-known men."* Then Moses addresses only *"Korah and all his congregation."* Then he sends separately for Dathan and Abiram, who refuse to come — despite verse 1 having already assembled them. Then it returns to Korah. McClellan's summary of the pattern is the useful one: *"part of the narrative is identifying three men. And then the narrative goes on to have Moses only engaging with a fraction of that."* > *The complaints are about different things.* Korah's grievance is cultic and egalitarian: *"All the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. So why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?"* That is a challenge to priestly exclusivity. Dathan and Abiram's is political and territorial: *"is it too little that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness that you must also lord it over us."* That is a leadership complaint about broken promises. Two different objections, requiring two different answers. > *The punishments are different too.* The earth swallows Dathan and Abiram with their households; fire consumes the 250 censer-bearers. Two mechanisms, distributed across the two complaint-groups, which is what you would expect if two stories had been merged. > **The priestly-politics reading.** McClellan situates the dispute institutionally: Korah is a Levite, as are Moses and Aaron, and the conflict may preserve *"an early confrontation between different priestly schools"* — a Kohathite line asserting priestly rights against the Aaronide line that the final text vindicates. On this reading Numbers 16 is not simply a morality tale about insubordination but a text that settles a real institutional question, in favor of the group whose descendants transmitted it. > The chapter's own closing move supports that. The censers of the dead are hammered into plating for the altar *"as a reminder to the Israelites that no outsider who is not of the descendants of Aaron shall approach to offer incense."* McClellan reads this as etiological — a story explaining why a physical object looks the way it does, which simultaneously encodes a rule about who may officiate. Beecher's aside is apt: *"I'm assuming that this was an etiology for how the altar got covered in metal."* > **The strongest argument in the episode.** Numbers 16:32 says the earth *"swallowed them up along with their households, everyone who belonged to Korah and all their goods."* McClellan stops on the wording: the text lists Korah's *people* and *possessions*, and does not say **Korah** was swallowed. Then Numbers 26:10 states that the earth swallowed them *"along with Korah,"* and adds — *"notwithstanding the sons of Korah did not die."* > So the later text asserts both that Korah died and that his sons survived. Why insist on the survival of a family the first account seems to erase? > Because there are **eleven psalms** attributed to the sons of Korah. McClellan checks the Hebrew of the superscription live — *livnei Qorach*, "of the sons of Korah" — and the collection exists in the receive [music] Hey everybody, I'm Dan Mlelen >> and I'm Dan Beecher >> and this is Data Over Dogma where we increase [music] public access to the academic study of the Bible and religion and we combat the spread of misinformation about the same. How are things today Dan? >> Rocking and rolling, man. It's a it's a it's a good day to be alive and a bad >> advisory where we are but uh yeah still a good day to be and indoors. >> Yeah. and indoors and far away from that nuclear fusion ball that's in [laughter] the sky trying to ruin everything for us. We had we had a patron comment something about uh you know it's it's cold here here in Australia and it was like okay that's that's true. [laughter] That can be true. You're on the other side of >> it's winterish. Yeah. Over there. >> Um all right. So here we are. We're we're going to be talking we're going to do a chapter and verse today. And the chapter and verse is last week uh at some point you'll recall we talked about numbers 17 which was Aaron's >> rod budding >> budding. Yes. And and and his lineage chosen for priesthood >> there from uh but >> there's some stuff leading up to that. We hinted at it. We chatted. We you know we mentioned it. Uh but I but we also mentioned that it would make a good segment of of on its own. So that's what we're doing. Uh so I think we should just dive straight into chapter and verse. [music] And the chapter and verse. Okay, we're in numbers 16 now. And uh >> it this is kind of crazy. This is I mean it's like the battle of the Levites. It's the it's it's there's a bunch of grumbling happening and it is it's nuts. Uh so the consequences of grumbling are I'm just going to say extreme >> little harsh. >> Uh you know last last week when Aaron became uh the priest o over everybody it was it was done through a nice way. It was like, "Look, your stick [laughter] is prettier than everyone else's stick." And that I think is a lovely way of indicating who should be in charge. >> Yeah, it's uh following after the Kora episode. However, it is it the juxtiposition is a little jarring. >> It's extreme. Uh so, we should just talk first about who Kora is. Uh we we've got we've got Kora. Um, that's K O R A H. It's not like >> K C O R A. Kora, Dayan, and Aberam. >> Well, we've also got on. So if we're starting in Numbers 16:1 and and here's where we're going to start to see that something peculiar is going on here because verse one says, "Now Kora son of Ishar, son of Kohath, son of Levi, along with Daythan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, and Anne, son of Pelath, son of Reuben, an disappears from the narrative." >> Yeah. On just goes away. >> Yeah. There's no more on. We are off. It is um which which suggests in the mind of a lot of scholars the composite nature of this story that we've probably got different traditions that were woven together or separated out. And so we are looking at the end result of the accumulation and redaction and editing of a few different stories and we're going to get it and we're going to highlight places where we seem to be getting one story and not another. So >> yeah. So yeah, re take note of that right off the bat. On son of Pelth, son of Reuben, seems to be there to kind of indicate a connection with Reuben, but then is blips uh right out of the story. >> So this is one of the the only one of the Israelites that Thanos uh snapped away [laughter] was on just he was like, I don't feel so good and then just dust. So that's what we get at the end of verse one. But um yeah, these these gentlemen, these brethren took 250 Israelite men, leaders of the congregation, chosen from the assembly, well-known men, and they confronted Moses. >> So >> because >> so that's a that's a mob. 250 is not a small number of people. >> Yeah. [laughter] It's not like Steve, Bill, Tom, and I think this is unfair. No, this is pitchforks and uh uh and what not lamps, torches. That's what they are. Um, [laughter] and not the British flashlight, but actual fire torches. Um, >> yeah. >> And they come to Moses and they confront him. And, and this is coming right after Moses is basically rattling off a bunch of legislation. And I think right before this, it was like, yeah, put fringes on your garments. And at this point, these guys were like, that's it. >> You know what? >> Fringes on the garments. >> I was fine until you fringe. You told me I have to fringe my garments. I'm not into that newfangled fashion. >> So they they assemble against Moses Moses and Aaron and said, "You have gone too far." Now whether this has to do with fringes on the garments, it's not clear. Remember this is composite. All the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. So why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord? And this is related kind of to what we have later on with Aaron's budding rod. >> Yeah. Yeah. Where they're like, "Wait a minute. We're all holy. The Lord is among us all. Why do you get to be in charge?" >> Yeah. Why? Yeah. So, this is a this is a question of like, "Well, why aren't we also valid priests or whatever?" >> Right. And and there this may be a relic of kind of an early confrontation between different priestly schools >> because Kora could have been the spokesperson for another priestly school. Uh another Levitical priesthood. So we have the Aronide, but we have another um Kathite uh line that descended from Levi that might be asserting the priesthood. And >> yeah, because because Yeah. Co Kora is of the of the Levite line just as Moses and Aaron are. >> Yeah. >> Okay. And um Moses hears the challenge, falls on his face. Then he spoke to Kora and all his congregation. Now notice it's Kora and three other dudes. And now it's only Kora and his congregation, >> right? So like >> it has whittleled down significantly. >> Yeah. That I picture Moses being like, "Where'd everybody go?" And Kora [laughter] is like, >> "What? >> I had I swear I had three other guys here." Yeah. [laughter] Um and uh he speaks to the congregation says in the morning the lord will make known who is his and who is holy and who will be allowed to approach him. The one whom he will choose will be allowed to approach him. So this is basically like look our our priests are the one who ones who are allowed to appro approach God. So God is going to let us know. And as we talked about last time it feels kind of like cheating to to be like hey I'll go talk to him. He'll he'll let us know if I'm right or if you're right. >> You can't come see though. This is all >> happen. I'll go talk to God and he'll tell you how we're going to determine this through me exclusively. >> And so Moses says, "Here's what we're going to do. Take sensors, not uh not like um >> television sensors, right?" No, but uh but the metal things to carry fire in. Kora and all your congregation and tomorrow put fire in them and lay incense on them before the Lord and the man whom the Lord chooses shall be the holy one. You Levites have gone too far. [laughter] And this is evidently what what Moses is saying to uh Kora and his congregation, >> right? >> Um >> yeah. >> And then and I don't think here's the thing. Okay. So, everybody's going to bring their their little fire holders to the tent. And that all seemed like, okay, we're we're we're we're prepping for a miracle. I did not have any idea how Game of Thrones this was about to get. [laughter] >> Yeah. Cuz he doesn't really say, "Here's how it's going to be done." He's just like, "No, it's just like, oh, you'll know. >> Bring the and and uh and and by the time whatever happens happens, we'll all know who who has been chosen." >> Yeah. which does not bode well. If you're watching this on TV, you're like, "Ooh, it is coming [laughter] for the you know what's what's happening now." Then Moses said to Kora, "Hear now, you Levites, >> is it too little for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel to allow you to approach him in order to perform the duties of the Lord's tabernacle and to stand before the congregation and serve him? He has allowed you to approach him and all your brother Levites with you. Yet you seek the priesthood as well. Therefore, you and all your congregation have gathered together against the Lord. What is Aaron that you rail against him? [clears throat] And now we have this thing where it says, "Moses sent for Daython and Abiram, sons of Eliab, but they said, "We will not come." [laughter] They were there. >> Yeah. According to verse one, they he Kora grabs the other guys and they all they are chosen along with these guys took 250 Israelite men. They assembled against Moses, but now they're not there and Moses had only been talking to Kora. I took that to mean that we are a little further along in the story and everybody's gone back to get their sensors or whatever [laughter] and then and then these guys are like you know what I've seen Game of Thrones I'm not coming. >> Yeah the uh it is it is peculiar and there there are scholars who have uh who have accounted for this in a variety of ways. Most commonly I think you there's an idea that there are either two or three different revolt tales that are being consolidated into one >> right >> one involves Kora one at least one involves Dethon and Abiram and uh so Moses sends for them they say we will not come is it too little that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness that you must also lord it over us. It is clear that you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Would you put out the eyes of these men? We will not come. >> Suddenly where the putting out the eyes come from that's uh >> that were that's a little more Game of Thrones than things had uh had been up to this point. But uh also >> their complaint seems very different now, >> right? because now it's suddenly about Yeah. Now their complaint is is about leaving Egypt and we've not yet come to a a land flowing with milk and honey. Although there there are scholars who have argued that uh the Hebrew here is a little squirly. And you could understand it to uh actually uh be saying you have not brought us to a land flowing with milk and honey, but to an inheritance of fields and vineyards where we've got to we've got to toil for our food. Whereas the idea of land flowing with milk and honey, the Hebrew word there actually has more to do with like gushing. >> It's that that this this is the land produces it naturally. >> This big rock candy mountain. Yeah, this is where there's just milk and honey just coming up out the ground, right? >> Um all you all you need is a bucket. >> And >> which is funny because they seem to be indicating that they came from a land of milk and honey. >> Yeah. Which is an odd memory of being under brutal enslavement to the Egyptians. >> It's a weird way of of of envisioning the your like two years ago being slaves. >> Yeah. Yeah. And and there are some folks who think that maybe this story is actually set in the land of Israel. Like they've already gotten there and they're complaining that the land isn't good enough. Uh that's that's an argument that's been offered as well. >> This is the worst Israel I've ever been to. [laughter] I object. >> Yeah. But but if if the idea is, hey, look, it's fields and vineyards. We have to toil and work and um you know, just to try to get this stony ground to produce stuff. Um Moses was very angry. He said to the Lord, "Pay no attention to their offering. I have not taken one donkey from them, and I have not harmed any one of them." So Moses, it it's kind of like uh Moses is in front of the temple and knows that God is listening [laughter] and and it's like, "That's a lie. That's a lie." Um to turning around and yelling into the into the doorway of the temple. That's [laughter] a lie. >> Nuh-uh. No, daddy's lying. And uh and Moses said to Kora, "As for you and all your congregation, be present tomorrow before the Lord. You and they and Aaron." Wait a minute. It's back to Kora. >> Yeah. Oh, right. >> Yeah. So, Dayan and Aviram. Um Oh, so like we we could understand this to mean that uh he sent for them and they sent a message and maybe Kora was like, "Here's what they said." >> Um but but yeah, we it is a little peculiar. uh be present tomorrow before the Lord, you and they and Aaron, and let each one of you take his sensor and put incense on it, and each one of you present his sensor before the Lord, 250 sensors, you also and Aaron, each his sensor. So they did it. They laid incense on them, and they stood at the entrance of the tent of meeting with Moses and Aaron. Then Kora assembled the whole congregation against them at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord appeared to the whole congregation. So, so Corora is there again. Uh, it was supposed to be everybody, but who knows what's going on here. Apart from the the conclusion that this is actually Kora all by himself in one version of the story and then the other two in another version of the story. >> Right. >> Right. >> Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron saying, "Separate yourselves from this congregation so that I may consume them in a moment." [laughter] Which >> Yeah. So >> it I mean it's just and what what does that even look like? Let's just say that that's what happened. Aaron and Moses are like, "You know what? We left something back on our place." [laughter] >> Yes. >> We're going to run real quick. My sensor, this is not my good sensor. Why did I even bring this sensor? [laughter] >> What am I doing? >> Yeah. So they come back out and they said, "God said we should stand over there." >> Yeah. [laughter] >> You guys stay where you are. It's cool. We just have to pee. [laughter] They fell on their faces and said, "Oh God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one person sin and you become angry with the whole congregation?" And the Lord spoke to Moses, "Speak to the congregation, saying, "Get away from the dwellings of Kora, Dayan, and Abiram." [clears throat] So Moses got up and went to Dayan and Abiram. The elders of Israel followed him. He spoke to the congregation. So once again, part of the narrative is identifying three men. And then the narrative goes on to have Moses only engaging with a fraction of that. >> Um he spoke to the congregation saying, "Turn away from the tents of these wicked men and touch nothing of theirs or you will be swept away for all their sins." >> So they got away. Now Moses is like, "Uh, move back. Move back." >> Right. Yeah. It is nice of Moses and Aaron to be like, "Hey, maybe you don't have to kill all of these people just cuz these three guys gathered them up or whatever." >> [laughter] >> So from from you to the left >> go that way. >> We're going to get to from you to the left go that way in in the second part of this story. >> Yeah. >> But yeah. Okay. So >> so so they they got away from the dwellings of Kora, Daythan, and Abiram. And Deathan and Abiram came out and stood at the entrances of their tents together with their wives, they their children, and their little ones. Where's Kora? So now it's Kora who's like, I'm not coming out of my room. [laughter] and and Kora's wife >> on the other side of camp. He was uh [laughter] you have to go you have to go you have to you have to do this geographically. >> Yeah. So uh so Moses said this is how you shall know that the Lord has sent me to do all these works. It has not been of my own accord. If these people die a natural death or if a natural fate comes to them, then the Lord has not sent me. But if the Lord creates something new and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them and they go down alive into Shaol, then you shall know that these men have despised the Lord. So gauntlet throne [laughter] and we've got Dean and Abiram standing in the the at the front of their tents with their with their their youngans uh huddling around their calves. I mean, presumably you at that moment the family is all going, "Wait, what now? >> I'm sorry. There's something's going to >> Excuse me. >> I sha. Did I hear shaol? I'm not I don't know what's going on." >> Yeah. And as soon as he finished speaking all these words, the ground under them was split apart. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up along with their households. everyone who belonged to Kora and all their goods. So [sighs and gasps] Kora is evidently not coming out of his tent. Dayan and Aviram come out of their tents and now the earth swallows up Kora. Everyone who belonged to Kora and all their goods. >> Yeah. >> But notice who is not said to be swallowed up. >> Who's who's not said to be swallowed up here? Well, it doesn't say Dayan and Abiram. >> It also doesn't say Kora was swallowed up. It says >> Oh, it says everyone who belonged to Kora. >> Yeah. So, the So, we have Dayan and Abiram. And it says the earth opened his mouth and swallowed them up along with their households. >> Everyone who belonged to Kora and all their goods, which seems like it might be >> a secondary addition. >> Okay. Because Dethan and Aviram are the theyir households. >> But then it says everyone who belong to Kora and all their goods. So it's like well we got to throw all of Kora's stuff into the mix but not Kora. So they with all that belonged to them went down alive into Shaol. The earth closed over them and they perished from the midst of the assembly. Um [laughter] here's here's the panic. All Israel around them fled at their outcry for they said the earth will swallow us too. >> Yeah. >> And then Yeah. So >> I think it's fair to be afraid in that moment. I think that that is a that is a reasonable response to >> that is a rational fear. Yeah. >> Just gulp up a couple a whole bunch of families >> and then they're uh they're they're all scattering. And verse 35 says, "And fire came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men offering the incense." So, first we're gonna we're going to eat up all these guys and then the Lord's just going to zap everybody else. Fire from Adonai. Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, "Tell Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, to take the sensors out of the blaze. Then scatter the fire far and wide. For the sensors of these sinners have become holy at the cost of their lives. Make them into hammered plates as a covering for the altar. For they presented them before the Lord, and they became holy. Thus they shall be assigned to the Israelites. What? >> Yeah, that's so weird. >> Yeah. Yeah, I I'm assuming that this was an ideology for how their how the altar got covered in metal. [laughter] [gasps] >> Yeah, it does. It does seem like an episode of Bob's Burgers where they were like, "How did this happen?" And then we've got this weird mashup of some movie from the 1980s and [laughter] this this thing that we have here. Uh but >> I mean we we just glossed right over the fact that the 250 dudes just got burned. >> Yes. >> Like this is crazy. This is And then and it and it came to pass that the mother of dragons did emerge >> at her own sensor >> and she was naked. Um but but here's a weird thing. Uh Numbers 26:10. Let me pull up uh 26:10. So we're in 16 here. >> Yeah. >> But um we have uh in numbers 269 says the descendants of Eliab, Nemuel, Daython, and Abiram. These are the same Daython and Abiram chosen from the congregation who rebelled against Moses and Aaron in the congregation of Kora when they rebelled against the Lord and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up along with Kora. So here we have the statement that Kora was taken down to Shaol when that congregation died when the fire devoured 250 men and they became a warning notwithstanding the sons of Kora did not die. >> So we've got we've got another contradiction cuz numbers 16 says everyone that belonged to Kora died. >> Yeah. >> Doesn't explicitly say Kora died. Numbers 26 says no Kora died but the sons of Kora did not die. They were at camp. >> That's a Well, it's a headscratcher. Uh until you notice um something about the uh book of Psalms. You've got uh Yes, >> we're bouncing all over the place. >> Yes, you've got in the book of Psalms a number of psalms that are uh dedicated or have uh Kora's name associated with them, the Korahites. Okay. >> Uh there are 11 psalms that are Korah height psalms. >> Oh okay. >> So Psalms uh like 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, and 49. And then 84, 85, 87, and 88. So most of them are from book two. But let me let me pull up uh Psalms 42. I want to see exactly what the Hebrew was because I because I thought it was Benet uh Kora. Uh yeah, Leven Korak. So that is sons of Kora. So number 16 says doesn't say anything about Kora. He might have snuck out the back for all we know. But it says everyone that belonged to Kora. >> They they uh took the dirt nap. But then Numbers 26 says Kora took the dirt nap, but all of Kora's sons did not. And that this may be somebody later on trying to be like, well, we got all these psalms that this from >> you guys know that there is a whole group chlorides, right? [laughter] >> Kind of have to account for them. >> Yeah, we got to do something about that. Um, so and and I think this may be a a vestage or a product of the fact that when we see names that are similar, we like to just assume they're the same person. >> Like that happens all the time. Sure. particularly in apologetics like the book of Revelation written by a dude named John. I bet that's the same John that wrote the Gospel of John. Um or that's the same John that's the Apostle. Well, nothing indicates that. You just kind of made that up, right? >> But um and and so here they're probably thinking, "Ah, that's that must be the Kora from the story over here." But didn't they all die? Um what if we said they didn't all die? Yeah, great idea. Nobody will pick up on that. Yeah, cuz there couldn't be two chorus. That's too confusing. >> Yeah, that's just that's right out. Two chorus is right out. Um and yeah, and and we also might have because Kora, the Korahites are are another Levite strand, Levite family. Uh there there might have been people who were ministering in their priestly functions uh who were of the Aronide clan that were like, "Yeah, this is a this is a a Korahite um altar cover." Well, why aren't why aren't Korahites ministering? Well, let me tell you a story [laughter] uh about these Korahites, including Anne, but forget about an is not relevant to the rest of the story. >> Yeah. So, so it's ritual objects that are that they're probably just accounting for why these ritual objects are here that had some kind of association with a Levitical group that's no longer operating. Maybe that's what's going on. >> Yeah. So, okay. So they took the the sensors and they pounded them and they made them into a covering for the altar >> uh as a reminder according to verse 40 to the Israelites that no outsider who is not of the descendants of Aaron shall approach to offer incense before the Lord so as not to become like Kora and his congregation just as the Lord had said to him through Moses. Yeah. Now that to me, all of that, the burning of the dudes, the swallowing of by the earth of the people and stuff, you would think that that would be just absolutely sufficient [laughter] to get the point across. I don't even see the need for the stick trick in the next chapter. >> Yeah, >> it doesn't make any sense that we need anything more. But verse 41 says on the next day, >> it's not like 10 years later they forgot and they were like on the next day. So what happens? >> Well, the whole congregation of the Israelites rebelled against Moses and Aaron saying, "You have killed the people of the Lord." >> So it's not like they forgot this happened. They remember this happened. They're just like >> they're just >> we're not going to we're not going to stand for this. >> You can't you can't just kill everybody. >> Yeah. Mo and and and by the way, it's Moses and Aaron that that did this, not God, apparently. >> Yes. And you [laughter] you can't just kill all these people just because they challenged your authority. I challenge your authority, >> right? [laughter] >> Yeah. >> What do you think is going to happen to you then? Uh then Moses and Aaron came to the front of the tent of meeting. I would not go >> if if they were like, "Hey everybody, Moses wants us at the front of the tent of meeting." I'd have been like, "No, >> you tell me what they said. I'll be over here." >> Yeah. [laughter] Uh Moses and Aaron came to the front and attend the meeting. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Get away from this congregation so that I may consume them in a moment." And they fell on their faces. Moses said to Aaron, "Take your sensor, put fire in it from the altar, and lay incense on it, and carry it quickly to the congregation, and make atonement for them, for wrath has gone out from the Lord. The plague has begun." >> So, >> yeah. And that's and this one, this isn't co this is a very fast plague [laughter] because it is literally taking people as we speak. Like Aaron grabs his sensor and runs out into the middle of the assembly and it's literally happening. And he's like, "Ah, you guys get over here. Come here. Let me censor you." And then uh I don't and I don't know what he does. He put on the incense and made atonement for the people. I don't know like what that ends up looking like. >> Well, it seems like that should should be a specific kind of uh a sacrifice, a specific offering, >> but it doesn't really tell us uh exactly what's uh going on here. So, uh, but yeah, so he he does that and then stands between them >> and, uh, yeah, >> this is when it gets like it gets very, uh, walking dead or something cuz everybody's suddenly infected and it's just like the infection's just moving through the crowd at rapid speed. >> Uh, and he he and so he stands between the dead and the living and the plague was stopped. >> Yeah. Uh, >> I'd like to see a a dramatization of this, a movie where Moses falls on his face and is like, Aaron, get the sensor. >> You got to get out. >> Begun and he comes out and he's just disoriented and there are zombies over here and there are healthy people over here and he's got a run out in between. >> People are dropping like flies. Yeah, it's just crazy. >> And then those it says 14,700 uh died. 14,000 almost 15,000 people died from this plague. That is >> that's not a small number. And why were they all standing together? That's so big. >> Well, yeah. And and you know, Aaron cannot really one man can't really stand in between >> 14,000 >> roughly. Well, no. 14,000 on one side. >> Oh, right. Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. For so almost 30,000 people. And Aaron's like, "No, get over." No, no. I'm I my hands won't go any wider. [laughter] Like uh he's like they you can't hear. At some point you're like, "What's that guy doing? I can't hear him. He's too far away." And you >> Why did you just die? Why did you just die? I don't >> Oh, I'm supposed to move over. Um Yeah. It's It is uh Somebody has a a very vivid imagination here. Yeah. >> Uh and then when the plague stopped, Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the tent of meeting. That's that's kind of that's the everything happens at the entrance of the tent of meeting. >> That's where the the bad news comes. Again, if if I were in that congregation, you would never see me at the entrance of the tent of meeting. >> No, >> I would be staying nor again, I just I will reiterate the next chapter doesn't need to happen if if I'm [laughter] anywhere near this like >> the like like it's been decided. We don't you the stick trick is cute and all, but we don't need it cuz 14,000 of us died and Aaron saved the rest of us. So, we're good. >> I think we're good. >> So, it's like look, we've had in three days we've had 250 people either swallowed by the earth or consumed by fire. And then the next day we all got zombified and 14,700 people died. and now we're playing with sticks. Um, it just it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. >> It's an antilimax if we're being honest. Uh, that's a that's a big come down. >> Yeah. And every time Moses says, "So, here's the way it is." The people all got to be like, "Uh, [clears throat] >> cuz you say so and it's like, have you not paid attention? Are you not entertained?" >> Where were you for all of the things? >> Yeah, >> because uh Yeah. Well, uh, yeah, that's a mess for sure. Uh, and that's it for number 16. Uh, I I hope you all had a great time. [laughter] It's a it it's a kind of a lunatic thing. Um, if you did have a good time talking about it though, you one thing that you could do is support us. And there's a couple of ways that you can do that. You can become a you can join here on YouTube. Uh just find the little button that says join and become a member of our YouTube tribe, the tribe of Dan, uh as it were. And you know, you can you can get access to uh early versions of the of the show and uh special emojis and all sorts of fun stuff. There's more stuff that our members will get coming down the pike, including lives with me and Dan uh [music] and that sort of thing. So you all have that to look forward to. Or you can join us join up at patreon.com/data [music] overdogma where you can get early and adfree access to every episode of the program as well as uh the the patronon content that we do every single week where you can ask us questions and we have to answer them. We're required by our own rules. >> Yep. >> Uh to answer your questions. So, that's always a good time. Uh, if you don't have the means to do to do that, please like, comment, subscribe, do all of those sorts of things, and we're very grateful for that. Share this with someone that you think might find it interesting. That's always nice. Thanks so much to Roger Gouty for editing the show. Thanks to Sam Holden for being our right-hand dude. And thanks to all of you for tuning in. Bye, everybody. [music], God Kills 14,700 People for Protesting, Dan McClellan and Dan Beecher, 01m1cb73aky1z101apv6fcts77.