Moses unto the door of the taber- Mosen ad ostium tabernaculi con-
HARMONY OF THE LAW · VOLUME 2
47. And Aaron took as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the congregation; and, behold, the plague was begun among the people: and he put on incense, and made an atonement for the people.
47. Tulit ergo Aharon quenmadmodum dixerat Moses, et cucurrit in medium congregationis: et ecce incoeperat percussio in populo, posuitque suffitum et expiavit populum.
48. And he stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed.
48. Et quum staret inter mortuos et viventes, cessavit percussio.
49. Now they that died in the plague were fourteen thousand and seven hundred, besides them that died about the matter of Korah.
49. Fuernnt autem qui mortui sunt plaga illa, quatuordecim millia et septingenti, praeter mortuos super negotio Corah.
50. And Aaron returned unto Moses unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation: and the plague was stayed.
50. Postea reversus est Aharon ad Mosen ad ostium tabernaculi conventionis, quum percussio esset cohibita.
1. Now Korah, the son of Izhar. The impious conspiracy is here related of a few men, but these of the highest rank, whose object was to subvert and destroy the divinely-appointed priesthood. They make their attack, indeed, upon Moses, and accuse him of ruling unjustly; for thus it is that turbulent persons are carried away without reason or discrimination; but, the only cause why they are set against him is because they suppose him to be the originator of the priesthood, as we easily collect from his reply. For he does not command them to stand forth, in order that they may decide respecting the political government or chieftainship, but that it may be made plain whether God acknowledges them as priests; nor does he reproach the Levites with anything but that, not content with their own lot, they have an unreasonable ambition to obtain the honor of the high-priesthood. It was jealousy, then, that instigated Korah and his companions to set on foot first a quarrel, and then a tumult; respecting the priesthood, because they were indignant that the hope of attaining that honor was taken away from themselves and their posterity for ever. Thus there never was any more deadly or abominable plague in the Church of God, than ambition; inasmuch as it cannot be that those who seek for pre-eminence should range themselves beneath God's yoke. Hence arises the dissolution of legitimate