⁶ Do this: take censers, Korah and all your^[a] congregation,

Nadab and Abihu

10 Now Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu each took his censer, put fire in it, and laid incense on it, and they offered unholy fire before the Lord, such as he had not commanded them.^(A)

²¹ Elijah then came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him, but if Baal, then follow him.” The people did not answer him a word.^{(A) 22} Then Elijah said to the people, “I, even I only, am left a prophet of the Lord, but Baal’s prophets number four hundred fifty.^{(B) 23} Let two bulls be given to us; let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood but put no fire to it; I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood but put no fire to it.

⁴⁶ Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, put fire on 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.”^{(A) 47} So Aaron took it as Moses had ordered and ran into the middle of the assembly, where the plague had already begun among the people. He put on the incense and made atonement for the people.^{(B) 48} He stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped.^(C)

³⁵ And fire came out from the Lord and consumed the two hundred fifty men offering the incense.^(A)

^36 [a]Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ³⁷ “Tell Eleazar son of Aaron the priest to take the censers out of the blaze, then scatter the fire far and wide. ³⁸ For the censers 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 a sign to the Israelites.”^{(B) 39} So Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers that had been presented by those who were burned, and they were hammered out as a covering for the altar— ⁴⁰ a reminder 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 Korah and his congregation, just as the Lord had said to him through Moses.^(C)

¹² He shall take a censer full of coals of fire from the altar before the Lord and two handfuls of crushed sweet incense, and he shall bring it inside the curtain^{(A) 13} and put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may shroud the cover that is upon the covenant, or he will die.^(B)