Successful in gaining over to their views 250 princes of the people, they rose up against Moses and Aaron, and publicly charged them with _taking too much upon themselves_, and usurping functions which ought to have been shared by the congregation at large, who were all, every one of them, _holy unto the Lord_. On hearing these charges Moses resolved to refer the matter to the Divine decision, and bade Korah and his company assemble on the morrow with lighted censers before the Tabernacle. A similar summons was addressed to the Reubenite leaders, but they flatly refused to attend at the place of meeting, and charged Moses with having disappointed the hopes of the people, and being anxious only to make himself a prince over them. Curiosity, however, induced them to stand at the doors of their tents in full view of the Tabernacle, where Korah and his associates stood with lighted censers awaiting the Divine decision (Num. xvi. 1–16). Before long the Glory of the Lord appeared, and Moses was instructed to command that a clear space should be kept round the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and that the people should be careful to touch nothing belonging to them, lest they should be consumed in their sin. Then the servant of Jehovah offered to submit his claims to an awful and infallible test. If the ringleaders in this rebellion _died the common death of all men, or were visited after the visitation of all men, then the Lord had not sent him_; but if a new and terrible fate befell them, and _the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up_, then it would be known that they had provoked the Lord. His words had hardly been uttered, when this awful catastrophe took place. The earth clave asunder, and swallowed up Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, with everything belonging to them, and at the same time a fire burst forth and consumed the 250 men, who had presumed to offer incense at the Sanctuary. Thus this great conspiracy was signally punished, and as a memorial of the occurrence, Eleazar the son of Aaron was directed to take the brazen censers of the offenders, and therewith to make plates for the altar of burnt-sacrifice.