Section 97
And once again the children of Yisra'el murmured concerning the ministration of the Kohanim before the Yahuah, saying, €< Are we not Yisra'el, we the seed of Avraham, and why cannot we also offer up sacrifice like them in the Tent of Witness by the Tabot of the Torah of Elohim, the qodesh Tsiyon, with censers and incense and the qodesh instruments? Why should Mosheh, and his brother Aharon, and their children alone do this? Are we not people whom Elohim has chosen as much as they are, and shall we not do His Will? ” And when Mosheh heard [this] he said to them, “ Do you whatever you will.” And the elders of Yisra'el went and had made seventy censers wherewith to cense Tsiyon and to praise Elohim, and they took incense and coals in the censers, and went and came into the Qodesh of Holies to offer up incense. And immediately they threw the incense into the censers, at the first swing of them fire came forth from the censers, and they were burned up straightway and melted away. And as wax melteth before the face of the fire, even so did they melt away; and as grass withereth. when flame approacheth it, even so were they consumed, together with their instruments, and there was nothing left of them except their censers. And Elohim said, “ Sanctify to Me these censers for My Tent (or, Pavilion), and they shall be used for My offerings, for they are consecrated by the death of those men.” Now the censer is Miryam, and Mashiach, the Son of Elohim, the Godhead, is the coals, and the odour of the incense is the perfume of Mashiach, and through the perfume of Him Shelichim, and Nevi'im, and Martyrs, and Monks, have rejected the wwld and inherited the kingdom of heaven. And the chains of the censers are the ladder which Ya'aqov saw r, to which [the Malakim] clung as they went up and came down; and upon the perfume of the incense the prayers of the pure go up to the throne of Elohim. And when the flame had burned up the sinners, the people who were kinsmen of these wdio had been destroyed reviled Mosheh and Aharon, and said to them, “you have made our elders to perish ”; and they took up stones to stone Mosheh and Aharon. And Elohim was exceedingly wroth with Yisra'el, and He abominated as a filthy rag the counsel of Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Korah. And the Word of Elohim made a sign to the earth, and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, together with all their companions, and their wives, and their children, and their beasts. They went down into Sheol alive, and the earth shut herself up over them. And as for the people who had been associated with them and had heard their revilings [of Mosheh] Elohim sent upon them a plague, and they died forthwith. And Mosheh and Aharon came with incense and censers, and they wept before Elohim, and entreated Him for forgiveness for the people, saying, “ Remember, O Yahuah, Avraham your friend, and Yitsḥaq your servant, and Yisra'el your qodesh one, for we are their seed, and the children of your people. Cool your wrath in respect of us, and make haste to hear us, destroy us not, and remove your punishment from upon Thypeople.” And Elohim the Merciful saw the sincerity of Mosheh, and had compassion upon them. And Elohim spoke to Mosheh and said to him, “ Speak you to this people and say to them, c Sanctify you yourselves, and bring you for each of the houses of your fathers a rod,’ and write you [the name] upon it so that you may know their rods, you and your brother Aharon. Now of your houses let Aharon write upon his rod, but upon your own rod make no mark, for it shall be a perfect miracle for the children of your people, a vindication for the wicked, and a sign of life for all those who believe. If you did write [your name] now with them, they would say to you, c This has been a worker of miracles from of old bv the word ¥ of Elohim ’; let them say this when I have shown them a miracle by it (i.e. the rod). But for the house of your father write upon the rod of Aharon.” The soldiers binding Mashiach