What Did Korah Take?
By Dr. Nicholas J. Schaser
The Hebrew of Numbers 16 begins, ויקח קרח: “And Korah took…” (Num 16:1). After these words comes a list of names: “Korah the son of Izhar, son of Kohath, son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben.” Yet, nothing in the Hebrew of this verse specifies the object that Korah “took.” English translations add “took men” (e.g., ASV, ESV, KJV) or just bypass the word for “took” altogether (e.g., CEB). Still, the original language explicates that “Korah took,” so what did Korah take?
The rabbinic commentators ask this same question. Speaking of Numbers 16:1, the midrash state, “It does not say Korah ‘disputed,’ ‘assembled,’ ‘spoke,’ [or] ‘commanded,’ but rather, ‘took.’ What did he take?” (Numbers Rabbah 18:16). The answer? “He took nothing; rather, his heart took him, [as] the verse says, ‘How your heart has taken you (מה־יקחך לבך; ma-yiqahehka libekha), and how your eyes have failed” [Job 15:12].” On the one hand, the rabbinic assertion that “he took nothing” is (technically) correct; the Hebrew text says that “Korah took,” but the verse includes nothing that was taken. On the other hand, it may seem far-fetched to claim that Korah’s “heart” is what took him.
But the rabbis may be onto something. The verse they cite from Job is part of a context that dovetails with the story of Korah in the rest of Numbers 16. Job 15:12-14 reads, “How your heart (לב; lev) has taken you (לקח; laqah), and how your eyes have failed, that you could turn your spirit against God and such words come out of your mouth (מפיך; mipikha)…. [God] puts no trust in his holy ones (בקדשו; biqdoshav), the heavens are not put in his eyes.” This language is very similar to Moses’ words to Korah. The passage begins with “Korah took” (לקח; laqah), and has Moses respond to him, “In the morning the Lord will show who is his, and who is the holy one (הקדוש; ha’qadosh)…. It is against the Lord that you and all your company have gathered together…. You shall know that the Lord has sent me to do all these works, and that it has not been of my own heart (לב; lev)…. If the Lord creates something new, and the ground opens its mouth (פיה; pihah) and swallows them up… and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men have despised the Lord” (Num 16:5, 11, 28, 30).
In juxtaposing the texts from Numbers and Job, the rabbis highlight the Hebrew idea that one can be “taken” by one’s own heart and pitted against God. The midrash suggests that since the language of Job is so close to Moses’ criticism of Korah, the two narratives are related and the one can shed light on the other. Therefore, rabbinic interpretation has Korah’s own heart take him from following Moses to standing against God; in other words, “Korah took himself” from the path of righteousness.
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