16. In the camp they grew envious of Mosesand of Aaron, who was consecrated to the Lord.
17. The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan;it buried the company of Abiram.
18. Fire blazed among their followers;a flame consumed the wicked.
19. At Horeb they made a calfand worshipped an idol cast from metal.
20. They exchanged their glorious Godfor an image of a bull, which eats grass.
21. They forgot the God who saved them,who had done great things in Egypt,
22. miracles in the land of Hamand awesome deeds by the Red Sea.
23. So he said he would destroy them –had not Moses, his chosen one,stood in the breach before himto keep his wrath from destroying them.
24. Then they despised the pleasant land;they did not believe his promise.
25. They grumbled in their tentsand did not obey the Lord.
26. So he swore to them with uplifted handthat he would make them fall in the wilderness,
27. make their descendants fall among the nationsand scatter them throughout the lands.
28. They yoked themselves to the Baal of Peorand ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods;
29. they aroused the Lord’s anger by their wicked deeds,and a plague broke out among them.
30. But Phinehas stood up and intervened,and the plague was checked.