33. They went down alive into the realm of the dead, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community.
34. At their cries, all the Israelites around them fled, shouting, “The earth is going to swallow us too!”
35. And fire came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men who were offering the incense.
36. The Lord said to Moses,
37. “Tell Eleazar son of Aaron, the priest, to remove the censers from the charred remains and scatter the coals some distance away, for the censers are holy—
38. the censers of the men who sinned at the cost of their lives. Hammer the censers into sheets to overlay the altar, for they were presented before the Lord and have become holy. Let them be a sign to the Israelites.”
39. So Eleazar the priest collected the bronze censers brought by those who had been burned to death, and he had them hammered out to overlay the altar,