Korah

Ko'rah (Heb. Ko'rach, קֹרִח, ice, as in Ps 147:17; Sept. Κορέ, also N.T. in Jude 1:11; Josephus Κορῆς, Ant. 4:2; Vulg. Core; Auth. Vers. " Kore" in the patronyrmic, 2Ch 26:19, and " Core" in Jude 1:11), the name of several men.

1. The third son of Esau by his second Canaanitish wife Aholibamah (Ge 36:14; 1 Chronicles i, 35). B.C. post 1964. He became the head of a petty Edomitish tribe (Ge 36:18). In ver. 16 his name appears as a son of Eliphaz, Esau's son; but probably by a confusion of the parentage, for in the parallel passage (1 Chronicles i, 36) this name is omitted, and " Timna" inserted after the next name-probably another interpolation for Timnah. See ESAU.

2. A Levite, son of Izhar, the brother of Amram, the father of Moses and Aaron, who were therefore cousins to Korah (Ex 6:21). B.C. probably not much ante 1619. From this near relationship we may, with tolerable certainty, conjecture that the source of the discontent which led to the steps afterwards taken by this unhappy man, lay in his jealousy that the high honors and privileges of the priesthood, to which he, who remained a simple Levite, might, apart from the divine appointment, seem to have had as good a claim, should have been exclusively appropriated to the family of Aaron. When to this was added the civil authority of Moses, the whole power over the nation would seem to him to have been engrossed by his cousins, the sons of Amram. Under the influence of these feelings he organized in conspiracy, for the purpose of redressing what appeared to him the evil and injustice of this arrangement. Dathan, Abiram, and On, the chief persons who joined him, were of the tribe of Reuben; but he was also supported by many more from other tribes, making up the number of 250, men of name, rank, and influence, all who may be regarded as representing the families of which they were the heads. The appointment of Elizaphan to be chief of the Kohathites (Nu 3:30) may have further inflamed his jealousy. Korah's position as leader in this rebellion was evidently the result of his personal character, which was that of a bold, haughty, and ambitious man. This appears from his address to Moses in ver. 3, and especially from his conduct in ver. 19, where both his daring and his influence over the congregation are very apparent. Were it not for this, one would have expected the Gershonites -as the elder branch of the Levites-to have supplied a leader in conjunction with the sons of Reuben, rather than the family of Izhar, who was Amram's younger brother. The private object of Korah was apparently his own aggrandizement, but his ostensible object was the general good of the people: and it is perhaps from want of attention to this distinction that the transaction has not been well understood. The design seems to have been made acceptable to a large body of the nation, on the ground that the first-born of Israel had been deprived of their sacerdotal birthright in favor of the Levites, while the Levites themselves announced that the priesthood had been conferred by Moses (as they considered) on his own brother's family, in preference to those who had equal claims; and it is easy to conceive that the Reubenites may have considered the opportunity a favorable one for the recovery of their birthright-the double portion and civil pre-eminence-which had been forfeited by them and given to Joseph. (See Kitto's Daily Bible Illustrat. ad loc.) These are the explanations of Aben-Ezra, and seem as reasonable as any which have been offered. (See below.)