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Going Biblical: Fascinating Divine Punishments Recounted in the Old Testament

Khalid Elhassan May 9, 2025 19 min

Punishment - The expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden — The expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. Encyclopedia Britannica

10. Silencing Grumblers With a Plague

Aaron atones with incense for the Israelites’ rebellion. Bible Art

Per the Old Testament, having finished off the rebels, God ordered that the bronze censers used by the 250 men who had challenged Aaron be hammered into a cover for the altar. It was intended to commemorate the event, and serve as a reminder that the Lord would only accept incense from Aaron or his descendants. The next day, the Israelites grumbled about Moses and Aaron, and blamed them for the deaths of so many.

God threatened to destroy the entire assembly, but Moses and Aaron once again pled for leniency. God, however, had already sent a plague. Aaron made atonement for the people, and stood between the living and the dead until the plague passed. By then, 14,700 people had perished. The punishment dished out for Korah’s rebellion underscores the seriousness of challenging God’s appointed leaders.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.