What Happened to the Sons of Korah? The Ongoing Debate Regarding the Status of the Korahites

The story of Korah is mentioned in two different contexts in two adjacent chapters outside the story itself in Num 16–17. The first is in the account of the census of the Israelites at the Plains of Moab (Num 26:9–11). The second is in the story of Zelophehad’s daughters (Num 27:3). Apart from these occurrences, the clan of the Korahites appears as part of the Levites in the census account (Num 26:58). In this article, I argue that all three occurrences of Korah are secondary in their context and were interpolated into Num 26–27 as part of a struggle within the circles of the Levites and priesthood concerning the status of the Korahites.