Korach

קרח


Genesis 36:5 names him as a son of Esav and Ahali-Vamah.

Genesis 36:15 has the same name for an Edomite chieftain descended from Eli-Phaz, Esav's son.

Exodus 6:21: has a third Korach who was a "son" of Yits'har (יצהר) ben Kehat. Kehat was a "son" of Levi; Korach was thus Levi's "great-grandson", a situation we may choose to treat metaphorically, because of the nature of the priesthood, as a "craft-guild with apprentices", so to speak, rather than necessarily being a biological family.


This Korach had three sons, according to Exodus 6:24: Asir (אסיר), El-Kanah (אלקנה) and Avi-Asaph (אביאסף).

Numbers 16:1 ff tells how Korach challenged 
Mosheh's authority in company with three Beney Re'u-Ven: Datan ben Eli-Av and his brother Avi-Ram, and On ben Pelet - the latter a rather interesting name in itself, bringing together the city of On (Heliopolis) with the people otherwise known as the Pelishtim (Philistines). They gathered two hundred and fifty officers and rebelled, but the earth swallowed them up. In fact, this entire legend needs to be understood astrologically rather than as literal history.

Psalms 42, (43), 49, 84, 85, 87 and 88 are attributed to the Beney Korach, which was a musical college established by King David, probably Levitical.

1 Chronicles 2:43 has a son of Chevron (presumably meaning "born at" as no father is indicated); one of many uses of "ben" that help confirm its multiple meanings beyond "son of".

Korach (קרח) means "to make smooth", whence kerach (קרח) = "ice" in modern Ivrit; it is also used for baldness (Kereyach/קרח in Leviticus 13:40 and 2 Kings 2:23) because it makes the head smooth; similarly it is used for crystal.



And then there are the Beney Korach...

which, like all of these prophetic and musical "Beney", does not mean "sons", though they may well have been family originally, but guilds - and guilds throughout history have guaranteed apprenticeships to sons, at some epochs even required sons to follow fathers. 


The Beney Korach are described as "a family of Temple singers" in 2 Chronicles 20:19), so we can read them as the choir, while Aspah and Eitan provided the main instruments, and Heman was probably the Menatse'ach, the conductor cum artistic director - see my Introductory notes to the Psalms.





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