[Verse 1] Oil and wine would join the offering When the children reached the land. One law held the homeborn and the stranger; Blue thread called the eye back to command. Then two hundred fifty censers flashed, And Korah named ambition holiness. [Breakdown] Stand back from their tents. Watch whether this death is common. [Verse 2] Earth became a mouth beneath rebellion. Fire chose the men who rushed the office. Hammered censers plated the altar, A metal memory under every gift. Still the crowd rose on the next morning: You have killed the people of the LORD. [Pre-Chorus] The cloud covered the tent. The plague ran out from the Presence. [Chorus] Between the dead and the living, Aaron planted both his feet. Coals and incense in the breach, Breath behind him, silence at his knees. Fourteen thousand fell around him; The destroyer stopped where the priest would stand. [Verse 3] One rod from every father's house Waited through the night before the ark. Dry wood kept its tribal name; Only Aaron's branch broke spring: Bud, blossom, almond in one darkness, Calling flowered where rivalry could not. [Outro] The censer cooled. The living counted the cost. The rod was kept before the testimony.