January 1, 2025

Awhile back it was placed on my heart to do some research based around the Torah portion Korach (Numbers 16:1 – 18:32). This particular Torah portion is about the rebellion of Korach and those who sided with him while challenging the leadership of Moshe and Aharon. I won’t go into details on the Torah portion, but the question arose: Did Korach’s children die with the rest of his party?

Numbers 16:27 says:

Then they moved away from around the tents of Korach, Dathan, and Aviram. And Dathan and Aviram came out and stood at the door of their tents, with their wives, and their sons, and their little children.

Then in Numbers 16:31-32

And it came to be, as he ended speaking all these words, that the ground under them split apart, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the men with Korach, with all their goods.

So we see that all the men with Korach, with all their goods (including all of the men’s wives, and their sons, and their little children) were swallowed up, but the text does not mention Korach’s sons being swallowed up.

Take a look what Numbers 26:9-11 says:

And the sons of Eliyav: Nemu’ĕl, and Dathan, and Aviram. This Dathan and Aviram, were the called ones of the congregation, who contended against Mosheh and against Aharon in the company of Korach, when they contended against יהוה, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up together with Korach when that company died, when the fire consumed two hundred and fifty men. And they became a sign, but the sons of Korach did not die.

So we see that the sons of Korach were not mentioned among those who perished in Numbers chapter 16, and again Numbers 26 says that they did not die. But what happened to the sons of Korach?

We find them turn up again in the Psalms, or Tehillim. In some bible translations like the King James or New King James versions, Psalms 42-49, 84-85, 87-88 have titles before the them that includes “for the Sons of Korah.”

Huh, I though to myself, interesting. Perhaps they were lamenting the loss of their loved ones, or how their ancestors were stiff-necked, like so many today. In any case, it was no matter (or so I thought), because apparently the sons of Korach, and their offspring did not perish in the rebellion in the Wilderness, במדבר, b’midbar.

Additionally, reading through 1 Chronicles chapter 9, which is all about the genealogies of Israel something else stood out as very interesting.

Verse 17 mentions the word “gatekeepers” (ISR 1998; KJV reads “porters”), Strong’s concordance lists it as H7778 “shoer”, שוער,sheen-vav-ayin-resh, and means the same as the Aramaic תָּרָע (H8652) “tara”, tav-resh-ayin, which also means gatekeeper, doorkeeper, porter (Ezra 7:14), which is derived from תְּרַע, terah, which means “gate, door, court” and corresponds to שַׁעַר which also means “gate”, and which H7778 “shoer” originates from. Shoer and tara are significant to this personal study.

This word, H7778 “gatekeeper”, shoer, intrigued me. My father’s side of the family emigrated from Poland to the states in the 1880’s due to persecution by the Germans, and the Polish surname, Strozyk, means “gatekeeper” – so this word shoer contained in the scriptures caught my attention. Also, the other word, tara, was fascinating to me, because my ancestor’s on my mother’s side of the family emigrated from Armagh, County Meath, Ireland.

Armagh is the ancestral capital of the ancient rulers of the isle, called the Tuatha De Danaan, and it is said that it was they who brought druidism to the islands. Some will say that the Tuatha De Danaan means “Tribe of the goddess dana,” while others say it means “Tribe of Dan,” or “Tribe of the God of Dan.” These were the ruling class of priests/judges, also known as brehon that had similar customs to the Israelites that were exiled from the land of Canaan. Some say that they were a group of Israelites that had left the Promised Land prior to the Babylonian exile and arrived to the isles. The Tuatha De Danaan ruled from Armagh at a place called the Hill of Tara.

Shoer, tara, gatekeeper – I found all of this very exciting, personally, but it gets better. I continued to read about these gatekeepers, the Chief of whom was Shallum (Strong’s H7967 – peace, well-being, prosperity. Spelled just like Shalom.)

1 Chronicles 9:17-19

And the gatekeepers were, Shallum, and Akkub, and Talmon, and Ahiman, and their brethren: Shallum was the chief;

Who hitherto waited in the king’s gate eastward: they were gatekeepers in the companies of the children of Levi.

And Shallum the son of Kore, the son of Ebiasaph, the son of Korah, and his brethren, of the house of his father, the Korahites, were over the work of the service, keepers of the gates of the tabernacle: and their fathers, being over the host of יהוה, were keepers of the entry.

There they were: the sons of Korach! They were the gatekeepers of the tabernacle!

Verses 22-23

All these, which were chosen to be gatekeepers in the gates, were two hundred and twelve. These were reckoned by their genealogy in their villages, whom David and Samuel the seer did ordain in their set office. So they and their sons were over the gates of the House of יהוה, the House of the Tent, by watches. The gatekeepers were on the four sides: the east, west, north, and south. And their brothers in their villages had to come with them from time to time for seven days. For the four chief gatekeepers were in an office of trust. They were Lĕwites, and they were over the rooms and treasuries of the House of Elohim.

Verses 29-34

And some of them were appointed over the vessels, even over all the vessels of the set-apart place, and over the fine flour and the wine and the oil and the incense and the spices. And some of the sons of the priests blended the compound of spices. And Mattithyah of the Lĕwites, the first-born of Shallum the Korahite, was entrusted with the making of the flat cakes. And some of their brothers of the sons of the Qehathites were over the showbread, to prepare every Sabbath. And these were the singers, heads of the fathers’ houses of the Lĕwites, in the rooms, and were exempted from other duties, for they were employed in that work day and night. These heads of the fathers’ houses of the Lĕwites were heads throughout their generations. They dwelt at Yerushalayim.

The sons of Korach – the gatekeepers – over the showbread, the incense, the oil, wine and fine flour, the singers appointed by David! No wonder the Psalms were written “for the sons of Korach,” they were supposed to sing them because that was their set-apart duty.

The scriptures are the Living Word, and they speak to those who seek to know the truth. In studying this Living Word, these scriptures spoke through the annals of history, revealing the truth of the heritage of a “gatekeeper,” with a traceable lineage that goes back to the “Hill of Tara,.”

My mother re-married after my father passed, and her new husband adopted me at a very young age. His name is Dan – not Daniel – just Dan. Dan in Hebrew means judge. In a way, I was adopted into the “Tribe of Dan”, if you will. I’m reminded of the Apostle Paul’s words in Romans chapter 11 regarding being “grafted in” to the natural olive tree – a kind of adoption.

On Shabbat in our household we enjoy making fresh bread to welcome in the Sabbath, as well as picking up a guitar and singing songs to the King. Praise Abba – Yahweh, Yahuwah, Yahovah, Yod Hey Vav Hey – for calling out to His people who seek His face, after too long being in exile.

Return, Shuv!

He wants us back. No matter if you are a Levite, a Yahudim, a Danite, an Ephraimite, an African, an American, a Asian, or European – He wants you! Now is the time. We are waking up. He is removing the scales from our eyes and showing us the Truth – His truth! He is removing the scales so that we can see these connections, placing it in our hearts to yearn to know Him more, to know His ways, His Torah, to follow His Son, Yehoshua HaMoshiach, the King of Kings, and to understand where we are – at the farthest corners of the earth – because our rebellious ancestors went the way of Korach. Will you hear Him? Do you understand that you are His tabernacle? Will you be a gatekeeper?

Bo Yeshua! Amein.

– Mattityahu Shoer

(Original draft: 6/10/2013)