ובני קרח לא מתו

A census was taken after the tragedy of the sinning with the daughters of Midian. Most of the 24,000 who perished in the plague, were from the Tribe of Shimon. When the census began, the Tribe of Reuven was counted first. In this instance, the incident with Korach is mentioned, as דתן ואבירם, who participated in that rebellion, were from Reuven. We are then told that although the ground swallowed up Korach and his congregation of 250, his sons did not die. The Pasuk clearly says, ובני קרח לא מתו. We are also familiar with several chapters of תהילים that begin with the words, למנצח לבני קרח, a song to the sons of Korach. The Gemara in סנהדרין says that the sons of Korach did Teshuva before the earth swallowed them up, and a special place in גיהנום was established for them from where they sang praises to Hashem. There are two explanations to these Psalms being attributed to the sons of Korach. One is that David found ancient manuscripts singing praises to G-d. David incorporated them into תהילים and gave בני קרח credit for them. A second explanation is that the Prophet Shmuel descended from Korach and his grandsons were Levites that performed in the Temple after David’s time. They were great musicians and David turned to them to accompany his psalms with their music. He, therefore, gave the sons of Korach credit for some of his psalms. Admittedly, all of this is very puzzling and difficult to understand.