A CENSER — a fire-pan for carrying live coals with incense on them. The same object, and the same three actions, appear in the two places the Bible uses it to kill: Leviticus 10:1 has Nadab and Abihu 'each take his censer, put fire in it, and place incense on the fire' and offer strange fire, and the next verse has fire come out and consume them; Numbers 16:18 has two hundred and fifty men do exactly that and stand at the entrance of the tent, and 16:35 ends the same way. ⚠ The word is neutral in itself — the tabernacle's own bronze fire-pans are machtot (Exodus 27:3, rendered 'firepans' there for the altar-tool) and the high priest carries one legitimately into the Most Holy on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:12). What kills is not the pan but who is holding it. → first discussed at Num 16:6