So Aaron took it as Moses said and ran into the midst of the assembly. And behold, the plague had already begun among the people. And he put on the incense and made atonement for the people — Aaron's running is the physical sign of the urgency of intercessory ministry: the high priest does not walk ceremonially into the congregation but runs, the incense already burning in his hand, because the plague is already killing people. The phrase he put on the incense (wayyiten et-haqqetoret) uses the standard technical term for the incense offering — Aaron performs a proper liturgical act in the most improper of settings, in the open air among a panicking crowd rather than in the structured space of the sanctuary. The making of atonement (wayekapper) by the incense parallels the Day of Atonement ritual in Leviticus 16, where incense smoke screens the mercy seat from the high priest's sight — here it screens the congregation from the divine wrath. The scene is one of the most dramatic in the entire Pentateuch: the high priest running, incense smoke rising, the plague being halted in real time.

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