Numbers 16:13 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Numbers 16:13
Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a land that floweth with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, except thou make thyself altogether a prince over us?
a little or few (often adverbial or compar.) · interrogative particle + noun, common masculine singular absolute
that
כִּ֤יki
H3588
(by implication) very widely used as a relative conjunc… · particle
up
הֶֽעֱלִיתָ֙נוּ֙he.'e.li.Ta.nu
H5927
to ascend · verb, hiphil perfect, 2nd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix
land
מֵאֶ֨רֶץme.'E.retz
H776
the earth (at large · preposition + noun, common feminine singular absolute
floweth
זָבַ֤תza.Vat
H2100
to flow freely (as water) · verb, qal active participle, feminine singular construct
milk
חָלָב֙cha.Lav
H2461
milk (as the richness of kine) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
honey
וּדְבַ֔שׁu.de.Vash
H1706
honey (from its stickiness) · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
kill
לַהֲמִיתֵ֖נוּla.ha.mi.Te.nu
H4191
to die (literally or figuratively) · preposition + verb, hiphil infinitive construct + pronominal suffix
wilderness
בַּמִּדְבָּ֑רba.mid.Bar
H4057
a pasture (i.e. open field · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
make
תִשְׂתָּרֵ֥רtis.ta.Rer
H8323
to have (transitively · verb, hithpael imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
altogether
הִשְׂתָּרֵֽרhis.ta.Rer
H8323
to have (transitively · verb, hithpael infinitive construct
prince
שָׂרַרsârar
H8323
to have (transitively
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Acts 7:35 This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of…
Exodus 2:14 And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? And Moses feared, and sai…
Exodus 16:3 And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh p…
Numbers 11:5 We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick:
Exodus 1:11 Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raam…
Exodus 1:22 And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.
Exodus 2:23 And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cr…
Exodus 17:3 And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Numbers 16:12-22
Here is, I. The insolence of Dathan and Abiram, and their treasonable remonstrance. Moses had heard what Korah had to say, and had answered it; now he summons Dathan and Abiram to bring in their complaints (Num 16:12); but they would not obey his summons, either because they could not for shame say that to his face which they were resolved to say, and then it is an instance of some remains of modesty in them; or, rather, because they would not so far own his authority, and then it is an instance of the highest degree of impudence. They spoke the language of Pharaoh himself, who set Moses at defiance, but they forgot how dearly he paid for it. Had not their heads been wretchedly heated, and t…
Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram--in a separate interview, the ground of their mutiny being different; for while Korah murmured against the exclusive appropriation of the priesthood to Aaron and his family, they were opposed to the supremacy of Moses in civil power. They refused to obey the summons; and their refusal was grounded on the plausible pretext that their stay in the desert was prolonged for some secret and selfish purposes of the leader, who was conducting them like blind men wherever it suited him.
John Gill on Numbers 16:13
Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a land that floweth with milk and honey?.... Meaning Egypt, as the Targum of Jonathan expresses it; which, though a plentiful country, never had, nor deserved to have this epithet given it, which is peculiar to the land of Canaan, and is here given, in opposition to the description of that land, which the Lord himself had so described; and argues great impudence and want of reverence of the divine Being, as well as great ingratitude to Moses, the instrument of their being brought out of Egypt, where they laboured under bondage and servitude intolerable; and yet here represent it as an injury done to them, and as if the intent and design…
Aaron — The eldest son of Amram and Jochebed, a daughter of Levi (Ex. 6:20). Some explain the name as meaning mountaineer, others mountain of strength, illuminator. He was born in Egypt three years before…
Abiram — Father of height; i.e., “proud.” (1.) One of the sons of Eliab, who joined Korah in the conspiracy against Moses and Aaron. He and all the conspirators, with their families and possessions (except…
Korah — Ice, hail. (1.) The third son of Esau, by Aholibamah (Gen. 36:14; 1 Chr. 1:35). (2.) A Levite, the son of Izhar, the brother of Amram, the father of Moses and Aaron (Ex. 6:21). The institution of the…
Tabernacles, The Feast Of — (Exodus 23:16) (“the feast of ingathering”), the third of the three great festivals: of the Hebrews, which lasted from the 15th till the 22d of Tisri.
Accusation, False · .Against Moses by Korah — .Against Moses by Korah
Ambition · Falsely charged against Moses — Falsely charged against Moses
Dathan · A conspirator against Moses — A conspirator against Moses
Desert, Journey Of Israel Through The · Rebellion of Korah — Rebellion of Korah
Honey · Abounded in: Egypt — Abounded in: Egypt
Ingratitude · .Israelites to Moses — .Israelites to Moses
Levites, The · Punishment of Korah and others of, for offering incense — Punishment of Korah and others of, for offering incense
Murmuring
John Calvin on Numbers 16:13-14
Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us. It is not enough for these wicked men, when they are invited to discussion, contumaciously to repudiate the superiority of Moses, unless they also assail him with counter-accusations. The crime they allege against him must be observed. They reproach him for having led them up out of the land of Egypt: though they cunningly suppress its name, whilst they magniloquently extol its fruitfulness, in order to throw into the shade all that God had promised with respect to the land of Canaan. Nay, they seem to transfer slyly to Egypt the very phrase which Moses had often used, so that thus God's blessing may be, as it were buried. But what gross ingrati…
To leave the decision of this to the Lord, Korah and his company, who laid claim to this prerogative, were to take censers, and bring lighted incense before Jehovah. He whom the Lord should choose was to be the sanctified one. This was to satisfy them. With the expression רב־לכם in Num 16:7, Moses gives the rebels back their own words in Num 16:3. The divine decision was connected with the offering of incense, because this was the holiest function of the priestly service, which brought the priest into the immediate presence of God, and in connection with which Jehovah had already shown to the whole congregation how He sanctified Himself, by a penal judgment on those who took this office upon…
land flowing with milk and honey: This sarcastic allusion to the spies’ earlier description of Canaan (13:27) is a deliberate distortion of life in Egypt (see study note on 11:4-15).
Rashi on Numbers 16:12
וישלח משה וגו׳ AND MOSES SENT [TO CALL DATHAN AND ABIRAM] — From here we may learn that one should not persist in strife (Midrash Tanchuma, Korach 10), for, you see, Moses sought them out in order to conciliate them by peaceful words (Sanhedrin 110a).
לא נעלה WE WILL NOT GO UP — Their mouth tripped them up (i.e. unwittingly they made mention of their fate) — that they would have only a “descent” (their words are taken to mean: we shall not be going up; we shall go down into the depths of the earth) (Midrash Tanchuma, Korach 6).
· (Complaining, grumbling) -Of Israelites against Moses
— (Complaining, grumbling) -Of Israelites against Moses
Priests · Punishment for invading the office of — Punishment for invading the office of
Treason · .Of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram against Moses and Aaron — .Of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram against Moses and Aaron
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
