Numbers 16:46 - meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Numbers 16:46
And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense, and go quickly unto the congregation, and make an atonement for them: for there is wrath gone out from the LORD; the plague is begun.
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Aaron
אַהֲרֹ֗ן'a.ha.Ron
H175
Aharon · proper noun, a man's name
Take
קַ֣חkach
H3947
to take (in the widest variety of applications) · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine singular
censer
הַ֠מַּחְתָּהHa.mach.tah
H4289
a pan for live coals · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
put
וְתֶןve.ten-
H5414
to give · conjunction + verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine singular
fire
אֵ֜שׁ'esh
H784
fire (literally or figuratively) · noun, common both genders singular absolute
off
מִלִּפְנֵ֥יmi.lif.Nei
H6440
the face (as the part that turns) · preposition + preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
altar
הַמִּזְבֵּ֙חַ֙ha.miz.Be.ach
H4196
an altar · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
put
וְשִׂ֣יםve.Sim
H7760
to put (used in a great variety of applications · conjunction + verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine singular
incense
קְטֹ֔רֶתke.To.ret
H7004
a fumigation · noun, common feminine singular absolute
go
יָלַךְyâlak
H3212
to walk (literally or figuratively)
quickly
מְהֵרָ֛הme.he.Rah
H4120
properly · adverb
congregation
הָעֵדָ֖הha.'e.Dah
H5712
a stated assemblage (specifically · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
atonement
וְכַפֵּ֣רve.kha.Per
H3722
to cover (specifically with bitumen) · conjunction + verb, piel imperative, 2nd person masculine singular
wrath
הַקֶּ֛צֶףha.Ke.tzef
H7110
a splinter (as chipped off) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
out
יָצָ֥אya.Tza'
H3318
to go (causatively · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
LORD
יְהוָ֖הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
plague
הַנָּֽגֶףha.Na.gef
H5063
a trip (of the foot) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
begun
הֵחֵ֥לhe.Chel
H2490
properly · verb, hiphil perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
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
Numbers 8:19 And I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and to his sons from among the children of Israel, to do the service of the children of Isra…
Leviticus 10:6 And Moses said unto Aaron, and unto Eleazar and unto Ithamar, his sons, Uncover not your heads, neither rend your clothes; lest ye die, and…
1 Chronicles 27:24 Joab the son of Zeruiah began to number, but he finished not, because there fell wrath for it against Israel; neither was the number put in…
Numbers 11:33 And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD smote…
Numbers 18:5 And ye shall keep the charge of the sanctuary, and the charge of the altar: that there be no wrath any more upon the children of Israel.
Psalms 106:29 Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions: and the plague brake in upon them.
Isaiah 6:6-7 Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
Revelation 8:3-5 And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it wi…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Numbers 16:41–end
Here is, I. A new rebellion raised the very next day against Moses and Aaron. Be astonished, O heavens, at this, and wonder, O earth! Was there ever such an instance of the incurable corruption of sinners? On the morrow (Num 16:41) the body of the people mutinied. 1. Though they were so lately terrified by the sight of the punishment of the rebels. The shrieks of those sinking sinners, those sinners against their own souls, were yet sounding in their ears, the smell of the fire yet remained, and the gaping earth was scarcely thoroughly closed, and yet the same sins were re-acted and all these warnings slighted. 2. Though they were so lately saved from sharing in the same punishment, and the…
the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the Lord--What a strange exhibition of popular prejudice and passion--to blame the leaders for saving the rebels! Yet Moses and Aaron interceded for the people--the high priest perilling his own life in doing good to that perverse race.
John Gill on Numbers 16:46
And Moses said unto Aaron, take a censer,.... Which lay in the tabernacle:
and put fire therein from off the altar; the altar of burnt offering, from whence fire only was to be taken for burning incense; and lest Aaron in his hurry should forget to take it from thence, but elsewhere, and offer strange fire as his sons had done, Moses expresses the place from whence he should take it:
and put on incense: upon the fire, in the censer, which he was to do when he came into the camp, and not as soon as he took the fire from the altar: the censer with fire in it he carried in one hand, and the incense in the other; and when he was in the midst of the congregation, he put the incense on the fire,…
And Moses said unto Aaron. The expiation of so great a sin did not indeed depend on the incense-offering, nor are we to imagine that God is appeased by the savor of frankincense; but thus was a symbol set before this grosshearted people, whereby they might be alike aroused to repentance and faith; for however insensible they might be in their rebellion, yet the dignity of the priesthood was so conspicuous in the censer, that they ought to have been awakened by it to reverence. For who would not view his impiety with horror, when he is made conscious of having despised and violated that sanctity wherein the Divine power displays itself for life or death? The sight of the censer might have jus…
The Church Fathers
And Moses said to Aaron: "Take the censer, and put fire upon it from the altar, and cast incense upon it, and carry it swiftly into the camp, and make entreaty for them; for wrath has gone forth from the presence of the Lord, and it has already begun to lay waste the people." But since we have come to these passages, I wish to admonish the disciples of Christ concerning the goodness of God, lest perhaps any of you be troubled by the heretics, if ever a controversy should arise, when they say that the God of the law is not good, but just, and that the law of Moses does not contain goodness, but justice. Let those, therefore, who alike accuse both God and the law, see how Moses himself and Aaron did earlier that which the gospel afterward taught. Behold, Moses loves his enemies and prays for his persecutors, which indeed Christ teaches to be done in the gospels. For hear how, falling on their faces upon the ground, they pray for those who had risen up to slay them. So, then, the power of the gospel is found also in the law, and the gospels are understood to rest upon the foundation of the law; nor do I call the old testament the law, if I understand it spiritually. Only to those does the law become an old testament who wish to understand it carnally; and of necessity it has become old for them and has grown aged, because it cannot retain its own strength. But for us, who understand and expound it spiritually and in the gospel sense, it is always new; and both are for us a new testament, not by the age of time, but by the newness of understanding. Or does not the Apostle John also feel the same in his epistle, when he says: "Little children, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another," though he surely knew that the commandment of love had been given long ago in the law? But since charity never falls, nor does the commandment of charity ever grow old, that which never grows old he declares to be always new; for it always renders those who observe and keep the commandment of charity new in the spirit; but for the sinner, and for him who does not keep the covenants of charity, even the gospels grow old. Nor can the testament be new for him who does not put off the old man and put on the new, who is created according to God. Moses therefore exhorts the great high priest to offer incense in the camp and to make entreaty for the people; for the…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
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…
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…
Plague — A “stroke” of affliction, or disease. Sent as a divine chastisement (Num. 11:33; 14:37; 16:46-49; 2 Sam. 24:21). Painful afflictions or diseases, (Lev. 13:3, 5, 30; 1 Kings 8:37), or severe calamity…
Atonement · By incense — By incense
Censer · Used for offering incense — Used for offering incense
Desert, Journey Of Israel Through The · Plague sent — Plague sent
Fire · Sacred: Incense burned with — Sacred: Incense burned with
High Priest, The · Typified Christ in: Interceding — Typified Christ in: Interceding
Incense · Uses of — Uses of
Intercession · OF MAN WITH GOD — OF MAN WITH GOD
Miracles · .The plagues in Egypt — .The plagues in Egypt
Punishment of the Murmuring Congregation. - The judgment upon the company of Korah had filled the people round about with terror and dismay, but it had produced no change of heart in the congregation that had risen up against its leaders. The next morning the whole congregation began to murmur against Moses and Aaron, and to charge them with having slain the people of Jehovah. They referred to Korah and his company, but especially to the 250 chiefs of renown, whom they regarded as the kernel of the nation, and called "the people of Jehovah." They would have made Moses and Aaron responsible for their death, because in their opinion it was they who had brought the judgment upon their leaders;…
Moses and Aaron acted quickly to rescue the Israelites from God’s wrath. In an unusual procedure, Aaron carried an incense burner with burning coals among the people and thus stopped the plague.
Rashi on Numbers 16:34
נסו לקולם [AND ALL ISRAEL …] FLED AWAY AT THEIR VOICE — i.e. on account of the sound that broke out because of their being swallowed up.
Plague Or Pestilence, The · Sent upon: Israel for murmuring at destruction of Korah — Sent upon: Israel for murmuring at destruction of Korah
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).
