16:16 Then Moses said to Korah, “You and all your company present yourselves before the Lord – you and they, and Aaron – tomorrow. 16:17 And each of you 1 take his censer, put 2 incense in it, and then each of you present his censer before the Lord: 250 censers, along with you, and Aaron – each of you with his censer.” 16:18 So everyone took his censer, put fire in it, and set incense on it, and stood at the entrance of the tent of meeting, with Moses and Aaron.
16:36 (17:1) 4 The Lord spoke to Moses: 16:37 “Tell 5 Eleazar son of Aaron the priest to pick up 6 the censers out of the flame, for they are holy, and then scatter the coals of fire 7 at a distance. 16:38 As for the censers of these men who sinned at the cost of their lives, 8 they must be made 9 into hammered sheets for covering the altar, because they presented them before the Lord and sanctified them. They will become a sign to the Israelites.” 16:39 So Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers presented by those who had been burned up, and they were hammered out as a covering for the altar. 16:40 It was a memorial for the Israelites, that no outsider who is not a descendant of 10 Aaron should approach to burn incense before the Lord, that he might not become like Korah and his company – just as the Lord had spoken by the authority 11 of Moses.
1 tn Heb “and take, a man, his censer.”
2 tn This verb and the following one are both perfect tenses with vav (ו) consecutives. Following the imperative they carry the same force, but in sequence.
3 tn For a discussion of the fire of the
4 sn Beginning with 16:36, the verse numbers through 17:13 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 16:36 ET = 17:1 HT, 16:37 ET = 17:2 HT, 17:1 ET = 17:16 HT, etc., through 17:13 ET = 17:28 HT. With 18:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same. But in the English chap. 17 there are two parts: Aaron’s rod budding (1-9), and the rod preserved as a memorial (10-13). Both sections begin with the same formula.
5 tn Heb “say to.”
6 tn The verb is the jussive with a vav (ו) coming after the imperative; it may be subordinated to form a purpose clause (“that he may pick up”) or the object of the imperative.
7 tn The Hebrew text just has “fire,” but it would be hard to conceive of this action apart from the idea of coals of fire.
8 tn The expression is “in/by/against their life.” That they sinned against their life means that they brought ruin to themselves.
9 tn The form is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive. But there is no expressed subject for “and they shall make them,” and so it may be treated as a passive (“they shall [must] be made”).
10 tn Heb “from the seed of.”
11 tn Heb “hand.”
12 tn Heb “took.”
13 tn Or “had spoken” (NASB); NRSV “had ordered.”