Numbers 16:2

Context
16:2 and rebelled against Moses, along with some of the Israelites, 250 leaders¹ of the community, chosen from the assembly,² famous men.³

Numbers 16:31-35

Context

16:31 When he had finished⁴ speaking⁵ all these words, the ground that was under them split open, 16:32 and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, along with their households, and all Korah’s men, and all their goods. 16:33 They and all that they had went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed over them. So they perished from among the community. 16:34 All the Israelites⁶ who were around them fled at their cry,⁷ for they said, “What if⁸ the earth swallows us too?” 16:35 Then a fire⁹ went out from the Lord and devoured the 250 men who offered incense.

Numbers 16:38

Context
16:38 As for the censers of these men who sinned at the cost of their lives,¹⁰ they must be made¹¹ 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.”

[16:2] ¹tn Heb “princes” (so KJV, ASV).

[16:2] ²tn These men must have been counselors or judges of some kind.

[16:2] ³tn Heb “men of name,” or “men of renown.”

[16:31] ⁴tn The initial temporal clause is standard: It begins with the temporal indicator “and it was,” followed here by the Piel infinitive construct with the preposition and the subjective genitive suffix. “And it happened when he finished.”

[16:31] ⁵tn The infinitive construct with the preposition lamed (ל) functions here as the direct object of the preceding infinitive. It tells what he finished.

[16:34] ⁶tn Heb “all Israel.”

[16:34] ⁷tn Heb “voice.”

[16:34] ⁸tn Heb “lest.”

[16:35] ⁹tn For a discussion of the fire of the Lord, see J. C. H. Laughlin, “The Strange Fire of Nadab and Abihu,” JBL 95 (1976): 559-65.

[16:38] ¹⁰tn The expression is “in/by/against their life.” That they sinned against their life means that they brought ruin to themselves.

[16:38] ¹¹tn 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”).