Skip to content
mannafest.faith

Numbers 16:38

in Numbers 16

As for the censers of those who sinned at the cost of their own lives, hammer them into sheets to overlay the altar, for these were presented before the LORD, and so have become holy. They will serve as a sign to the Israelites.”

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

even the censers of these sinners against their own lives; and let them be made beaten plates for a covering of the altar: for they offered them before Jehovah; therefore they are holy; and they shall be a sign unto the children of Israel.

KJV

The censers of these sinners against their own souls, let them make them broad plates for a covering of the altar: for they offered them before the Lord, therefore they are hallowed: and they shall be a sign unto the children of Israel.

This verse in Numbers 16

Commentary

4 notes on this verse
These sinners against their own souls - That is, “against their own lives.” By their sin they had brought destruction upon themselves.

This site's exposition

And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying

on Numbers 16:36-38

The censers outlast the men who carried them. Having been brought before the Lord they are counted hallowed, and the metal is beaten into plates to cover the altar, so the instruments of the offence end as the surface of the place where atonement is made. Albert Barnes reads sinners against their own souls as sinners against their own lives, since the sin cost them exactly that.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

The censers of these sinners against their own souls,....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

These censers were preserved in terrorem, that others might hear and fear, and do no more presumptuously. Thus God has provided that his wonderful works, both in mercy and judgment, should be had in everlasting remembrance, that the end of them may be answered, and they may serve for instruction and admonition to those on whom the ends of the world are come.

The words behind it

20 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • אֵ֡ת<obj.>

    ʾetH85310935 times

  • מַחְתּוֹת֩[the] censers of

    machtotH428922 times

  • הַֽחַטָּאִ֨יםthe sinners

    hachataimH2400

  • הָאֵ֜לֶּה<the> these

    haelehH428746 times

  • בְּנַפְשֹׁתָ֗םby lives their

    benafshotamH5315754 times

  • וְעָשׂ֨וּand people will make

    veasuH62132628 times

  • אֹתָ֜ם<obj.> them

    ʾotamH85310935 times

  • רִקֻּעֵ֤יbeaten out of

    rikueiH7555

  • פַחִים֙thin plates

    fachimH6341

  • צִפּ֣וּיoverlay

    tzipuiH6826

  • לַמִּזְבֵּ֔חַfor the altar

    lamizbeachH4196401 times

  • כִּֽי־for

    ki-H35884482 times

  • הִקְרִיבֻ֥םthey brought near them

    hikrivumH7126280 times

  • לִפְנֵֽי־<to> before

    lifnei-H64402123 times

  • יְהוָ֖הYahweh

    yahwehH30686520 times

  • וַיִּקְדָּ֑שׁוּand they became holy

    vaiyikdashuH6942171 times

  • וְיִֽהְי֥וּand they may become

    veyihyuH19613559 times

  • לְא֖וֹת<into> a sign

    leotH22680 times

  • לִבְנֵ֥יfor [the] people of

    livneiH11214930 times

  • יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃Israel

    yisraelH34782507 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    2 Peter 2:6

    if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes as an example of what is coming on the ungodly;

    it leads to

    • Jude 1:7

      In like manner, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, who indulged in sexual immorality and pursued strange flesh, are on display as an example of those who sustain the punishment of eternal…

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Luke 17:28–30

      It was the same in the days of Lot: People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building.

    • Deuteronomy 29:23

      All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown and unproductive, with no plant growing on it, just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the…

    • Genesis 19:24–25

      Then the LORD rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens.

    • Numbers 26:10

      And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them along with Korah, whose followers died when the fire consumed 250 men. They serve as a warning sign.

  • Through

    Proverbs 20:2

    The terror of a king is like the roar of a lion; whoever provokes him forfeits his own life.

    it leads to

    • Proverbs 19:12

      A king’s rage is like the roar of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass.

    • Ecclesiastes 10:4

      If the ruler’s temper flares against you, do not abandon your post, for calmness lays great offenses to rest.

    • Proverbs 8:36

      But he who fails to find me harms himself; all who hate me love death.”

Where this verse is studied

On this page

Studies3

About Numbers

The Death of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
The Death of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.