And Moses said unto Korah, Hear, I pray you, ye sons of Levi:
And Moses said unto Korah, Hear now, ye sons of Levi:
And Moses saith unto Korah, `Hear ye, I pray you, sons of Levi;
And Moses said to Korah, Hear, I pray you, ye sons of Levi!
Numbers — Israel on the move — and Israel on the ground in rebellion. Two censuses bracket thirty-eight wilderness years; God's faithfulness holds where the people's does not.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
Voices3
And Moses said unto Korah,.... Continued his discourse to him, as the head of the conspiracy, and the ringleader of it: hear, I pray you, ye sons of Levi; to whom also he had been before speaking; though Aben Ezra thinks the first speech was made to Korah and his company, and what follows to the Levites.
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)reformed
Take your censers, Korah, and all his company, &c.--that is, since you aspire to the priesthood, then go, perform the highest function of the office--that of offering incense; and if you are accepted well. How magnanimous the conduct of Moses, who was now as willing that God's people should be priests, as formerly that they should be prophets (Nu 11:29).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871reformed
Note, Those that take upon them to control and contradict God's appointment take too much upon them. It is enough for us to submit; it is too much to prescribe. (3.) He shows them the privilege they had as Levites, which was sufficient for them, they needed not to aspire to the honour of the priesthood,
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710puritan
The verses this one reaches1
Micah ordained the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in his house.
