Numbers 16:14

Summary

This verse continues the accusation of Dathan and Abiram against Moses, sarcastically echoing the language of the promised land while denying that Moses ever fulfilled it. It closes with a rhetorical question about deceiving the assembly and a flat refusal to comply.

Key words

• 'af lo ("also...not", H0637 + H3808) — a doubled negation forming an emphatic "not even," intensifying the accusation that Moses failed to deliver what he promised.
• zavat ("flowing of", H2100G) — a qal participle, feminine singular construct, functioning adjectivally to describe 'eretz ("land," H0776G) as continuously "flowing"; the construct form links it directly to chalav ("milk", H2461) and devash ("honey", H1706).
• haviotanu ("you have brought us", H0935P) — hiphil (causative) perfect with a 1st-person plural suffix; the perfect aspect frames this as a completed (in this case, unfulfilled) action being thrown back at Moses.
• ha- (interrogative particle, H9008) — prefixed to 'einei ("eyes of", H5869A), it turns the following clause into a question rather than a statement, a distinction the consonantal text alone would not show without vocalization.
• tenaker ("will you put out", H5365) — piel (intensive) imperfect, 2nd masculine singular; the piel stem intensifies the verbal action, suggesting a forceful or complete blinding rather than a simple removal.

What the text says

The Hebrew opens with the compound negator 'af lo, which governs the entire following clause about the land "flowing with milk and honey" (zavat chalav u-devash), and extends to the denial of receiving nachalat sadeh va-karem ("inheritance of field and vineyard," H5159/H7704G/H3754). Both verbs describing what Moses supposedly did — haviotanu ("you brought us") and titen ("you gave," H5414G, qal narrative form) — are perfect/narrative forms, structurally presenting Moses's actions as claims now being negated by the speakers.

The second half shifts to a question, marked by the interrogative ha- prefixed to 'einei ("eyes of"). The piel verb tenaker intensifies the action of "boring out" or "gouging," a stronger image than a simple "removing." The final clause, lo na'aleh ("we will not go up," H5927G, qal imperfect), uses the verb "to go up," which in this narrative context refers to going up (to face Moses or ascend to the meeting).

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders the opening negation as an affirmation: "Revera induxisti nos" ("Indeed you have led us in"), reversing the sense of the Hebrew 'af lo ("not even"). The Hebrew and other versions (LXX, RV1909, BSB) preserve the negative sense — that the land was not given. Additionally, the LXX renders the "eyes" clause not as a separate rhetorical question but as a continuation of a conditional construction ("ἂν ἐξέκοψας," "would you have gouged out"), while the Hebrew's interrogative ha- marks it as a standalone question, a distinction reflected in BSB and RV1909 but smoothed over in the LXX's syntax.