Numbers 16:15
וַיִּחַר לְמֹשֶׁה מְאֹד וַיֹּאמֶר אֶל־יְהוָה אַל־תֵּפֶן אֶל־מִנְחָתָם לֹא חֲמוֹר אֶחָד מֵהֶם נָשָׂאתִי וְלֹא הֲרֵעֹתִי אֶת־אַחַד מֵהֶֽם׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיִּ֤חַר לְמֹשֶׁה֙ מְאֹ֔ד וַיֹּ֙אמֶר֙ אֶל־יְהוָ֔ה אַל־תֵּ֖פֶן אֶל־מִנְחָתָ֑ם לֹ֠א חֲמ֨וֹר אֶחָ֤ד מֵהֶם֙ נָשָׂ֔אתִי וְלֹ֥א הֲרֵעֹ֖תִי אֶת־אַחַ֥ד מֵהֶֽם׃
καὶ ἐβαρυθύμησεν Μωυσῆς σφόδρα, καὶ εἶπεν πρὸς Κύριον Μὴ προσχῇς εἰς τὴν θυσίαν αὐτῶν· οὐκ ἐπιθύμημα οὐδενὸς αὐτῶν εἴληφα, οὐδὲ ἐκάκωσα οὐδένα αὐτῶν.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Iratusque Moyses valde, ait ad Dominum: Ne respicias sacrificia eorum: tu scis quod ne asellum quidem umquam acceperim ab eis, nec afflixerim quempiam eorum.
Moisés se molestó muchísimo y le dijo a Yehová: “No aceptes sus ofrendas. Yo no les he quitado ni un solo burro, ni le he hecho daño a ninguno de ellos”.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Entonces Moisés se enojó en gran manera, y dijo á Jehová: No mires á su presente: ni aun un asno he tomado de ellos, ni á ninguno de ellos he hecho mal.
Then Moses became very angry and said to the LORD, “ Do not regard their offering. I have not taken one donkey from them or mistreated a single one of them.”
✦ What the text says
Summary
Numbers 16:15 reports Moses' angry reaction to the rebellion led by Korah and his allies. Moses addresses Yehovah directly, asking him to reject their offering, and declares his own innocence: he has taken nothing from the rebels and has done them no harm.
Key words
- va-yiChar ("it burned", H2734) — qal narrative form, literally "it burned to Moses," an idiomatic construction expressing anger; Moses is not the grammatical subject but the recipient of the burning.
- teFen ("you turn", H6437) — qal jussive, a negated request ("may you not turn") addressed directly to YHWH (H3068), showing Moses speaking to God in second person.
- minchaTam ("their offering", H4503) — feminine singular noun in construct with the pronominal suffix -am ("their"), the object Moses asks God to disregard.
- nasaTi ("I have taken", H5375) — qal perfect, first person, marking completed action; paired with the negation lo' ("not", H3808), it denies any past taking.
- hare'oTi ("I have done harm to", H7489) — hiphil (causative) perfect, first person; the causative stem intensifies the verb beyond simple "being bad" to actively "causing harm."
What the text says
The verse opens with the idiom va-yiChar le-Mosheh me'od ("and it burned to Moses exceedingly"), where the fientive verb yiChar ("it burned", H2734) takes Moses as an indirect object marked by the preposition le ("to", H9005) rather than as its subject. This construction places the anger as something that happens to Moses rather than an action he performs.
The second clause, va-yomer 'el-YHWH, introduces direct speech to Yehovah. Moses' first statement uses the negated jussive 'al-teFen ("may you not turn", H6437) governing 'el-minchaTam ("to their offering", H4503), a request that God disregard the rebels' offering.
Moses then defends himself using two parallel perfect-tense clauses, each built on the pattern negation + verb + me-hem ("from them", H9038 with preposition H9006). The first, lo' chamor 'echad me-hem nasaTi ("not one donkey from them have I taken"), fronts the object chamor 'echad ("a donkey, one", H2543 + H0259) before the verb nasaTi ("I have taken", H5375), emphasizing the object of denial. The second clause uses the direct object marker 'et (H0853) before 'achad me-hem ("one of them", H0259 + H9038), with the hiphil verb hare'oti ("I have done harm to", H7489), a causative form indicating Moses caused no injury to any individual among the rebels.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders chamor ("donkey", H2543) as ἐπιθύμημα ("desired object" or "possession"), a generalization rather than the specific animal named in the Hebrew. The Vulgate keeps the specific term with asellum ("little donkey"), closer to the Hebrew chamor. The Vulgate also adds tu scis ("you know"), an explanatory phrase not present in the Hebrew or the LXX text given.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.