Numbers 16:19

Summary

Numbers 16:19 narrates that Korah assembled the whole congregation against Moses and Aaron at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, and that the glory of Yehovah then appeared to the entire congregation. The verse uses two consecutive narrative clauses joined by the vav-consecutive construction typical of Hebrew narrative sequence.

Key words

• yaqhel ("he called together", H6950) — Hiphil (causative) form: Korah does not merely gather but actively causes the congregation to assemble.
• 'edah ("congregation", H5712) — feminine singular noun with definite article, referring to the collective body of Israel as a unified group.
• petach ("entrance of", H6607) — masculine singular construct, forming a chain with 'ohel mo'ed ("tent of meeting") to locate the scene precisely.
• yera' ("it appeared", H7200) — Niphal (passive/reflexive) form: the glory "was seen" or "showed itself," the verb marking a divine self-manifestation rather than an action performed on the glory by another agent.
• kevod ("glory of", H3519) — construct form, binding "glory" directly to Yehovah, presenting it as an attribute or manifestation belonging to the divine name.

What the text says

The verse is built as two parallel narrative clauses, each opened by the narrative va ("and then"), producing a tight sequence: first Korah's action (yaqhel), then Yehovah's response (yera'). Both verbs are third-person masculine singular, but their voices differ — the Hiphil yaqhel marks Korah as an active causer of assembly, while the Niphal yera' marks the glory as appearing without a stated human or narrative agent causing it, emphasizing its own manifestation.

The phrase kol ha'edah ("all the congregation") appears twice, framing the verse: once as the object gathered by Korah, and once as the audience before whom the glory appears. This repetition ties the two events to the same group, contrasting the human assembly Korah organizes with the divine appearance that follows. The construct chain petach 'ohel mo'ed ("entrance of the tent of meeting") anchors the action spatially at the sanctuary threshold, a location tied elsewhere in Numbers to divine judgment scenes.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the object of Korah's gathering as πᾶσαν αὐτοῦ συναγωγὴν ("his whole assembly"), inserting a possessive αὐτοῦ ("his") not present in the Hebrew kol ha'edah ("all the congregation," with no possessive suffix). The BSB follows this reading with "his whole assembly."

The Vulgate and SBLIBRE restructure the two Hebrew coordinate clauses (joined by vav-consecutive) into a hypotactic construction, rendering the first clause as a temporal subordinate ("cum... coacervassent," "Cuando Coré ya había reunido") followed by the main clause about the glory's appearance, where the Hebrew presents both events as sequential main clauses of equal narrative weight.