Numbers 16:22

Summary

Numbers 16:22 records a moment in the aftermath of Korah's rebellion: two unnamed figures (identified as Moses and Aaron in some translations, though the Hebrew of this verse does not name them) fall on their faces and address God as "God of the spirits of all flesh," posing a question about whether the sin of a single man should bring anger upon the entire congregation.

Key words

• va-yipp'lu ("and they fell", H5307G) — qal wayyiqtol form; the narrative vav marks this as a sequential action following the preceding verse.
• 'El ("O God", H0410G) — a divine name used here in direct address (vocative), placed in apposition with the following phrase.
• 'Elohei ("God of", H0430G) — plural construct form of a term for God, governing the noun that follows in a genitive chain.
• ha-ruchot ("the spirits", H7307G) — plural noun with definite article, forming the construct phrase "spirits of all flesh."
• tiktzof ("will you be angry", H7107) — qal imperfect, second person masculine singular, addressed directly to God as "you."

What the text says

The verse opens with two wayyiqtol verbs — va-yipp'lu and va-yomru ("and they said", H0559) — which chain the narrative forward: falling, then speaking. The speech itself begins with a double divine title, 'El followed by the construct 'Elohei ha-ruchot le-khol-basar, literally "God, God of the spirits belonging to all flesh." This construct chain places "spirits" (plural, with the article H9009) in a genitive relationship with "flesh" (H1320), producing a comprehensive designation for God's relation to all living beings.

The following clause is built as a question using the interrogative particle ha- (H9008) prefixed to ish ("a man", H0376G), rather than the ordinary definite article. This creates the rhetorical structure: "Will one man sin (yecheta, H2398, imperfect) and against the whole congregation will you be angry (tiktzof)?" The syntax pairs ish echad ("one man," H0259) against kol ha-edah ("all the congregation," H5712), with the verb tiktzof kept in second person masculine singular, maintaining direct address to God throughout.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the final clause as a statement rather than a direct question to God: "ἐπὶ πᾶσαν τὴν συναγωγὴν ὀργὴ κυρίου" ("the wrath of the Lord [will be] against all the congregation"), shifting from the Hebrew's second-person verb tiktzof to a third-person reference to "the Lord's wrath." The Vulgate uses the interrogative particle "num," which in Latin typically anticipates a negative answer, framing the question as "surely your anger will not rage against all because one man sins." Among the modern translations, RV1909 and SBLIBRE preserve the interrogative reading of ha- ("¿no es un hombre...?"), while BSB treats "when one man sins" as a temporal clause rather than a separate question.