Numbers 16:26

Summary

Numbers 16:26 records Moses speaking to the congregation, commanding them to withdraw from the tents of the rebellious men (Korah's group) and to avoid touching anything belonging to them, so that they will not be swept away in the consequences of their sins.

Key words

• y.da.Ber ("he spoke", H1696G) — piel verb in narrative sequence; the intensive stem here marks formal, authoritative speech rather than casual conversation.
• Su.ru ("turn away", H5493H) — qal imperative, plural masculine; a direct command addressed to the whole congregation to physically separate themselves.
• re.sha.'Im ("wicked", H7563) — masculine plural noun with definite article, modifying "the men," marking them as morally culpable, not merely dangerous.
• ti.ge.'U ("you touch", H5060) — qal jussive, plural; combined with the negation 'al (H0408), it forms a prohibition softer in force than an absolute imperative, closer to "do not" as instruction.
• ti.sa.Fu ("you should be swept away", H5595) — niphal imperfect, passive voice; the congregation is grammatically the object of an unstated agent's destructive action, contrasting with the active verbs used for their own conduct.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative vav on va-y.da.Ber ("and he spoke"), continuing the story sequence and introducing Moses' direct speech to ha-'e.Dah ("the congregation", H5712), a feminine singular collective noun treated as a single addressed body. The speech itself contains two commands and one consequence clause. The first command, Su.ru na' ("turn away, please"), uses the interjection na' (H4994), softening the imperative into a plea rather than a harsh order. The object of the turning-away is marked by the construct chain 'o.ho.Lei ha-'a.na.Shim ha-re.sha.'Im ha-'E.leh — "tents of the men, the wicked, these" — a stacked series of articles and adjectives all pointing to the same referents, emphasizing their specific, identified wickedness.

The second command, introduced by ve-'al ("and not") plus the jussive ti.ge.'U, prohibits any contact with khol 'a.Sher la.Hem ("all that belongs to them"), a broad relative clause covering their possessions without listing specifics. The purpose clause begins with pen ("lest", H6435), a particle marking negative purpose — the reason for obedience. It governs ti.sa.Fu, a niphal (passive) form: the congregation would not act to destroy itself but "be swept away" by an implied outside force, in connection with be-khol chato.Tam ("in/with all their sins"), a construct noun phrase tying the potential destruction directly to the sins of the wicked men rather than to any wrongdoing of the congregation itself.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders re.sha.'Im ("wicked", H7563) with σκληρῶν ("hard/stubborn"), a softer characterization than the Hebrew's moral judgment of wickedness. The LXX and Vulgate also render ti.sa.Fu ("swept away") with συναπόλησθε and involvamini respectively — both conveying "be destroyed with/involved in," which shifts the niphal's passive nuance of Hebrew slightly toward a sense of shared implication in the Greek and Latin phrasing.