Numbers 16:35

Summary

The verse reports that fire came out from Yehovah and consumed two hundred fifty men who were offering incense. It closes the episode of the rebellion by describing a direct consequence attributed to divine action.

Key words

• 'Esh ("fire", H0784) — common gender singular noun, the subject that performs the action of going out and consuming.
• ya.tze.'Ah ("it came forth", H3318L) — qal perfect, third person feminine (agreeing with 'Esh), marking a completed action prior to the narrative's main verb chain.
• me.'Et ("from", H9006+H0854) — a compound preposition indicating the point of origin, here specifying that the fire's source is Yehovah (H3068G).
• To.khal ("it consumed", H0398) — qal narrative form (vav-consecutive), continuing the story sequence "and then it consumed," feminine to match 'Esh.
• mak.ri.Vei ("[who] were bringing near", H7126H) — hiphil participle, masculine plural, construct form ("the ones bringing near of"), describing the men in their ongoing role as those presenting the incense, linked to ha.ke.To.ret ("the incense", H7004).

What the text says

The sentence is built as two clauses joined by the narrative vav construction typical of Biblical Hebrew storytelling. The first clause, ve'Esh yatze'ah me'Et Yehovah ("and fire came forth from Yehovah"), uses the qal perfect ya.tze.'Ah to state a completed event: fire's emergence from the specified source. The second clause, introduced by the narrative vav on To.khal ("and it consumed"), continues the action in sequence, marking a cause-and-effect progression: the fire goes out, then it consumes.

The object of the consuming action is marked by the untranslated direct object marker 'et (H0853), followed by the numerical phrase ha.chami.Shim u.ma.Ta.yim 'Ish ("the fifty and two hundred man") — note that Hebrew number syntax places "fifty" before "two hundred," and the noun 'Ish ("man", H0376G) remains singular in form despite the plural sense, a common feature with cardinal numbers in Hebrew.

The final phrase, mak.ri.Vei ha.ke.To.ret ("the ones bringing near of the incense"), uses a construct chain with a hiphil participle. This participle form describes the men not simply as having offered incense once, but in their capacity or role as those performing this action — a durative or characterizing sense that a simple past-tense translation ("who offered") does not fully convey.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders me.'Et Yehovah ("from with Yehovah") as para kyriou ("from the Lord"), a straightforward equivalent. The Vulgate renders To.khal ("it consumed") as interfecit ("it killed"), shifting from the Hebrew's verb of consuming/devouring to one specifying death as the result, whereas the Hebrew and LXX (katephagen, "it devoured") both keep the imagery of consumption rather than naming the outcome directly.