Numbers 16:37

Summary

Moses (through God's command) instructs Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, to retrieve the metal censers from among the burnt remains and to scatter the fire away, giving as the reason that the censers/coals qadeshu ("they are holy", H6942G).

Key words

• 'eMor ("speak", H0559) — qal imperative, opening command directed at Moses to relay instructions to Eleazar.
• yaRem ("may he take up", H7311A) — hiphil jussive, a causative form expressing that Eleazar is to actively lift or remove the censers, not merely observe them.
• mach.Tot ("censers", H4289) — feminine plural noun, the physical objects at the center of the command, associated earlier in the chapter with the men who offered incense.
• zereh ("scatter", H2219) — qal imperative, a second direct command (parallel to 'eMor) instructing the dispersal of the fire itself, distinct from the censers.
• ka.De.shu ("they are holy", H6942G) — qal perfect, third person plural, stating a completed state: the censers have become holy, given as the grammatical reason (ki, H3588A) for the preceding instructions.

What the text says

The verse is built on two paired imperative commands nested within a reported-speech structure. Moses is told 'eMor ("speak") to Eleazar, and the content of that speech contains two further directives: yaRem ("let him take up") the censers, and zereh ("scatter") the fire. The shift from a hiphil jussive (yaRem, third-person, indirect command relayed about Eleazar) to a qal imperative (zereh, direct second-person command) suggests two speech-act layers — Moses instructing Eleazar to perform one action, while Eleazar himself receives a direct command for the second. The causal clause introduced by ki ("for", H3588A) with the perfect verb qadeshu ("they are holy") grounds both instructions: the state of holiness is treated as an already-established fact explaining why the censers must be removed and the fire scattered rather than left in place.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the causal clause differently: instead of "because they are holy" (Hebrew qadeshu), it reads hēgiasan ta pyreia tōn hamartōlōn toutōn en tais psychais autōn — "the censers of these sinners were sanctified/consecrated in their souls" — introducing "sinners" and "souls," elements absent from the Hebrew clause. The LXX also adds ta chalka ("bronze") describing the censers, a detail not present in the Hebrew mach.Tot. The Vulgate's quoniam sanctificata sunt ("because they are sanctified") stays close to the Hebrew qadeshu without the LXX's additions.