Numbers 16:47

Summary

Aaron acts on Moses' instruction, taking the censer and running into the middle of the assembly. He finds that the plague has already begun among the people, so he places incense and makes atonement on their behalf.

Key words

• va-yYarotz ("and he ran", H7323G) — qal narrative form; the vav-consecutive marks this as the next sequential action after Aaron takes the censer, conveying urgency.
• hi.Neh ("there!", H2009) — an interjection marking a sudden observation within the narrative, drawing attention to the plague already in progress.
• he.Chel ("it had begun", H2490C) — hiphil (causative) perfect; the causative stem indicates the plague itself "caused to begin" or "started," and the perfect aspect shows this had already occurred before Aaron's arrival.
• ke.To.ret ("incense", H7004) — feminine singular noun, marked with the direct object marker 'et (H0853), the substance Aaron places as part of the atonement act.
• y.kha.Per ("he made atonement", H3722A) — piel (intensive) narrative verb; the intensive stem denotes a deliberate, effectual ritual action, followed by the preposition 'al ("on", H5921A) indicating the action is performed on behalf of the people.

What the text says

The verse is built as a chain of six narrative (vav-consecutive) verbs — yiqqach ("he took"), yarotz ("he ran"), yitten ("he put"), and yekhapper ("he made atonement") — each introduced by the narrative va (H9001), which strings the actions into a rapid sequence: taking, running, discovering, placing, atoning. This chain creates a sense of continuous, urgent movement without pause.

The clause introduced by ve-hinneh ("and behold", H2009) interrupts the forward-moving narrative chain to present a simultaneous discovery: as Aaron runs, he finds that he.Chel ha.Ne.gef ("the plague had begun", H2490C + H5063) already active ba.'Am ("among the people", H5971A). The hiphil stem of he.Chel together with the perfect aspect frames this as an action already completed relative to Aaron's arrival — the plague's onset precedes his own action, explaining the urgency of his run.

The final two verbs, yitten ("he put") and yekhapper ("he made atonement"), are grammatically parallel narrative forms, but the piel stem of yekhapper marks the atonement as an intensive, purposeful act, distinct from the simple placing (qal) of the incense. The preposition 'al ("on", H5921A) governing ha.'Am ("the people") specifies that the atonement is performed with the people as its object or beneficiary.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders va-hinneh he.chel ha.negef ba.'am as a statement introduced by "καὶ ἤδη" ("and already"), using "θραῦσις" ("crushing/breaking") for Ne.gef ("plague", H5063), a term with a different semantic range than "plague" or "mortandad." The Vulgate compresses the "behold, the plague had begun" clause into a relative clause, "quam jam vastabat incendium" ("which a burning [pestilence] was already devastating"), interpreting Ne.gef as an "incendium" (a burning/fire), diverging from the more neutral Hebrew term for "plague" or "blow."