Numbers 16:49

Summary

The verse gives the death toll of a plague: fourteen thousand seven hundred people died ba-maggephah ("by the plague", H4046), a number stated separately from those who had already died in connection with Korah.

Key words

• maggephah ("plague", H4046) — feminine singular noun; names the specific lethal event (a plague/blow) distinct from the earlier deaths tied to Korah.
• hammetim ("the ones who died", H4191) — qal participle, masculine plural, definite; used twice (positions 4 and 17) to designate two separate groups of dead.
• elef ("thousand", H0505G) and the construct chain sheva' ("seven", H7651) + me'ot ("hundreds", H3967) — cardinal numbers forming the compound total "fourteen thousand seven hundred."
• millevad ("besides/apart from", H9006+H9005J+H0905J) — compound preposition built on bad ("apart," construct), explicitly marking exclusion of the second group from the count.
• 'al-devar-Qorach ("on the matter of Korah", H5921A+H1697I+H7141I) — construct chain literally "on the word/matter of Korah," specifying the cause of the earlier deaths.

What the text says

The clause opens with the narrative verb va-yihyu ("and they were", H1961), introducing a simple statement of fact continuing the story sequence. Its subject is ha-metim ba-maggephah — "the dead-ones by-the-plague" — a definite participle phrase functioning as a noun ("those who died"), specified by the prepositional phrase "in/by the plague." The predicate is the compound number arba'ah 'asar elef u-sheva' me'ot, literally "four-teen thousand and seven hundreds," built from cardinal numbers in sequence, the last pair joined by the conjunction u- ("and", H9002).

The second half of the verse adds a distinct group through the compound preposition millevad — "from" (H9006) + "to" (H9005) + bad ("apart," H0905J, construct) — meaning "apart from" or "in addition to." This introduces a second occurrence of ha-metim ("the ones who died", H4191), now qualified by the construct phrase 'al-devar-Qorach, "on the matter of Korah," where devar (H1697I) is in construct form, literally "the word/affair of Korah." The grammar thus draws a clear boundary between two death-counts: those who died in the plague itself, and those who died separately "on account of the matter of Korah," without merging the two figures into one total.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders 'al-devar-Qorach as "in seditione Core" ("in the sedition of Korah"), interpreting devar ("matter/word", H1697I) as referring to a rebellion, whereas the Hebrew noun itself is neutral ("matter/affair"). The LXX simplifies to "ἕνεκεν κόρε" ("because of Korah"), omitting any equivalent for devar as a distinct lexical item. The BSB and Spanish versions (RV1909, SBLIBRE) follow this same interpretive tendency, rendering the construct phrase as "on account of / por culpa de Korah," which supplies a causal nuance not overtly present in the bare Hebrew construct chain "word/matter of Korah."