Numbers 16:8

Summary

Numbers 16:8 records Moses addressing Korah directly, introducing a command that follows in subsequent verses. Moses opens with an imperative urging the "sons of Levi" to listen to what he is about to say. The verse is a narrative introduction to a speech, marked by the vav-consecutive form typical of Hebrew storytelling.

Key words

• va-yomer ("and he said", H0559) — the narrative vav plus a qal verb form; this construction is the standard Hebrew way of advancing a story, here signaling that direct speech follows.
• el ("to", H0413) — a preposition marking Korah as the addressee of Moses' speech, though the plural imperative that follows shows the audience is wider than Korah alone.
• shim'u ("listen", H8085G) — a masculine plural imperative, indicating the command is directed not at Korah individually but at a group.
• na ("please", H4994) — an interjection of entreaty that softens the imperative, giving the command a tone of request rather than pure order.
• benei ("descendants of / sons of", H1121G) — masculine plural construct form, grammatically bound to Levi, forming the phrase "sons of Levi" as the identified addressees.

What the text says

The verse divides into two parts: a narrative frame (va-yomer Moshe el-Qorach, "and Moses said to Korah") and the beginning of a direct speech (shim'u na benei Levi, "listen, please, sons of Levi"). Although the preposition el ("to", H0413) grammatically directs the speech at Korah as an individual, the imperative verb shim'u ("listen", H8085G) is plural, and the vocative that follows, benei Levi ("sons of Levi", H1121G + H3878), is also plural. This shows that Moses names Korah as the addressee in the narrative frame, but the content of his speech is aimed at a wider group identified by lineage — the descendants of Levi.

The particle na ("please", H4994) attached to the imperative softens what would otherwise be a blunt command, giving the utterance the character of an urgent request rather than a strict order. This nuance of entreaty is a feature of the Hebrew particle system that does not always carry over cleanly into translation.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the imperative as "Εἰσακούσατέ μου" ("listen to me"), adding a first-person object (μου, "me") that has no equivalent in the Hebrew text, where shim'u na ("listen, please") lacks any explicit object. The Vulgate's "Audite" similarly gives a bare imperative without an object, closer to the Hebrew structure than the LXX's addition. Neither the LXX nor the Vulgate renders the entreaty particle na ("please", H4994) as a separate word; both simply use an imperative form, so the softening nuance present in the Hebrew is not distinctly marked in either translation.