Numbers 16:9

Summary

Moses asks the Korahites a rhetorical question: is it a small thing that the God of Israel has separated them from the rest of the congregation and brought them near to himself, assigning them service at the tabernacle of Yehovah and duties before the congregation. The verse lists the specific tasks given to them as a mark of the separation already granted.

Key words

• m'At ("small", H4592) — the noun opens the question with the interrogative particle ha prefixed, forming "is it a small thing," setting up an ironic rhetorical tone.
• hiv.Dil ("he has set apart", H0914) — hiphil perfect of the root meaning "to divide/separate"; the causative stem marks God as the agent who performed a completed act of separation.
• hak.Riv ("bring near", H7126) — hiphil infinitive construct with prefixed le- ("to"), forming a purpose clause: the separation had the goal of bringing them near.
• 'a.Vod ("serve", H5647) — qal infinitive construct (root 'avad, general service), paired later with a different root for "serve."
• sha.re.Ta ("serve", H8334) — piel infinitive construct (root sharet, intensive/ministerial service), used at the end of the verse for service toward the congregation, distinct from the root used earlier.

What the text says

The sentence is built as a single rhetorical question introduced by ha-m'At mi-kem ("is it too small for you"), followed by a ki ("that") clause that supplies the content of what is supposedly "small": the action performed by 'elohei Yisra'El ("the God of Israel"). The verb hiv.Dil, hiphil perfect, expresses a completed divine act of separation, with Israel's congregation, 'aDat Yisra'El, as the group from which the Korahites were removed. The direct object marker 'et attached to the pronominal suffix -khem ("you") marks the Korahites as the object of that separating action.

After the main clause, four infinitive-with-le constructions chain together to specify the purpose of the separation: le-hakRiv ("to bring near"), la'aVod ("to serve" — service of the tabernacle), la'aMod ("to stand" — before the congregation), and le-sharetAm ("to serve them"). This chain moves from the general act of nearness to God, to concrete tabernacle duties, to standing before the assembly, to a final service directed at the congregation itself. Notably, the text uses two distinct verbal roots for "serve" — 'avad (qal, H5647) for tabernacle service and sharet (piel, H8334) for service toward the congregation — a distinction not visible in translations that render both simply as "serve" or "minister."

Differences between versions

The LXX adds the demonstrative "this" (τοῦτο), making explicit what the Hebrew leaves implicit in the bare interrogative m'At. The Vulgate renders me-'aDat Yisra'El ("from the congregation of Israel") as "ab omni populo" ("from all the people"), and later renders ha-'eDah ("the congregation") as "frequentia populi" ("crowd of the people"), diverging from the Hebrew's consistent use of 'edah for the formal assembly.