Numbers 4:15
וְכִלָּה אַֽהֲרֹן־וּבָנָיו לְכַסֹּת אֶת־הַקֹּדֶשׁ וְאֶת־כָּל־כְּלֵי הַקֹּדֶשׁ בִּנְסֹעַ הַֽמַּחֲנֶה וְאַחֲרֵי־כֵן יָבֹאוּ בְנֵי־קְהָת לָשֵׂאת וְלֹֽא־יִגְּעוּ אֶל־הַקֹּדֶשׁ וָמֵתוּ אֵלֶּה מַשָּׂא בְנֵֽי־קְהָת בְּאֹהֶל מוֹעֵֽד׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וְכִלָּ֣ה אַֽהֲרֹן־וּ֠בָנָיו לְכַסֹּ֨ת אֶת־הַקֹּ֜דֶשׁ וְאֶת־כָּל־כְּלֵ֣י הַקֹּדֶשׁ֮ בִּנְסֹ֣עַ הַֽמַּחֲנֶה֒ וְאַחֲרֵי־כֵ֗ן יָבֹ֤אוּ בְנֵי־קְהָת֙ לָשֵׂ֔את וְלֹֽא־יִגְּע֥וּ אֶל־הַקֹּ֖דֶשׁ וָמֵ֑תוּ אֵ֛לֶּה מַשָּׂ֥א בְנֵֽי־קְהָ֖ת בְּאֹ֥הֶל מוֹעֵֽד׃
καὶ συντελέσουσιν’ Ἀαρὼν καὶ οἱ υἱοὶ αὐτοῦ καλύπτοντες τὰ ἅγια καὶ πάντα τὰ σκεύη τὰ ἅγια, ἐν τῷ ἐξαίρειν τὴν παρεμβολήν· καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα εἰσελεύσονται υἱοὶ Καὰθ αἴρειν, καὶ οὐχ ἅψονται τῶν ἁγίων, ἵνα μὴ ἀποθάνωσιν. ταῦτα ἀροῦσιν οἱ υἱοὶ Καὰθ ἐν τῆ σκηνῇ τοῦ μαρτυρίου.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Cumque involverint Aaron et filii ejus sanctuarium et omnia vasa ejus in commotione castrorum, tunc intrabunt filii Caath ut portent involuta: et non tangent vasa sanctuarii, ne moriantur. Ista sunt onera filiorum Caath in tabernaculo fœderis:
“Cuando Aarón y sus hijos hayan terminado de cubrir el santuario y todos los muebles del santuario, cuando el campamento esté por avanzar, entonces vendrán los hijos de Coat para cargarlos; pero no tocarán las cosas santas, para no morir. Estas son las cargas de los hijos de Coat en la Tienda del Encuentro.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y en acabando Aarón y sus hijos de cubrir el santuario y todos los vasos del santuario, cuando el campo se hubiere de mudar, vendrán después de ello los hijos de Coath para conducir: mas no tocarán cosa santa, que morirán. Estas serán las cargas de los hijos de Coath en el tabernáculo del testimonio.
When Aaron and his sons have finished covering the holy objects and all their equipment, as soon as the camp is ready to move, the Kohathites shall come and do the carrying. But they must not touch the holy objects, or they will die. These are the transportation duties of the Kohathites regarding the Tent of Meeting.
✦ What the text says
Summary
This verse describes the procedure for the Kohathites regarding the sanctuary objects during the Israelite camp's movement: after Aaron and his sons finish covering the holy objects, the Kohathites may approach to carry them, but they are forbidden to touch the holy objects directly, under penalty of death. The verse concludes by identifying this as the specific transport duty (massa) of the sons of Kohath at the Tent of Meeting.
Key words
- khilah ("he will finish", H3615G) — piel perfect with intensive nuance, marking the completion of Aaron's covering action before the next step in the sequence occurs.
- khasot ("to cover", H3680) — piel infinitive construct, paired with the preposition le, expressing the purpose or content of the finished action ("finish covering").
- yig'u ("they will touch", H5060) — qal imperfect, negated by lo' ("not", H3808), forming a prohibition with ongoing/future force rather than a single completed act.
- metu ("they will die", H4191) — qal sequential perfect, syntactically chained to the prohibition by the vav, presenting death as the direct narrative consequence of touching.
- qodesh ("holy place"/"holy thing", H6944G) — appears three times in the verse (the object covered, the "articles of the holy place", and the object not to be touched), each time as a masculine singular noun marking sanctified status.
What the text says
The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of sequential clauses connected by vav, typical of procedural/legal instruction: ve-khilah ("and he will finish") opens the sequence, followed by ve-akharei khen yavo'u ("and after that they will come"), then the prohibition ve-lo yig'u, and finally va-metu ("and they will die"). This chaining presents the entire process — covering, approaching, carrying, not touching, dying if violated — as one continuous procedural unit rather than isolated statements.
The infinitive constructions le-khasot ("to cover") and la-set ("to carry") each depend on a preceding finite verb, expressing purpose or manner without specifying tense on their own; the finite verbs around them (khilah, yavo'u) carry the temporal and aspectual weight. The prohibition ve-lo yig'u uses the imperfect, which in Biblical Hebrew commonly expresses ongoing or repeated future action — here functioning as a general prohibition applicable each time the camp moves, not a one-time command.
Differences between versions
The Hebrew clause va-metu ("and they will die") is a sequential perfect stating the consequence as a direct narrative result. The LXX renders this instead as a purpose clause, ἵνα μὴ ἀποθάνωσιν ("so that they might not die"), and the Vulgate similarly uses ne moriantur ("lest they die"). Both LXX and Vulgate reframe the Hebrew's stated consequence into a negative purpose construction attached to the prohibition, rather than presenting death as a separate sequential outcome as the Hebrew syntax does.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.