Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Numbers 16:6
This do; Take you censers, Korah, and all his company;
6. censers ] fire-pans. So R.V. in Exo 27:3. An instrument for carrying burning coals. These fire-pans were not the sacred utensils of the Tabernacle, which would never be taken out of the Tabernacle precincts, but the private property of the 250 men; see on Num 16:37.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
6, 7. Korah and his followers are challenged to test their claim to equality with the Levites (represented by Moses and Aaron) by undergoing a species of ordeal, viz. to perform a sacred priestly function and see what will happen.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Since ye will be priests, take your censers, and act as priests, at your peril.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6, 7. Take your censers, Korah, andall his company, c.that is, since you aspire to thepriesthood, then go, perform the highest function of the officethatof offering incense and if you are accepted well. How magnanimous theconduct of Moses, who was now as willing that God’s people should bepriests, as formerly that they should be prophets (Nu11:29). But he warned them that they were making a perilousexperiment.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
This do, take you censers,…. Vessels to put incense in to offer, which was the business of the priests:
Korah, and all his company; the two hundred fifty princes that were with him, for so many we read took censers, and offered incense,
Nu 16:18.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
To leave the decision of this to the Lord, Korah and his company, who laid claim to this prerogative, were to take censers, and bring lighted incense before Jehovah. He whom the Lord should choose was to be the sanctified one. This was to satisfy them. With the expression in Num 16:7, Moses gives the rebels back their own words in Num 16:3. The divine decision was connected with the offering of incense, because this was the holiest function of the priestly service, which brought the priest into the immediate presence of God, and in connection with which Jehovah had already shown to the whole congregation how He sanctified Himself, by a penal judgment on those who took this office upon themselves without a divine call (Lev 10:1-3). Num 16:8. He then set before them the wickedness of their enterprise, to lead them to search themselves, and avert the judgment which threatened them. In doing this, he made a distinction between Korah the Levite, and Dathan and Abiram the Reubenites, according to the difference in the motives which prompted their rebellion, and the claims which they asserted. He first of all (Num 16:8-11) reminded Korah the Levite of the way in which God had distinguished his tribe, by separating the Levites from the rest of the congregation, to attend to the service of the sanctuary (Num 3:5., Num 8:6.), and asked him, “ Is this too little for you? The God of Israel (this epithet is used emphatically for Jehovah) has brought thee near to Himself, and all thy brethren the sons of Levi with thee, and ye strive after the priesthood also. Therefore…thou and thy company, who have leagued themselves against Jehovah:…and Aaron, what is he, that he murmur against him? ” These last words, as an expression of wrath, are elliptical, or rather an aposiopesis, and are to be filled up in the following manner: “ Therefore,…as Jehovah has distinguished you in this manner,…what do ye want? Ye rebel against Jehovah! why do ye murmur against Aaron? He has not seized upon the priesthood of his own accord, but Jehovah has called him to it, and he is only a feeble servant of God” (cf. Exo 16:7). Moses then (Num 16:12-14) sent for Dathan and Abiram, who, as is tacitly assumed, had gone back to their tents during the warning given to Korah. But they replied, “ We shall not come up.” , to go up, is used either with reference to the tabernacle, as being in a spiritual sense the culminating point of the entire camp, or with reference to appearance before Moses, the head and ruler of the nation. “ Is it too little that thou hast brought us out of a land flowing with milk and honey (they apply this expression in bitter irony to Egypt), to kill us in the wilderness (deliver us up to death), that thou wilt be always playing the lord over us? ” The idea of continuance, which is implied in the inf. abs., , from , to exalt one’s self as ruler ( Ges. 131, 36), is here still further intensified by . “ Moreover, thou hast not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, or given us fields and vineyards for an inheritance (i.e., thou hast not kept thy promise, Exo 4:30 compared with Num 3:7.). Wilt thou put out the eyes of these people? ” i.e., wilt thou blind them as to thy doings and designs?
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(6) Take you censers.The offering of incense was the peculiar prerogative and the holiest function of the priesthood. The destruction of Nadab and Abihu ought to have served as a warning to Korah and his company not to provoke a similar exhibition of the Divine displeasure.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. Take you censers The burning of incense was one of the holier functions of the priesthood, because it brought the priest near to the immediate presence of God, the vail only separating between Him and the incense-offerer. Some years before this the revolters had a loud warning against rashness in offering incense, in the case of Nadab and Abihu. Lev 10:1-3, notes.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Num 16:35-40, Num 16:46-48, Lev 10:1, Lev 16:12, Lev 16:13, 1Ki 18:21-23
Reciprocal: Num 16:15 – Respect Num 16:16 – Be thou 2Ch 13:11 – sweet incense