What Does Numbers 16:15 Mean in the King James?
And Moses was very wroth, and said unto the LORD, Respect not thou their offering: I have not taken one ass from them, neither have I hurt one of them.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The word translated “respect” asks the LORD not to turn his face toward the offering, placing the gift and the treatment of people under the same gaze.
THE MEANING
Moses’ anger burns openly; he asks the LORD not to turn toward their offering, then names two concrete claims: he has taken no donkey from them and has done none of them harm. The verse holds the gift beside the giver’s treatment and lets both stand in the same appeal.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
An accusation alone does not establish guilt: Moses answers the charge of self-exalting leadership with specific claims about what he has neither taken nor done.
THE ROOT
תֵּפֶן
tēfen
GROWS FROM
פנה
p-n-h
Turn, turn toward; face in a direction.
The prayer asks the LORD not to “respect” their offering by turning toward it. The word family also carries the sense of face or presence, picturing regard as a turning of the face.
ALSO GROWS
pānāh: Turned or turned toward.
פָּנָה
This is the action Moses asks the LORD not to take toward the offering.
pānîm: Face; presence.
פָּנִים
The related word for face makes the prayer’s image of regard as turning more visible.
נָשָׂאתִי
nāśāʾtî
GROWS FROM
נשא
n-ś-ʾ
Lift, carry, bear; in this context, take away.
English “taken” sounds like simple possession, while this Hebrew verb also means lift, carry, and bear. Its word family includes a burden and a term for a leader traditionally linked with being lifted up, so the verse measures authority against whether the people must carry its cost.
ALSO GROWS
nāśāʾ: Lift, carry, bear, or take.
נָשָׂא
Moses says he has not lifted a donkey away from them.
maśśāʾ: Burden or load.
מַשָּׂא
The same word family names what is carried, opening a connection between taking from people and making them bear a burden.
nāśîʾ: Leader or prince; traditionally linked with one lifted up.
נָשִׂיא
The word family places the elevated leader beside Moses’ claim that he has taken nothing from the people.
הֲרֵעֹתִי
harēʿōtî
GROWS FROM
רעע
r-ʿ-ʿ
Be bad, act badly; do wrong or harm.
English “hurt” can suggest a single injury, but the Hebrew means to do wrong or deal badly. Moses’ denial reaches beyond physical harm to how he has treated each person.
ALSO GROWS
raʿ: Bad or evil.
רַע
This names the root idea behind doing harm or wrong.
hērēaʿ: Act badly or do harm.
הֵרֵעַ
This is the kind of action Moses says he has not done to any of them.
THE PATTERN
Authority is exposed by whether it takes from, harms, or rules those entrusted to it.
Behold, here I am: witness against me before the LORD, and before his anointed: whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? and I will restore it you.Receive us; we have wronged no man, we have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man.Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock.THE THREAD
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.The Hebrew root nāśāʾ underlies Numbers’ “taken” and Isaiah’s “borne.” Here Moses says he has lifted nothing from the people; there, the same root describes bearing what weighs on them.
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