What Does Numbers 16:21 Mean in the King James?
Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.
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 Hebrew places a boundary beside a verb rooted in eating: the gathered people are threatened with being devoured in an instant.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks with a sudden, collective threat: a line is commanded within the gathered people, and those named as “them” face being consumed in a moment. It gives no interval or cause here that softens the force of that sentence.
THE ROOT
הִבָּדְלוּ
hibbadelu
GROWS FROM
בדל
To divide, distinguish, or set apart.
“Separate” in this verse is hibbadelu. The command means to place yourselves apart from the gathered assembly. The same root can name a distinction or division; here that boundary is drawn beside the threat of sudden destruction.
ALSO GROWS
hivdil: To separate or distinguish.
הִבְדִּיל
It makes explicit the act of drawing a division that is compressed into the command here.
havdalah: Separation or distinction.
הַבְדָּלָה
This noun preserves the root’s idea of a boundary that marks things as different.
וַאֲכַלֶּה
va’akalleh
GROWS FROM
אכל
To eat or devour.
The verb translated “consume” belongs to the root for eating, so the threat carries the force of being devoured. Its branches move from eating to food, keeping the image physical and stark.
ALSO GROWS
akhal: To eat.
אָכַל
This is the basic action carried into the verse’s threat of consumption.
okhel: Food.
אֹכֶל
It comes from the same root and names what is eaten, making the root’s physical image plain.
THE PATTERN
Separation marks a boundary that changes what follows for those on either side.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine.And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:THE THREAD
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.Numbers’ “separate” and Genesis’ “divided” come from forms of בדל, the root for distinguishing and setting apart. Genesis uses that boundary to distinguish light from darkness; here the same root stands beside a threat that the gathered people will be consumed in a moment.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us