What Does Numbers 16:26 Mean in the King James?
And he spake unto the congregation, saying, Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye be consumed in all their sins.
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 word for “touch” shares its root with “plague,” making contact sound like exposure to the harm itself.
THE MEANING
The warning reaches you where another’s rebellion becomes your environment: the issue is not only what you do, but what you enter and touch. Its language makes proximity consequential, those gathered around destructive wrong can be swept into its fate.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that you can remain close to destructive rebellion and stay untouched by its consequences.
THE ROOT
תִּגְּעוּ
tigge’u
GROWS FROM
נגע
To touch, reach, or come into contact; the same root also carries the sense of striking or afflicting.
The verb behind “touch” and the noun behind “plagues” share נגע (n-g-ʿ). That link lets the warning hold contact and affliction together: what seems like mere nearness can place someone within the reach of harm.
ALSO GROWS
naga: To touch, reach, or strike.
נָגַע
This is the verb used for “touch” in the warning, where contact marks a boundary with consequences.
nega’im: Plagues or afflictions; literally, striking afflictions.
נְגָעִים
Genesis 12:17 uses this same root for the plagues that afflict Pharaoh and his household, echoing the link between contact and harm.
THE PATTERN
A sphere of wrongdoing can draw those who remain entangled with it into its consequences.
Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.THE THREAD
And the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram’s wife.In Numbers 16:26, נגע (naga) is translated “touch”; Genesis 12:17 uses the same root in forms translated “plagued” and “plagues.” The shared root binds contact to affliction, making the warning’s “touch” carry the weight of exposure.
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