What Does Numbers 16:27 Mean in the King James?
So they gat up from the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, on every side: and Dathan and Abiram came out, and stood in the door of their tents, and their wives, and their sons, and their little children.
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 “door” means “opening,” placing this whole household where private life opens into public view.
THE MEANING
Dathan and Abiram stand at their tent openings with their wives, sons, and little children beside them. No household member stays outside the frame; the family stands together at the boundary between shelter and what is unfolding beyond it.
THE ROOT
פֶּתַח
petaḥ
GROWS FROM
פתח
to open
English “door” names a fixture; פֶּתַח (petaḥ, an opening or entrance) names the opening itself. That root draws attention to the threshold: the household is visible at the place where the tent opens to what is outside.
ALSO GROWS
pataḥ: to open
פָּתַח
The verb shares the root of the word for door, so the entrance carries the sense of an opening rather than just a boundary.
mafteaḥ: key
מַפְתֵּחַ
A key opens; its shared root links the tent entrance to the act of opening it.
נִצָּבִים
nitsavim
GROWS FROM
נצב
to stand, take one’s station
“stood” in this verse is nitsavim. The word presents Dathan and Abiram as taking their place at the entrances, not simply passing by them. Its root also forms words for something set upright, giving their stance a fixed quality.
ALSO GROWS
nitsav: one standing; stationed
נִצָּב
This is the singular form of the standing word in the verse, emphasizing a person taking a position.
matzevah: standing stone; pillar
מַצֵּבָה
This standing object comes from the same root and echoes the fixed posture at the tent entrances.
THE PATTERN
At decisive crossings, scripture often names the household alongside the person at the center.
And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father’s household, and all that she had; and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day; because she hid the messengers, which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.THE THREAD
And what he did unto Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their households, and their tents, and all the substance that was in their possession, in the midst of all Israel:Deuteronomy names the same Dathan and Abiram and again places their households and tents in the frame. Beside this verse, its wording shows that the people gathered at the tent entrances are part of the full scene unfolding around them.
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