What Does Numbers 16:41 Mean in the King James?
But on the morrow all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the LORD.
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 verb rendered “murmured” shares its root with “lodge for the night,” giving the complaint that surfaces the next morning the image of something harbored.
THE MEANING
A whole community names Moses and Aaron as killers of the LORD’s people. The accusation lands as a shared verdict, spoken with certainty. The verse lets you hear how grief and alarm can gather into one voice and target those standing in front of it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that an accusation becomes true simply because an entire community repeats it.
THE ROOT
וַיִּלּוֹנוּ
wayyillonu
GROWS FROM
לון
To lodge or stay overnight; in a reflexive form, to murmur or complain.
“murmured” in this verse is wayyillonu. The verb for murmuring shares its root with lodging or passing the night. Here, a complaint that surfaces the next morning carries the image of something harbored, then spoken as a charge of killing.
ALSO GROWS
lin: To lodge, stay overnight.
לִין
This form shares the root of “murmured”; the complaint has the sound-shape of something held overnight before it is voiced.
telunah: Murmuring, complaint.
תְּלוּנָה
This noun from the same root names the complaint itself, connecting the community’s murmuring to a wider Hebrew word-family of grievance.
THE PATTERN
After a crisis, a shared voice can turn loss or uncertainty into a verdict against a visible leader.
And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness:And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel?Crying out, Men of Israel, help: This is the man, that teacheth all men every where against the people, and the law, and this place: and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place.THE THREAD
And in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the LORD; for that he heareth your murmurings against the LORD: and what are we, that ye murmur against us?“Murmurings” and “murmur” here grow from the same root as the verb in Numbers. The verse makes the direction of the complaint visible: what is spoken against the leaders is also described as murmuring against the LORD.
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