What Does Numbers 16:6 Mean in the King James?
This do; Take you censers, Korah, and all his company;
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
A claim to sacred standing becomes visible in what the claimant takes into their own hands.
THE MEANING
The verse makes a claim concrete: Korah and every person in his company take a censer into their own hands. What they carry becomes part of the test, so the claim cannot remain abstract.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a claim to divine authority is settled by assertion alone dissolves here: each claimant must take part in a visible test.
THE ROOT
מַחְתּוֹת
maḥtōt
GROWS FROM
חתה
ḥātāh
To take up, especially fire or live coals.
“censers” in this verse is maḥtōt. The word for a censer grows from the act of taking up fire. The vessel carries that action within its name: each person takes up an instrument made to hold fire, making the challenge tangible.
ALSO GROWS
ḥātāh: To take up fire or embers.
חָתָה
The verb reveals the action beneath the censer: fire is taken up and carried.
maḥtāh: A firepan or censer.
מַחְתָּה
This is the singular form of the vessel each person takes in the verse.
קְחוּ
qĕḥū
GROWS FROM
לקח
lāqaḥ
To take or receive.
“Take” in this verse is qĕḥū. The imperative comes from a root whose range includes taking and receiving. Here the action is literal: every person takes a censer into their own hand, so no one remains a detached spectator to the test.
ALSO GROWS
lāqaḥ: To take or receive.
לָקַח
This verb is the root of the command, placing the vessel directly in each person’s hands.
leqaḥ: Teaching or instruction; what is received as learning.
לֶקַח
The word-family can name both taking and what is received, extending the idea from holding an object to receiving what the test reveals.
THE PATTERN
What is brought before God becomes visible in the fire that tests or answers it.
And put fire therein, and put incense in them before the LORD to morrow: and it shall be that the man whom the LORD doth choose, he shall be holy: ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi.And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the LORD: and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken.For our God is a consuming fire.THE THREAD
And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not.The censer here is the same Hebrew word-family, מַחְתָּה (maḥtāh), rooted in חתה (ḥātāh), taking up fire. Leviticus shows why the fire-bearing vessel matters: carrying a censer does not make every fire rightly offered.
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