What Does Numbers 16:15 Mean?
And Moses burned exceedingly, and said to the LORD, Do not turn toward their gift. I have not lifted one donkey from them, nor have I harmed one of them.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And Moses was very wroth, and said unto the LORD, Respect not thou their offering: I have not taken one ass from them, neither have I hurt one of them.THE KEY
The word translated “respect” asks the LORD not to turn his face toward the offering, placing the gift and the treatment of people under the same gaze.
THE MEANING
Moses’ anger burns openly; he asks the LORD not to turn toward their offering, then names two concrete claims: he has taken no donkey from them and has done none of them harm. The verse holds the gift beside the giver’s treatment and lets both stand in the same appeal.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
An accusation alone does not establish guilt: Moses answers the charge of self-exalting leadership with specific claims about what he has neither taken nor done.
THE ROOT
תֵּפֶן
tēfen
GROWS FROM
פנה
p-n-h
Turn, turn toward; face in a direction.
“Do not turn toward” in this verse is tēfen. The prayer asks the LORD not to “respect” their offering by turning toward it. The word family also carries the sense of face or presence, picturing regard as a turning of the face.
ALSO GROWS
pānāh: Turned or turned toward.
פָּנָה
This is the action Moses asks the LORD not to take toward the offering.
pānîm: Face; presence.
פָּנִים
The related word for face makes the prayer’s image of regard as turning more visible.
נָשָׂאתִי
nāśāʾtî
GROWS FROM
נשא
n-ś-ʾ
Lift, carry, bear; in this context, take away.
English “taken” sounds like simple possession, while this Hebrew verb also means lift, carry, and bear. Its word family includes a burden and a term for a leader traditionally linked with being lifted up, so the verse measures authority against whether the people must carry its cost.
ALSO GROWS
nāśāʾ: Lift, carry, bear, or take.
נָשָׂא
Moses says he has not lifted a donkey away from them.
maśśāʾ: Burden or load.
מַשָּׂא
The same word family names what is carried, opening a connection between taking from people and making them bear a burden.
nāśîʾ: Leader or prince; traditionally linked with one lifted up.
נָשִׂיא
The word family places the elevated leader beside Moses’ claim that he has taken nothing from the people.
הֲרֵעֹתִי
harēʿōtî
GROWS FROM
רעע
r-ʿ-ʿ
Be bad, act badly; do wrong or harm.
English “hurt” can suggest a single injury, but the Hebrew means to do wrong or deal badly. Moses’ denial reaches beyond physical harm to how he has treated each person.
ALSO GROWS
raʿ: Bad or evil.
רַע
This names the root idea behind doing harm or wrong.
hērēaʿ: Act badly or do harm.
הֵרֵעַ
This is the kind of action Moses says he has not done to any of them.
THE PATTERN
Authority is exposed by whether it takes from, harms, or rules those entrusted to it.
Here I am. Answer against me before the LORD and before his anointed one. Whose ox have I taken, or whose donkey? Whom have I pressed, or whom have I crushed? From whose hand have I taken a ransom to shut my eyes with it? And I will return it to you.Make room for us. We have made no one crooked, we have ruined no one, we have grasped more from no one.Shepherd the flock of God among you, watching over it, not by force but willingly, according to God; and not for shameful gain but eagerly. Nor as those pressing down upon the portions, but becoming imprints for the flock.THE THREAD
Surely he has borne our sicknesses, and carried our wounds. Yet we reckoned him struck, beaten by God, and bowed low.The Hebrew root nāśāʾ underlies Numbers’ “taken” and Isaiah’s “borne.” Here Moses says he has lifted nothing from the people; there, the same root describes bearing what weighs on them.
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