What Does Numbers 16:27 Mean?
So they went up from around the dwelling of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, on every side, and Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the opening of their tents, with their wives, and their sons, and their little ones.
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
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 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 to Noah, Come, you and all your house into the ark, for I have seen you aligned before my face in this generation.And Rahab the harlot, and her father's house, and all that she had, Joshua kept alive. And she has settled in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers that Joshua sent to walk through Jericho.And they said, Lean your weight on the Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, and you will be delivered, you and your house.THE THREAD
And what he did to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, son of Reuben, how the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them, and their houses, and their tents, and all that stood at their feet, 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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