What Does Numbers 16:35 Mean?
And fire came out from the LORD, and devoured the two hundred and fifty men who brought near the incense.
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 there came out a fire from the LORD, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense.THE KEY
“Consumed” is the Hebrew verb “eat”: the fire does not just appear beside the offering; it devours the offerers.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s fire comes out and consumes the 250 men bringing incense. Their offering leaves them within the reach of that fire, and the violence of the scene stays explicit.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that approaching with a sacred offering guarantees safety.
THE ROOT
וַתֹּאכַל
vattoʾkhal
GROWS FROM
אכל
Eat, consume, devour.
“devoured” in this verse is vattoʾkhal. The Hebrew verb means “eat,” giving the fire the action of a devourer. The men are not merely near the flames: the verse describes them as what the fire eats.
ALSO GROWS
ʾākhal: To eat or consume.
אָכַל
The verse uses this root for the fire’s action, carrying the ordinary image of eating into a scene of destruction.
maʾakhal: Food; something eaten.
מַאֲכָל
This noun from the same root names what is eaten; here the fire is the eater and the men are what it consumes.
THE PATTERN
Scripture depicts the LORD’s fire as an active consuming force.
And fire went out from the LORD and ate them, and they died before the face of the LORD.For the LORD your God is a fire that eats, a jealous God.For our God is a fire that devours.THE THREAD
And fire went out from the LORD and ate them, and they died before the face of the LORD.Leviticus gives the same sequence: Nadab and Abihu bring strange fire, then the LORD’s fire devours them. The Hebrew uses the same root אכל, “eat, consume,” tying the two scenes through the image of fire eating.
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