What Does Numbers 16:8 Mean?
And Moses said to Korah, Hear and respond, I pray you, sons of Levi.
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 said unto Korah, Hear, I pray you, ye sons of Levi:THE KEY
This is not merely a call to register a sound: שִׁמְעוּ (shimʿu, “hear and respond”) names hearing that already leans toward an answer.
THE MEANING
The appeal meets the reader at the point before an answer, where hearing is already a kind of response. It addresses people through their shared lineage, yet calls for living attention rather than relying on belonging alone. Listening is the opening movement of what follows.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that listening is complete once a sound reaches the ear. Here, hearing carries the beginning of response.
THE ROOT
שִׁמְעוּ
shimʿu
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
Hear, listen, heed; in this appeal, hear and respond.
“Hear and respond” in this verse is shimʿu. The Hebrew verb gathers hearing and response into one movement. English can make listening sound passive, but this word places the hearer at the threshold of an answer.
ALSO GROWS
shomēaʿ: One who hears or listens.
שֹׁמֵעַ
The hearer is defined by receiving the words, not merely by being near the sound.
shemuʿah: A report or news that has been heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
What is heard can become a message carried onward, showing how hearing opens into response.
מֹשֶׁה
Moshe
GROWS FROM
משה
m-sh-h
Draw out, especially from water.
“Moses” in this verse is Moshe. Moshe carries the name-nature of one drawn out of water. The speaker himself bears a name shaped by being brought out, as he now calls others to hear what follows.
ALSO GROWS
mashah: To draw out.
מָשָׁה
This is the root associated with Moses’ name and its image of being brought out of water.
meshithihu: I drew him out.
מְשִׁיתִהוּ
This form gives the name’s image as an act of drawing someone out.
לֵוִי
Levi
GROWS FROM
לוה
l-w-h
Join, attach, accompany.
Levi’s name is tied to joining, and the appeal identifies its hearers as sons of Levi. The verse addresses people already named through connection, while asking whether that connection becomes attentive response.
ALSO GROWS
lavah: To join or attach.
לָוָה
This root gives the name Levi its association with joining.
yillaveh: He will be joined.
יִלָּוֶה
This form echoes the language of joining associated with Levi’s name.
THE PATTERN
In scripture, hearing becomes complete as it receives a word and responds to it.
Hear and respond, O Israel. The LORD our God is one LORD.Now therefore, if you will truly hear and respond to my voice, and guard my covenant, then you shall be my own treasure from among all peoples, for all the earth is mine.But be makers of the word, and not hearers only, miscounting yourselves.THE THREAD
And Samuel said, Does the LORD delight in rising offerings and slaughtered offerings as much as in hearing and responding to the voice of the LORD? Behold, hearing and responding is better than a slaughtered offering; to prick the ear is better than the fat of rams.The Hebrew repeats שָׁמַע (shamaʿ, “hear and respond”) where the KJV uses both “obey” and “hearken.” That split reveals what Numbers 16:8 holds in one appeal: hearing already stands at the edge of an answer.
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