Numbers 16:4-35

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 16:10

And he hath brought thee near to him ,.... To be in his courts, to watch in his house, and wait on his priests, for which an ample provision was made by tithes. Korah is there personally addressed: and all thy brethren, the sons of Levi, with thee ; the whole tribe of them, excepting Aaron and his family, who were advanced to be priests: and seek ye the priesthood also ? the high priesthood, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan; this opens the true cause of their discontent and... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 16:11

For which cause, both thou and all thy company are gathered together against the Lord ,.... For gathering together against his ministers, whom he had put into office to act under him, and endeavouring to overturn a constitution of his erecting, and resisting and not submitting to an ordinance of his, is interpreted gathering against him, and acting in opposition to him; see Romans 13:1 , and what is Aaron, that ye murmur against him ? what is his transgression? what has he done?... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 16:12

And Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab ,.... He sent messengers to call them to the house of judgment, as the Targum of Jonathan, to the court of judicature, where the Jews suppose Moses, with the seventy elders, were now sitting: it seems these two men departed either before. Moses rose up from prayer, or however before he had finished his speech to Korah and the Levites; which being particularly directed to them, these men might think they had no concern in it, and... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 16:13

Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a land that floweth with milk and honey ?.... Meaning Egypt, as the Targum of Jonathan expresses it; which, though a plentiful country, never had, nor deserved to have this epithet given it, which is peculiar to the land of Canaan, and is here given, in opposition to the description of that land, which the Lord himself had so described; and argues great impudence and want of reverence of the divine Being, as well as great ingratitude... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 16:14

Moreover, thou hast not brought us into a land that floweth with milk and honey ,.... Meaning the land of Canaan; but this was no fault of Moses, he had brought them to the borders of it, he had bid them go up and possess it; but they refused, and chose to have spies first sent into it, who brought an ill report of it, which they listened to, and had so provoked the Lord thereby, that he ordered them to turn back, and threatened them with a consumption of them in the wilderness; or... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 16:15

And Moses was very wroth ,.... Or "it heated Moses exceedingly" F16 ויחר למשה מאד "et excanduit Mosi valde", Drusius. ; made him very angry, caused him to burn with wrath against them; even the speech they made, the words they uttered, not so much on account of their ill usage of him, as for the dishonour cast upon the Lord: and said unto the Lord, respect not thou their offering ; their "Minchah", the word is commonly used for the meat or bread offering. Aben Ezra observes,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 16:16

And Moses said unto Korah ,.... Who was still with him, when the messenger returned from Dathan and Abiram, and who heard what Moses said in his own defence: be thou and all thy company before the Lord ; at the tabernacle, at the door of it; the Targum of Jonathan is, at the house of judgment, the court of judicature, where this affair was to be tried, and that was at the tabernacle, as appears by what follows: thou, and they, and Aaron, tomorrow ; the day after Moses had sent to... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 16:17

And take every man his censer, and put incense therein ,.... Which they were to bring with them the next day from their own tents; and these might be censers which they had in their several families, and which they had used in them before the order of priesthood was set up in Aaron's family, and limited to that; or they might be a sort of chafing dishes, or vessels like censers, and would serve the present purpose; they were ordered to put fire into them, that was to be taken from the altar... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 16:18

And they took every man his censer, and that fire in them ,.... That is, they came the next morning, according to order, prepared with their censers and incense; and they took fire from off the altar of burnt offering, which stood in the court of the tabernacle: and laid incense thereon : upon the fire in their censers, and so burned it: and stood in the door of the tabernacle of the congregation ; not in the holy place, where the altar of incense was, for that would not hold them;... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 16:19

And Korah gathered all the congregation against them ,.... Not his own company only, but as many of the whole congregation of Israel as he could get together, and especially the principal men; so that it seems there was a, general prevailing inclination in the people to take part with him against Moses and Aaron, who wished him success in his undertaking, and readily came together to animate and encourage him in it, and to see the issue of it. Jarchi suggests, that all night he was going to... read more

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