Anyone who comes near the tabernacle of the LORD will die. Are we all going to perish?”
Parallel translations
- WEB Everyone who keeps approaching Yahweh’s tabernacle, dies! Will we all perish?”
- KJV Whosoever cometh any thing near unto the tabernacle of the LORD shall die: shall we be consumed with dying?
- NKJV Whoever even comes near the tabernacle of the Lord must die. Shall we all utterly die?”
- NASB Everyone who comes near, who comes near to the tabernacle of the Lord, must die. Are we to perish completely?”
- NLT Everyone who even comes close to the Tabernacle of the Lord dies. Are we all doomed to die?”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The people feared that anyone approaching the tabernacle would die, asking in despair whether they would all perish.
Overview
Their question expresses the terror of sinful people before a holy God who dwells in their midst. The very presence that should be their blessing now seems a deadly threat. This crisis sets up chapter 18, where God answers by establishing the priesthood to guard access and mediate, ultimately pointing to Christ who opens the way to God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- Num 1:51–53Whenever the tabernacle is to move, the Levites are to take it down, and whenever it is to be pitched, the Levites are to set it up. Any outsider who goes near it must be put to death.
- Ps 90:7For we are consumed by Your anger and terrified by Your wrath.
- 1 Chr 13:11–13Then David became angry because the LORD had burst forth against Uzzah; so he named that place Perez-uzzah, as it is called to this day.
- Ps 130:3–4If You, O LORD, kept track of iniquities, then who, O Lord, could stand?
- Eph 2:13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
- Num 16:26And he warned the congregation, “Move away now from the tents of these wicked men. Do not touch anything that belongs to them, or you will be swept away because of all their sins.”
- Heb 10:19–22Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus,
- Gen 3:3but about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You must not eat of it or touch it, or you will die.’”
- 1 Sam 6:19–21But God struck down some of the people of Beth-shemesh because they looked inside the ark of the LORD. He struck down seventy men, and the people mourned because the LORD had struck them with a great slaughter.
- 1 Chr 15:13It was because you Levites were not with us the first time that the LORD our God burst forth in anger against us. For we did not consult Him about the proper order.”
- Num 32:13The anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until the whole generation who had done evil in His sight was gone.
- Isa 28:22So now, do not mock, or your shackles will become heavier. Indeed, I have heard from the Lord GOD of Hosts a decree of destruction against the whole land.
- Job 34:14–15If He were to set His heart to it and withdraw His Spirit and breath,
- 2 Sam 6:6–12When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen had stumbled.
- Acts 5:5On hearing these words, Ananias fell down and died. And great fear came over all who heard what had happened.
- Deut 2:16Now when all the fighting men among the people had died,
- Num 18:4–7They are to join you and attend to the duties of the Tent of Meeting, doing all the work at the Tent; but no outsider may come near you.
- Acts 5:11–14And great fear came over the whole church and all who heard about these events.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
In the wilderness Christ is the water from the rock, the bronze serpent lifted up that the dying might look and live (John 3:14), and the star and scepter that Balaam saw rising out of Jacob.
How Numbers 17:13 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.