Whosoever cometh any thing near unto the tabernacle of the LORD shall die: shall we be consumed with dying?
Parallel translations
- WEB Everyone who keeps approaching Yahweh’s tabernacle, dies! Will we all perish?”
- BSB Anyone who comes near the tabernacle of the LORD will die. Are we all going to perish?”
- 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 1:51–53And when the tabernacle setteth forward, the Levites shall take it down: and when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up: and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death.
- Ps 90:7For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.
- 1 Chr 13:11–13And David was displeased, because the LORD had made a breach upon Uzza: wherefore that place is called Perezuzza to this day.
- Ps 130:3–4If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?
- Eph 2:13But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
- Num 16:26And he spake unto the congregation, saying, Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye be consumed in all their sins.
- Heb 10:19–22Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
- Gen 3:3But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
- 1 Sam 6:19–21And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because the LORD had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter.
- 1 Chr 15:13For because ye did it not at the first, the LORD our God made a breach upon us, for that we sought him not after the due order.
- Num 32:13And the LORD’s anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation, that had done evil in the sight of the LORD, was consumed.
- Isa 28:22Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.
- Job 34:14–15If he set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath;
- 2 Sam 6:6–12And when they came to Nachon’s threshingfloor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of it; for the oxen shook it.
- Acts 5:5And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things.
- Deut 2:16So it came to pass, when all the men of war were consumed and dead from among the people,
- Num 18:4–7And they shall be joined unto thee, and keep the charge of the tabernacle of the congregation, for all the service of the tabernacle: and a stranger shall not come nigh unto you.
- Acts 5:11–14And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things.
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.