Everyone who comes near, who comes near to the tabernacle of the Lord, must die. Are we to perish completely?”
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?
- 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?”
- 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 1:51–53When the tabernacle is to move, the Levites shall take it down; and when the tabernacle is to be set up, the Levites shall set it up. The stranger who comes near shall be put to death.
- Ps 90:7For we are consumed in your anger. We are troubled in your wrath.
- 1 Chr 13:11–13David was displeased, because Yahweh had broken out against Uzza. He called that place Perez Uzza, to this day.
- Ps 130:3–4If you, Yah, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?
- Eph 2:13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ.
- Num 16:26He spoke to the congregation, saying, “Depart, please, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest you be consumed in all their sins!”
- Heb 10:19–22Having therefore, brothers, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus,
- Gen 3:3but not the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden. God has said, ‘You shall not eat of it. You shall not touch it, lest you die.’”
- 1 Sam 6:19–21He struck of the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into Yahweh’s ark, he struck fifty thousand seventy of the men. Then the people mourned, because Yahweh had struck the people with a great slaughter.
- 1 Chr 15:13For because you didn’t carry it at first, Yahweh our God broke out in anger against us, because we didn’t seek him according to the ordinance.”
- Num 32:13Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel, and he made them wander back and forth in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation, who had done evil in Yahweh’s sight, was consumed.
- Isa 28:22Now therefore don’t be scoffers, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, on the whole earth.
- Job 34:14–15If he set his heart on himself, If he gathered to himself his spirit and his breath,
- 2 Sam 6:6–12When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached for God’s ark, and took hold of it; for the cattle stumbled.
- Acts 5:5Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and died. Great fear came on all who heard these things.
- Deut 2:16So, when all the men of war were consumed and dead from among the people,
- Num 18:4–7They shall be joined to you, and keep the responsibility of the Tent of Meeting, for all the service of the Tent. A stranger shall not come near to you.
- Acts 5:11–14Great fear came on the whole assembly, and on all who 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.