No longer may the Israelites come near to the Tent of Meeting, or they will incur guilt and die.
Parallel translations
- WEB Henceforth the children of Israel shall not come near the Tent of Meeting, lest they bear sin, and die.
- KJV Neither must the children of Israel henceforth come nigh the tabernacle of the congregation, lest they bear sin, and die.
- NKJV Hereafter the children of Israel shall not come near the tabernacle of meeting, lest they bear sin and die.
- NASB And the sons of Israel shall not come near the tent of meeting again, or they will bring sin on themselves and die.
- NLT “From now on, no Israelites except priests or Levites may approach the Tabernacle. If they come too near, they will be judged guilty and will 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 ordinary Israelites were warned not to approach the Tent of Meeting, lest they bear sin and die.
Overview
To protect the people from the deadly danger of God's holiness, direct access to the sanctuary was restricted to the appointed ministers. This boundary answered the people's earlier fear of perishing. The need for mediated access highlights the gulf sin creates between God and people, a gulf bridged only in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Lev 22:9The priests must keep My charge, lest they bear the guilt and die because they profane it. I am the LORD who sanctifies them.
- Lev 20:20If a man lies with his uncle’s wife, he has uncovered the nakedness of his uncle. They will bear their sin; they shall die childless.
- Num 3:10So you shall appoint Aaron and his sons to carry out the duties of the priesthood; but any outsider who approaches the tabernacle must be put to death.”
- Num 1:51–52Whenever 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.
- Num 3:38Moses, Aaron, and Aaron’s sons were to camp to the east of the tabernacle, toward the sunrise, before the Tent of Meeting. They were to perform the duties of the sanctuary as a service on behalf of the Israelites; but any outsider who approached the sanctuary was to be put to death.
- Num 18:7But only you and your sons shall attend to your priesthood for everything concerning the altar and what is inside the veil, and you are to perform that service. I am giving you the work of the priesthood as a gift, but any outsider who comes near the sanctuary must be put to death.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 18:22 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.