And Nadab and Abihu died, when they offered strange fire before the LORD.
Parallel translations
- WEB Nadab and Abihu died when they offered strange fire before Yahweh.
- BSB but Nadab and Abihu died when they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD.
- NKJV And Nadab and Abihu died when they offered profane fire before the Lord.
- NASB But Nadab and Abihu died when they offered strange fire before the Lord.
- NLT But Nadab and Abihu died when they burned before the Lord the wrong kind of fire, different than he had commanded.
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
Nadab and Abihu died for offering unauthorized fire before Yahweh.
Overview
This sobering note recalls the judgment of Leviticus 10, where Aaron's eldest sons offered strange fire and were consumed. Inserted into the census, it warns that worship must be on God's terms, not man's, and it magnifies the perfect, accepted offering of Christ, who alone draws near to God without defect.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 3
- Num 3:4And Nadab and Abihu died before the LORD, when they offered strange fire before the LORD, in the wilderness of Sinai, and they had no children: and Eleazar and Ithamar ministered in the priest’s office in the sight of Aaron their father.
- Lev 10:1–2And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not.
- 1 Chr 24:1–2Now these are the divisions of the sons of Aaron. The sons of Aaron; Nadab, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.
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 26:61 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
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