Bible Strands
Numbers 16:21
“Separate yourselves from this congregation so that I may consume them in an instant.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The LORD speaks this command to Moses and Aaron in Numbers 16:21, positioned between His declaration of judgment in verse 20 and their intercessory response in verse 22.
The words — הִבָּ֣דְל֔וּ (hi.Ba.de.Lu) literally means "separate yourselves," and כְּ/רָֽגַע (ke./Ra.ga') translates directly to "like a moment."
The thread — The threat to consume the congregation instantly echoes the earlier warning in Exodus 32:10, while the command to separate reappears in Numbers 16:45 with a different Hebrew verb, הֵרֹ֗מּוּ ("Get away"), rather than a verbatim repetition.
Why it lands — The text records the divine demand for physical separation before judgment and immediately shows Moses and Aaron falling facedown to question whether one man's sin warrants destroying the entire congregation.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.
Cross-references
- Exodus 32:10 Now leave Me alone, so that My anger may burn against them and consume them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”
- Numbers 16:45 “Get away from this congregation so that I may consume them in an instant.” And Moses and Aaron fell facedown.
- Exodus 33:5 For the LORD had said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If I should go with you for a single moment, I would destroy you. Now take off your jewelry, and I will decide what to do with you.’”
- Psalms 73:19 How suddenly they are laid waste, completely swept away by terrors!
- Revelation 18:4 Then I heard another voice from heaven say: “Come out of her, My people, so that you will not share in her sins or contract any of her plagues.
- Genesis 19:15 At daybreak the angels hurried Lot along, saying, “Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.”
- Numbers 14:12 I will strike them with a plague and destroy them—and I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they are.”
- Numbers 14:15 If You kill this people as one man, the nations who have heard of Your fame will say,
- Isaiah 37:36 Then the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies!
- Jeremiah 5:16 Their quivers are like open graves; they are all mighty men.