Bible Strands
Numbers 17:13
Anyone who comes near the tabernacle of the LORD will die. Are we all going to perish?”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Israelites speak to Moses in immediate response to divine judgment, voicing their conviction that they are collectively doomed.
The words — The verse uses הַקָּרֵב (haqarev), a participle meaning “the one approaching,” alongside יָמ֑וּת (yamut), “he will die,” to state a direct, unconditional link between proximity to the tabernacle and mortality.
The thread — This boundary warning aligns with the movement restrictions in Numbers 1:51 and the separation command in Numbers 16:26, while the principle of lethal consequences for crossing divine limits parallels the warning in Genesis 3:3.
Why it lands — The text establishes that unauthorized access to God’s dwelling results in death, requiring readers to acknowledge absolute divine holiness and submit to prescribed boundaries without assuming personal safety.
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
Whosoever cometh any thing near unto the tabernacle of the Lord shall die: shall we be consumed with dying?
Cross-references
- Genesis 3:3 but about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You must not eat of it or touch it, or you will die.’”
- Numbers 1:51 Whenever 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.
- Numbers 16:26 And he warned the congregation, “Move away now from the tents of these wicked men. Do not touch anything that belongs to them, or you will be swept away because of all their sins.”
- Numbers 18:4 They are to join you and attend to the duties of the Tent of Meeting, doing all the work at the Tent; but no outsider may come near you.
- Numbers 32:13 The anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until the whole generation who had done evil in His sight was gone.
- Deuteronomy 2:16 Now when all the fighting men among the people had died,
- 1 Samuel 6:19 But God struck down some of the people of Beth-shemesh because they looked inside the ark of the LORD. He struck down seventy men, and the people mourned because the LORD had struck them with a great slaughter.
- 2 Samuel 6:6 When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen had stumbled.
- 1 Chronicles 13:11 Then David became angry because the LORD had burst forth against Uzzah. So he named that place Perez-uzzah, as it is called to this day.
- 1 Chronicles 15:13 It was because you Levites were not with us the first time that the LORD our God burst forth in anger against us. For we did not consult Him about the proper order.”