Numbers 17:12

Complete Jewish Bible

Aharon took it, as Moshe had said, and ran into the middle of the assembly. There the plague had already begun among the people, but he added the incense and made atonement for the people.

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
The children of Yisra'el spoke to Moshe, saying, Behold, we perish, we are undone, we are all undone.

King James Version
And the children of Israel spake unto Moses, saying, Behold, we die, we perish, we all perish.

Lexham English Bible
And the Israelites said to Moses, saying, "Look! We will die! We will be destroyed! All of us will perish!

New Century Version
The people of Israel said to Moses, "We are going to die! We are destroyed. We are all destroyed!

New English Translation
The Israelites said to Moses, "We are bound to die! We perish, we all perish!

Amplified Bible
The sons of Israel said to Moses, "Look, we perish, we are doomed, all doomed!

New American Standard Bible
Then the sons of Israel spoke to Moses, saying, "Behold, we are passing away, we are perishing, we are all perishing!

Geneva Bible (1587)
And the children of Israel spake vnto Moses, saying, Behold, we are dead, we perish, we are all lost:

Legacy Standard Bible
Then the sons of Israel spoke to Moses, saying, "Behold, we are breathing our last breath, we are perishing, we are all perishing!

Contemporary English Version
The Israelites cried out to Moses, "We're done for

Darby Translation
And the children of Israel spoke to Moses, saying, Lo, we expire, we perish, we all perish.

Easy-to-Read Version
The Israelites said to Moses, "We know that we will die! We are lost! We will all be destroyed!

English Standard Version
And the people of Israel said to Moses, "Behold, we perish, we are undone, we are all undone.

George Lamsa Translation
And the children of Israel said to Moses, Behold, we perish and are lost, we all perish.

Good News Translation
The people of Israel said to Moses, "Then that's the end of us!

Christian Standard Bible®
Then the Israelites declared to Moses, “Look, we’re perishing! We’re lost; we’re all lost!

Literal Translation
And the sons of Israel spoke to Moses, saying, Behold, we die, we perish, we all perish.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And ye childre of Israel sayde vnto Moses: Beholde, we cosume awaie, we are destroied, & perishe.

American Standard Version
And the children of Israel spake unto Moses, saying, Behold, we perish, we are undone, we are all undone.

Bible in Basic English
And the children of Israel said to Moses, Truly, destruction has come on us; an evil fate has overtaken us all.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And the children of Israel spake vnto Moyses, saying: Beholde, we are wasted away and perished, we all come to naught.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And Aaron took as Moses spoke, and ran into the midst of the assembly; and, behold, the plague was begun among the people; and he put on the incense, and made atonement for the people.

King James Version (1611)
And the children of Israel spake vnto Moses, saying, Behold, wee die, we perish, we all perish.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And the children of Israel spoke to Moses, saying, Behold, we are cut off, we are destroyed, we are consumed.

English Revised Version
And the children of Israel spake unto Moses, saying, Behold, we perish, we are undone, we are all undone.

Berean Standard Bible
Then the Israelites declared to Moses, "Look, we are perishing! We are lost; we are all lost!

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Forsothe the sones of Israel seiden to Moises, Lo! we ben wastid, alle we perischiden;

Young's Literal Translation
And the sons of Israel speak unto Moses, saying, `Lo, we have expired; we have perished; we have all of us perished;

Update Bible Version
And the sons of Israel spoke to Moses, saying, Look, we perish, we are undone, we are all undone.

Webster's Bible Translation
And the children of Israel spoke to Moses, saying, Behold, we die, we perish, we all perish.

World English Bible
The children of Israel spoke to Moses, saying, Behold, we perish, we are undone, we are all undone.

New King James Version
So the children of Israel spoke to Moses, saying, "Surely we die, we perish, we all perish!

New Living Translation
Then the people of Israel said to Moses, "Look, we are doomed! We are dead! We are ruined!

New Life Bible
Then the people of Israel said to Moses, "See, we are being destroyed! We are dying! We are all dying!

New Revised Standard
The Israelites said to Moses, "We are perishing; we are lost, all of us are lost!

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Then spake the sons of Israel unto Moses saying: Lo! we have breathed our last - we are lost, we are, all, lost:

Douay-Rheims Bible
And the children of Israel said to Moses: Behold we are consumed, we all perish.

Revised Standard Version
And the people of Israel said to Moses, "Behold, we perish, we are undone, we are all undone.

THE MESSAGE
The People of Israel said to Moses, "We're as good as dead. This is our death sentence. Anyone who even gets close to The Dwelling of God is as good as dead. Are we all doomed?"

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Then the sons of Israel spoke to Moses, saying, "Behold, we perish, we are dying, we are all dying!

Contextual Overview

⁸ Moshe and Aharon came to the front of the tent of meeting. ⁹ (iv) Adonai said to Moshe, ¹⁰ "Get away from this assembly, and I will destroy them at once!" But they fell on their faces. ¹¹ Moshe said to Aharon, "Take your fire pan, put fire from the altar in it, lay incense on it, and hurry with it to the assembly to make atonement for them, because anger has gone out from Adonai , and the plague has already begun!" ¹² Aharon took it, as Moshe had said, and ran into the middle of the assembly. There the plague had already begun among the people, but he added the incense and made atonement for the people. ¹³ He stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped. Those dying from the plague numbered 14,700 — besides those who died in the Korach incident. Aharon returned to Moshe at the entrance to the tent of meeting, and the plague was stopped. (v) Adonai said to Moshe, "Speak to the people of Isra'el, and take from them staffs, one for each ancestral tribe from each leader of a tribe, twelve staffs. Write each man's name on his staff; and write Aharon's name on the staff of Levi, for each tribe's leader is to have one staff. Put them in the tent of meeting in front of the testimony, where I meet with you. The staff of the man I am going to choose will sprout buds — in this way I will put a stop to the complaints the people of Isra'el keep making against you." Moshe spoke to the people of Isra'el, and all their leaders gave him staffs, one for each leader, according to their ancestral tribes, twelve staffs. Aharon's staff was among their staffs. Moshe put the staffs before Adonai in the tent of the testimony. The next day Moshe went into the tent of the testimony, and there he saw that Aharon's staff for the house of Levi had budded — it had sprouted not only buds but flowers and ripe almonds as well. Moshe brought out all the staffs from before Adonai to all the people of Isra'el, and they looked, and each man took back his staff. (vi) Adonai said to Moshe, "Return Aharon's staff to its place in front of the testimony. It is to be kept there as a sign to the rebels, so that they will stop grumbling against me and thus not die." Moshe did this; he did as Adonai had ordered him. But the people of Isra'el said to Moshe, "Oh no! We're dead men! Lost! We're all lost! Whenever anyone approaches the tabernacle of Adonai , he dies! Will we all perish?"

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Behold: Numbers 26:11, Psalms 90:7, Proverbs 19:3, Isaiah 57:16, Hebrews 12:5

we die: Gawanoo, "we expire:" it signifies not so much to die simply, as to feel an extreme difficulty in breathing, which producing suffocation, ends at last in death. See the folly and extravagance of this sinful people, in thus rebelling against the authority of those whom Jehovah had appointed to be their rulers.

Reciprocal: Genesis 4:14 - that Exodus 12:33 - We be all Numbers 16:34 - Lest Numbers 21:5 - spake 1 Samuel 6:20 - General 2 Samuel 6:9 - afraid 1 Kings 13:33 - whosoever 1 Chronicles 13:12 - afraid of God Psalms 73:19 - they are Isaiah 33:14 - sinners Jeremiah 30:21 - and I Lamentations 3:39 - a man Ezekiel 37:11 - Our bones Amos 6:10 - Hold Acts 5:5 - great Acts 5:13 - of Romans 8:15 - the spirit Hebrews 8:4 - he should

Cross-References

Genesis 17:22
With that, God finished speaking with Avraham and went up from him.

Genesis 17:23
Avraham took Yishma‘el his son, all the slaves born in his house and all who had been bought with his money, every male among the people in Avraham's household, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin that very day, just as God had said to him.

Genesis 21:4
Avraham circumcised his son Yitz'chak when he was eight days old, as God had ordered him to do.

Leviticus 12:3
On the eighth day, the baby's foreskin is to be circumcised.

Luke 1:59
On the eighth day, they came to do the child's b'rit-milah. They were about to name him Z'kharyah, after his father,

Luke 2:21
On the eighth day, when it was time for his b'rit-milah, he was given the name Yeshua, which is what the angel had called him before his conception.

Acts 7:8
And he gave him b'rit-milah. So he became the father of Yitz'chak and did his b'rit-milah on the eighth day, and Yitz'chak became the father of Ya‘akov, and Ya‘akov became the father of the Twelve Patriarchs.

Romans 2:28
For the real Jew is not merely Jewish outwardly: true circumcision is not only external and physical.

Philippians 3:5

• b'rit-milah on the eighth day,
• by birth belonging to the people of Isra'el,
• from the tribe of Binyamin,
• a Hebrew-speaker, with Hebrew-speaking parents,
• in regard to the Torah, a Parush,

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And the children of Israel spake unto Moses,.... The princes of the tribes, who had seen the miracle of the rod, and knew that it was laid up in the most holy place, and for what purpose, which gave them a sensible concern: these, and as many as were acquainted with it, addressed Moses upon it, as follows:

saying, behold, we die, we perish, we all perish; which being expressed without the copulative, and in different words, show that they were spoken quick and in haste, and discover the passion of mind and distress they were in, and the sense they had of their sin and danger, fearing they should all die and perish, as many had already; it has respect, as some think, to punishments past and future, so the Targum of Jonathan,

"some of us have been consumed by flaming fire, and others of us have been swallowed up in the earth and are lost, and, lo, we are accounted as if all of us would perish.''

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

A new section should begin with these verses. They are connected retrospectively with Numbers 16:0; and form the immediate introduction to Numbers 18:0. The people were terror-stricken by the fate of the company of Korah and by the plague. Presumption passed by reaction into despair. Was there any approach for them to the tabernacle of the Lord? Was there any escape from death, except by keeping aloof from His presence? The answers are supplied by the ordinances which testified that the God of judgment was still a God of grace and of love.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Numbers 17:12. Behold, we die, we perish, we all perish. — גוענו gavaenu signifies not so much to die simply, as to feel an extreme difficulty of breathing, which, producing suffocation, ends at last in death. See the folly and extravagance of this sinful people. At first, every person might come near to God, for all, they thought, were sufficiently holy, and every way qualified to minister in holy things. Now, no one, in their apprehension, can come near to the tabernacle without being consumed, Numbers 17:13. In both cases they were wrong; some there were who might approach, others there were who might not. God had put the difference. His decision should have been final with them; but sinners are ever running into extremes.