Numbers 16:38

The censers of these sinners against their own souls, let them make them broad plates for a covering of the altar: for they offered them before the LORD, therefore they are hallowed: and they shall be a sign unto the children of Israel.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(38) These sinners against their own souls.—i.e., men who have forfeited their lives by their sin.

Let them make them broad plates . . . —It was thus that the sacrilegious act of Korah and his company was made the occasion of a permanent warning against all similar profanation of holy things. The altar of burnt-offering had already a covering of brass; but, as the altar was made of wood, an additional covering afforded further security against the fire which was continually burning on it. The censers of Korah and his company were made of brass (Numbers 16:39). Those of Aaron and his sons are thought by some to have been made of silver, but there seems to be no sufficient authority for this supposition; and in Exodus 38:3, where the same Hebrew word is used, but which in the English version is rendered “firepans,” it is said that all the vessels of the altar were made of brass. In the time of Solomon the censers were made of gold (1Kings 7:50). That used by Aaron on the great day of atonement was of gold. (Comp. Hebrews 9:4; Revelation 8:3.)

Benson Commentary

Numbers 16:38. Their own souls — That is, their own lives; who were the authors of their own destruction. The altar — Of burnt-offerings, which was made of wood, but covered with brass before this time, (Exodus 27:1-2,) to which this other covering was added for further ornament, and security against the fire, continually burning upon it. A sign — A warning to all strangers to take heed of invading the priesthood.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

16:35-40 A fire went out from the Lord, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense, while Aaron, who stood with them, was preserved alive. God is jealous of the honour of his own institutions, and will not have them invaded. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. The censers are devoted, and, as all devoted things, must be made serviceable to the glory of God. This covering of the altar would remind the children of Israel of this event, that others might hear and fear, and do no more presumptuously. They brought destruction on themselves both in body and soul. Thus all who break the law and neglect the gospel choose and love death.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

These sinners against their own souls - That is, "against their own lives." By their sin they had brought destruction upon themselves.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

37-40. Speak unto Eleazar—He was selected lest the high priest might contract defilement from going among the dead carcasses.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Against their own souls, i.e. their own lives; who were the authors of their own death and destruction. Compare 1 Kings 2:23 Proverbs 20:2. This he saith for the vindication of God’s justice and his own ministry in this severe dispensation.

The altar, to wit, of burnt-offerings, which was made of wood, but covered with brass before this time, Exodus 27:1,2, to which this other covering was added for further ornament and security against the fire, which was continually burning upon it.

A sign; a monument or warning to all strangers to take heed of invading the priesthood, as it follows, Numbers 16:40.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The censers of these sinners against their own souls,.... Who by burning incense in them sinned, and by sinning hurt and ruined their souls:

let them make them broad plates for a covering of the altar; the altar of burnt offering, which, though it had a covering of brass, another made of these were to be over it, for the further security of it, being of from the fire continually burning on it; these censers were to be beaten into broad plates, by the workmen who understood how to do it:

for they offered them before the Lord, therefore they are hallowed; they offered them in his presence, they burned incense in them, and to him, though it was not their business, but the business of the priests; yet these being done, and by his orders, for an open trial who were his priests and who not, they were not to be put to common use:

and they shall be a sign unto the children of Israel; a memorial sign, a sign bringing this affair to remembrance, as it is explained in Numbers 16:40; this was a sign to the priests, that they only were to offer every kind of offerings, and to the Levites, who attended the priests at the altar continually, and so had every day a sight of it and of those plates upon it, which would remind them of this fact, and teach them not to usurp the priest's office; and to all the children of Israel, to learn from hence that none were to burn incense but the priests of the Lord, for doing which Uzziah, though a king, was punished, 2 Chronicles 26:18.

Geneva Study Bible

The censers of these sinners {o} against their own souls, let them make them broad plates for a covering of the altar: for they offered them before the LORD, therefore they are hallowed: and they shall be a {p} sign unto the children of Israel.

(o) Who caused their own death.

(p) Of God's judgments against rebels.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

38. (om. even) the fire-pans of these sinners at the cost of their lives] R.V. marg. is an explanation of the R.V. But the latter is grammatically doubtful. LXX. has ὅτι ἡγίασαν τὰ πυρεῖα κ.τ.λ. (‘because they made holy the fire-pans’ &c.). Perhaps we should read ‘for the fire-pans of these sinners have become holy at the cost &c.’ Some have seen an allusion to these words in Hebrews 12:3, ‘such contradiction of sinners against themselves’ (Westcott and Hort’s text).

for a covering of the altar] This must be the altar of burnt-offering, since the altar of incense was covered with gold, not with brass or bronze (Exodus 30:3; Exodus 37:26). But according to Exodus 27:2; Exodus 38:2, the altar of burnt-offering was already covered with bronze at its original manufacture at Sinai. The passage is another indication that the priestly writings are not all from one pen, but contain divergent traditions and date from different periods.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 38. - These sinners against their own souls, בְּנַפְשֹׁתָם, "against their own lives." The thought is not that they had ruined their souls, but that they had forfeited their lives. The Pentateuch does not contemplate any consequences of sin beyond physical death. The same phrase occurs in Proverbs 20:2. For a covering of the altar. The altar of burnt incense. The censers were no doubt brazen pans, and when beaten out would form plates which could be affixed to the boards of which the frame of the altar was composed. Numbers 16:38

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

(Or Numbers 17:1-5). After the destruction of the sinners, the Lord commanded that Eleazar should take up the censers "from between the burning," i.e., from the midst of the men that had been burned, and scatter the fire (the burning coals in the pans) far away, that it might not be used any more. "For they (the censers) are holy;" that is to say, they had become holy through being brought before Jehovah (Numbers 16:39); and therefore, when the men who brought them were slain, they fell as banned articles to the Lord (Leviticus 27:28). "The censers of these sinners against their souls" (i.e., the men who have forfeited their lives through their sin: cf. Proverbs 20:2; Habakkuk 2:10), "let them make into broad plates for a covering to the altar" (of burnt-offering). Through this application of them they became a sign, or, according to Numbers 16:39, a memorial to all who drew near to the sanctuary, which was to remind them continually of this judgment of God, and warn the congregation of grasping at the priestly prerogatives. The words, יהיה ולא, in Numbers 16:40, introduce the predicate in the form of an apodosis to the subject, which is written absolutely, and consists of an entire sentence. היה with כּ signifies, "to experience the same fate as" another.