Numbers 16:38

38 Also the fire pans of these men, whose sin cost them their lives, have become holy, because they were offered before ADONAI. Therefore, have them hammered into plates to cover the altar. This will be a sign for the people of Isra'el."

Numbers 16:38 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 16:38

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 26:18-23 ) .

Numbers 16:38 In-Context

36 ADONAI said to Moshe,

37 "Tell El'azar the son of Aharon the cohen to remove the fire pans from the fire, and scatter the smoldering coals at a distance, because they have become holy.

38 Also the fire pans of these men, whose sin cost them their lives, have become holy, because they were offered before ADONAI. Therefore, have them hammered into plates to cover the altar. This will be a sign for the people of Isra'el."

39 El'azar the cohen took the brass fire pans which the men who had been burned to death had offered, and they hammered them into a covering for the altar,

40 to remind the people of Isra'el that an ordinary person, not descended from Aharon, is not to approach and burn incense before ADONAI, if he wants to avoid the fate of Korach and his group - as ADONAI had said to him through Moshe.