Numbers 16:45

45 "Move away from these people so I can destroy them quickly." So Moses and Aaron bowed facedown.

Numbers 16:45 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 16:45

Get you up from among this congregation
That is, withdraw from them, and be separate, that they might not be involved in the same destruction with them, as well as that they might have no concern for them, or plead with the Lord in prayer on their account, but let him alone to destroy them, as follows:

that I may consume them in a moment;
as he was able to do, and had proposed to do it before, but they entreated him that he would not, ( Numbers 16:21 Numbers 16:22 ) ; as they again do:

and they fell upon their faces;
in prayer, as the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem; and so Aben Ezra observes, it was to pray to deprecate the wrath of God, and to implore his pardoning mercy for this sinful people; which shows what an excellent temper and disposition these men were of, to pray for them that had so despitefully used them as to charge them with murder, and were about to commit it on them; see ( Matthew 5:44 ) ( Luke 23:34 ) .

Numbers 16:45 In-Context

43 Then Moses and Aaron went in front of the Meeting Tent.
44 The Lord said to Moses,
45 "Move away from these people so I can destroy them quickly." So Moses and Aaron bowed facedown.
46 Then Moses said to Aaron, "Get your pan, and put fire from the altar and incense in it. Hurry to the people and remove their sin. The Lord is angry with them; the sickness has already started."
47 So Aaron did as Moses said. He ran to the middle of the people, where the sickness had already started among them. So Aaron offered the incense to remove their sin.
Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.