Numbers 16:39

39 Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers that the ones who were burned presented, and they hammered them out thinly [as] plating for the altar;

Numbers 16:39 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 16:39

And Eleazar the priest took the brazen censers
The metal of which these censers were made is particularly observed, to show that they were fit for the use they were ordered to be put unto, namely, for a covering of the altar of burnt offering, which was covered with brass, that being very suitable, since fire was continually burning on it; and by this it appears that these censers were different from those of Aaron and his sons, for theirs were silver ones; the high priest on the day of atonement indeed made use of golden one, but at all other times he used a silver one F2; and so did the common priests every day, morning and night, when they offered incense F3,

wherewith they that were burnt had offered;
the two hundred fifty men burnt with fire from the Lord, having offered incense to him with the brazen censers:

and they were made broad [plates for] a covering of the altar;
not by Eleazar, but by workmen skilled in the art of drawing or beating any kind of metal into thin plates, by the direction and order of Eleazar.


FOOTNOTES:

F2 Misn. Yoma, c. 4. sect. 4.
F3 Misn. Tamid, c. 5. sect. 5.

Numbers 16:39 In-Context

37 "Say to Eleazar son of Aaron the priest, '{Take out} the censers from among the place of burning because they are sacred, and scatter the fire outside.
38 The censers of these {who have sinned} at the cost of their lives, let them be made into gilded leafing plating for the altar; because they presented them {before Yahweh}, they are holy; and they will be a sign for the {Israelites}.'"
39 Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers that the ones who were burned presented, and they hammered them out thinly [as] plating for the altar;
40 [it was] a memorial for the {Israelites}, so that {no strange man} who is not from {the offspring} of Aaron should approach the presence [of] Yahweh to burn a smoke offering; he will not be like Korah and his company, just as Yahweh had spoken to him by the hand of Moses.
41 The next day all the community of the {Israelites} grumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying, "You have killed the people of Yahweh!"
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