Verse Lens · Context pointer
Numbers 16:39 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 39. 39And Eleazar the priest took the brasen censers, wherewith they that were burnt had offered; and they were made broad plates for a covering of the altar:
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Role in This Section
Numbers 16:39 within “Fire Consumes the Incense Offerers and Censers Become a Warning,” defines this priestly or Levitical duty, gift, limit, or consequence; in lightly modernized wording, the clause reads: Eleazar the priest took the brasen censers, wherewith they that were burnt had offered; and they were made broad plates for a covering of the altar.
Read It With
- Numbers 16:35–40
Read Numbers 16:39 with 16:35–40. It within “Fire Consumes the Incense Offerers and Censers Become a Warning,” defines this priestly or Levitical duty, gift, limit, or consequence; in lightly modernized wording, the clause reads: Eleazar the priest took the brasen censers, wherewith they that were burnt had offered; and they were made broad plates for a covering of the altar. The complete unit establishes this contextual meaning: Fire consumes the 250 men offering incense; Eleazar gathers their bronze censers from the burning, hammers them into altar covering, and preserves a warning that no non-Aaronide may offer incense.
Why It Needs Context
Numbers 16:39 within “Fire Consumes the Incense Offerers and Censers Become a Warning,” defines this priestly or Levitical duty, gift, limit, or consequence; in lightly modernized wording, the clause reads: Eleazar the priest took the brasen censers, wherewith they that were burnt had offered; and they were made broad plates for a covering of the altar. Its responsible force depends on 16:35–40; isolated from “Fire Consumes the Incense Offerers and Censers Become a Warning,” the verse's actor, action, reason, object, or transition could be mistaken for independent teaching.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Numbers 16:35–40 — Fire Consumes the Incense Offerers and Censers Become a WarningSources used for this context pointer
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: Numbers 16:35–40, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Numbers
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project
Open Scriptures, release 2.2, 2021
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, numbers, speeches, poems, legal clauses, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Num.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 16:35–40
Open source ↗