Commentary for Numbers 17:6

YE HAVE KILLED THE PEOPLE OF THE ETERNAL.’ Onkelos rendered it: “You have caused the death of the people of the Eternal.” Thus he interprets the verse [to mean that] the people accused Moses and Aaron that because they advised Korach and his company to offer up strange incense to G-d of their own accord, those who offered it up were burnt, since G-d had not told Moses to offer up this incense, nor did he tell Israel to do so in the name of G-d; thus they of their own accord proposed this matter as a result of which the people died — when they could have [just as well] given another sign or miracle, through the rod, or [through] some other [harmless] test.
And Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra said [that the verse means that the people said]: “What proof is this that the tribe of Levi has been chosen, and that Aaron was chosen to be the High Priest? It is possible that by your prayer or by some [secret] wisdom which you possess you burnt those that offered the incense.” [All this is the language of Ibn Ezra]. And so indeed it appears, that they did not yet believe [in the Divine selection of the tribe of Levi], for when He stated afterwards, Speak unto the children of Israel, and take of them rods, one for each fathers’ house;¹⁷⁷Further, Verse 17. And it shall come to pass, that the man whom I shall choose, his rod shall bud, and I will make to cease from Me the murmurings etc.¹⁷⁸Ibid., Verse 20. — this proves that the people did not [yet] believe, as a result of the fire, that the Levites were chosen [for service in the Sanctuary] and that the firstborn had been exchanged for them, but they thought that Moses and Aaron had caused the fire [of their own accord]. Or [it may be that the people thought] that the punishment came because they burnt the incense with strange fire which He had not commanded them,¹⁷⁹Leviticus 10:1. and [that Aaron was saved because] Aaron’s incense was the [daily] incense of the morning [commanded by G-d],¹⁸⁰Exodus 30:7. as I have explained.¹⁸¹Above, 16:5. [According to this interpretation] the complaint [of the people] was only about [those two hundred and fifty men who offered the incense and who were consumed by] the fire,¹⁸²Ibid., Verse 35. but not about those men [Korach, Dathan, and Abiram] who were swallowed up by the earth,¹⁸³Ibid., Verse 32. for G-d had said to Moses, Get you up from about the dwelling of Korach, Dathan, and Abiram,¹⁸⁴Ibid., Verse 24. and this alluded to the opening of the mouth of the earth. Moses had told this to Israel in the name of G-d. Furthermore, Dathan and Abiram were guilty to a greater extent [in this incident than the two hundred and fifty others], since they mocked the messengers of G-d, and despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets.¹⁸⁵II Chronicles 36:16. [Hence the people did not complain about the punishment meted out to Korach, Dathan, and Abiram, but only about the fire that consumed the two hundred and fifty men who offered up the incense.]¹⁸⁶Ramban wrote all the above as a commentary on Ibn Ezra’s interpretation. In the following text, he presents his own view of this matter.
The correct interpretation appears to me to be that the people now believed in the priesthood of Aaron [that he and his descendants were chosen by G-d to serve as priests], since a fire had already come forth from before the Eternal and consumed his offerings,¹⁸⁷See Leviticus 9:24. but they wanted the firstborn to minister in the Tabernacle instead of the Levites, and they did not like the exchange [for the Levites] which they had done to them, but they wanted all the tribes [through their firstborn] to have a share in the Service of the House of G-d. Thus they complained: “You have killed them, for you advised them that they should offer up incense like priests, when they were only fit to do the service of the Levites, but not to act as priests who offer up the incense.” This is the meaning of the expression, and, behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded¹⁸⁸Further, Verse 23. [thus showing that the people’s complaint was because of the appointment of the tribe of Levi to minister in the Tabernacle, and now it was confirmed that they were indeed chosen instead of the firstborn of all the tribes].

'אתם המתם את עם ה, by telling all these people to test G’d by offering incense, something that is only fit to be offered together with the public burnt-offering burned on the altar every day in the morning and evening by the individual priest performing that service. If you wanted to make such a test you should have done so with meat offerings, a procedure in which a large number of priests can participate.

וילנו כל עדת בני ישראל, The whole congregation of Israel murmured, etc. What is the meaning of the word לאמר in this verse? Seeing the complaint was directed only at Moses and Aaron as has been stated what could the word לאמר possibly add? Perhaps the people did not spell out their complaint as did the Torah., i.e. they did not actually say: "you have killed the people of G'd." They merely voiced complaints which amounted to much the same as if they had made this direct accusation which the Torah summarised here. The words וילנו לאמר read together were equivalent to their having said the words quoted in their name in our verse.

'אתם המתם את עם ה, they meant that while they agreed that Datan and Aviram having been swallowed up by the earth as being an appropriate punishment for them, they did not see why the 250 men with them who had offered incense deserved the same fate.

אתם המתם את עם ה', “you have killed the people of Hashem. Nachmanides points out that Onkelos by his translation of אתון גרמתון דמות עמא, i.e. “you have caused the death of the people,” that the accusation meant that by inducing the 250 men to offer the incense, Moses and Aaron had made themselves guilty of their deaths. The people did not believe that this suggestion by Moses had been either made at the command of G’d, or even with the silent approval of G’d, but had been of his own doing. They felt that the point Moses and Aaron were trying to make could easily have been made by a test such as the one with the staffs, and then no one would have had to die. They claimed that Moses must have known that presenting incense in an unauthorized manner would lead to the death of those offering it. Their accusation then was: “although you knew that following your suggestion meant that they would die, you still made this suggestion.” Ibn Ezra, taking a different approach, writes that the people rejected the notion that the death of the 250 men as well as the death of Korach and his family proved that G’d had selected the tribe of Levi over the firstborn, and that Aaron was His choice as High Priest. Moses may simply have prayed to G’d to kill the rebels, and in his capacity of prophet, an undisputed capacity, G’d had accepted his prayer. Ibn Ezra’s explanation makes sense seeing that the people accepted the ruling that Aaron was the chosen High Priest only after the staff representing the tribe of Levi had sprouted blossoms and produced almonds, as we have been told in Concerning that experiment, the Torah had written (verse 20) that Hashem would cause the complaints against Him to cease. According to Ibn Ezra, the people’s complaint at this stage did not refer to the descent below the earth of Korach and his cohorts, it only concerned the death by burning of the 250 people who had genuinely wanted to come closer to G’d by exercising the privilege to present an incense offering. After all, they had all heard (or understood) that G’d had told Moses that the people should remove themselves from around Korach, whereas no such instruction had been given concerning standing close to the 250 men. The guilt of Datan and Aviram, who had publicly ridiculed G’d’s appointed leaders was obviously even greater, so that no one challenged the fact that they had died for their sin. Personally, (Nachmanides writing) the correct interpre-tation of all the foregoing is that the people did believe that Aaron was G’d’s chosen priest, for they had observed previously that fire had come down from heaven consuming his incense without his coming to any harm thereby. What the people wanted was that the firstborn be allowed to continue performing secondary tasks in the Tabernacle, the tasks that had now been allocated to the Levites. Only in this way, did they feel, would all the tribes have representation in the Tabernacle and the service being performed therein. They accused Moses of having designed a test for the firstborn that would have equated them with the priests, something that they had not even aspired to, and as a result by their overstepping themselves Moses had caused the death of these 250 firstborn.

V. 6. אתם המתם וגו׳. Sie hatten, wie es aus V. 17 f. scheint, aus dem Sterben der zweihundertundfünfzig noch nicht die Überzeugung geschöpft, dass die Erwählung Aharons zum ausschließlichen Priestertum rein nur auf einer von Gott ausgehenden, das Wesen seines Heiligtums sichernden, von allem Persönlichen ferne stehenden Anordnung beruhe. Sie begriffen, wie es scheint, die allerdings auf göttlicher Anordnung beruhende Erwählung Aharons doch nur mehr als eine dem Bruder Mosche gewährte persönliche Auszeichnung, das Verbrechen der zweihundertundfünfzig daher als eine von Gott bestrafte persönliche Beleidigung Mosche und Aharons, die, wie sie meinten, durch Verzeihung der erlittenen Beleidigung dem Untergange einer so bedeutenden Anzahl Familienväter wohl hätten vorbeugen können und — sollen. Sie begriffen das rein Sachliche des Vorgangs nicht, dem in keiner Weise durch eine solche Verzeihung ein Genüge zu leisten war, das vielmehr gebieterisch eine Gottesentscheidung forderte, wenn das Gotteswerk, dem gegenüber Mosche und Aharon nur bedeutungslos verschwindende Organe waren, überhaupt für sein ewiges Ziel gerettet und erhalten bleiben sollte.

'אתם המיתם את עם ה, “you (Moses and Aaron) have killed the Lord’s people!” The people accused Moses and Aaron as having done this knowingly, as they knew telling them to offer incense outside the sacred soil of the Tabernacle would result in their death. After all, Nadav and Avihu who had been anointed as priests, as opposed to the 250 men Moses told to offer incense had been killed on the spot for doing so in the wrong place and at the wrong time. Moses told Aaron to take the fire-pans that had served these 250 men as the base for their incense and to demonstrate that it was not the incense nor the pans in which it had been offered that killed people but that it was their sins which killed them. When the people heard this, they replied that this was no proof, as they may have died seeing that they were not worthy of becoming priests. G–d therefore ordered Moses to take staffs from each of the leaders of the tribes of Israel and to place them side by side inside the Tent of testimony, (Tabernacle) each staff belonging to the respective leader of their tribe, (verse 17) [people whom they considered most worthy, Ed.]) In this way, from the results of this test, G–d hoped to silence the people’s complaints about nepotism once and for all. (verse 25)

You have killed the people of Adonoy. The people were not complaining about Korach, Dasan and Aviram. On the contrary, they were happy that they died, as I explained (Devorim 11:6). They were pained about the death of the 250 men, though, and they suspected that Moshe and Aharon invented the advice to offer the incense. If Moshe and Aharon had not given them those instructions, the 250 men would not have done anything before Korach, Dasan and Aviram were swallowed up, and they would have repented. However, in truth all this was done through prophecy as well, as I explained earlier.

'אתם המתם את עם ה, “you are killing G-d’s people!” They meant that Moses and Aaron, by suggesting that the two hundred and fifty men offer incense, something non priests were forbidden to do, and doing it in a location where incense was not to be offered, were the direct cause of these people dying a sudden death. All of this had been caused by Moses and Aaron substituting the Levites for the firstborn, who previously were in their rights to offer incense.

Furthermore, the audacity of the people who had witnessed how Moses had not stood on ceremony but had himself gone to Datan and Aviram in order to give them a chance to escape death if they recanted, is impossible to understand. What could Moses and Aaron possibly have been guilty of? We must conclude therefore that the complaint of the people concerned the very type of test Moses and Aaron arranged, i.e. the offering of incense of all the associates of Korach at one and the same time. They claimed that Moses only had to make this test between Korach and Aaron and as a result, as soon as G'd had shown that He accepted the incense from Aaron and not from Korach, the other 250 men would have learned their lesson and would not have had to die by engaging in this confrontation. The word לאמר was an accusation against Moses who had made all these men offer incense. The people did not complain about the death of either Korach or Datan and Aviram. They were only angry at the death of the 250 men who represented the elite of the nation, its most senior judges, etc., who they claimed had died through an exercise orchestrated by Moses and Aaron. According to some of our sages, the people's complaint was directed at the very nature of the offering Moses had insisted on, i.e. קטורת, the holiest of the holy. He should have allowed them to perform a relatively minor form of Temple service instead. According to that view the word לאמר addresses the instruction to offer incense.