פירוש על במדבר 16:11

לכן means because of this — because of all this that I have mentioned, אתה וכל עדתך הנועדים BOTH YOU AND ALL YOUR CONGREGATION WHO ARE GATHERED with you, על ה׳ are AGAINST THE LORD, for it is by His commission that I am acting in giving the Priesthood to Aaron; and this rebellion is therefore not against “us” (Midrash Tanchuma, Korach 6).

THEREFORE THOU AND ALL THY COMPANY. “Therefore, because of this [i.e., because of what I have previously said: Hear now, ye sons of Levi: is it but a small thing etc.] thou and all thy company that are gathered together [are] against the Eternal, for I acted as His agent in giving the priesthood to Aaron, and this controversy is [therefore] not directed against us.” This is Rashi’s language. And if so, the verse is saying: “thou and all thy company — it is ye that are gathered together against G-d, and not against Aaron.” And Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra commented that the letter hei in the word hano’adim (‘that’ are gathered together) is redundant [thus the verse means: “thou and all thy company ‘are gathered together not against us but against G-d”]. It is possible that the verse is stating: “Therefore thou and all thy company that are gathered together against G-d — for it is not against Aaron [that you are gathered together] — be ye before G-d with Aaron tomorrow,”⁸⁰Verse 16. and the verse is elliptic with respect to the conditions that Moses mentioned. The purport of the verses is thus as follows: At first he [Moses] spoke unto Korach and unto all his company, saying: ‘In the morning the Eternal will make known etc.,’⁸¹Verses 5-7. Ramban is thus stating that all three verses (5-7) were not equally addressed by Moses to the same group. The first two verses (5-6) and first half of Verse 7 were addressed to Korach and all his company, while the concluding part of that verse [ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi] Moses spoke only to Korach. This is made necessary because, as Ramban has stated above, among the assembled were people from all tribes. and afterwards he continued speaking to Korach, saying: ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi,⁴⁹Further, Verse 7. and told Korach alone, Hear now, ye sons of Levi.⁸²Verse 8. Therefore he repeated himself saying, thou and all thy company that are gathered together against G-d,⁸³In Verse 11 before us. meaning that the punishment would not be directed against Korach alone, but against his whole company, for they are all gathered together against G-d.

לכן, אתה וכל עדתך הנועדים, know that I leave the matter of judging who is right entirely up to the Lord. Let Him decide who has offended Him. I do not take any countermeasures against you at all.

לכן אתה וכל עדתך, "Therefore, you and your whole congregation, etc." The word לכן is equivalent to an oath. Moses swears that Korach and associates are gathered against G'd (not against Moses). Moses did so in the hope that when they realised this they might yet become afraid to continue this quarrel and not go through with the test to determine who was fit to be a priest.

לכן אתה וכל עדתך, a reference to the insurgents described previously as הנועדים על ה'.

Because of this. Meaning: The lamed is not part of the root, unlike the aleph in the word אכן (even so), which is a construct of the words אך (even) and כן (so). There the kaf serves as the kaf of the word אך and as the kaf of the word כן. However here the lamed of the word לכן serves the same purpose as the lamed of אמרי לי אחי (say because of me that he is my brother) (Bereishis 20:13) [which means] “because of me.” Here too לכן means “because of this.”

לכן, “therefore,” i.e. since you have also demanded to have the status of priests;

'הנועדים על ה, “you, the ones who have joined together against the Lord;” you have gathered today and you will see G-d’s response tomorrow;

כי תלונו, “because you have complained;” this word normally should have been spelled with the letter י instead of the letter ו in the middle. [Our author, when making these observations merely points out that the spelling is not a scribe’s error. He does not engage in speculations of why the Torah deviated from the norm. Ed.] The word is read as if it had been spelled: תלינו.