민수기 16:16의 주석

והם [THOU] AND THEY [AND AARON] — they means thy congregation.

AND MOSES SAID UNTO KORACH: ‘BE THOU AND ALL THY CONGREGATION BEFORE THE ETERNAL, THOU, AND THEY, AND AARON, TOMORROW.’ Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra wrote that “this has already been stated [above, in Verses 5-7: And he spoke unto Korach and unto all his company, saying: ‘In the morning the Eternal will make known etc.’], but the meaning thereof here is: as Moses said to Korach, Be ye before the Eternal, so they took every man his censer.”⁹⁸Further, Verse 18. Thus according to Ibn Ezra, the verse here does not contain a new command heretofore not mentioned, but is the same charge mentioned already above. The reason why it is repeated here is that at the time of fulfillment Scripture records that the charge previously given to Moses was now fulfilled in deed. Ramban will offer another interpretation.
The correct interpretation appears to me to be that at first Moses told them: This do: Take you censers, Korach, and all his company … and it shall be that the man whom the Eternal doth choose, he shall be holy,⁹⁹Above, Verses 6-7. and he did not say that Aaron would be together with them. They [also] remained silent, [so that Moses thought] perhaps they did not find this acceptable and did not agree to it, for they may have thought: “If Aaron will be together with us, either the [Heavenly] fire will come down for all of us, or it will not descend at all, so that we will all be alike; whereas if Aaron will not be together with us, and the fire will not come down, the people will say that He has not chosen us, but will think that He has already chosen him [Aaron] inasmuch as the fire came down on his offerings on the eighth day [of the installation of the priests].¹⁰⁰Leviticus 9:24. But as far as that [eighth] day is concerned we have a complaint against him [Moses], namely that he should not have chosen Aaron to be the priest alone, since [the Heavenly fire] came down only in the merit of [the whole people of] Israel who made the Tabernacle, and it would have come down for any representative of the congregation, for the firstborns had not yet been exchanged at that time [for the Levites].” Therefore Korach did not want to do any sort of trial without [the participation of] Aaron. Now Dathan and Abiram were [also] present when Moses told them [these instructions], and they were thus included in what Moses said, [This do: take you censers,] Korach, and all his company.¹⁰¹Verse 6. But after he sent for them, and they said: ‘We will not come up,’¹⁰²Verse 12. then Moses was very wroth,¹⁰³Verse 15. and wanted to decree that they should not die the common death of all men.¹⁰⁴Further, Verses 29-30. Therefore Moses returned to Korach and said, Take ye every man his censer … two hundred and fifty censers; thou also, and Aaron, each his censer.¹⁰⁵Verse 17. Thus he excluded Dathan and Abiram from this group — this being the meaning of [the expression] two hundred and fifty censers, for why was it necessary to mention the number here [since the number of Korach’s company had already been given above in Verse 2]? He also included Aaron amongst them. Then Korach agreed to Moses, for he thought that the matter [of the test] would be decided equally for [both] them and Aaron [as explained above].

'אתה וכל עדתך היו לפני ה; be ready for judgment in His presence.

אתה וכל עדתך היו לפני השם, "you and your whole congregation be in the presence of the Lord!" Why did Moses not include Aaron in the same breath, seeing he too was supposed to bring incense? Why did he mention Aaron separately? Had Moses done so he would not have had to repeat the words: "you and they." Perhaps Moses wanted to emphasise that the decision would be made on the morrow. He did not want to give the rebels a chance to put off the date of the confrontation and perhaps add to their numbers in the interval. As far as Aaron was concerned Moses did not worry about when the confrontation would take place. He only had to mention that Aaron too would bring his censer.

ויאמר משה אל קרח אתה וכל עדתך היו לפני ה'....מחר, “Moses said to Korach: ‘you and your whole assembly make an appearance in the presence of Hashem tomorrow!” Ibn Ezra points out that Moses had already made the same request in verses 6-7 when he had instructed them to appear with their censers filled with incense. We therefore need to understand this as a reference to what Moses had said before the Torah gave details of the altercation. Nachmanides feels that the difference between verse 6-7 and the present verse is that here Aaron is included as participating in this competition. Perhaps Moses hoped that this fact might get some rebels to withdraw, seeing that they knew that on previous occasions Hashem had up to now always accepted Aaron’s incense offering. Alternately, the rebels felt that the participation of Aaron would ensure that heavenly fire as a sign of acceptance would materialize, as it always did. [After all, Moses’ challenge the first time had not been accepted by the rebels, it seems. Ed.] There had been a previous occasion on the eighth day of the consecration rites, the day when heavenly fire had materialized for Aaron’s incense offering, but that could be explained as G’d accepting Aaron as the people’s chosen representative. At that time the firstborn had not yet been deprived of their status. Now that Aaron’s position as representative of the people had been challenged, there was a good chance that his incense offering would not attract heavenly fire as a sign of acceptance. Datan and Aviram were present when Moses had issued the challenge for the first time. Now, after they had refused to debate the issue with him and had gratuitously insulted him, he excluded them from this test by saying: “only קרח וכל עדתו, “Korach and his entire congregation.” This is why the number 250 again is mentioned in verse 17, i.e. there would be 252 censers, one for Korach and one for Aaron. Once Korach heard that Aaron would also compete in this test he was willing to participate.

Your congregation. You might ask: Does the verse not write “You and your entire congregation”? The answer is that Korach thought Moshe would go with them; therefore Korach told him that he need not come with them because their quarrel was with Aharon, not him. Moshe then replied that “You and Aharon and they, tomorrow…” Re’m explains that this was so that one does not think that the word “they” refers to other people, aside from the two hundred and fifty men mentioned above. This would be similar to Aharon who was also not one of those mentioned. Surely this is not so, because afterwards the Torah writes “Two hundred and fifty fire pans and you [and Aharon]…” (v. 17), which refers to those mentioned above.

V. 16. ויאמר וגו׳. In Versen 6 und 7 war nur hypothetisch ausgesprochen, was sie zu tun hätten, wenn sie die Entscheidung Gottes über ihre anklagenden Behauptungen hervorrufen wollten, hier wird dies nun anordnend wiederholt. Nachdem Mosche Versuche nach keiner Seite hin Erfolg gehabt, sagte er zu Korach: wohlan, da ihr menschlichen Vorstellungen nicht zugänglich seid, היו לפני ד׳, so seid vor Gott, d. h. so stellt euch mit euren Ansprüchen vor Gott hin, wagt es, eure Ansprüche vor Gott geltend zu machen, dass Er zwischen dir, deinem Anhange und Aharon entscheide.

Another reason Moses gave the people until the morning was so that they could sanctify themselves in the interval. This was the meaning of: "be in the presence of the Lord." He certainly did not have to include Aaron as amongst the people who had to sanctify themselves as Aaron was always in a state of readiness to present himself before G'd. He did have to tell Aaron to be present at that time on the morrrow. The reason the whole instruction has been repeated seeing Moses had already told Korach and associates to take censers for incense in verse 6, is that in the interval Moses had rebuked the rebels and pointed out to them that they were guilty of overreaching themselves. In view of the fact that these people did not accept Moses' rebuke he had to tell them again to prepare for the confrontation which would be the test.