Numbers Chapter 4 verse 20 Holy Bible
but they shall not go in to see the sanctuary even for a moment, lest they die.
read chapter 4 in ASV
But they themselves are not to go in to see the holy place, even for a minute, for fear of death.
read chapter 4 in BBE
but they shall not go in and see for a moment the holy things, lest they die.
read chapter 4 in DARBY
But they shall not go in to see when the holy things are covered, lest they die.
read chapter 4 in KJV
But they shall not go in to see when the holy things are covered, lest they die.
read chapter 4 in WBT
but they shall not go in to see the sanctuary even for a moment, lest they die."
read chapter 4 in WEB
and they go not in to see when the holy thing is swallowed, that they have died.'
read chapter 4 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 20. - They shall not go in to see when the holy things are covered. This translation is disputed. The word rendered "are covered" is the Piel infinitive from bala, to swallow, and so to destroy. It may signify the extreme rapidity with which the most holy things were hidden from sight and removed from touch, so as to become, as it were, non-existent for the time. So the Syriac, Arabic, Samaritan, and the Targums of Onkelos and Palestine. On the other hand, it may be a proverbial expression, "in a swallow, at a gulp," i.e., "for an instant," as in Job 7:19. And so the Septuagint, ἐξάπινα, and most modern scholars. Whichever way, however, we take it, the phrase, "they shall not go in to see," seems to limit the prohibition under pain of death to the deliberate act of entering the tabernacle out of curiosity during the process of packing up the holy things. The case of the men of Bethshemesh, therefore (1 Samuel 6:19), does not fall within the letter of this law, although it does within its spirit. The command, thus limited, is no doubt an addition to the previous command not to touch, but it is altogether in keeping with it. If it was the will of God to hedge about these sacred symbols of his presence and his worship with an awful sanctity, it is obvious that he was as much bound to defend them against the irreverent prying of the eye as against the irreverent touch of the hand; and the prying here prohibited would have been distinctly willful and inexcusable.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(20) But they shall not go in to see when the holy things are covered.--Better, But they shall not go in to see the holy things (or, the sanctuary) for a moment. The Levites were not per-mitted to enter the holy place in which the priests ministered, much less the Holy of Holies. Whether this rule was or was not relaxed at the time of the removal of the Tabernacle, as the prohibition against entrance into the Holy of Holies must have been in regard to the priests, the Levites were not permitted in any case to look upon the Ark and the other holy things until they were covered.
