וַיָּ֥מָת נָדָ֖ב וַאֲבִיה֑וּא בְּהַקְרִיבָ֥ם אֵשׁ זָרָ֖ה לִפְנֵ֥י יְהוָֽה
Nadab and Abihu died, when they offered strange fire before Yahweh.
World English Bible · Public Domain
Numbers 26:61
Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) Numbers 26:61 appears in the Hebrew Old Testament. The text above is from the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Each word links to its Strong’s number, a concise gloss, and parsing drawn from the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible morphology. Click any word for its full Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB) entry.
English Translation
Nadab and Abihu died, when they offered strange fire before Yahweh.
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Compare translations 3
The same verse in 3 English versions, stacked beneath the original-language interlinear above. Click any original word for its lexicon entry.
Each is an independent rendering of the whole verse — the interlinear is not word-aligned to these translations.
Highlighted words mark where these versions differ — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment.
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World English Bible Public Domain
Nadab and Abihu died, when they offered strange fire before Yahweh.
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King James Version Public Domain
And Nadab and Abihu died, when they offered strange fire before the LORD.
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
And Nadab and Abihu died when they offered unfamiliar fire before the face of Yahweh.
unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).
Show all 18 translations
Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.
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World English Bible Public Domain
Nadab and Abihu died, when they offered strange fire before Yahweh.
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Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
but Nadab and Abihu died when they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD.
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Majority Standard Bible Public Domain
but Nadab and Abihu died when they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD.
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King James Version Public Domain
And Nadab and Abihu died, when they offered strange fire before the LORD.
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American Standard Version (1901) Public Domain
And Nadab and Abihu died, when they offered strange fire before Jehovah.
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Revised Version (1885) Public Domain
And Nadab and Abihu died, when they offered strange fire before the LORD.
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Geneva Bible (1599) Public Domain
And Nadab and Abihu dyed, because they offred strange fire before the Lord.
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Douay-Rheims (1899) Public Domain
Of whom Nadab and Abiu died, when they had offered the strange fire before the Lord.
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Young's Literal Translation Public Domain
and Nadab dieth -- Abihu also -- in their bringing near strange fire before Jehovah.
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Literal Standard Version CC BY-SA 4.0
and Nadab dies—Abihu also—in their bringing strange fire near before YHWH.
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Unlocked Literal Bible CC BY-SA 4.0
Nadab and Abihu died when they offered before Yahweh unacceptable fire.
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
And Nadab and Abihu died when they offered unfamiliar fire before the face of Yahweh.
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Darby Bible Public Domain
And Nadab and Abihu died, when they presented strange fire before Jehovah.
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World Messianic Bible Public Domain
Nadab and Abihu died when they offered strange fire before the LORD.
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Webster's Bible Public Domain
And Nadab and Abihu died, when they offered strange fire before the LORD.
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Free Bible Version CC BY-SA 4.0
but Nadab and Abihu died when they offered forbidden fire in the Lord's presence.
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Bible in Basic English Public Domain
Death overtook Nadab and Abihu when they made an offering of strange fire before the Lord.
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JPS Tanakh (1917) Public Domain
And Nadab and Abihu died, when they offered strange fire before the LORD.
Literal Standard Version (2020), Covenant Press — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). Unlocked Literal Bible (unfoldingWord) — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult). Free Bible Version, Dr. Jonathan Gallagher — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org).
Word by word
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וַאֲבִיה֑וּא
ʼĂbîyhûwʼ
H30
“and · Abihu”
Conjunction + Noun, Proper
- Appears 12× in the Hebrew Bible
- First appears at Exodus 6:23
- Part of Speech
- Conjunction + Noun
- Type
- Proper
Full BDB Definition
Abihu = "he is (my) father"
- a son of Aaron destroyed for sacrificing strange fire to God
- וַיָּ֥מָת mûwth H4191 “and · to die” Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
- נָדָ֖ב Nâdâb H5070 “Nadab” Noun, Proper
- וַאֲבִיה֑וּא ʼĂbîyhûwʼ H30 “and · Abihu” Conjunction + Noun, Proper
- בְּהַקְרִיבָ֥ם qârab H7126 “in/at · to approach · them” Preposition + Verb, Hiphil, Infinitive Construct + Suffix, Personal, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural
- אֵשׁ ʼêsh H784 “fire” Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Absolute
- זָרָ֖ה zûwr H2114 “strange” Adjective, Adjective, Feminine, Singular, Absolute
- לִפְנֵ֥י pânîym H6440 “to/for · face(s) of” Preposition + Noun, Common, Both, Plural, Construct
- יְהוָֽה Yᵉhôvâh H3068 “LORD” Noun, Proper
About this verse
These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →
- 8
- words
- 8
- distinct lemmas
- Pentateuch
- section
Notable vocabulary
The rarest word here is וַאֲבִיה֑וּא Abihu H30 — appearing just 12 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.
Shared distinctive vocabulary
וַאֲבִיה֑וּא Abihu H30 occurs in 12 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:
Grammatical profile
- 2 verbs
- 5 nouns
- 1 adjective
Verb forms
- וַיָּ֥מָת Qal · Sequential Imperfect
- בְּהַקְרִיבָ֥ם Hiphil · Infinitive Construct
Hebrew & Septuagint length
In English translation the verse runs 11 words from the Hebrew and 18 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — the Septuagint runs noticeably longer here. See the side-by-side →
A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.
Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.
Cross-references
3Topical passages linked to Numbers 26:61 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.
- Leviticus 10:1–2 Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer, and put fire in it, and laid incense on it, and offered strange fire before Yahweh, which he had not commanded them.
- Numbers 3:4 Nadab and Abihu died before Yahweh, when they offered strange fire before Yahweh, in the wilderness of Sinai, and they had no children. Eleazar and Ithamar ministered in the priest's office in the presence of Aaron their father.
- 1 Chronicles 24:1–2 Thes were the divisions of the sons of Aaron. The sons of Aaron: Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.
Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).
Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint
The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.
Here the Septuagint runs noticeably longer than the Hebrew — LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) 18 words vs World English Bible 11. A rough length comparison of the two English translations, not a word-level alignment — read both below.
These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.
καί ἀποθνήσκω ναδαβ καί αβιουδ ἐν ὁ προςφέρω αὐτός πῦρ ἀλλότριος ἔναντι κύριος ἐν ὁ ἔρημος σινα
And Nadab and Abiud died when they offered strange fire before the Lord in the wilderness of Sina.
LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain
Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →
Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)
The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.
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Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)
וּמִית נָדָב וַאֲבִיהוּא בְּקָרוֹבֵיהוֹן אֶשָׁתָא נוּכְרֵיתָא קֳדָם יְיָ
(no public-domain English translation for this verse)
Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
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Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)
וּמִיתוּ נָדָב וַאֲבִיהוּא בִּקְרוֹבֵיהוֹן אֵישָׁתָא נוּכְרֵיתָא מִן תַּפְיַין קֳדָם יְיָ
But Nadab and Abihu died when they offered the strange fire from the hearth-pots before the Lord.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Lesson kit
Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.
Numbers, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 8 words (8 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is ʼĂbîyhûwʼ (“Abihu”). The Greek Septuagint runs longer here. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Discussion questions
- What does “Abihu” (ʼĂbîyhûwʼ) contribute to the verse as a whole?
- How does Exodus 6:23, which shares the word «Abihu», read alongside this verse?
- The Septuagint runs longer here than the Hebrew. What might account for the difference?
- These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
- «וַיָּ֥מָת» is a Qal Sequential Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
- Compare how The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges and Whedon's Commentary on the Bible read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?
Things to notice
- These translations choose different wording for 5 words in this verse.
- 8 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 8 words in this verse.
Commentary
Notes on Numbers 26:61 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.
Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Whedon's Commentary on the Bible
Daniel D. Whedon
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.