Numbers 16:34

34 At their cries, all [the people of Israel] who were around them fled because they thought, "The earth may swallow us too!"

Numbers 16:34 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 16:34

And all Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of
them
Or because of it, as Aben Ezra; their cry was so loud, their shrieks so dreadful and piercing, that the Israelites about them fled to get out of the sound of them, as well as for their own safety. The Targum of Jonathan not only represents their cry as terrible, but gives the words they expressed at it;

``and all Israel that were round about them fled, because of the terror of their voice, when they cried and said, the Lord is righteous and his judgments truth, and truth are the words of Moses his servant, but we are wicked who have rebelled against him:''

for they said, lest the earth swallow us up [also];
which they might fear, since they had provoked the Lord, by associating with these men, and countenancing them by their presence, as they had done; who would have consumed them in a moment at first, had it not been for the intercession of Moses and Aaron.

Numbers 16:34 In-Context

32 The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households, all Korah's people, and all [their] possessions.

33 They went down alive into Sheol with all that belonged to them. The earth closed over them, and they vanished from the assembly.

34 At their cries, all [the people of Israel] who were around them fled because they thought, "The earth may swallow us too!"

35 Fire also came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men who were presenting the incense.

36 Then the Lord spoke to Moses: