Numbers 16:31

31 ¹And as soon as he had finished speaking all these words, the ground under them split apart.

Numbers 16:31 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 16:31

And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all
these things
As soon as he had finished his discourse, which was addressed to the congregation, and, according to Josephus ^F21, after a long prayer to God, which that writer gives at large; immediately so it was,

that the ground clave asunder that [was] under them;
on which they stood, not from any natural cause, as by subterranean volcano, forcibly making their way and bursting the earth, and so getting vent, which has been thought to be the cause of earthquakes; but this was by the immediate hand and almighty power of God, and came to pass just as Moses suggested it would, and as soon as he had uttered his words, which made it the more observable.

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FOOTNOTES:

F21 Antiqu. l. 4. c. 3. Sect. 2.

Numbers 16:31 In-Context

29 If these men die as all men die, or if they are visited by the fate of all mankind, then the LORD has not sent me.

30 But if the LORD creates something new, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men have despised the LORD."

31 And as soon as he had finished speaking all these words, the ground under them split apart.

32 And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the people who belonged to Korah and all their goods.

33 So they and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol, and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly.

Cross References

• 1. Numbers 26:10; Numbers 27:3; Deuteronomy 11:6; Psalms 106:17