Numbers 16:30

30 But if the LORD does a new thing and the earth opens her mouth and swallows them up with all their things and they go down alive into Sheol, then ye shall know that these men have provoked the LORD.

Numbers 16:30 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 16:30

But if the Lord make a new thing
Or "create a creation", or "creature" ^F19, what never was before, or put those persons to a death that none ever in the world died of yet; what that is he means is next expressed:

and the earth open her mouth and swallow them up, with all that
[appertain] unto them;
their persons, their wives, children and substance:

and they go down quick into the pit;
alive into the grave the opening earth makes for them; this is the new thing created; though the Rabbins say ^F20, the mouth of the earth, or the opening of the earth, was created from the days of the creation, that is, it was determined or decreed so early that it should be:

then ye shall understated that these men have provoked the Lord;
by rising up against Moses and Aaron, and so against the Lord; by falsely accusing his servants, and endeavouring to set the people against them, and so alter the constitution of things in church and state.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F19 (arby hayrb) "creationem, creaverit", Pagninus, Montanus, Munster, Fagius; "creaturam", Vatablus, Drusius.
F20 Pirke Abot, c. 5. sect. 6. Pirke Eliezer, c. 19.

Numbers 16:30 In-Context

28 And Moses said, Hereby ye shall know that the LORD has sent me to do all these works, for I have not done them out of my own heart.

29 If these men die the common death of all men or if they are visited after the visitation of all men, then the LORD has not sent me.

30 But if the LORD does a new thing and the earth opens her mouth and swallows them up with all their things and they go down alive into Sheol, then ye shall know that these men have provoked the LORD.

31 And it came to pass as he had made an end of speaking all these words that the ground broke open under them;

32 the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, and their houses and all the men of Korah and all their goods.