Numbers 16:29

29 {If they die a natural death} or {if a natural fate is visited upon them}, Yahweh has not sent me.

Numbers 16:29 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 16:29

If these men die the common death of all men
Or "as every man dies" ^F18, or the generality of men, who for the most part die of one disease or another, as a fever, and the like, or through old age:

or if they be visited after the visitation of all men;
with such visitations as men in all ages for their sins are visited with, meaning public calamities, such as pestilence, famine, and sword:

[then] the Lord hath not sent me;
it may be concluded that I had no mission nor commission from the Lord to do what I have done, but may be reckoned a deceiver and an impostor; and I am content to be accounted so, should either of the above things be the case of these men.

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FOOTNOTES:

F18 (Mdah lk twmk) "ut moriuntur omnes homines", Pagninus; "reliqui homines", Junius & Tremellius; "alii homines", Piscator.

Numbers 16:29 In-Context

27 And so they moved away from around the dwellings of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram; and Dathan and Abiram came out standing [at] the doorway of their tents, with their wives, sons, and little children.

28 And Moses said, "In this you will know that Yahweh has sent me to do all these works; [it is] not from my heart.

29 {If they die a natural death} or {if a natural fate is visited upon them}, Yahweh has not sent me.

30 But if Yahweh creates something new, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up and {all that belongs to them}, and they go down alive [to] Sheol, and you will know that these men have despised Yahweh."

31 And it happened, as soon as he finished {speaking} all these words, the ground that [was] under them split open.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "If they die like the death of every human"
• [b]. Literally "If the fate of every human is visited upon them"