Numbers 16:26

26 He then spoke to the community: "Back off from the tents of these bad men; don't touch a thing that belongs to them lest you be carried off on the flood of their sins."

Numbers 16:26 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 16:26

And he spake unto the congregation
To the people of Israel assembled together on this occasion: some, out of ill will to Moses and Aaron, inclining to the side of Korah and his accomplices, and some out of curiosity to see the issue of this affair saying, depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men;
these turbulent, seditious, and ill-designing men, disturbers of the commonwealth and church of Israel, enemies to the peace of its civil and ecclesiastic state: and when Moses desires the people to depart from their tents, he means not only that they would remove in person, and stand at a distance, but such who had their tents, and families, and substance near them, would take care to remove, lest they should be destroyed with them: and touch nothing of theirs;
not carry off anything belonging to them along with their own, being all devoted to destruction: lest ye be consumed in all their sins;
lest partaking of their sins they should of their plagues, and die in their sins, as they would, or for them.

Numbers 16:26 In-Context

24 "Speak to the community. Tell them, Back off from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram."

25 Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram. The leaders of Israel followed him.

26 He then spoke to the community: "Back off from the tents of these bad men; don't touch a thing that belongs to them lest you be carried off on the flood of their sins."

27 So they all backed away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Dathan and Abiram by now had come out and were standing at the entrance to their tents with their wives, children, and babies.

28 Moses continued to address the community: "This is how you'll know that it was God who sent me to do all these things and that it wasn't anything I cooked up on my own.