Numbers 16:29

29 "If these men die the death of all men or if they suffer the ¹fate of all men, then the LORD 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 So they got back from around the dwellings of Korah, Dathan and Abiram; and Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the doorway of their tents, along with their wives and their sons and their little ones.

28 Moses said, "By this you shall know that the LORD has sent me to do all these deeds; for this is not my doing .

29 "If these men die the death of all men or if they suffer the fate of all men, then the LORD has not sent me.

30 "But if the LORD brings about an entirely new thing and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that is theirs, and they descend alive into Sheol, then you will understand that these men have spurned the LORD ."

31 As he finished speaking all these words, the ground that was under them split open;

Cross References

• 1. Ecclesiastes 3:19

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "like the death"
• [b]. Lit "the visitation of all men be visited upon them"