Numbers 16:30

30 sin autem novam rem fecerit Dominus ut aperiens terra os suum degluttiat eos et omnia quae ad illos pertinent descenderintque viventes in infernum scietis quod blasphemaverint Dominum

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 et ait Moses in hoc scietis quod Dominus miserit me ut facerem universa quae cernitis et non ex proprio ea corde protulerim
29 si consueta hominum morte interierint et visitaverit eos plaga qua et ceteri visitari solent non misit me Dominus
30 sin autem novam rem fecerit Dominus ut aperiens terra os suum degluttiat eos et omnia quae ad illos pertinent descenderintque viventes in infernum scietis quod blasphemaverint Dominum
31 confestim igitur ut cessavit loqui disrupta est terra sub pedibus eorum
32 et aperiens os suum devoravit illos cum tabernaculis suis et universa substantia
The Latin Vulgate is in the public domain.