Numbers 16:30

30 But if the Lord does something unheard of, and the earth opens up and swallows them with all they own, so that they go down alive to the world of the dead, you will know that these men have rejected 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 Moses said to the people, "This is how you will know that the Lord has sent me to do all these things and that it is not by my own choice that I have done them.
29 If these men die a natural death without some punishment from God, then the Lord did not send me.
30 But if the Lord does something unheard of, and the earth opens up and swallows them with all they own, so that they go down alive to the world of the dead, you will know that these men have rejected the Lord."
31 As soon as he had finished speaking, the ground under Dathan and Abiram split open
32 and swallowed them and their families, together with all of Korah's followers and their possessions.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.