Numbers 16:31

31 And it came to pass as he had made an end of speaking all these words that the ground broke open under them;

Numbers 16:31 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 16:31

And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all
these things
As soon as he had finished his discourse, which was addressed to the congregation, and, according to Josephus ^F21, after a long prayer to God, which that writer gives at large; immediately so it was,

that the ground clave asunder that [was] under them;
on which they stood, not from any natural cause, as by subterranean volcano, forcibly making their way and bursting the earth, and so getting vent, which has been thought to be the cause of earthquakes; but this was by the immediate hand and almighty power of God, and came to pass just as Moses suggested it would, and as soon as he had uttered his words, which made it the more observable.

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FOOTNOTES:

F21 Antiqu. l. 4. c. 3. Sect. 2.

Numbers 16:31 In-Context

29 If these men die the common death of all men or if they are visited after the visitation of all men, then the LORD has not sent me.

30 But if the LORD does a new thing and the earth opens her mouth and swallows them up with all their things and they go down alive into Sheol, then ye shall know that these men have provoked the LORD.

31 And it came to pass as he had made an end of speaking all these words that the ground broke open under them;

32 the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, and their houses and all the men of Korah and all their goods.

33 They and all that they had went down alive into Sheol, and the earth closed upon them, and they perished from among the congregation.