Numbers 16:34

34 All Israel who were around them fled at their outcry, for they said, "The earth may swallow us up!"

Numbers 16:34 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 16:34

And all Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of
them
Or because of it, as Aben Ezra; their cry was so loud, their shrieks so dreadful and piercing, that the Israelites about them fled to get out of the sound of them, as well as for their own safety. The Targum of Jonathan not only represents their cry as terrible, but gives the words they expressed at it;

``and all Israel that were round about them fled, because of the terror of their voice, when they cried and said, the Lord is righteous and his judgments truth, and truth are the words of Moses his servant, but we are wicked who have rebelled against him:''

for they said, lest the earth swallow us up [also];
which they might fear, since they had provoked the Lord, by associating with these men, and countenancing them by their presence, as they had done; who would have consumed them in a moment at first, had it not been for the intercession of Moses and Aaron.

Numbers 16:34 In-Context

32 and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, and their households, and all the men who belonged to Korah with their possessions.

33 So they and all that belonged to them went down alive to Sheol; and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly.

34 All Israel who were around them fled at their outcry, for they said, "The earth may swallow us up!"

35 Fire also came forth from the LORD and consumed the two hundred and fifty men who were offering the incense.

36 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "voice"