Numbers 16:29

29 If these men die a normal death -- the way men usually die -- then the Lord did not really send 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.

---

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 moved away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Dathan and Abiram were standing outside their tents with their wives, children, and little babies.

28 Then Moses said, "Now you will know that the Lord has sent me to do all these things; it was not my idea.

29 If these men die a normal death -- the way men usually die -- then the Lord did not really send me.

30 But if the Lord does something new, you will know they have insulted the Lord. The ground will open and swallow them. They will be buried alive and will go to the place of the dead, and everything that belongs to them will go with them."

31 When Moses finished saying these things, the ground under the men split open.