Numbers 16:33

33 They were buried alive, going to the place of the dead, and everything they owned went with them. Then the earth covered them. They died and were gone from the community.

Numbers 16:33 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 16:33

They, and all that [appertained] unto them, went down alive
into the pit
The grave which the opening earth made for them, they and their families:

and the earth closed upon them;
and covered them over; this it did of itself, as Aben Ezra remarks: this was a wonderful instance of almighty power, that it should open in such large fissures as to swallow up such a number of men, with their tents, goods, and cattle, and then close again so firmly, as not to have the least appearance upon it of what had happened, as Josephus observes ^F26,

and they perished from among the congregation;
and had a name and a place no more with them.

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FOOTNOTES:

F26 Antiqu. ut supra, (l. 4. c. 3.) sect. 3.

Numbers 16:33 In-Context

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

32 The earth opened and swallowed them and all their families. All Korah's men and everything they owned went down.

33 They were buried alive, going to the place of the dead, and everything they owned went with them. Then the earth covered them. They died and were gone from the community.

34 The people of Israel around them heard their screams and ran away, saying, "The earth will swallow us, too!"

35 Then a fire came down from the Lord and destroyed the two hundred fifty men who had presented the incense.