Numbers 16:29

29 If these men die a natural death, or if nothing unusual happens, then the LORD has not sent 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.

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FOOTNOTES:

F18 (Mdah lk twmk) "ut moriuntur omnes homines", Pagninus; "reliqui homines", Junius & Tremellius; "alii homines", Piscator.

Numbers 16:29 In-Context

27 So all the people stood back from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Then Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the entrances of their tents, together with their wives and children and little ones.

28 And Moses said, “This is how you will know that the LORD has sent me to do all these things that I have done—for I have not done them on my own.

29 If these men die a natural death, or if nothing unusual happens, then the LORD has not sent me.

30 But if the LORD does something entirely new and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them and all their belongings, and they go down alive into the grave, then you will know that these men have shown contempt for the LORD .”

31 He had hardly finished speaking the words when the ground suddenly split open beneath them.