Moses said, “Hereby you shall know that Yahweh has sent me to do all these works; for they are not from my own mind. If these men die the common death of all men, or if they experience what all men experience, then Yahweh hasn’t sent me. But if Yahweh makes a new thing, and the ground opens its mouth, and swallows them up with all that belong to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall understand that these men have despised Yahweh.”
As he finished speaking all these words, the ground that was under them split apart. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up with their households, all of Korah’s men, and all their goods. So they, and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol. The earth closed on them, and they perished from among the assembly. All Israel that were around them fled at their cry; for they said, “Lest the earth swallow us up!” Fire came out from Yahweh, and devoured the two hundred fifty men who offered the incense.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv28, 30 I have not forged them of mine own brain.
I have not forged them of mine own brain.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv28–35 Num 16:28 And Moses said, Hereby ye shall know…
Num 16:28 And Moses said, Hereby ye shall know that the LORD hath sent me to do all these works; for [I have] not [done them] of mine own mind.
Ver. 28. Hereby ye shall know.] Thus he engageth the truth and honour of his office upon a miracle. But now he that expects a miracle, is himself a miracle, saith Augustine. Let Papists brag of their lying wonders. {2Th 2:9} We dislike not altogether that observation of Gretser the Jesuit, Tam sterilis et deserta est Lutherana et Calviniana secta, ut diabolus ne dignetur quidem per eam aliquid fallacium et umbratilium prodigiorum aggredi, saltem frequenter et palam. So dull and dry is the Lutheran and Calvinian sect, that the devil deigns not to work any, or not many miracles, among them, as he doth among the Catholics.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 35 All these works, to wit, which I have done,…
All these works, to wit, which I have done, and for which I am traduced by these and such like wicked men, as the bringing of the people out of Egypt; the conducting of them through, and the keeping of them so long in, the wilderness; the exercising of power and authority among and over them; giving of laws to them, as about other things, so concerning the priesthood, which is the ground of the present quarrel; and, that which vexeth them most, that when they were upon the borders of Canaan, and ready to enter in, I should cause them to go back into this vast howling wilderness, and fix them there for forty years.
Of mine own mind; by pretending or usurping an authority which God gave me not; by feigning words or messages from God to establish my own inventions, and to comply with my own will or lust or interest, as I am now accused to have done. For this phrase, see Num 24:13; Eze 13:2.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v35 We must now look back to the door of…
We must now look back to the door of the tabernacle, where we left the pretenders to the priesthood with their censers in their hands ready to offer incense; and here we find,
I. Vengeance taken on them, Num 16:35. It is probable that when the earth opened in the camp to swallow up Dathan and Abiram a fire went out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men that offered incense, while Aaron that stood with them was preserved alive. This punishment was not indeed so new a thing as the former, for Nadab and Abihu thus died; but it was not less strange or dreadful, and in it it appeared, 1. That our God is a consuming fire. Is thunder a sensible indication of the terror of his voice? Lightning is also the power of his hand. We must see in this his fiery indignation which devours the adversaries, and infer from it what a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God, Heb 10:27-31. 2. That it is at our peril if we meddle with that which does not belong to us. God is jealous of the honour of his own institutions, and will not have them invaded. It is most probable that Korah himself was consumed with those 250 that presumed to offer incense; for the priesthood was the thing he aimed at, and therefore we have reason to think that he would not quit his post at the door of the tabernacle. But, behold, those are made sacrifices to the justice of God who flattered themselves with the hopes of being priests. Had they been content with their office as Levites, which was sacred and honourable, and better than they deserved, they might have lived and died with joy and reputation; but, like the angels that sinned, leaving their first estate, and aiming at the honours that were not appointed them, they were thrust down to Hades, their censers struck out of their hands, and their breath out of their bodies, by a burning which typified the vengeance of eternal fire.
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II. Care is taken to perpetuate the remembrance of this vengeance. No mention is made of the taking up of their carcases: the scripture leaves them as dung upon the face of the earth; but orders are given about their censers, 1. That they be secured, because they are hallowed. Eleazar is charged with this, Num 16:37. Those invaders of the priesthood had proceeded so far, by the divine patience and submission, as to kindle their incense with fire from off the altar, which they were suffered to use by way of experiment: but, as soon as they had kindled their fire, God kindled another, which put a fatal final period to their pretensions; now Eleazar is ordered to scatter the fire, with the incense that was kindled with it, in some unclean place without the camp, to signify God's abhorrence of their offering as a polluted thing: The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. But he is to gather up the censers out of the mingled burning, God's fire and theirs, because they are hallowed. Having been once put to a holy use, and that by God's own order (though only for trial), they must not return to common service; so some understand it: rather, they are devoted, they are an anathema; and therefore, as all devoted things, they must be made some way or other serviceable to the glory of God. 2. That they be used in the service of the sanctuary, not as censers, which would rather have put honour upon the usurpers whose disgrace was intended; nor was there occasion for brazen censers, the golden altar was served with golden ones; but they must be beaten into broad plates for a covering of the brazen altar, Num 16:38-40. These pretenders thought to have ruined the altar, by laying the priesthood in common again; but to show that Aaron's office was so far from being shaken by their impotent malice that it was rather confirmed by it, their censers, which offered to rival his, were used both for the adorning and for the preserving of the altar at which he ministered. Yet this was not all; this covering of the altar must be a memorial to the children of Israel, throughout their generations, of this great event. Though there was so much in it astonishing, and though Moses was to record it in his history, yet there was danger of its being forgotten in process of time; impressions that seem deep are not always durable; therefore it was necessary to appoint this record of the judgment, that the Levites who attended this altar, and had their inferior services appointed them, might learn to keep within their bounds, and be afraid of transgressing them, lest they should be made like Korah and his company, who were Levites, and would have been priests. These censers were preserved in terrorem, that others might hear and fear, and do no more presumptuously. Thus God has provided that his wonderful works, both in mercy and judgment, should be had in everlasting remembrance, that the end of them may be answered, and they may serve for instruction and admonition to those on whom the ends of the world are come.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv28–35 And Moses said, hereby ye shall know that the…
And Moses said, hereby ye shall know that the Lord hath sent me to do all these works,.... To bring the people of Israel out of Egypt, to exchange the firstborn for the Levites, to make Aaron and his sons priests, to give the Levites to them, and to set Elizaphan over the Kohathites, things which these men found fault with, and questioned his authority for doing them:
for I have not done them of my own mind; or "not out of my heart" (q); he had not devised them himself, and done them of his own head, and in any arbitrary way, without the will of God or any authority from him, as these men suggested.
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(q) "quod non de corde meo", Pagninus, Montanus.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv28, 29, 32, 33, 35 All these works - As the bringing of the…
All these works - As the bringing of the people out of Egypt; the conducting of them through the wilderness; the exercising authority among them; and giving laws to them concerning the priesthood.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv30, 33 Verse 30. If the Lord make a new thing]…
Verse 30. If the Lord make a new thing] ואם בריאה יברא יהוה veim beriah yibra Yehovah, and if Jehovah should create a creation, i. e., do such a thing as was never done before.
And they go down quick into the pit] שאלה sheolah, a proof, among many others, that שאל sheol, signifies here a chasm or pit of the earth, and not the place called hell; for it would be absurd to suppose that their houses had gone to hell; and it would be wicked to imagine that their little innocent children had gone thither, though God was pleased to destroy their lives with those of their iniquitous fathers.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv28, 29, 32, 35 Num 16:28. All these works — As the bringing…
Num 16:28. All these works — As the bringing of the people out of Egypt; the conducting of them through the wilderness; the exercising authority among them; and giving laws to them concerning the priesthood.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv32, 35 All the men ... - Not his sons (see…
All the men ... - Not his sons (see Num 26:11), but all belonging to him who had associated themselves with him in this rebellion.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv30, 32, 33, 35 Hell. See Psalm liv. 16., and Proverbs i. 12.…
Hell. See Psalm liv. 16., and Proverbs i. 12. "They were consigned to the tomb before they were dead," (St. Optatus, B. i.,) while their impenitent souls were buried in hell. The souls of their infant children, which had no share in the rebellion, might be exempted from the latter part of their punishment. (Calmet) --- If some have the rashness to blame the severity of this judgment of God, let them shew the disparity between it and the various other accidents occasioned by earthquakes, &c., which involve millions of such "smiling infants" in destruction; or, if they do not infer from these misfortunes, that the laws of nature are unjust; neither ought they to conclude that the religion, delivered by God to Moses, was an imposture, or that the Jewish legislator was cruel. He continued a silent spectator of this transaction, which he was informed by the Spirit would surely take place, and could not be averted by his intercession, which had before rescued the less guilty multitude, ver. 22. (Haydock) --- "They descend into hell alive; that is, feeling their own perdition, who, imitating Core,....separate from the Church, and presently fall into heresy." (St. Augustine, ep. 93.)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv28, 35 Moses said, Hereby ye shall know that the Lord…
Moses said, Hereby ye shall know that the Lord hath sent me to do all these works--The awful catastrophe of the earthquake which, as predicted by Moses, swallowed up those impious rebels in a living tomb, gave the divine attestation to the mission of Moses and struck the spectators with solemn awe.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv28–35 28. Of mine own mind — It was not…
28. Of mine own mind — It was not from self-seeking that I took upon me the government, nor was Aaron or his family appointed to the priesthood merely out of private affection.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv30, 35 30. into the pit] into Sheol, the place of…
30. into the pit] into Sheol, the place of departed human beings. It was thought of as lying beneath the earth, or deep within it.
We are probably to think of the catastrophe as taking place in the form of an earthquake; or possibly the tradition may have grown up as a popular explanation of some deep fissure or chasm in the rocks.
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32b. and all the men … their goods] This half verse is the work of the compiler who combined the narratives. Korah’s company of adherents (‘the men that appertained unto K.’) were not swallowed up in the earth; they died afterwards by fire (Num_16:35).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv28, 30, 32, 35 (28) To do all these works.—i.e., to bring the…
(28) To do all these works.—i.e., to bring the people out of the land of Egypt, to exchange the first-born for the Levites, to consecrate Aaron and his sons to the priesthood, and generally to declare the will of the Lord to the people.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35 Nor I have not done them of mine own…
Nor I have not done them of mine own mind. Literally, "that not of my heart", yBLimi aloAyKi. Septuagint, oti ouk ap emautou .
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv28, 31, 33 By this you will know
By this you will know
Here "this" refers to what Moses will say next.
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the earth opens its mouth and swallows them
Moses speaks as if the earth were alive and the opening in the ground into which these people would fall were a large mouth that would eat them. AT: "and they fall into it and are buried underneath the ground" (See: Simile)
translationWords
know
Yahweh
send
works
die
create
family
life
Hades
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv28, 31, 34 16:28-30 Moses had faith that God would enact his…
16:28-30 Moses had faith that God would enact his own justice, and God did so (16:31-35; cp. 1 Kgs 18:18-40). • into the grave: Sheol was the place of the dead (see 1 Sam 2:6; 2 Sam 22:5-6; Job 3:20-22; Ps 16:10; Acts 2:27-33; 1 Cor 15:15; Rev 20:13-14).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.