23 God spoke to Moses: 24 "Speak to the community. Tell them, Back off from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram." 25 Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram. The leaders of Israel followed him. 26 He then spoke to the community: "Back off from the tents of these bad men; don't touch a thing that belongs to them lest you be carried off on the flood of their sins." 27 So they all backed away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Dathan and Abiram by now had come out and were standing at the entrance to their tents with their wives, children, and babies. 28 Moses continued to address the community: "This is how you'll know that it was God who sent me to do all these things and that it wasn't anything I cooked up on my own. 29 If these men die a natural death like all the rest of us, you'll know that it wasn't God who sent me. 30 But if God does something unprecedented - if the ground opens up and swallows the lot of them and they are pitched alive into Sheol - then you'll know that these men have been insolent with God." 31 The words were hardly out of his mouth when the Earth split open. 32 Earth opened its mouth and in one gulp swallowed them down, the men and their families, all the human beings connected with Korah, along with everything they owned. 33 And that was the end of them, pitched alive into Sheol. The Earth closed up over them and that was the last the community heard of them. 34 At the sound of their cries everyone around ran for dear life, shouting, "We're about to be swallowed up alive!"
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Numbers 16:23-34
Commentary on Numbers 16:23-34
(Read Numbers 16:23-34)
The seventy elders of Israel attend Moses. It is our duty to do what we can to countenance and support lawful authority when it is opposed. And those who would not perish with sinners, must come out from among them, and be separate. It was in answer to the prayer of Moses, that God stirred up the hearts of the congregation to remove for their own safety. Grace to separate from evil-doers is one of the things that accompany salvation. God, in justice, left the rebels to the obstinacy and hardness of their own hearts. Moses, by Divine direction, when all Israel were waiting the event, declares that if the rebels die a common death, he will be content to be called and counted an imposter. As soon as Moses had spoken the word, God caused the earth to open and swallow them all up. The children perished with their parents; in which, though we cannot tell how bad they might be to deserve it, or how good God might be otherwise to them; yet of this we are sure, that Infinite Justice did them no wrong. It was altogether miraculous. God has, when he pleases, strange punishments for the workers of iniquity. It was very significant. Considering how the earth is still in like manner loaded with the weight of man's sins, we have reason to wonder that it does not now sink under its load. The ruin of others should be our warning. Could we, by faith, hear the outcries of those that are gone down to the bottomless pit, we should give more diligence than we do to escape for our lives, lest we also come into their condemnation.