“But if the LORD make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit; then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the LORD.”
King James Version (KJV)
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.
16:29 The death of all men - By a natural death. The visitation of all men - By plague, or sword, or some usual judgment. The Lord hath not sent me - I am content that you take me for an imposter, falsely pretending to be sent of God.
16:32 All that appertained unto Korah - That is, all his family which were there, women, children, and servants; but his sons, who were spared, #Num 26:11|,58 #1Ch 6:22|,37, were absent either upon some service of the tabernacle, or upon some other occasion, God so ordering it by his providence either because they disliked their fathers act, or upon Moses's intercession for them. This expression may intimate, that Korah himself was not here, but that he continued with his two hundred and fifty men before the Lord, where they were waiting for God's decision of the controversy. Nor is it probable that their chief captain would desert them, and leave them standing there without an head, especially, when Aaron his great adversary, abode there still, and did not go with Moses to Dathan. And Korah may seem to have been consumed with those two hundred and fifty. And so much is intimated, #Nu 16:40|, that no stranger come near to offer incense before the Lord, that he be not as Korah, and as his company, that is, destroyed, as they were, by fire from the Lord. And when the Psalmist relates this history, #Psa 106:17 |- 18, the earth's swallowing them up is confined to Dathan and Abiram, #Psa 106:17|, and for all the rest of that conspiracy it is added, #Psa 106:18|. And a fire was kindled in their company, the flame burnt up the wicked.