Numbers 16:20-50
Separate <0914> [Separate.]
consume <03615> [that I may.]
threw <05307> [they fell.]
God <0430> [the God.]
one man sins <0376 02398 0259> [one man sin.]
It should seem that Dathan and Abiram had set up a spacious tabernacle in the midst of the tents of their families, where they kept court, met in council, and hung out their flag of defiance against Moses; it is here called the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. There, as in the place of rendezvous, Dathan and Abiram stayed, when Korah and his friends went up to the tabernacle of the Lord, waiting the issue of their trial; but here we are told how they had their business done, before that trial was over. God will take what method he pleases in his judgments.
Move ..... tents <05493 0168> [Depart, I pray you.]
The rebels, with all that belonged to them, were, as an accursed thing, devoted to utter destruction. (Le 27:28, 29. Jos 7:13-15, 23-26.) The people therefore were forbidden to touch anything belonging to them; that they might enter a solemn protest against their wickedness, acknowledge the justice of their punishment, and express their fear of being involved in it.
stationed <05324> [and stood.]
know <03045> [Hereby.]
<03820> [for I have.]
{Kee lo millibbee,} "and that not out of my heart." It was not of my own device or contrivance. It was not out of an ambitious desire to be great myself that I took upon me the government, nor out of private affection to my brother, that I appointed him and his family to the priesthood.
<03820> [of mine.]
death <04194> [the common, etc. Heb. as every man dieth. visited.]
Lord <03068> [the Lord.]
something entirely new <01254 01278> [make a new thing.]
Heb. create a creature; {w‰im beriah yivra Yehowah,} "And if Jehovah should create a creation," i.e., do such a thing as was never done before.
down <03381> [and they.]
earth <0776> [the earth.]
men <0120> [all the.]
pit <07585> [into the.]
perished <06> [they perished.]
fled <05127> [fled.]
earth <0776> [Lest.]
out <03318> [And there.]
250 <03967> [two hundred.]
censers <04289> [the censers.]
holy <06942> [hallowed.]
{Kadashoo,} consecrated, i.e., to the service of God, though in this instance, improperly employed.
sinned <02400> [sinners.]
sign <0226> [a sign.]
who .......................... just <0834 0376> [that no.]
approach <07126> [come near.]
next day <04283> [on the morrow.]
It is not unlikely, that the people persuaded themselves that Moses and Aaron had used some cunning in this business and that the earthquake and fire were artificial; for, had they discerned the hand of God in this punishment, they would scarcely have dared the anger of the Lord in the very face of his justice. And while they thus absurdly imputed this judgement to Moses and Aaron, they impiously called the persons, thus perishing in their rebellion, "the people of the Lord!"
community <05712> [all the.]
killed <04191> [Ye have.]
community <05712> [when the.]
glory <03519> [the glory.]
away <07426> [Get you up.]
threw ... down <05307> [And they.]
<06440> [from off.]
put ......... place <05414 07760> [and put.]
atonement <03722> [an atonement.]
wrath <07110> [there is wrath.]
plague ... begun <05063 02490> [the plague is begun.]
God now punished them by a secret blast, so as to put the matter beyond dispute; His hand, and His alone, was seen, not only in the plague, but in the manner in which the mortality was arrested. It was necessary that it should be done in this way, that the whole congregation might see that these men who had perished were not "the people of the Lord," and that God, not Moses and Aaron, had destroyed them.
ran <07323> [and ran.]
plague <05063> [and behold.]
placed <05414> [and he put.]
What the plague was we know not; but it seems from this to have begun at one part of the camp, and to have proceeded regularly onward.
14,700 <0505 0702> [fourteen thousand.]