So they and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol, and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly.
We have here the determining of the controversy with Dathan and Abiram, who rebelled against Moses, as in the next paragraph the determining of the controversy with Korah and his company, who would be rivals with Aaron. 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...
Commenting on Numbers 16:23-34
They, and all that appertained unto them, went down alive into the pit,.... The grave which the opening earth made for them, they and their families: and the earth closed upon them; and covered them over; this it did of itself, as Aben Ezra remarks: this was a wonderful instance of almighty power, that it should open in such large fissures as to swallow up...
Num 16:31-33 And immediately the earth clave asunder, and swallowed them up, with their families and all their possessions, and closed above them, so that they perished without a trace from the congregation. אתם refers to the three ringleaders. “Their houses;” i.e., their families, not their tents, as in Num 18:31; Exo 12:3.
Commenting on Numbers 16:31-33