Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Numbers 16:33
They, and all that [appertained] to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation.
Verse 33. They, and all that appertained to them] Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and all that appertained to their respective families, went down into the pit caused by this supernatural earthquake; while the fire from the Lord consumed the 250 men that bare censers. Thus there were two distinct punishments, the pit and the fire, for the two divisions of these rebels.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Into the pit, i.e. into the earth, which first opened itself to receive them, and then shut itself to destroy them, and transmit them to further punishment.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
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 such a number of men, with their tents, goods, and cattle, and then close again so firmly, as not to have the least appearance upon it of what had happened, as Josephus observes z,
and they perished from among the congregation; and had a name and a place no more with them.
z Antiqu. ut supra, (l. 4. c. 3.) sect. 3.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
33. Alive into the pit As the time for the clear revelation of the doctrine of future eternal rewards and punishments had not yet arrived, temporal judgments, sudden and awful, must be applied as motives to divine obedience. Sheol, the pit, is a word which is used sixty-five times in the Old Testament. In the A.V., it is translated “grave” thirty-one times, “hell” thirty-one times, and “pit” three times. Its widest meaning is the place of disembodied spirits. It here has the narrower meaning of the abode of the wicked, as the term hades has in Luk 16:23.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Num 16:33 They, and all that [appertained] to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation.
Ver. 33. And they perished from among. ] So the gun powder plotters here; and before them the northern rebels. That rebellion, saith one, like the bubbles, which children blow up into the air, was no sooner blown up than blown out, and fell into the eyes of those who with blasts of ambition and superstition held it up.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
pit = Hebrew. sheol = the grave, not “a” grave, but all graves viewed as one. See App-35. They went alive, with all their cattle, tents, and goods. All sank into the earth.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
into the: Psa 9:15, Psa 55:23, Psa 69:15, Psa 143:7, Isa 14:9, Isa 14:15, Eze 32:18, Eze 32:30
they perished: Jud 1:11
Reciprocal: Gen 20:7 – all Lev 10:2 – they died Num 16:30 – and they Num 22:33 – surely Isa 38:18 – they that Eze 26:20 – I shall bring