Numbers 16:27

Num 16:27 So they gat up from the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, on every side: and Dathan and Abiram came out, and stood in the door of their tents, and their wives, and their sons, and their little children.

Ver. 27. Came out and stood.] As out facing Moses, and scorning the judgment threatened. Deus quem destruit dementat. Hardened sinners make no more of God’s dreadful threatenings, than behemoth doth of iron weapons, which he esteemeth as straws.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Num 16:27. Stood in the door — An argument of their foolish confidence, obstinacy, and impenitence, whereby they declared that they neither feared God nor reverenced man.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram--Korah being a Kohathite, his tent could not have been in the Reubenite camp, and it does not appear that he himself was on the spot where Dathan and Abiram stood with their families. Their attitude of defiance indicated their daring and impenitent character, equally regardless of God and man.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(27) And Dathan and Abiram came out . . . —No mention is made of the position of Korah at this time, neither is any mention made of his sons, who, as we learn from Num_26:11, “died not” when the company of Korah died. His descendants are mentioned in 1Ch_6:22-38, and mention is made of “the sons of Korah” in the titles of eleven of the Psalms. Samuel the prophet and Heman the singer were of this family (1Ch_6:22; 1Ch_6:33).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

27. the tabernacle of Korah &c.] Read the tabernacle of Jehovah. See on Num_16:24.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

So they gat up from the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, on every side,.... The place where they met together and made their general rendezvous; this it seems was encompassed on all sides by people out of the several tribes, who either wished them well in their undertaking, or were curious to know how it would issue:

and Dathan and Abiram came out; out of the tabernacle of Korah, and went to their own tents; and came out of them:

and stood in the door of their tents, and their wives, and their sons,

and their little children; in an audacious manner, as not fearing God nor man; they carried their heads high, and were not in the least daunted at what they were threatened with; and by their looks and gestures bid defiance to Moses and the elders with him.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Stood in the door of their tents - Apparently in contumacious defiance.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

People, (frequentia). The Septuagint generally translate tappam by aposkene, "family and effects," of every denomination. (Calmet) --- Here was a full assembly waiting for the event, between fear and hope. As these rebels would not come, when Moses sent for them, he condescended to go to them, and denounced the impending ruin, ver. 14, 25. He commits his whole cause to God, and is willing to be rejected as a vile impostor, if God do not shew, by a miraculous and exemplary punishment of his opponents, that what he had hitherto done, as the head of the people, and particularly in the consecration of Aaron, was by his direction. (Haydock) --- He had before proved his mission by miracles, Exodus iv. (Worthington)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Their tents were not far asunder, being both on the south side of the tabernacle, as appears from Num 2:10; 3:29.

Stood in the door of their tents; an argument of their foolish confidence, pride, and impudence, obstinacy, and impenitency, whereby they declared that they neither feared God nor reverenced man, and made themselves ripe for the approaching judgment.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

27. Stood in the door of their tents — Their attitude was not that of penitence, but of curiosity or defiance. Earnest prayer might have saved them even then, but men abandoned by the grieved Spirit of God cannot pray.

Their little children — To these this sudden and awful death was not a punishment but a calamity. See Jos_7:24, note. Little children are still perishing through the folly, brutality, and neglect of their parents. There is no mention here of the children of Korah, some of whom, if not all, escaped, (Num_26:11,) probably because they did not consent to their father’s crime.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And Dathan and Abiram... stood in the door of their tents. To see what Moses would do. Nothing is said of Korah.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Stood in the door - An argument of their foolish confidence, obstinacy and impenitency, whereby they declared that they neither feared God, nor reverenced man.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

The congregation obeyed; but Dathan and Abiram came and placed themselves in front of the tents, along with their wives and children, to see what Moses would do. Moses then announced the sentence: "By this shall he know that Jehovah hath sent me to do all these works, that not out of my own heart (i.e., that I do not act of my own accord). If these men die like all men (i.e., if these wicked men die a natural death like other men), and the oversight of all men take place over them (i.e., if the same providence watches over them as over all other men, and preserves them from sudden death), Jehovah hath not sent me. But if Jehovah create a creation (בריאה בּרא, i.e., work an extraordinary miracle), and the earth open its mouth and swallow them up, with all that belongs to them, so that they go down alive into hell, ye shall perceive that these men have despised Jehovah."

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

יצאו נצבים [AND DATHAN AND ABIRAM] CAME OUT, STATIONING THEMSELVES [AT THE ENTRANCE OF THEIR TENT] — The word נצבים suggests that they stood with erect stature in a challenging attitude, ready to revile and to curse. The phrase is similar in meaning to (I Samuel 17:16) “And he stationed himself (ויתיצב) there for forty days”, which occurs in the story of Goliath (Midrash Tanchuma, Korach 3).

ונשיהם ובניהם וטפם AND THEIR WIVES, AND THEIR SONS, AND THEIR LITTLE ONES — Come and see how grievous a sin dissension is: for an earthly tribunal (more lit., a tribunal of here below) does not punish a person before he shows signs of puberty, the heavenly tribunal (more lit., the tribunal of above) not even before he is twenty years old, while here even the sucklings perished (Midrash Tanchuma, Korach 3).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.