Numbers 16:30

Num 16:30 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.

Ver. 30. Quick unto the pit.] Not into hell, as the Papists conclude from this text; for how could their houses and goods go down to hell? {Num 16:32} and who would not hope that some of them were innocent, some penitent? The punishment they suffered in being buried alive was very miserable; and so accounted by the heathens, who served their vestal virgins in this sort that had been deflowered.

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.

Or, hell.

Or, show a strange sight.

Or, deep and dark places of the earth.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 30. If the Lord make a new thing] ואם בריאה יברא יהוה veim beriah yibra Yehovah, and if Jehovah should create a creation, i. e., do such a thing as was never done before.

And they go down quick into the pit] שאלה sheolah, a proof, among many others, that שאל sheol, signifies here a chasm or pit of the earth, and not the place called hell; for it would be absurd to suppose that their houses had gone to hell; and it would be wicked to imagine that their little innocent children had gone thither, though God was pleased to destroy their lives with those of their iniquitous fathers.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(30) Make a new thing.—Literally, create a creation—i.e., do something hitherto unknown.

Into the pit.—Literally, into Sheol.

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

30. into the pit] into Sheol, the place of departed human beings. It was thought of as lying beneath the earth, or deep within it.

We are probably to think of the catastrophe as taking place in the form of an earthquake; or possibly the tradition may have grown up as a popular explanation of some deep fissure or chasm in the rocks.

32b. and all the men … their goods] This half verse is the work of the compiler who combined the narratives. Korah’s company of adherents (‘the men that appertained unto K.’) were not swallowed up in the earth; they died afterwards by fire (Num_16:35).

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.

But if the Lord make a new thing,.... Or "create a creation", or "creature" (s), what never was before, or put those persons to a death that none ever in the world died of yet; what that is he means is next expressed:

and the earth open her mouth and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them; their persons, their wives, children and substance:

and they go down quick into the pit; alive into the grave the opening earth makes for them; this is the new thing created; though the Rabbins say (t), the mouth of the earth, or the opening of the earth, was created from the days of the creation, that is, it was determined or decreed so early that it should be:

then ye shall understated that these men have provoked the Lord; by rising up against Moses and Aaron, and so against the Lord; by falsely accusing his servants, and endeavouring to set the people against them, and so alter the constitution of things in church and state.

(s) "creationem, creaverit", Pagninus, Montanus, Munster, Fagius; "creaturam", Vatablus, Drusius. (t) Pirke Abot, c. 5. sect. 6. Pirke Eliezer, c. 19.

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

Hell. See Psalm liv. 16., and Proverbs i. 12. "They were consigned to the tomb before they were dead," (St. Optatus, B. i.,) while their impenitent souls were buried in hell. The souls of their infant children, which had no share in the rebellion, might be exempted from the latter part of their punishment. (Calmet) --- If some have the rashness to blame the severity of this judgment of God, let them shew the disparity between it and the various other accidents occasioned by earthquakes, &c., which involve millions of such "smiling infants" in destruction; or, if they do not infer from these misfortunes, that the laws of nature are unjust; neither ought they to conclude that the religion, delivered by God to Moses, was an imposture, or that the Jewish legislator was cruel. He continued a silent spectator of this transaction, which he was informed by the Spirit would surely take place, and could not be averted by his intercession, which had before rescued the less guilty multitude, ver. 22. (Haydock) --- "They descend into hell alive; that is, feeling their own perdition, who, imitating Core,....separate from the Church, and presently fall into heresy." (St. Augustine, ep. 93.)

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).

Make a new thing, i.e. do such a work as was never heard before.

Into the pit, i.e. into the grave which God thereby makes. The Hebrew word scheol sometimes signifies hell, and sometimes the grave, as Gen 37:35; Psa 55:15.

Have provoked the Lord by making his words and works to be nothing but my devices and artifices.

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

30. Make a new thing — Hebrew, create a creation, that is, do a thing never done before. The crisis was momentous. The expression of Jehovah’s will must be decisive. An earthquake was probably not a new thing in the history of the world. Something different is demanded here.

Go down quick into the pit — A providential calamity which discriminates between the righteous and the wicked and destroys the latter shows that the world is ruled by a power which frowns upon sin.

Quick — R.V., “alive;” an old meaning of the word quick.

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

Make a new thing. "Create a creation." arbyi hayriB. Into the pit. Rather, "into Sheol." hlaov. Septuagint, eiv adou . Sheol is not "the pit," but Hades, the place of departed spirits, (Gen_37:35 Gen_42:38) which is regarded, according to the general instinct of mankind, as being "under the earth". (cf. Php_2:10 Rev_5:13) They were to go down "quick" into Sheol, because they were still alive at the moment that they were lost to sight for ever.

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

ואם בריאה BUT IF A CREATION — i.e. an entirely new one.

יברא ה׳ THE LORD WILL CREATE, to slay them by a kind of death by which no man has hitherto died — and what is this new creation?

ופצתה האדמה את פיה THAT THE EARTH OPEN WIDE HER MOUTH AND SWALLOW THEM, then וידעתם כי נאצו YE SHALL KNOW THAT THEY HAVE PROVOKED the Holy One, blessed be He, and that I have spoken only by authority of the Almighty. Our Rabbis, however, gave the following explanation: ואם בריאה, if there has been a creation, i.e., if there was already a mouth to the earth from the six days of Creation, well and good! but if not, יברא ה׳ the Lord will create one now (Sanhedrin 110a; Nedarim 39b).

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.

BUT IF THE ETERNAL CREATE ‘B’RIAH.’ Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra wrote: “Some scholars say that b’riah indicates producing something from nothing. But, [continues Ibn Ezra], many countries have already been rent [by earthquakes], and their inhabitants went down alive into the pit. Rather, the meaning of b’riah is ‘cutting off,’ from [the expression] ‘u’varei’ (and they shall cut) them” [thus meaning here: “if the Eternal will ‘cut them’ down by causing the ground to open up its mouth etc.”].The correct interpretation is that the term b’riah is [indeed] used [in the sense of] bringing forth something from nothing, for we have no other word in the Sacred Language denoting this concept [creatio ex nihilo] except for this one. The explanation of the matter is that splitting open the [crust of the] earth is [indeed] not a new creation, but that the ground should open up its mouth to swallow up [certain people] is a new event which had never occurred previously. For when the earth is split open, as happens many times during an earthquake which is called zalzalah, it remains open and the chasm becomes filled with water, like ponds; but that it should open up and close again immediately — like a person who opens his mouth to swallow and closes it after he has swallowed — this event was a new happening which occurred [only] on that day, as if it were created out of nothing. This is the meaning of the expression, and the earth closed upon them [that it closed up immediately after consuming them, and left no sign that it had opened]. It is for this reason that [when saying that] the ground did cleave asunder, Scripture says: And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up. And according to the opinion of our Rabbis [who say] that the opening of Gehenna came near to this spot — that phenomenon too, was a new event which occurred [only] at that moment.

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.