The Pit Swallows Up the Reubenite Followers of Korah, Dathan and Abiram (Numbers 16:28-34).
‘And Moses said, “By this you shall know that Yahweh has sent me to do all these works, for I have not done them of my own mind. If these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men, then Yahweh has not sent me.”
Moses wasted no time on the rebels. He addressed the waiting crowds. By this they would know that what was about to happen was not of his choice or of his doing, but was the choice of Yahweh Who had sent him. If these men died an ordinary death, even though it be by plague or lightning, then Yahweh had not sent him. He was staking his whole reputation on Yahweh's promises. It was like standing before Pharaoh again. The point he was stressing was that he himself intended to do nothing to them. He was leaving them in the hands of Yahweh. This would then demonstrate whose side Yahweh was on.
“ But if Yahweh make a new thing, and the ground open its mouth, and swallow them up, with all who appertain to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall understand that these men have despised Yahweh.”
But if a new thing happened, and the ground opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with all who were following them in their rebellion, so that they went down alive into the underworld, the world of the dead, then all must recognise that these men had despised Yahweh.
He pictured the earth as being like a great monster whose mouth opened wide in order to devour (compare Isaiah 5:14). This was Yahweh's earth, which He had created. If it opened its mouth on His behalf it could be due to no one but Him. And it would reveal that the judgment was His.
“If Yahweh make a new thing.” Or literally, ‘if Yahweh creates a creation'. Stress is put on the fact that this is Yahweh's direct and novel action.
“Sheol.” The usual word for the world of the dead to which men descended when they were placed in their graves. It was the grave world of shadows from which none ever returned. Yahweh even controlled that grave world.
‘And it came about that, as he made an end of speaking all these words, the ground divided asunder that was under them, and the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed them up, and their households, and all the men who appertained to Korah, and all their goods.'
No sooner had Moses spoken then the earth suddenly caved in around where the tents of Dathan and Abiram, and their families, were. It ‘opened its mouth and swallowed them up', taking in all who ‘appertained to Korah', that is all who were a part of the rebellion, together with all their goods.
‘So they, and all who appertained to them, went down alive into Sheol, and the earth closed on them, and they perished from among the assembly.'
Thus all in the camp who were connected with them in the rebellion went down alive into Sheol (compare the vivid picture in Isaiah 14:9). ‘And the earth closed up.' They had been buried alive and had just disappeared. Not a trace was to be seen. They perished from among the assembly. They were Israelites no more. God's mouth had, as it were, swallowed them without trace.
As Yahweh regularly used magnified natural disasters in His judgments (as in Egypt) we may probably see that the tents of Dathan and Abiram and their followers had been pitched on a kewir, a hardened mud-flat which had developed over boggy ground. Such are often found in this area. As with the Reed Sea deliverance the main miracle was in it caving in at the right time. It has been suggested that a severe thunderstorm occurred, which soaked the ground causing the mud-flat to soften and give way, with lightning striking the 250 men with the censers.
‘And all Israel who were round about them fled at their cry, for they said, “Lest the earth swallow us up.” '
A great cry of fear and terror went up from the rebels as they realised in those brief moments exactly what was happening, and it was such a terrible cry that the people around fled. They were fearful less it also happen to them, and the earth swallow them up. The impact of what happened was huge, and the echo of the cry continued in their hearts (Numbers 16:41).