The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible
The Earth Swallows Korah
Numbers 16:28–35 — The Earth Swallows Korah. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
28Then Moses said, “This is how you will know that the LORD has sent me to do all these things, for it was not my own doing:
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
mō·šeh way·yō·mer bə·zōṯ tê·ḏə·‘ūn kî- Yah·weh šə·lā·ḥa·nî la·‘ă·śō·wṯ ’êṯ kāl- hā·’êl·leh ham·ma·‘ă·śîm kî- lō mil·lib·bî
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-Moses said: By-this you-shall-know that YHWH has-sent-me to-do all the-deeds the-these, that not from-my-heart —”
Where the English smooths the original
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).
he had not devised them himself, and done them of his own head, and in any arbitrary way, without the will of God or any authority from him, as these men suggestedGill glosses millibî, “not out of my heart.”
Of mine own mind; by pretending or usurping an authority which God gave me not; by feigning words or messages from God to establish my own inventions
The awful catastrophe of the earthquake which, as predicted by Moses, swallowed up those impious rebels in a living tomb, gave the divine attestation to the mission of Moses
I have not invented them from my own brainThe 1599 Geneva margin glosses millibî with the verb the rebels denied Moses: invention.
29If these men die a natural death, or if they suffer the fate of all men, then the LORD has not sent me.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
’im- ’êl·leh yə·mu·ṯūn kə·mō·wṯ kāl- hā·’ā·ḏām yip·pā·qêḏ ‘ă·lê·hem ū·p̄ə·qud·daṯ kāl- hā·’ā·ḏām Yah·weh lō šə·lā·ḥā·nî
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“If like-the-death-of every man these die, and-the-visitation of-every man is-visited upon-them — not has-YHWH sent-me.”
Where the English smooths the original
Thus it may mean practically the providence of God for good, i.e. , in the way of protection, or for evil, i.e. , in the way of judgment. In either sense providence showed itself in no ordinary form towards these men.Pulpit on pāqaḏ, “visitation/oversight.”
The death of all men — By a natural death. The visitation of all men — By plague, or sword, or some usual judgment. The Lord hath not sent me — I am content that you take me for an impostor
This he might well say, because he was inspired by God to say this, and infallibly assured by God that this should be done.
declares that if the rebels die a common death, he will be content to be called and counted an imposterHenry's note covers vv. 23–34; here the line lands the stakes of v. 29's wager.
30But if the LORD brings about something unprecedented, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them and all that belongs to them so that they go down alive into Sheol, then you will know that these men have treated the LORD with contempt.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·’im- Yah·weh yiḇ·rā bə·rî·’āh hā·’ă·ḏā·māh ’eṯ- ū·p̄ā·ṣə·ṯāh pî·hā ū·ḇā·lə·‘āh ’ō·ṯām wə·’eṯ- kāl- ’ă·šer lā·hem wə·yā·rə·ḏū ḥay·yîm šə·’ō·lāh wî·ḏa‘·tem kî hā·’êl·leh ’eṯ- hā·’ă·nā·šîm ni·’ă·ṣū Yah·weh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“But-if a-creation YHWH-creates, and-the-ground opens its-mouth and-swallows them and-all that-is-theirs, and-they-go-down alive into-Sheol — then you-shall-know that these men have-spurned YHWH.”
Where the English smooths the original
Make a new thing.— Literally, create a creation — i.e., do something hitherto unknown. Into the pit.— Literally, into Sheol.
Sheol is not "the pit," but Hades, the place of departed spirits ( Genesis 37:35 ; Genesis 42:38 ), which is regarded, according to the general instinct of mankind, as being "under the earth"
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
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.
31As soon as Moses had finished saying all this, the ground beneath them split open,
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·hî kə·ḵal·lō·ṯōw lə·ḏab·bêr ’êṯ kāl- hā·’êl·leh had·də·ḇā·rîm hā·’ă·ḏā·māh ’ă·šer taḥ·tê·hem wat·tib·bā·qa‘
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-it-came-to-pass, as-he-finished speaking all the-words the-these — and-the-ground that-was beneath-them split-open.”
Where the English smooths the original
but this was by the immediate hand and almighty power of God, and came to pass just as Moses suggested it would, and as soon as he had uttered his words, which made it the more observable
The ground clave asunder that was under them. As it sometimes does during an earthquake. In this case, however, the event was predicted, and wholly supernatural.
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.
32and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households—all Korah’s men and all their possessions.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
hā·’ā·reṣ ’eṯ- wat·tip̄·taḥ pî·hā wat·tiḇ·la‘ ’ō·ṯām wə·’eṯ- bāt·tê·hem wə·’êṯ kāl- lə·qō·raḥ wə·’êṯ hā·’ā·ḏām ’ă·šer kāl- hā·ră·ḵūš
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-the-earth opened its-mouth and-swallowed them and-their-houses, and-every man who was-Korah’s, and-all the-goods.”
Where the English smooths the original
his sons, who were spared, ( Numbers 26:11 ; Numbers 26:58 ; 1 Chronicles 6:22 ; 1 Chronicles 6:37 ,) were absent either upon some service of the tabernacle, or upon some other occasion, God so ordering it by his providence, either because they disliked their father’s act, or upon Moses’s intercession for themBenson on why Korah's sons survived — the spared line of the Korahite psalmists.
All the men ... - Not his sons (see Numbers 26:11 ), but all belonging to him who had associated themselves with him in this rebellion.
It is most natural to suppose that Korah was at this time before the door of the Tabernacle, with the 250 men of his company who had presumed to offer incense, and that he shared their doom.
And all the men that appertained unto Korah. Literally, "all the men who to Korah." Whether it means his dependants, or his special partisans, is uncertain
33They went down alive into Sheol with all they owned. The earth closed over them, and they vanished from the assembly.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
hêm way·yê·rə·ḏū ḥay·yîm šə·’ō·lāh wə·ḵāl ’ă·šer lā·hem hā·’ā·reṣ wat·tə·ḵas ‘ă·lê·hem way·yō·ḇə·ḏū mit·tō·wḵ haq·qā·hāl
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“They and-all that-was-theirs went-down alive into-Sheol; and-the-earth closed over-them, and-they-perished from-the-midst-of the-assembly.”
Where the English smooths the original
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
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.
Could we, by faith, hear the outcries of those that are gone down to the bottomless pit, we should give more diligence than we do to escape for our lives, lest we also come into their condemnation.
34At their cries, all the people of Israel who were around them fled, saying, “The earth may swallow us too!”
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
lə·qō·lām wə·ḵāl yiś·rā·’êl ’ă·šer sə·ḇî·ḇō·ṯê·hem nā·sū kî ’ā·mə·rū hā·’ā·reṣ pen- tiḇ·lā·‘ê·nū
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-all Israel who were around-them fled at-their-cry; for they-said: Lest the-earth swallow-us too!”
Where the English smooths the original
At the cry of them. לְקֹלָם , "at the noise of them;" at the mingled sound of their shrieks and of the natural convulsion amidst which they disappeared.
filled all the Israelites round about with such terror, that they fled לקלם, "at their noise," i.e., at the commotion with which the wicked men went down into the abyss which opened beneath their feet, lest, as they said, the earth should swallow them up also
their cry was so loud, their shrieks so dreadful and piercing, that the Israelites about them fled to get out of the sound of them, as well as for their own safety
35And fire came forth from the LORD and consumed the 250 men who were offering the incense.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·’êš yā·ṣə·’āh mê·’êṯ Yah·weh wat·tō·ḵal ’êṯ ha·ḥă·miš·šîm ū·mā·ṯa·yim ’îš maq·rî·ḇê haq·qə·ṭō·reṯ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-fire came-forth from YHWH and-consumed the two-hundred-and-fifty men offering the-incense.”
Where the English smooths the original
It was thus, as Bishop Wordsworth has observed, that “Korah and his company were punished by the same element as that by which they had sinned.”
The other 250 rebels, who were probably still in front of the tabernacle, were then destroyed by fire which proceeded from Jehovah, as Nadab and Abihu had been before ( Leviticus 10:2 ).
The fire came out from the sanctuary or the altar.
This seems to describe the destruction of Korah and those Levites who with him aspired to the functions of the priesthood.JFB places Korah among the 250 slain by fire — the reading most older commentators take; see the apparatus on his contested fate.
The sin of Korah’s company was the same as that of Nadab and Abihu ( Leviticus 10:1-2 ), and their punishment was the same. ‘The gainsaying of Korah’ is referred to as a typical sin in Judges 11.Cambridge’s “Judges 11” is a printing slip for Jude 11, where Korah’s rebellion is named as a type.
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
Moses stakes his entire prophetic office on a public, testable claim. The Hebrew of v. 28 ends on one word — מִלִּבִּי, “from my heart” — and Gill insists it means he “had not devised them himself, and done them of his own head, and in any arbitrary way, without the will of God.” The charge of the rebels was self-authorization; Moses answers with a sign he cannot manufacture. Keil & Delitzsch read the structure precisely: if the rebels “die like all men … Jehovah hath not sent me. But if Jehovah create a creation (בריאה בּרא) … ye shall perceive that these men have despised Jehovah.” The hinge is the figura etymologica bᵉrîʼāh yiḇrāʼ — Ellicott: “Literally, create a creation.” Moses invokes the verb of Genesis 1, asking God to author a death “that none ever in the world died of yet” (Gill): descent, חַיִּים alive, into שְׁאֹל Sheol — which the Pulpit Commentary is careful to define as “not ‘the pit,’ but Hades, the place of departed spirits … under the earth.”
The fulfillment is dated to the last syllable. The infinitive כְּכַלֹּתוֹ (“as his finishing”) makes word and judgment simultaneous — Gill: “as soon as he had finished his discourse … immediately so it was.” The ground that splits is הָאֲדָמָה, the very soil from which ’āḏām was taken; the verb is bāqaʻ, “clave asunder,” the root that once divided the sea for salvation now cleaving a grave. The Pulpit Commentary, against any naturalizing, allows that the ground splits “as it sometimes does during an earthquake. In this case, however, the event was predicted, and wholly supernatural.” Then the keyword of the episode lands: בָּלַע, swallow (vv. 30, 32, 34) — Gill imagines “the earth, as if it was a living creature or a beast of prey.” And the seal is total: the earth covered them (kāsāh), “then shut itself to destroy them” (Poole), “close again so firmly, as not to have the least appearance … of what had happened” (Gill). They וַיֹּאבְדוּ — perished, were lost — out of the very qāhāl Korah sought to rule.
The watching congregation becomes a fleeing one. They run לְקֹלָם, “at the noise of them” — K&D: “the commotion with which the wicked men went down into the abyss” — confessing the danger in their own mouths: “Lest the earth swallow us up also,” the same verb bālaʻ turned from verdict to dread. Then a second, distinct judgment answers the second company. The 250 censer-men, who seized the priestly act of drawing near (מַקְרִיבֵי, Hiphil of qāraḇ), are met by אֵשׁ fire that “proceeded from Jehovah, as Nadab and Abihu had been before (Leviticus 10:2)” — so Keil & Delitzsch, and so the Cambridge Bible: “The sin of Korah’s company was the same as that of Nadab and Abihu … and their punishment was the same.” Ellicott draws the lex talionis through Bishop Wordsworth: “Korah and his company were punished by the same element as that by which they had sinned.” The day closes with two pictures of judgment that will echo across Scripture — the earth that swallows and the fire that devours.
Read under Sola Scriptura, this passage is the Bible’s sharpest answer to the perennial claim that all who serve are equal, and that office is therefore arbitrary — a thing one may seize. Moses does not argue. He proposes a sign no impostor could counterfeit: a death the Creator must create. That the ground itself, ’ăḏāmāh, opens its mouth to receive the living is not random terror but a moral grammar — the same earth that opened its mouth to drink Abel’s blood (Genesis 4:11), the same swallowing Israel will later confess as the LORD’s act in song (Psalm 106:17). And the verdict the verse pronounces — נִאֲצוּ, they spurned YHWH — exposes the true target of every rebellion against God-given authority: to despise the sent is to despise the Sender. Yet the same chapter that swallows Korah preserves his sons (26:11) — and from that spared line came the singers of the Korahite psalms. Judgment is exact; mercy is not absent from it. This is my fallible reading, offered to be tested against the text.
The earth that opened its mouth for Abel’s blood opens it again for Korah’s pride — creation itself keeps the accounts of God.
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
Psalm 106:17 recounts this very event: “The earth opened (pāṯaḥ) and swallowed (bālaʻ) Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram.” The link is verbal: both verses share H1104 bâlaʻ (“swallow,” in 48 vv) and H6605 pâthach (“open,” in 133 vv). This is the inspired commentary on Numbers 16 — Scripture reading Scripture, and the Verifier confirms it as a structural/thematic verbal echo rather than a rare-word quotation.
Numbers 16:32 · Psalm 106:17
basis: shared Strong's: H1104 bâlaʻ (in 48 vv), H6605 pâthach (in 133 vv)
Deuteronomy 11:6 retells the catastrophe with the same vocabulary — “how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households” — sharing the earth’s H6310 peh (“mouth”), the verb H1104 bâlaʻ (“swallow”), and H1004 bayith (“household”). The repetition fixes the event as Israel’s standing warning. The link is structural/thematic, not a quotation: Deuteronomy compresses the scene into Moses’ later preaching, and names only Dathan and Abiram, not Korah — part of the unresolved tension flagged in the apparatus.
Numbers 16:32 · Deuteronomy 11:6
basis: shared Strong's: H1104 bâlaʻ (in 48 vv), H6310 peh (in 459 vv), H1004 bayith (in 1709 vv)
Numbers 26:10 returns to this same day and reports it with the proper name fixed in place: “and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up together with Korah, when that company died.” Here the link rises above mere theme — the Verifier returns the rare proper name H7141 Qôrach (in only 37 vv) alongside the full cluster H1104 bâlaʻ (“swallow”), H6605 pâthach (“open”), and H6310 peh (“mouth”). This is the inner-biblical retelling of the very event, by the same author, and it carries the verbal weight a shared proper name supplies. It is also the crux of the contested fate of Korah: 26:10 places him among the swallowed, where Psalm 106 and Deuteronomy 11 name only Dathan and Abiram, and most older commentators read v. 35 to have him die by fire. We record the doubling; we do not resolve it (see the apparatus).
Numbers 16:32 · Numbers 26:10
basis: rare shared proper name H7141 Qôrach (in only 37 vv) with cluster H1104 bâlaʻ (in 48 vv), H6605 pâthach (in 133 vv), H6310 peh (in 459 vv) — same-author inner-biblical retelling of the event
The rare verb H6475 pâtsâh (“to gape, open wide,” in only 15 verses) ties Numbers 16:30 to Genesis 4:11 — where “the ground (ʼădâmâh) opened its mouth (peh) to receive your brother’s blood” — and to Lamentations 2:16, where the enemies of Zion “open (pāṣāh) their mouth (peh)” and boast, “we have swallowed (bālaʻ) her up.” Genesis 4:11 shares the rare H6475 pâtsâh plus H127 ʼădâmâh (“ground”) and H6310 peh (“mouth”) — a tight triad: the earth as God’s avenger of bloodguilt. Lamentations 2:16 carries the same rare cluster H6475 + H1104 + H6310 (“gape the mouth and swallow”). The basis is a shared rare idiom, not a citation: Lamentations is not quoting Numbers, and the speaker is reversed — there the boast is on the lips of Zion’s enemies, here the verdict is in the mouth of God’s prophet. We tier it verbal only because pâtsâh is genuinely rare (15 vv) and the Verifier returns the full cluster; the connection is the recurrence of one vivid Hebrew picture, the mouth that opens to devour, across very different scenes.
Numbers 16:30 · Genesis 4:11 · Lamentations 2:16
basis: rare shared lexeme H6475 pâtsâh (in only 15 vv) with H6310 peh + H1104 bâlaʻ (Lam 2:16); H6475 + H127 ʼădâmâh + H6310 peh (Gen 4:11) — the rare pâtsâh carries the verbal weight; no inner-biblical citation claimed
Proverbs 1:12 puts the language of Korah’s fate in the mouth of the wicked plotting murder: “let us swallow them up alive (ḥay) like Sheol (šᵉʼôl), and whole, like those who go down (yāraḏ) to the pit.” The shared lexemes are H7585 shᵉʼôwl (“Sheol,” in 64 vv), H3381 yârad (“go down,” in 345 vv), and H2416 chay (“alive,” in 450 vv) — the exact phrase “go down alive into Sheol” of Numbers 16:30, 33. The connection is structural/thematic: Numbers narrates as judgment what Proverbs warns of as the sinner’s own ambition.
Numbers 16:33 · Proverbs 1:12
basis: shared Strong's: H7585 shᵉʼôwl (in 64 vv), H3381 yârad (in 345 vv), H2416 chay (in 450 vv)
Numbers 16:35 (“fire came forth from the LORD and consumed”) re-enacts Leviticus 10:2, where the same fire devoured Nadab and Abihu for unauthorized incense — a connection Keil & Delitzsch and the Cambridge Bible name outright. The verbal basis is the shared H784 ʼêsh (“fire”), H398 ʼâkal (“consume/eat”), and H3318 yâtsâʼ (“go/come out”). The motif — fire proceeding from God’s presence against presumptuous nearness — is structural and runs forward to the “consuming fire” of Hebrews 12:29.
Numbers 16:35 · Leviticus 10:2
basis: shared Strong's: H784 ʼêsh (in 346 vv), H398 ʼâkal (in 701 vv), H3318 yâtsâʼ (in 991 vv)
The episode’s keyword is H1104 bâlaʻ, swallow — the earth swallows the rebels (vv. 30, 32, 34) and the bystanders flee lest it swallow them too. Isaiah 25:8 takes the same verb and turns it inside out: “He will swallow up (bālaʻ) death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces.” The shared lexeme is only the single verb, so the link is structural/thematic, not verbal — but the theological inversion is exact and worth keeping: the verb of judgment that opened a grave for Korah becomes, in the prophets, the verb of salvation, the LORD devouring the devourer. Paul reads Isaiah 25:8 as fulfilled in the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:54), which is why this thread leans toward the Christ reading: the last swallowing is death’s own.
Numbers 16:32 · Isaiah 25:8
basis: shared Strong's: H1104 bâlaʻ (in 48 vv) — single shared verb; thematic inversion (judgment-swallow → salvation-swallow), not a verbal quotation
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
Moses grounds his authority not in succession but in sending: שְׁלָחַנִי, “He has sent me” (vv. 28–29). The pattern — a mediator whose mission is authenticated by works God alone can do — comes to its fullness in the One who said, “the works that I do bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me” (John 5:36). To reject Moses was to spurn YHWH (v. 30, nāʼaṣ); to reject the Son is to reject the Father who sent Him (Luke 10:16). The structure of Numbers 16 — sign, verdict, vindication — is the structure of the Gospel’s claim about Jesus.
Numbers 16:28 · Numbers 16:29 · Numbers 16:30
Jude 11 lists “the gainsaying of Korah” as a pattern of those who perish, and the Cambridge Bible flags this very chapter as “a typical sin.” Korah’s rebellion becomes the New Testament’s emblem of revolt against God-appointed mediation. Yet the same judgment that swallowed the rebels spared Korah’s sons (26:11), from whom descended the Korahite psalmists who sang Israel’s longing for God’s house — a foreshadowing of mercy reaching even into a house under judgment, fulfilled in the One who saves the children of those who fell. (Cross-Testament: the Jude link cannot rest on shared Hebrew/Greek lexemes — the Verifier finds none — so it is flagged below; it is argued thematically, by Jude’s own naming of Korah.)
Numbers 16:32 · Jude 1:11
The 250 perished for seizing nearness they were not granted — the participle מַקְרִיבֵי, “those drawing near” (qāraḇ), names their sin. The fire that answered presumptuous approach (v. 35; Lev 10:2) is the same “consuming fire” our God remains (Hebrews 12:29). The Gospel’s answer is not to abolish the holiness that burned them but to provide a new and living way: in Christ, the unworthy may at last draw near with confidence (Hebrews 10:19–22) — the very access Korah’s company died to steal is given freely through the blood of the great High Priest.
Numbers 16:35
One verb governs this day: bālaʻ, the earth that swallows the living into Sheol (vv. 30, 33). It is the verb of death’s appetite — the same picture Sheol uses of itself, opening its mouth without limit (Isaiah 5:14). The prophets seize this very word and reverse it: “He will swallow up death forever” (Isaiah 25:8), a promise Paul declares fulfilled when “Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:54). What opened beneath Korah as a grave is, at the empty tomb, turned against the grave itself. The link is thematic, carried by the single shared verb (not a quotation), and the redemptive reading of it — judgment’s swallowing answered by death’s own swallowing in the resurrection — is offered as this tool’s synthesis, not a claim of the older commentators.
Numbers 16:30 · Numbers 16:33
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
This unit is Hebrew only; no cross-Testament link here can rest on shared Strong's numbers, and none below claims to. The internal Hebrew threads (Ps 106:17, Deut 11:6, Num 26:10, Gen 4:11, Lam 2:16, Prov 1:12, Lev 10:2, Isa 25:8) all carry Verifier-computed shared lexemes, reproduced verbatim in each badge. Two notes on tiering honesty: Lamentations 2:16 is tiered verbal only because the verb pâtsâh is genuinely rare (15 vv) and the Verifier returns the full mouth-and-swallow cluster — but it is a shared rare idiom, not Lamentations citing Numbers, and the speaker is reversed. Numbers 26:10 alone earns verbal / quotation in the strong sense: it is the same author's inner-biblical retelling of this very day, anchored by the rare proper name Qôrach. Isaiah 25:8 shares only the single verb bālaʻ and is tiered structural/thematic — the value is the theological inversion (judgment-swallow → death-swallow), not a verbal echo.
The unresolved fate of Korah. The sources genuinely conflict, and the engine surfaces it: Numbers 26:10 names Korah among those the earth swallowed (sharing H7141 Qôrach and H1104 bâlaʻ with this passage), while Deuteronomy 11:6 and Psalm 106:17 name only Dathan and Abiram, and Ellicott, Benson, Poole, Gill, and the Pulpit Commentary all argue from Numbers 16:35–40 that Korah died by fire with the 250. The present text (vv. 32–33) is itself ambiguous — it swallows “all the men that appertained unto Korah,” not necessarily Korah. We do not resolve what Scripture leaves doubled; we report the tension. The Cambridge Bible additionally treats v. 32b as a compiler's seam — a source-critical claim we record without endorsing.
Flagged cross-Testament links. The Christ readings reach to Jude 11 and Hebrews 12:29 / 10:19–22. These are Greek-against-Hebrew and so cannot be verbal links — the Verifier returns “no shared original-language lexeme … flagged — verify source” for Jude 1:11. They are argued thematically (Jude itself names Korah) and typologically, never asserted as quotation. The Christ-section attestations mark which readings are ancient/widely-held and which are this tool's own (novel) synthesis.
All ✦ voices are verbatim, contiguous excerpts from the sourced public-domain commentary; ⚙ machine layers (literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes, grand commentary, threads, Christ readings) are fallible and carry no authority. Weigh them against the Word.
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)