Numbers 16:24

16:23-34 The seventy elders of Israel attend Moses. It is our duty to do what we can to countenance and support lawful authority when it is opposed. And those who would not perish with sinners, must come out from among them, and be separate. It was in answer to the prayer of Moses, that God stirred up the hearts of the congregation to remove for their own safety. Grace to separate from evil-doers is one of the things that accompany salvation. God, in justice, left the rebels to the obstinacy and hardness of their own hearts. Moses, by Divine direction, when all Israel were waiting the event, declares that if the rebels die a common death, he will be content to be called and counted an imposter. As soon as Moses had spoken the word, God caused the earth to open and swallow them all up. The children perished with their parents; in which, though we cannot tell how bad they might be to deserve it, or how good God might be otherwise to them; yet of this we are sure, that Infinite Justice did them no wrong. It was altogether miraculous. God has, when he pleases, strange punishments for the workers of iniquity. It was very significant. Considering how the earth is still in like manner loaded with the weight of man's sins, we have reason to wonder that it does not now sink under its load. The ruin of others should be our warning.

Speak unto the congregation,.... Not to Korah's company, but to the people of Israel, of the several tribes that were assembled together: saying, get ye up from about the tabernacle of Korah, and Dathan, and Abiram; which was either the same with their tents, as in Numbers 16:26; though, as they were of different tribes, Korah of the tribe of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram of the tribe of Reuben, their tents must be in distinct and different places, though both encamped on the same side of the tabernacle, and pretty near to each other; the camp of Levi was nearest the tabernacle, and the camp of Reuben next to it. It may be, there was a single tabernacle erected on this occasion, for all these men to meet at when they judged it necessary. Aben Ezra is of opinion, Korah had a tent for his men and substance, at a distance from the camp of the Levites, and to his tent joined the tents of Dathan and Abiram.

Numbers 16:24-25 . Speak unto the congregation — Whom, for your sakes, I will spare upon the condition following. Unto Dathan — Because they refused to come to him. The elders — The seventy rulers, whom he carried with him for the greater solemnity of the action, and to encourage them in their work, notwithstanding the obstinate and untractable nature of the people they were to govern.

(24) Get you up from about the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram— It is not easy to determine what is the meaning of the word mishkan (tabernacle) in this and in the 27th verse. The word, in the singular number, commonly denotes the tabernacle of the congregation— i.e., the boarded erection which was covered by the ohel, or tent. The word means simply a “dwelling-place,” and it may denote in this and in the 27th verse a rival tabernacle which had been erected by Korah and the other conspirators; or it may denote, in a collective sense, the tent of Korah, which may have been contumaciously pitched near that of the Reubenites, and also the tents of Dathan and Abiram, which were in proximity to those of the Kohathites, but further removed from the Tabernacle. The substitution of the word “tents” in Numbers 16:26 , in which Moses delivers to the people the command contained in Numbers 16:24 , seems to favour the latter of these explanations.

24 . the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram ] This strange expression, which recurs in Numbers 16:27 , has resulted from the combination of the narratives. The test is arranged at the door of the sacred Tent of Jehovah ( Numbers 16:18-19 ), and all the congregation are assembled there. The word ‘tabernacle’ ( mishkân ) is never used of ordinary human dwellings1 [Note: Except in the plural in one poetical passage, Numbers 24:5 .] . And the singular here would imply that Korah, Dathan, and Abiram all lived in the same tent, which is negatived by Numbers 16:26 . The original reading must either have been simply ‘the tabernacle’ or more probably the tabernacle of Jehovah.

Verse 24. - Get you up from about the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. The word "tabernacle" ( mishcan ) is the same word which is so translated in verse 9, but not the same which is used in verses 18,19; it properly signifies "dwelling-place." It is certainly the natural conclusion, from the use of this expression here and in verse 27, that this mishcan was something different from the "tents" ( אָהָלֵי ) mentioned in verses 26, 27 , and was some habitation common to the three rebels (see below on verse 31). The Septuagint, in order to avoid the difficulty, omits the names of Dathan and Abiram, and has only ἀπὸ τῆς συναγωγῆς Κορέ . Numbers 16:24

The tent, "the tabernacle" of Korah, as a Kohathite, stood on the south side of the tabernacle of the Lord; and those of Dathan and Abiram, as Reubenites, in the outer line of encampment on the same side. Yet though the tents of these three were thus contiguous, they did not share the same fate. Korah and his company who dared to intrude themselves on the priestly office were destroyed by fire from the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the Lord Numbers 16:35 ; the Reubenites, who had reviled Moses for the failure of the promises about the pleasant land, were suddenly engulfed while standing at their own tent-doors in the barren wilderness Numbers 16:31-33 .

24-26. Speak unto the congregation, … Get you up from about the tabernacle—Moses was attended in the execution of this mission by the elders. The united and urgent entreaties of so many dignified personages produced the desired effect of convincing the people of their crime, and of withdrawing them from the company of men who were doomed to destruction, lest, being partakers of their sins, they should perish along with them.

Jehovah then instructed Moses, that the congregation was to remove away (עלה, to get up and away) from about the dwelling-place of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram; and, as we may supply from the context, the congregation fell back from Korah's tent, whilst Dathan and Abiram, possibly at the very first appearance of the divine glory, drew back into their tents. Moses therefore betook himself to the tents of Dathan and Abiram, with the elders following him, and there also commanded the congregation to depart from the tents of these wicked men, and not touch anything they possessed, that they might not be swept away in all their sins.