16:31 When he had finished 4 speaking 5 all these words, the ground that was under them split open, 16:32 and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, along with their households, and all Korah’s men, and all their goods. 16:33 They and all that they had went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed over them. So they perished from among the community. 16:34 All the Israelites 6 who were around them fled at their cry, 7 for they said, “What if 8 the earth swallows us too?” 16:35 Then a fire 9 went out from the Lord and devoured the 250 men who offered incense.
1 tn Heb “princes” (so KJV, ASV).
2 tn These men must have been counselors or judges of some kind.
3 tn Heb “men of name,” or “men of renown.”
4 tn The initial temporal clause is standard: It begins with the temporal indicator “and it was,” followed here by the Piel infinitive construct with the preposition and the subjective genitive suffix. “And it happened when he finished.”
5 tn The infinitive construct with the preposition lamed (ל) functions here as the direct object of the preceding infinitive. It tells what he finished.
6 tn Heb “all Israel.”
7 tn Heb “voice.”
8 tn Heb “lest.”
9 tn For a discussion of the fire of the
10 tn The expression is “in/by/against their life.” That they sinned against their life means that they brought ruin to themselves.
11 tn The form is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive. But there is no expressed subject for “and they shall make them,” and so it may be treated as a passive (“they shall [must] be made”).