Bible Commentaries

Take the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, from twenty years old and upward, throughout their fathers’ house, all that are able to go to war in Israel.

From twenty. — See Trapp on " Numbers 1:3 "

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And the sons of Eliab; Nemuel, and Dathan, and Abiram. This [is that] Dathan and Abiram, [which were] famous in the congregation, who strove against Moses and against Aaron in the company of Korah, when they strove against the LORD:

Which were famous. — But for no goodness. Tubulus, who was the Roman praetor a little afore Cicero’s time, was homo tam proiecte improbus, ut eius nomen non hominis sed vitii esse videretur, so wicked a wretch, that he seemed to be wickedness itself. Lips., Antiq. Lection. Portius Latro calleth Catiline, sacrarium libidinum, portentum scelerum, gurgitem et sentinam flagitiorum, …, a sink of sinfulness. And Josephus saith of Antipater, that his life was no better than a mystery of iniquity. These men were famous, or rather infamous, for their flagitious practices; notoriously naught; signally sinful.

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And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up together with Korah, when that company died, what time the fire devoured two hundred and fifty men: and they became a sign.

And they became a sign. — An example of that rule, that great sins bring great plagues, as Herodotus hath it, speaking of the destruction of Troy. Aliorum perditio, tua sit cautio, Enjoy other men’s madness, … Discite iustitiam moniti, … Let all that behold me beware; this was written upon the statue of Sennacherib, saith Herodotus.

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Notwithstanding the children of Korah died not.

The children of Korah died not. — As being either innocent or penitent; for Aut paenitendum, ant pereundum Luke 13:3

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