Numbers 21

Numbers 21:1

Ye sons of Levi - They were of his own tribe, nay, they were of God’s tribe. It was therefore the worse in them thus to mutiny against God and against him.

Numbers 21:2

To minister to them - So they were the servants both of God and of the church, which was an high dignity, though not sufficient for their ambitious minds.

Numbers 21:4

Against the Lord - Whose chosen servant Aaron is. You strike at God through Aaron’s sides.

Numbers 21:5

Dathan and Abiram - To treat with them and give them, as he had done Korah and his company, a timely admonition. Come up - To Moses’s tabernacle, whither the people used to go up for judgment. Men are said in scripture phrase to go up to places of judgment.

Numbers 21:7

These men - Of all the people who are of our mind: wilt thou make them blind, or persuade them that they do not see what is visible to all that have eyes, to wit, that thou hast deceived them, and broken thy faith and promise given to them?

Numbers 21:8

Respect not their offering - Accept not their incense which they are now going to offer, but shew some eminent dislike of it. He calls it their offering, though it was offered by Korah and his companions, because it was offered in the name and by the consent of all the conspirators, for the decision of the present controversy between them and Moses. I have not hurt one of them - I have never injured them, nor used my power to defraud or oppress them, as I might have done; I have done them many good offices, but no hurt: therefore their crime is without any cause or provocation.

Numbers 21:9

Before the Lord - Not in the tabernacle, which was not capable of so many persons severally offering incense, but at the door of the tabernacle, where they might offer it by Moses’s direction upon this extraordinary occasion. This work could not be done in that place, which alone was allowed for the offering up of incense; not only for its smallness, but also because none but priests might enter to do this work. Here also the people, who were to be instructed by this experiment, might see the proof and success of it.

Numbers 21:11

Fire - Taken from the altar which stood in that place, for Aaron might not use other fire. And it is likely the rememberance of the death of Nadab and Abihu deterred them from offering any strange fire.

Numbers 21:12

Against them - That they might be witnesses of the event, and, upon their success, which they doubted not of, might fall upon Moses and Aaron. And it seems by this that the people were generally incensed against Moses, and inclined to Korah’s side. The glory appeared - In the cloud, which then shone with greater brightness and majesty, as a token of God’s approach and presence.

Numbers 21:15

The spirits - And this is no empty title here, but very emphatical. Thou art the maker of spirits, destroy not thy own workmanship! O thou who art the preserver of men, and of their spirits, the Lord of spirits, Job 12:10, who as thou mayst justly destroy this people, so thou canst preserve whom thou pleasest: the father of spirits, the souls. Deal mercifully with thy own children: the searcher of spirits, thou canst distinguish between those who have maliciously railed this tumult, and those whose ignorance and simple credulity hath made them a prey to crafty seducers. Of all flesh - Of all mankind: the word flesh is often put for men. One man - Korah, the ringleader of this sedition.

Numbers 21:17

The congregation - Whom for your sakes I will spare upon the condition following.

Numbers 21:18

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.

Numbers 21:20

Stood in the door - An argument of their foolish confidence, obstinacy and impenitency, whereby they declared that they neither feared God, nor reverenced man.

Numbers 21:21

All these works - As the bringing of the people out of Egypt; the conducting of them through the wilderness; the exercising authority among them; and giving laws to them concerning the priesthood.

Numbers 21:22

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 imposter, falsely pretending to be sent of God.

Numbers 21:25

All that appertained unto Korah - That is, all his family which were there, women, children, and servants; but his sons, who were spared, Numbers 26:11,58 1 Chronicles 6:22,37, 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 fathers act, or upon Moses’s intercession for them. This expression may intimate, that Korah himself was not here, but that he continued with his two hundred and fifty men before the Lord, where they were waiting for God’s decision of the controversy. Nor is it probable that their chief captain would desert them, and leave them standing there without an head, especially, when Aaron his great adversary, abode there still, and did not go with Moses to Dathan. And Korah may seem to have been consumed with those two hundred and fifty. And so much is intimated, Numbers 16:40, that no stranger come near to offer incense before the Lord, that he be not as Korah, and as his company, that is, destroyed, as they were, by fire from the Lord. And when the Psalmist relates this history, Psalms 106:17 - 18, the earth’s swallowing them up is confined to Dathan and Abiram, Psalms 106:17, and for all the rest of that conspiracy it is added, Psalms 106:18. And a fire was kindled in their company, the flame burnt up the wicked.

Numbers 21:26

Into the pit - Into the earth, which first opened itself to receive them, and then shut itself to destroy them.

Numbers 21:28

From the Lord - From the cloud, wherein the glory of the Lord appeared.

Numbers 21:30

To Eleazer - Rather than to Aaron, partly because the troublesome part of the work was more proper for him, and partly lest Aaron should be polluted by going amongst those dead carcasses; for it is probable this fire consumed them, as lightning sometimes doth, others, by taking away their lives, and leaving their bodies dead upon the place. Out of the burning - From among the dead bodies of those men who were burnt. Yonder - Far from the altar and sanctuary, into an unclean place, where the ashes were wont to be cast: by which God shews his rejection on of their services. They are hallowed - By God’s appointment, because they were presented before the Lord by his express order, Numbers 16:16,17.

Numbers 21:31

Their own souls - That is, their own lives: who were the authors of their own destruction. The altar - Of burnt - offerings, which was made of wood, but covered with brass before this time, Exodus 27:1,2, to which this other covering was added for farther ornament, and security against the fire, continually burning upon it. A sign - A warning to all strangers to take heed of invading the priesthood.

Numbers 21:33

To him - To Eleazer. These words belong to Numbers 16:38, the meaning is, that Eleazer did as God bade him.

Numbers 21:34

On the morrow - Prodigious wickedness and madness so soon to forget such a terrible instance of Divine vengeance! The people of the Lord - So they call those wicked wretches, and rebels against God! Tho’ they were but newly saved from sharing in the same punishment, and the survivors were as brands plucked out of the burning, yet they fly in the face of Moses and Aaron, to whose intercession they owe their preservation.

Numbers 21:35

They - Moses and Aaron, who in all their distresses made God their refuge.