And the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed them up together with Korah, when that company died, when the fire devoured two hundred and fifty men: and they became a sign.
Read Chapter 26
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Miracle. Hebrew, "they became a sign "of reproach, and a memorial of God's just judgments, who caused the earth to swallow up Core and his companions alive, by a most disgraceful kind of death, to which the faithless vestal virgins were condemned at Rome, being buried alive; while those who had offered incense were consumed by fire. Many of the ancients assert that Core was also burnt, meaning perhaps by the fire of hell; to which he descended. (Josephus, iv. 3.)
Others have thought that the children of Core were swallowed up with their father. But this is not true, with respect to some of them at least, (Haydock) who by a miracle of the divine grace and goodness, were preserved from joining in his sedition; (Calmet) while Core, his wife and servants, all concurred to show them such a pernicious example. (Haydock)
Lyranus and the Rabbins tell us, that the children stopped to intreat their father to repent; and while the earth opened under them, God supported them in the air, and gave them the spirit of prophecy; so that they sung, (Psalm xlv.) God is our refuge, or, according to others, the Psalm xli. which has their name in the title. But these accounts are to be received with caution. The Samaritan text, fuerunt in fugam, (Calmet) may be translated, "out of this world they fled away, (11) and the sons of Core did not perish."
