Matthew Henry on Numbers 16:35-40
We must now look back to the door of the tabernacle, where we left the pretenders to the priesthood with their censers in their hands ready to offer incense; and here we find,
I. Vengeance taken on them, Num 16:35. It is probable that when the earth opened in the camp to swallow up Dathan and Abiram a fire went out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men that offered incense, while Aaron that stood with them was preserved alive. This punishment was not indeed so new a thing as the former, for Nadab and Abihu thus died; but it was not less strange or dreadful, and in it it appeared, 1. That our God is a consuming fire. Is thunder a sensible indication of the terror of his voice? Lightning is a…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Numbers 16:35
there came out a fire from the Lord--that is, from the cloud. This seems to describe the destruction of Korah and those Levites who with him aspired to the functions of the priesthood. (See Num 26:11, Num 26:58; Ch1 6:22, Ch1 6:37).
John Gill on Numbers 16:36
And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... Immediately after these men were consumed by fire from him; out of the same cloud from whence that proceeded, he spoke:
saying: as follows.
John Calvin on Numbers 16:35-36
And there came out a fire from the Lord. The diver-sky of the punishments had the effect of awakening more astonishment in the people, than as if all had been destroyed in the same manner, although God's anger raged more fiercely against the original authors of the evil, so as to make it manifest that each received a recompense according to the measure of his iniquity. He says that a fire went forth from Jehovah, because it was not kindled naturally, nor accidentally, but was accompanied by conspicuous marks, which showed that it was sent by Him. Yet I do not reject the opinions of others, viz., that God thundered from heaven, since thus His power would have been more manifestly exerted.
