Numbers 26:10
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 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.
Numbers 26:10 stands in the second numbering of Israel, taken at the end or close of the forty years, nearly forty years after the first numbering soon after leaving Egypt and just before entering Canaan, with the thirty-six chapters of Numbers very nearly covering the thirty-eight years between the two enumerations. That second numbering gives definite numbers of men of a certain age to be set against and compared with the first numbering in chapter 1, and also chapters 2 and 3, to note how some tribes fell off and others increased and how the tribes have gained and lost. The comparison shows the total number of adult males changed little, from 603,550 to 601,730, while the numbers of the several tribes changed considerably, most remarkably Simeon shrinking almost two-thirds from 59,300 to 22,200 and Manasseh increasing almost two-thirds. The notable decrease of Simeon fulfills the dying blessing of Jacob that Simeon and Levi should be divided in Jacob and scattered in Israel, which was fulfilled for Levi by withholding any tribal division of the promised land and scattering the Levites among all the tribes for priestly duties.
The second numbering proves and shows beyond dispute that God fulfilled his threatened judgments, for the rebellious generation that was numbered the first time had died in the wilderness because of wickedness and open, wanton rebellion against God, with sin in their midst, so that by a solemn oath he excluded them from the land and doomed them to die there, and of all the men numbered the first time only Caleb and Joshua remained alive to witness the second numbering. The verse records the judgment on Korah and the two hundred and fifty men who offered incense against the Lord's arrangement, when the earth opened and swallowed the rebels together with Korah and the fire devoured the two hundred and fifty men, and they became a sign or warning. Dathan and Abiram's families shared their rebellion, while Korah's family did not fully share his spirit but left him alone, so that Korah perished alone.
The swallowing of Korah's company when the earth opened was a supernatural earthquake and a direct act of God's power in punishment for sin. These punishments were exemplary, and the people who followed the rebellion were less responsible than its leaders. The history is full of instruction to the people upon whom the ends of the world are come, whose hopes of entering the kingdom of God cannot be stronger and whose tokens of God's favor, presence, and willingness to save cannot be greater than Israel's at the first numbering, yet Israel came short of the land of promise, teaching the great lesson that sin cannot be carried in the heart without inevitably bringing ruin and warning to avoid their miserable perishing example.