If What Wasn’t Is; Those Who Were Are Not
A Distillation of Numbers 16:28-34
By this you will know
that all I have done
I have not done
of my own devising
but at God’s bidding:
If they cease to be
as all people cease to be
not God
has bidden me.
If that which has never been
(and which I now devise)
God brings into being
you will know
they have disdained God
(God has bidden me
do
all I have done).
If the earth eats them alive…
…the earth ate them alive.
And they were lost
from the people.
“The earth will swallow us whole.”
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במדבר טז כח וַיֹּאמֶר מֹשֶׁה בְּזֹאת תֵּדְעוּן כִּי-יְהוָה שְׁלָחַנִי לַעֲשׂוֹת אֵת כָּל-הַמַּעֲשִׂים הָאֵלֶּה כִּי-לֹא מִלִּבִּי כט אִם-כְּמוֹת כָּל-הָאָדָם יְמֻתוּן אֵלֶּה וּפְקֻדַּת כָּל-הָאָדָם יִפָּקֵד עֲלֵיהֶם לֹא יְהוָה שְׁלָחָנִי ל וְאִם-בְּרִיאָה יִבְרָא יְהוָה וּפָצְתָה הָאֲדָמָה אֶת-פִּיהָ וּבָלְעָה אֹתָם וְאֶת-כָּל-אֲשֶׁר לָהֶם וְיָרְדוּ חַיִּים, שְׁאֹלָה וִידַעְתֶּם כִּי נִאֲצוּ הָאֲנָשִׁים הָאֵלֶּה אֶת-יְהוָה לא וַיְהִי כְּכַלֹּתוֹ לְדַבֵּר אֵת כָּל-הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה וַתִּבָּקַע הָאֲדָמָה אֲשֶׁר תַּחְתֵּיהֶם לב וַתִּפְתַּח הָאָרֶץ אֶת-פִּיהָ וַתִּבְלַע אֹתָם וְאֶת-בָּתֵּיהֶם וְאֵת כָּל-הָאָדָם אֲשֶׁר לְקֹרַח וְאֵת כָּל-הָרְכוּשׁ לג וַיֵּרְדוּ הֵם וְכָל-אֲשֶׁר לָהֶם חַיִּים שְׁאֹלָה וַתְּכַס עֲלֵיהֶם הָאָרֶץ וַיֹּאבְדוּ מִתּוֹךְ הַקָּהָל לד וְכָל-יִשְׂרָאֵל אֲשֶׁר סְבִיבֹתֵיהֶם נָסוּ לְקֹלָם כִּי אָמְרוּ פֶּן-תִּבְלָעֵנוּ הָאָרֶץ |
Numbers 16 28 And Moses said, “By this you shall know that it was the Lord who sent me to do all these things; that they are not of my own devising: 29 if these men die as all men do, if their lot be the common fate of all mankind, it was not the Lord who sent me. 30 But if the Lord brings about something unheard-of, so that the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, you shall know that these men have spurned the Lord.” 31 Scarcely had he finished speaking all these words when the ground under them burst asunder, 32 and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up with their households, all Korah’s people and all their possessions. 33 They went down alive into Sheol, with all that belonged to them; the earth closed over them and they vanished from the midst of the congregation. 34 All Israel around them fled at their shrieks, for they said, “The earth might swallow us!” (© The Jewish Publication Society, 1992) |
