Numbers 16:30

Summary

Numbers 16:30 records Moses's proposed sign: if Yehovah performs an unprecedented act, the ground itself will split open and swallow Korah's group along with their possessions, sending them alive into Sheol. This event would serve as proof that these men have spurned Yehovah.

Key words

• beri'ah ("a creation", H1278) paired with yivra ("he will create", H1254A) — a cognate construction using a noun and verb from the same root, an idiomatic way of expressing something wholly unprecedented or extraordinary.
• patzetah ("it will open", H6475) — qal sequential perfect (vav + perfect continuing a future-oriented conditional), marking the first consequence in a chain of events following the condition.
• chayyim ("alive", H2416A) — masculine plural adjective modifying the subject of yaredu ("they will go down", H3381), specifying the manner of descent: while still living.
• she'olah ("towards Sheol", H7585 + directional he, H9011) — the directional suffix indicates motion toward Sheol as a destination.
• ni'atsu ("they have spurned", H5006) — piel (intensive) perfect, a completed action describing the men's prior conduct toward Yehovah, contrasted with the future verbs describing the sign.

What the text says

The verse opens with a conditional clause built on the cognate pair beri'ah yivra — literally "a creation he will create." This root repetition (from ברא, "to create") is a Hebrew idiomatic intensifier signaling something categorically new, without a direct one-word English equivalent. The condition is then followed by a chain of verbs in the sequential perfect (vav + perfect): patzetah ("it will open"), val'ah ("it will swallow"), yaredu ("they will go down"), and yada'tem ("you will know"). This chain grammatically links each event as a consequential sequence flowing from the initial condition, producing a cascading effect in the Hebrew syntax that culminates in the audience's knowledge.

The final clause shifts tense: ni'atsu ("they have spurned") is a plain (non-sequential) perfect, marking completed past action — the men's contemptuous behavior toward Yehovah — which stands as the reason to be confirmed by the future sign, rather than part of the sequential chain itself.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew cognate construction beri'ah yivra ("a creation he will create") has no exact equivalent in the other versions. The LXX renders this as en phasmati deixei ("will show by a portent/apparition"), while the Vulgate uses novam rem fecerit ("will do a new thing") — both convey the idea of something extraordinary but do not reproduce the root-repetition wordplay of the Hebrew.

For ni'atsu ("they have spurned", H5006), the LXX uses paroxynan ("they have provoked/irritated"), and the Vulgate uses blasphemaverint ("they have blasphemed") — three distinct semantic framings of the same underlying action.