John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Numbers 16 This chapter gives an account of a sedition of Korah and others against Moses and Aaron, Numbers 16:1, with whom Moses expostulates, and shows the unreasonableness of their clamour against Aaron, Numbers 16:5; sends for Dathan and Abiram, who were in the confederacy, but refused to come, which greatly angered Moses, Numbers 16:12; orders Korah and his company to appear...
John Gill
And they fell upon their faces,.... That is, Moses and Aaron, in order to deprecate the wrath of God, and beseech him to avert the threatened judgment; and so the Targum of Jonathan has it, "they bowed themselves in prayer upon their faces;'' and said, O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh; the Maker of all men, as of their bodies, which are flesh, so of their souls or spirits, which are...
Matthew Henry
The date of the history contained in this chapter is altogether uncertain. Probably these mutinies happened after their removal back again from Kadesh-barnea, when they were fixed (if I may so speak) for their wandering in the wilderness, and began to look upon that as their settlement. Presently after new laws given follows the story of a new rebellion, as if sin took occasion from the...