Numbers16:23–27

The judgment remembered: Korah, Dathan, Abiram verbal / quotation — confirmed

The later census-narrative recalls this very scene as a fixed memory of judgment: Dathan and Abiram, “who strove against Moses and against Aaron in the company of Korah,” swallowed by the earth. The link is verbal, carried by the rare proper names Dâthân and ʼĂbîyrâm (each in fewer than ten verses of the whole Bible), together with the shared ʻêdâh (congregation).

Numbers 26:9

basis: shared rare lexemes H1885 Dâthân (in 8 vv) and H48 ʼĂbîyrâm (in 9 vv), plus H5712 ʻêdâh (in 140 vv) — the Verifier confirms the two names as low-frequency, hence verbal

The catechism of warning: Deuteronomy rehearses the swallowing verbal / quotation — confirmed

Moses, recounting God’s mighty acts to a new generation, names “what he did unto Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab… how the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, and their households, and their tents.” The verbal tie is unmistakable — the same rare name-pair, and the shared word ʼôhel (tent), exactly the term of vv. 26–27. Korah is conspicuously absent here, consistent with the distinct fates noted by Barnes.

Deuteronomy 11:6

basis: shared rare lexemes H1885 Dâthân (in 8 vv) and H48 ʼĂbîyrâm (in 9 vv); also H168 ʼôhel (tent), the very word of Num 16:26–27

Israel’s psalter sings the earth’s mouth verbal / quotation — confirmed

Psalm 106, the great confession of national rebellion, versifies the scene: “The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram.” Again the rare name-pair and ʻêdâh (company) carry the link. The episode has become liturgy — the wilderness judgment rehearsed in worship as warning.

Psalm 106:17

basis: shared rare lexemes H1885 Dâthân (in 8 vv) and H48 ʼĂbîyrâm (in 9 vv), plus H5712 ʻêdâh (in 140 vv)

Sodom’s warning: be swept away, do not linger structural / thematic — confirmed

Moses’ threat in v. 26, “lest you be swept away,” reuses the rare verb çâphâh paired with pen- (“lest”) — the exact construction of the angels hastening Lot from Sodom: “lest thou be consumed” (Gen 19:15) and “escape… lest thou be consumed” (Gen 19:17). The motif is shared, not quoted: in both, deliverance demands immediate departure from a place under sentence, with no lingering and no looking back. Marked structural rather than verbal-quotation because there is no citation claim — only a shared verb and a shared pattern of escape.

Genesis 19:15 · Genesis 19:17

basis: shared lexemes H5595 çâphâh (in 19 vv) and H6435 pên (in 125 vv) — a shared escape-motif, not a quotation; tiered structural per the Verifier

The originating rebellion (Numbers 16:1) verbal / quotation — confirmed

The unit is the climax of the conspiracy named at the chapter’s head: Korah, Dathan, Abiram (and On) who “took men… and rose up before Moses.” The same three-name signature opens and closes the revolt, framing the whole as one narrative arc.

Numbers 16:1

basis: shared rare lexemes H7141 Qôrach (in 37 vv), H48 ʼĂbîyrâm (in 9 vv), H1885 Dâthân (in 8 vv) — the name-cluster is the explicit narrative spine

Come out from among them: the apostolic call to separation widely-held

The command sū·rū — “turn aside, separate yourselves from the wicked, touch not the unclean thing” — is taken up almost word-for-word by Paul: “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing” (2 Cor 6:17, itself drawing Isa 52:11). Henry already reads Numbers 16:26 in this gospel key: “those who would not perish with sinners, must come out from among them, and be separate.” The wilderness command prefigures the church’s call to holiness — to be a people parted from what is under judgment. Widely-held in the Reformed tradition; the cross-Testament tie is thematic, not a Hebrew-to-Greek verbal link.

Numbers 16:26 · 2 Corinthians 6:17

The intercessor who goes to the condemned widely-held

Moses, having interceded for the whole congregation (v. 22), rises and walks to the very tents of the rebels (v. 25) — Gill says, “to bring them to repentance.” The pattern points beyond itself to the greater Mediator who does not wait for sinners to come to Him but goes out to seek the lost (Luke 19:10), and who intercedes for transgressors even while bearing their judgment (Isa 53:12; Luke 23:34). The figure is the mediator-who-seeks; the fulfilment is Christ. Offered as a typological reading, ancient in the church’s habit of seeing Moses as a type of Christ (cf. Deut 18:15; Acts 3:22), though this particular scene is applied more by analogy than by explicit New-Testament citation.

Numbers 16:25 · Luke 19:10 · Isaiah 53:12