Separation Is Followed by the Earth Swallowing Households

The congregation is told to get away from the tents; families stand in the door

The LORD tells Moses to speak to the congregation: Get you up from about the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Moses goes to Dathan and Abiram, the elders of Israel following. He tells the congregation, Depart from the tents of these wicked men, touch nothing of theirs, lest you be consumed in all their sins.

They get up from the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram on every side. Dathan and Abiram come out and stand in the door of their tents, with their wives, and their sons, and their little children. The household is visible. The coming judgment will not let a reader pretend only three men were on the ground.

Moses stakes the sign, and the earth swallows tents and people

Moses says, Hereby you shall know that the LORD has sent me to do all these works, for I have not done them of mine own mind. If these men die the common death of all men, the LORD has not sent me. But if the LORD make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth and swallow them, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit, then you shall understand that these men have provoked the LORD.

The ground cleaves, the earth opens, swallows them, their houses, all the men with Korah, and all their goods. They go down alive into the pit, the earth closes, they perish from the congregation. All Israel around flees at their cry, lest the earth swallow them also. The scene does not authorize killing families, punishing relatives, reading disasters as exposés of rebels, or threatening critics' children and property. A narrative sign in the wilderness is not a method.