What Does Deuteronomy 11:6 Mean in the King James?
And what he did unto Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their households, and their tents, and all the substance that was in their possession, in the midst of all Israel:
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Hebrew pictures the earth gaping as a mouth and swallowing the men together with their households, tents, and everything that stands with them.
THE MEANING
The verse sets before you a rupture no smaller than the ground itself: the earth opens its mouth and takes Dathan and Abiram with their households, tents, and all their substance. Its reach extends from the named men to the whole world held around them, in the midst of all Israel.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that what happens to the named leaders stops with them: the verse carries the swallowing through their households, tents, and everything in their possession.
THE ROOT
וַתִּבְלָעֵם
vatibla'em
GROWS FROM
בלע
b-l-ʿ
To swallow, engulf, or consume.
“swallowed them up” in this verse is vatibla'em. The Hebrew verb makes the earth’s action an engulfing, not simply a collapse beneath their feet. The same root describes death itself being swallowed, linking this scene’s total taking-in with a force that can itself be consumed.
ALSO GROWS
balaʿ: To swallow or devour.
בָּלַע
This is the root verb behind the earth’s swallowing of the people and all that surrounds them.
billa hamavet: Swallow up death (Isaiah 25:8).
בִּלַּע הַמָּוֶת
The same root can name death as what gets swallowed, extending the image beyond taking people into the earth.
פָּצְתָה
patsetah
GROWS FROM
פצה
p-ts-h
To open wide or gape, especially of the mouth.
“opened her mouth” in this verse is patsetah. This verb carries the sense of a mouth gaping open, and the verse immediately follows it with the earth’s swallowing. Elsewhere the same root describes lips uttering words, so the mouth can open either to speak or to take something in.
ALSO GROWS
petseh fikha: Open your mouth wide (Psalm 81:10).
פְּצֵה־פִיךָ
The same verb makes the mouth’s wide opening an image of readiness to receive.
patsu sefatay: My lips uttered (Psalm 66:14).
פָּצוּ שְׂפָתַי
Here opening the lips becomes speech, showing how the root moves from a physical gape to words coming out.
יְקוּם
yequm
GROWS FROM
קום
q-w-m
To rise or stand; יְקוּם refers to what exists or stands.
The English word “substance” can sound like a list of owned objects, while יְקוּם (yequm) reaches toward all that exists or stands with them. The verse sweeps that whole surrounding world into the earth’s swallowing.
ALSO GROWS
qum: Rise or stand.
קוּם
This verb carries the basic idea behind the word for all that stands or exists around them.
maqom: Place or standing place.
מָקוֹם
This related word for place evokes the setting that holds what exists there, widening the sense of what is taken in.
THE PATTERN
An opened mouth is an engulfing threshold: what enters it is taken into a reach larger than the single person named.
And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods.The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram.And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.THE THREAD
And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods.Numbers repeats the root בלע (b-l-ʿ, swallow or engulf) in the matching phrase, though its verb for opening the earth’s mouth differs from Deuteronomy’s. The shared root makes the reach of the swallowing unmistakable: it takes the households and goods along with the people.
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