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He was not in the company of Korah, nor in any other rebellion of the people, which must be understood, because all of them are opposed to
his own sin, in which alone he is said to die. But they mention this only either,
1. Because he might possibly be accused to be guilty of this. Or,
2. Because he, being an eminent person, might be thought guilty of that rather than of any other, because the great and famous men were more concerned in that rebellion than others. Or,
3. To gain the favour of Moses, against whom that rebellion was more particularly directed, and more desperately prosecuted than any other. Or,
4. Because peradventure he died about that time, and therefore might be presumed guilty of that crime. Or rather,
5. Because that sin, and, as it may seem, that only of all the sins committed in the wilderness, was of such a flagitious nature, that God thought fit to extend the punishment not only to the persons of those rebels, but also to their children and families, Num_16:27,32, as was usual in like cases, as Deu_13:15 Jos_7:24; whence it is noted as a singular privilege granted to the children of Korah, that they died not, Num_26:11, whereas the children of their confederates died with them. And this makes their argument here more proper and powerful, that he did not die in that sin for which his posterity were to be cut off, and to lose either their lives or their inheritances, and therefore their claim was more just.
In his own sin; either,
1. For that sin mentioned Num 14, which they call his own sin, in opposition not to the rest of the people, for it was a common sin, but to his children, i.e. the sin for which he alone was to suffer in his person and not in his posterity, as God had appointed, Num_14:33. Or rather,
2. For his own personal sins; for,
1. These were more properly his own sins.
2. It was a truth, and that believed by the Jews, that death was a punishment for men’s own sins.
3. The punishment of that common sin was not directly and properly death, but exclusion from the land of Canaan, and death only by way of consequence upon that.