And as he finished speaking all these words refers to Moses’ speech in verses 28-30. The LORD’s judgment came right after Moses spoke. Contemporary English Version provides a good model for this clause, saying “As soon as Moses said this.”

The ground under them split asunder: The pronoun them refers to Dathan and Abiram, which Good News Translation makes this explicit by rendering this clause as “the ground under Dathan and Abiram split open.”

And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up: See the comments on verse 30.

With all their households: The earth also swallowed the families of Dathan and Abiram. Households, which is literally “houses” (see 1.2), may be rendered “families” (Good News Translation).

And all the men that belonged to Korah and all their goods: The Hebrew phrase here almost comes as an afterthought. It may refer to people in addition to Dathan, Abiram, and their families. Good News Translation follows this understanding by saying “together with all of Korah’s followers and their possessions,” and so does Bible en français courant with “as well as the followers of Korah and all their possessions.” Revised English Bible understands the Hebrew phrase here in another way, namely, as an apposition to what was just said about Dathan, Abiram, and their families, so Revised English Bible renders verse 32 as “the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their homes—all the followers of Korah and all their property.” If translators follow this understanding, they could replace the long dash with the phrase “that is to say.” The Hebrew favors slightly the understanding in Good News Translation and Bible en français courant, since the pronoun their in the phrase all their goods refers to Korah’s followers. The Hebrew text does not mention Korah’s family here. As 26.11 mentions explicitly, his children did not die when the earth swallowed up Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and the other followers of Korah. The brief account of this episode in Deut 11.6 and Psa 106.16-18 only mentions Dathan and Abiram, not Korah. Contemporary English Version and New Living Translation omit the reference to Korah here, but there is no textual support for this omission, so we do not recommend it.

Quoted with permission from de Regt, Lénart J. and Wendland, Ernst R. A Handbook on Numbers. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .