They, and all that [appertained] unto them, went down alive into the pit,.... The grave which the opening earth made for them, they and their families:and the earth closed upon them; and covered them over; this it did of itself, as Aben Ezra remarks: this was a wonderful instance of almighty power, that it should open in such large fissures as to swallow up such a number of men, with their tents, goods, and cattle, and then close again so firmly, as not to have the least appearance upon it of what had happened, as Josephus observes ,and they perished from among the congregation; and had a name and a place no more with them.
Antiqu. ut supra, (l. 4. c. 3.) sect.