Commentaire sur Les Nombres 16:26

[DEPART, I PRAY YOU, FROM THE TENTS OF THESE WICKED MEN], AND TOUCH NOTHING OF THEIRS, LEST YE BE SWEPT AWAY IN ALL THEIR SINS. The correct order [in meaning] of this verse is as follows: “Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, lest ye be swept away in all their sins and touch nothing of theirs.” The meaning [therefore] is that if they do not depart from there, they will be swallowed up by the mouth of the earth, and he furthermore warned them that they should not touch [their property] and try to save any of their wealth by taking it for themselves, for it is a doomed thing.¹⁴⁰See Deuteronomy 7:26. And Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra wrote that [the verse is to be interpreted as it reads, and it is saying] that if they attempt to save their wealth, they will go down into the pit like them [Korach and his company]. And if so, the meaning of this will be like that of the verse, And his [Lot’s] wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt,¹⁴¹Genesis 19:26. In other words, according to Ibn Ezra’s interpretation we do not have to say that they will be swallowed up as a punishment for taking their wealth, but that they will automatically be affected as if it were a contagious disease. This is what happened to Lot’s wife when she turned back to see Sodom, for “the plague entered her mind when she saw the brimstone and salt, and it cleaved to her” (Ramban on Genesis, Vol. I, p. 259). as I have mentioned there in explaining the meaning of it.¹⁴²Ibid., Verse 17 (Vol. I, pp. 258-260).

פן תספו, for you will not deserve being saved if you will remain in their physical proximity at the time they will be punished.

וידבר אל העדה לאמור, He spoke to the congregation, saying, etc. The word לאמור means here that Moses told the people that he had been instructed by G'd to tell them what he was about to say.