Tafsiran Bilangan 16:30: Rashi, Ramban, Sforno & Or HaChaim

ואם בריאה BUT IF A CREATION — i.e. an entirely new one.

BUT IF THE ETERNAL CREATE ‘B’RIAH.’ Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra wrote: “Some scholars say that b’riah indicates producing something from nothing. But, [continues Ibn Ezra], many countries have already been rent [by earthquakes], and their inhabitants went down alive into the pit. Rather, the meaning of b’riah is ‘cutting off,’ from [the expression] ‘u’varei’ (and they shall cut) them”¹⁵⁹Ezekiel 23:47. [thus meaning here: “if the Eternal will ‘cut them’ down by causing the ground to open up its mouth etc.”].
The correct interpretation is that the term b’riah is [indeed] used [in the sense of] bringing forth something from nothing, for we have no other word in the Sacred Language denoting this concept [creatio ex nihilo] except for this one. The explanation of the matter is that splitting open the [crust of the] earth is [indeed] not a new creation, but that the ground should open up its mouth to swallow up [certain people] is a new event which had never occurred previously. For when the earth is split open, as happens many times during an earthquake which is called zalzalah,¹⁶⁰The Arabic word for earthquake. See (Exodus), Vol. II, p. 324, Note 512. it remains open and the chasm becomes filled with water, like ponds; but that it should open up and close again immediately — like a person who opens his mouth to swallow and closes it after he has swallowed — this event was a new happening which occurred [only] on that day, as if it were created out of nothing. This is the meaning of the expression, and the earth closed upon them¹⁶¹Verse 33. [that it closed up immediately after consuming them, and left no sign that it had opened]. It is for this reason that [when saying that] the ground did cleave asunder,¹⁶²Verse 31. Scripture says: And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up.¹⁶³Verse 32. And according to the opinion of our Rabbis¹⁶⁴Sanhedrin 110a. Although Gehenna existed already, this movement of its opening was a “new creation.” [who say] that the opening of Gehenna came near to this spot — that phenomenon too, was a new event which occurred [only] at that moment.

וידעתם כי נאצו, for they do not deserve to even be buried together with the remainder of the people.

יברא ה׳ THE LORD WILL CREATE, to slay them by a kind of death by which no man has hitherto died — and what is this new creation?