Three men in long robes plunge into the cleft.
Bible in art · Numbers
The Punishment of Korah, Dathan and Abiram
Gustave Doré · 1866 (designs for La Sainte Bible, Tours); this printing 1873–1874
National Library of Poland, Warsaw
Doré builds this plate as a deep cleft in the earth, its dark rock walls closing in from both sides. Light comes from above, where tents and people stand at the edge, and from the fire at the bottom.
Three men in priestly robes fall headfirst into the gap, still holding their incense burners on chains. A heavy carved chest and a tent topple in after them. At the top, people turn and run, their arms raised. Smoke and flames rise from below.
From the text
- “the ground beneath them split open” (Numbers 16:31)
- “They went down alive into Sheol with all they owned” (Numbers 16:33)
- The people fled, saying, “The earth may swallow us too!” (Numbers 16:34)
The artist’s own
- Korah, Dathan and Abiram shown with censers, joining two parts of the story — the fire also consumed the 250 men offering incense (Numbers 16:35)
- A carved chest and a falling tent for “all their possessions”
Details
The falling men
A censer
An incense burner swings on its chain.
The chest and tent
A carved chest and a tent topple into the gap.
The fleeing people
At the edge, people turn and run.
Gustave Doré, French, 1832–1883. National Library of Poland (Biblioteka Narodowa), Warsaw — «Pismo Święte Starego i Nowego Testamentu», vol. 1, Warsaw: M. Glücksberg, 1873 (acc. 75.267 A), tabl. 40 · Wood engraving after Gustave Doré’s design · National Library of Poland (Polona): the record of the volume gives the licence «Domena Publiczna» (Public Domain), «copyrightProtected»: false; the scan was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by the library itself («Polona Upload», GLAM-Wiki partnership: “This file was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons as part of a GLAM-Wiki partnership between the National Library of Poland and Wikimedia Polska”), linking its Polona record.