Dathan

Dhatan and Abiram devoured by the earth (Hesdin of Amiens, 1450 ca.)

Dathan was an Israelite mentioned in the Old Testament as a participant of the Exodus.

He was a son of Eliab, the son of Pallu, the son of Reuben. Together with his brother Abiram, the Levite Korah and others, he rebelled against Moses and Aaron. The Book of Numbers relates that "the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses." (Book of Numbers 16:31). Dathan is also mentioned in Psalm 106.

Quotes

• Outsiders conspired against him / and envied him in the wilderness, / Dathan and Abiram and their followers / and the company of Korah, in wrath and anger. / The Lord saw it and was not pleased, / and in the heat of his anger they were destroyed; / he performed wonders against them / to consume them in flaming fire.
  • Sirach 45:18-19 NRSVUE

• They were jealous of Moses in the camp / and of Aaron, the holy one of the Lord. / The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan / and covered the faction of Abiram.
  • Psalms 106:16-17 NRSVUE.

• Remember today that it was not your children (who have not known or seen the discipline of the Lord your God), but it is you who must acknowledge his greatness, his mighty hand, and his outstretched arm, his signs and his deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and to all his land; what he did to the Egyptian army, to their horses and chariots, how he made the water of the Red Sea[a] flow over them as they pursued you, so that the Lord has destroyed them to this day; what he did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place; and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab son of Reuben, how in the midst of all Israel the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, along with their households, their tents, and every living being in their company; for it is your own eyes that have seen every great deed that the Lord did.
  • Deuteronomy 11:2-7 NRSVUE.

• Now Korah son of Izhar son of Kohath son of Levi, along with Dathan and Abiram sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth son[a] of Reuben, took two hundred fifty Israelite men, leaders of the congregation, chosen from the assembly, well-known men, and they confronted Moses. They assembled against Moses and against Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! All the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. So why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?”
  • Numbers 16:1-3 NRSVUE.

• Moses sent for Dathan and Abiram sons of Eliab, but they said, “We will not come! Is it too little that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness, that you must also lord it over us? It is clear you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Would you put out the eyes of these men? We will not come!”
  • Numbers 16:12-14 NRSVUE.

• So Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram; the elders of Israel followed him. He spoke to the congregation, saying, “Turn away from the tents of these wicked men and touch nothing of theirs, or you will be swept away for all their sins.” So they got away from the dwellings of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the entrances of their tents, together with their wives, their children, and their little ones. [...] Moses said: [...] But if the Lord creates something new and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up, with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men have despised the Lord.”

As soon as he finished speaking all these words, the ground under them was split apart.

• • Numbers 16:25-27; 28;30-31 NRSVUE.