TO OPEN WIDE — used of a mouth, and in the narrative books almost only of the ground. ⚠ The form patzetah, 'she opened wide', occurs in exactly THREE verses in the whole Hebrew Bible, and the list is the whole point: Genesis 4:11, where Cain is cursed 'from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand'; Numbers 16:30, 32, where the ground opens its mouth and takes Korah's company down alive; and Deuteronomy 11:6 (not yet on these pages), which retells that same day. So the earth opens its mouth twice in the story of the Hebrew Bible — once to receive a murdered brother's blood, once to receive living men — and the second time is written in the words of the first. This translation prints both identically so the echo can be seen. Elsewhere the verb is ordinary: Jephthah 'opened his mouth' in a vow (Judges 11:35-36), and the psalms use it of enemies gaping. → first discussed at Num 16:30