Numbers 15:31

31 For he hath despised the word of Jehovah, and hath broken his commandment: that soul shall surely be cut off; his iniquity is upon him.

Numbers 15:31 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 15:31

Because he hath despised the word of the Lord, and hath
broken his commandment
That is, has broken it through contempt of it, despising it as a command of God, paying no regard to it as a law of his; otherwise such who sin ignorantly break the commandment of God:

that soul shall be utterly cut off;
or "in cutting off shall be cut off" ^F21; most certainly cut off and entirely ruined and destroyed in this world and in that to come, as the Targum of Jonathan; and Maimonides ^F23 understands it of such a cutting off, that the soul itself perishes and is no more; but such annihilation the Scripture nowhere gives us any reason to believe:

his iniquity [shall be] upon him;
the punishment of it, no atonement being made for it by sacrifice; it shall be upon him and him only, or be "in him" ^F24, not repented of and not forgiven.

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FOOTNOTES:

F21 (trkt trkh) "excidendo excidetur", Pagninus, Montanus, Drusius.
F23 In Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 11. sect. 1.
F24 (hb) "in ea", Montanus, Junins & Tremellius, Drusius; "in ipso", Piscator.

Numbers 15:31 In-Context

29 For him that is born in the land among the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them -- there shall be one law for you, for him who doeth anything through inadvertence.

30 But the soul that doeth ought with a high hand, whether born in the land, or a stranger, he reproacheth Jehovah; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people.

31 For he hath despised the word of Jehovah, and hath broken his commandment: that soul shall surely be cut off; his iniquity is upon him.

32 And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness they found a man gathering sticks on the sabbath day.

33 And they that found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to the whole assembly.