Numbers 15:31

31 Because he despised the word of Yahweh and broke his command, that person will be surely cut off and bear the guilt.'"

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.

---

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] the native among the {Israelites} and the alien that dwells in their midst, there will be one law for anyone who commits an unintentional wrong.

30 But the one {who acts presumptuously} from among the native or alien blasphemes against Yahweh, and that person must be cut off from the midst of the people.

31 Because he despised the word of Yahweh and broke his command, that person will be surely cut off and bear the guilt.'"

32 When the {Israelites} were in the desert, they found a man who was gathering wood on the day of the Sabbath.

33 The ones who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses, Aaron, and to all the community.