Numbers 15:31

31 'Because he has 1despised the word of the LORD and has broken His commandment, that person shall be completely cut off; 2his guilt will be on 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.


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 'You shall have one law for him who does anything unintentionally, for him who is native among the sons of Israel and for the alien who sojourns among them.
30 'But the person who does anything defiantly , whether he is native or an alien, that one is blaspheming the LORD ; and that person shall be cut off from among his people.
31 'Because he has despised the word of the LORD and has broken His commandment, that person shall be completely cut off; his guilt will be on him.' "
32 Now while the sons of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering wood on the sabbath day.
33 Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation;

Cross References 2

  • 1. 2 Samuel 12:9; Proverbs 13:13
  • 2. Ezekiel 18:20

Footnotes 1

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