Numbers 15:31

31 verbum enim Domini contempsit et praeceptum illius fecit irritum idcirco delebitur et portabit iniquitatem suam

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 tam indigenis quam advenis una lex erit omnium qui peccaverint ignorantes
30 anima vero quae per superbiam aliquid commiserit sive civis sit ille sive peregrinus quoniam adversum Dominum rebellis fuit peribit de populo suo
31 verbum enim Domini contempsit et praeceptum illius fecit irritum idcirco delebitur et portabit iniquitatem suam
32 factum est autem cum essent filii Israhel in solitudine et invenissent hominem colligentem ligna in die sabbati
33 obtulerunt eum Mosi et Aaron et universae multitudini
The Latin Vulgate is in the public domain.