Numbers 15:31

31 He will certainly be cut off, because he has despised the Lord's word and broken His command; his guilt remains 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.

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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 You are to have the same law for the person who acts in error, whether he is an Israelite or a foreigner who lives among you.

30 "But the person who acts defiantly, whether native or foreign resident, blasphemes the Lord. That person is to be cut off from his people.

31 He will certainly be cut off, because he has despised the Lord's word and broken His command; his guilt remains on him."

32 While the Israelites 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, Aaron, and the entire community.