Bamidbar 15:31

31 Because he hath despised the Devar Hashem, and hath broken His mitzvah, that nefesh shall utterly be cut off; his avon shall be upon him.

Bamidbar 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.

Bamidbar 15:31 In-Context

29 Ye shall have one torah for him that sinneth through ignorance, both for him that is born among the Bnei Yisroel, and for the ger that sojourneth among them.

30 But the nefesh that sinneth with a yad ramah (high hand, defiantly), whether he be born in the land, or a ger, the same blasphemes Hashem; and that nefesh shall be cut off from among his people.

31 Because he hath despised the Devar Hashem, and hath broken His mitzvah, that nefesh shall utterly be cut off; his avon shall be upon him.

32 And while the Bnei Yisroel were in the midbar, they found a man that gathered sticks on Shabbos.

33 And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moshe and Aharon, and unto Kol HaEdah.