Numbers 15:31

31 for he despised the word of the Lord, and made void his commandment; therefore he shall be done away (and so he shall be cut off/and so he shall be put to death), and shall bear his own wickedness.

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 As well to men born in the land, as to comelings, one law shall be of all that sin unwittingly. (Yea, for men born in the land, as well as for newcomers, one law shall be for all who sin unwittingly, or unintentionally.)

30 Forsooth a man that doeth any sin by pride, shall perish from the people, whether he be a citizen, either a pilgrim, for he was rebel against the Lord; (But anyone who doeth any sin by pride, shall be cut off from the people/shall be put to death, whether he is a citizen, or a foreigner, for he rebelled against the Lord;)

31 for he despised the word of the Lord, and made void his commandment; therefore he shall be done away (and so he shall be cut off/and so he shall be put to death), and shall bear his own wickedness.

32 Soothly it was done, when the sons of Israel were in wilderness, and they had found a man gathering wood in the sabbath day, (And it was done, when the Israelites were still in the wilderness, and they found a man gathering wood on the sabbath day,)

33 they brought him to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the multitude;