Numbers 15:31

31 because the word of Jehovah he despised, and His command hath broken -- that person is certainly cut off; his iniquity [is] 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 for the native among the sons of Israel, and for the sojourner who is sojourning in their midst -- one law is to you, for him who is doing [anything] through ignorance.

30 `And the person who doth [aught] with a high hand -- of the native or of the sojourner -- Jehovah he is reviling, and that person hath been cut off from the midst of his people;

31 because the word of Jehovah he despised, and His command hath broken -- that person is certainly cut off; his iniquity [is] on him.'

32 And the sons of Israel are in the wilderness, and they find a man gathering wood on the sabbath-day,

33 and those finding him gathering wood bring him near unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto all the company,