Numbers15
New King James Version
1And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
2“Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you have come into the land you are to inhabit, which I am giving to you,
3and you make an offering by fire to the Lord, a burnt offering or a sacrifice, to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering or in your appointed feasts, to make a sweet aroma to the Lord, from the herd or the flock,
4then he who presents his offering to the Lord shall bring a grain offering of one-tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with one-fourth of a hin of oil;
5and one-fourth of a hin of wine as a drink offering you shall prepare with the burnt offering or the sacrifice, for each lamb.
6Or for a ram you shall prepare as a grain offering two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with one-third of a hin of oil;
7and as a drink offering you shall offer one-third of a hin of wine as a sweet aroma to the Lord.
8And when you prepare a young bull as a burnt offering, or as a sacrifice to fulfill a vow, or as a peace offering to the Lord,
9then shall be offered with the young bull a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with half a hin of oil;
10and you shall bring as the drink offering half a hin of wine as an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord.
11‘Thus it shall be done for each young bull, for each ram, or for each lamb or young goat.
12According to the number that you prepare, so you shall do with everyone according to their number.
13All who are native-born shall do these things in this manner, in presenting an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord.
14And if a stranger dwells with you, or whoever is among you throughout your generations, and would present an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord, just as you do, so shall he do.
15One ordinance shall be for you of the assembly and for the stranger who dwells with you, an ordinance forever throughout your generations; as you are, so shall the stranger be before the Lord.
16One law and one custom shall be for you and for the stranger who dwells with you.’ ”
17Again the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
18“Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land to which I bring you,
19then it will be, when you eat of the bread of the land, that you shall offer up a heave offering to the Lord.
20You shall offer up a cake of the first of your ground meal as a heave offering; as a heave offering of the threshing floor, so shall you offer it up.
21Of the first of your ground meal you shall give to the Lord a heave offering throughout your generations.
22‘If you sin unintentionally, and do not observe all these commandments which the Lord has spoken to Moses—
23all that the Lord has commanded you by the hand of Moses, from the day the Lord gave commandment and onward throughout your generations—
24then it will be, if it is unintentionally committed, without the knowledge of the congregation, that the whole congregation shall offer one young bull as a burnt offering, as a sweet aroma to the Lord, with its grain offering and its drink offering, according to the ordinance, and one kid of the goats as a sin offering.
25So the priest shall make atonement for the whole congregation of the children of Israel, and it shall be forgiven them, for it was unintentional; they shall bring their offering, an offering made by fire to the Lord, and their sin offering before the Lord, for their unintended sin.
26It shall be forgiven the whole congregation of the children of Israel and the stranger who dwells among them, because all the people did it unintentionally.
27‘And if a person sins unintentionally, then he shall bring a female goat in its first year as a sin offering.
28So the priest shall make atonement for the person who sins unintentionally, when he sins unintentionally before the Lord, to make atonement for him; and it shall be forgiven him.
29You shall have one law for him who sins unintentionally, for him who is native-born among the children of Israel and for the stranger who dwells among them.
30‘But the person who does anything presumptuously, whether he is native-born or a stranger, that one brings reproach on the Lord, and he shall be cut off from among his people.
31Because he has despised the word of the Lord, and has broken His commandment, that person shall be completely cut off; his guilt shall be upon him.’ ”
32Now while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day.
33And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to all the congregation.
34They put him under guard, because it had not been explained what should be done to him.
35Then the Lord said to Moses, “The man must surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.”
36So, as the Lord commanded Moses, all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him with stones, and he died.
37Again the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
38“Speak to the children of Israel: Tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a blue thread in the tassels of the corners.
39And you shall have the tassel, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them, and that you may not follow the harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined,
40and that you may remember and do all My commandments, and be holy for your God.
41I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the Lord your God.”
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Numbers 15.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: The law of the meat-offering and the drink-offering, The stranger under the same law. (1–21). The sacrifice for the sin of ignorance. (22–29). The punishment of presumption, The sabbath-breaker stoned. (30–36). The law for fringes on garment. (37–41).
vv1-21
Full instructions are given about the meat-offerings and drink-offerings. The beginning of this law is very encouraging, When ye come into the land of your habitation which I give unto you. This was a plain intimation that God would secure the promised land to their seed. It was requisite, since the sacrifices of acknowledgment were intended as the food of God's table, that there should be a constant supply of bread, oil, and wine, whatever the flesh-meat was. And the intent of this law is to direct the proportions of the meat-offering and drink-offering. Natives and strangers are placed on a level in this as in other like matters. It was a happy forewarning of the calling of the Gentiles, and of their admission into the church. If the law made so little difference between Jew and Gentile, much less would the gospel, which broke down the partition-wall, and reconciled both to God.
vv22-29
Though ignorance will in a degree excuse, it will not justify those who might have known their Lord's will, yet did it not. David prayed to be cleansed from his secret faults, those sins which he himself was not aware of. Sins committed ignorantly, shall be forgiven through Christ the great Sacrifice, who, when he offered up himself once for all upon the cross, seemed to explain one part of the intention of his offering, in that prayer, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. It looked favourably upon the Gentiles, that this law of atoning for sins of ignorance, is expressly made to extend to those who were strangers to Israel.
vv30-36
Those are to be reckoned presumptuous sinners, who sin designedly against God's will and glory. Sins thus committed are exceedingly sinful. He that thus breaks the commandment reproaches the Lord. He also despises the word of the Lord. Presumptuous sinners despise it, thinking themselves too great, too good, and too wise, to be ruled by it. A particular instance of presumption in the sin of sabbath-breaking is related. The offence was gathering sticks on the sabbath day, to make a fire, whereas the people were to bake and seethe what they had occasion for, the day before, Ex 16:23. This was done as an affront both to the law and to the Lawgiver. God is jealous for the honour of his sabbaths, and will not hold him guiltless who profanes them, whatever men may do. God intended this punishment for a warning to all, to make conscience of keeping holy the sabbath. And we may be assured that no command was ever given for the punishment of sin, which, at the judgment day, shall not prove to have come from perfect love and justice. The right of God to a day of devotion to himself, will be disputed and denied only by such as listen to the pride and unbelief of their hearts, rather than to the teaching of the Spirit of truth and life. Wherein consists the difference between him who was detected gathering sticks in the wilderness on the day of God, and the man who turns his back upon the blessings of sabbath appointments, and the promises of sabbath mercies, to use his time, his cares, and his soul, in heaping up riches; and waste his hours, his property, and his strength in sinful pleasure? Wealth may come by the unhallowed effort, but it will not come alone; it will have its awful reward. Sinful pursuits lead to ruin.
Key Words
דָבַר: perhaps properly, to arrange; but used figuratively (of words), to speak; rarely (in a destructive sense) to subdue
מֹשֶׁה: Mosheh, the Israelite lawgiver
אָמַר: to say (used with great latitude)
בֵּן: a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etc., (like father or brother), etc.)
יִשְׂרָאֵל: Jisrael, a symbolical name of Jacob; also (typically) of his posterity
בּוֹא: to go or come (in a wide variety of applications)
אֶרֶץ: the earth (at large, or partitively a land)
מוֹשָׁב: a seat; figuratively, a site; abstractly, a session; by extension an abode (the place or the time); by implication, population
אֲשֶׁר: who, which, what, that; also (as an adverb and a conjunction) when, where, how, because, in order that, etc.
נָתַן: to give, used with greatest latitude of application (put, make, etc.)
Cross References
Numbers 15Calvin highlights this as a parallel command for outward aids to keep God's word in memory.
Supported by John Calvin
Establishes the explicit penalty of death for Sabbath-breaking, which caused the rulers' initial embarrassment.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
The foundational law stating one law shall apply to both the homeborn and the stranger.
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole, JFB
Clarifies that the heave offering of dough is given to the priests of the Lord.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
JFB contrasts this collective omission with Leviticus 4:13's positive transgression of commands.
Supported by JFB
Henry notes gathering sticks violated the directive to prepare Sabbath food the day before.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Parallel command to make fringes upon the four quarters of vestments to remember commands.
Supported by Matthew Henry, John Calvin, JFB
Demonstrates that 'sacrifice' is used in the sense of a peace offering.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Defines a tenth deal as an omer, the tenth part of an ephah.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Parallel instance of putting an offender in ward because the judgment was not yet declared.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Christ references the scribes and Pharisees enlarging the borders (fringes) of their garments.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Poole notes oil-mingled meat offerings were typically accompaniments, except in the leper's cleansing.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Henry connects the atonement for ignorance to Christ's prayer: 'forgive them; they know not what they do.'
Supported by Matthew Henry
David prays specifically to be kept back from 'presumptuous sins' like those warned of here.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
New Testament warning against sinning wilfully after receiving knowledge of the truth.
Supported by Matthew Henry