1 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 2 "Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, 'When you have come into the land of your habitations, which I give to you, 3 and will make an offering by fire to Yahweh, a burnt offering, or a sacrifice, to accomplish a vow, or as a freewill offering, or in your set feasts, to make a pleasant aroma to Yahweh, of the herd, or of the flock; 4 then he who offers his offering shall offer to Yahweh a meal offering of a tenth part (of an ephah) of fine flour mixed with the fourth part of a hin of oil: 5 and wine for the drink offering, the fourth part of a hin, you shall prepare with the burnt offering, or for the sacrifice, for each lamb. 6 "'Or for a ram, you shall prepare for a meal offering two tenth parts (of an ephah) of fine flour mixed with the third part of a hin of oil: 7 and for the drink offering you shall offer the third part of a hin of wine, of a pleasant aroma to Yahweh. 8 When you prepare a bull for a burnt offering, or for a sacrifice, to accomplish a vow, or for peace offerings to Yahweh; 9 then shall he offer with the bull a meal offering of three tenth parts (of an ephah) of fine flour mixed with half a hin of oil: 10 and you shall offer for the drink offering half a hin of wine, for an offering made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to Yahweh. 11 Thus shall it be done for each bull, or for each ram, or for each of the male lambs, or of the young goats. 12 According to the number that you shall prepare, so you shall do to everyone according to their number. 13 "'All who are native-born shall do these things in this way, in offering an offering made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to Yahweh. 14 If a stranger lives as a foreigner with you, or whoever may be among you throughout your generations, and will offer an offering made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to Yahweh; as you do, so he shall do. 15 For the assembly, there shall be one statute for you, and for the stranger who lives as a foreigner (with you), a statute forever throughout your generations: as you are, so shall the foreigner be before Yahweh. 16 One law and one ordinance shall be for you, and for the stranger who lives as a foreigner with you.'" 17 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 18 "Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, 'When you come into the land where I bring you, 19 then it shall be that when you eat of the bread of the land, you shall offer up a wave offering to Yahweh. 20 Of the first of your dough you shall offer up a cake for a wave offering: as the wave offering of the threshing floor, so you shall heave it. 21 Of the first of your dough you shall give to Yahweh a wave offering throughout your generations. 22 "'When you shall err, and not observe all these commandments, which Yahweh has spoken to Moses, 23 even all that Yahweh has commanded you by Moses, from the day that Yahweh gave commandment, and onward throughout your generations; 24 then it shall be, if it be done unwittingly, without the knowledge of the congregation, that all the congregation shall offer one young bull for a burnt offering, for a pleasant aroma to Yahweh, with the meal offering of it, and the drink offering of it, according to the ordinance, and one male goat for a sin offering. 25 The priest shall make atonement for all the congregation of the children of Israel, and they shall be forgiven; for it was an error, and they have brought their offering, an offering made by fire to Yahweh, and their sin offering before Yahweh, for their error: 26 and all the congregation of the children of Israel shall be forgiven, and the stranger who lives as a foreigner among them; for in respect of all the people it was done unwittingly. 27 "'If one person sins unwittingly, then he shall offer a female goat a year old for a sin offering. 28 The priest shall make atonement for the soul who errs, when he sins unwittingly, before Yahweh, to make atonement for him; and he shall be forgiven. 29 You shall have one law for him who does anything unwittingly, for him who is native-born among the children of Israel, and for the stranger who lives as a foreigner among them. 30 "'But the soul who does anything with a high hand, whether he is native-born or a foreigner, the same blasphemes Yahweh; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people. 31 Because he has despised the word of Yahweh, and has broken his commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity shall be on him.'" 32 While the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. 33 Those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to all the congregation. 34 They put him in custody, because it had not been declared what should be done to him. 35 Yahweh said to Moses, "The man shall surely be put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside of the camp." 36 All the congregation brought him outside of the camp, and stoned him to death with stones; as Yahweh commanded Moses. 37 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 38 "Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them that they should make themselves fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put on the fringe of each border a cord of blue: 39 and it shall be to you for a fringe, that you may look on it, and remember all the commandments of Yahweh, and do them; and that you not follow after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you use to play the prostitute; 40 that you may remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God. 41 I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am Yahweh your God."
Directions concerning the different offerings they should bring unto the Lord when they should come to the land of Canaan, Numbers 15:1-3. Directions relative to the meat-offering, Numbers 15:4; to the drink-offering, Numbers 15:5. Of the burnt-offering, vow-offering, peace-offering, drink-offering, etc., Numbers 15:6-12. All born in the country must perform these rites, Numbers 15:13, and the strangers also, Numbers 15:14-16. They shall offer unto the Lord a heave-offering of the first-fruits of the land, Numbers 15:17-21. Concerning omissions through ignorance, and the sacrifices to be offered on such occasions, Numbers 15:22-29. He who sins presumptuously shall be cut off, Numbers 15:30, Numbers 15:31. History of the person who gathered sticks on the Sabbath, Numbers 15:32. He is brought to Moses and Aaron, Numbers 15:33. They put him in confinement till the mind of the Lord should be known on the case, Numbers 15:34. The Lord commands him to be stoned, Numbers 15:35. He is stoned to death, Numbers 15:36. The Israelites are commanded to make fringes to the borders of their garments, Numbers 15:37, Numbers 15:38. The end for which these fringes were to be made, that they might remember the commandments of the Lord, that they might be holy, Numbers 15:39-41.
INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 15
In this chapter the children of Israel are instructed about the meat offerings and drink offerings, and the quantities of them, which were always to go along with their burnt offerings and peace offerings they should offer when they came into the land of Canaan, Numbers 15:1; and they are told that the same laws and ordinances would be binding equally on them that were of the country, and on the strangers in it, Numbers 15:13; and an order is given them to offer a cake of the first dough for an heave offering, Numbers 15:17; and they are directed what sacrifices to offer for sins of ignorance, both of the congregation and particular persons, Numbers 14:22; but as for presumptuous sinners, they were to be cut off, Numbers 14:30; and an instance is recorded of stoning a sabbath breaker, Numbers 14:32; and the chapter is concluded with a law for wearing fringes on the borders of their garments, the use of which is expressed, Numbers 14:35.
(v. 1-21) The law of the meat-offering and the drink-offering The stranger under the same law.
(Numbers 15:22-29) The sacrifice for the sin of ignorance.
(Numbers 15:30-36) The punishment of presumption The sabbath-breaker stoned.
(Numbers 15:37-41) The law for fringes on garment.
Occurrences During the Thirty-Seven Years of Wandering in the Wilderness - Numbers 15-19
After the unhappy issue of the attempt to penetrate into Canaan, in opposition to the will of God and the advice of Moses, the Israelites remained "many days" in Kadesh, as the Lord did not hearken to their lamentations concerning the defeat which they had suffered at the hands of the Canaanites and Amalekites. Then they turned, and took their journey, as the Lord had commanded (Numbers 14:25), into the wilderness, in the direction towards the Red Sea (Deuteronomy 1:45; Deuteronomy 2:1); and in the first month of the fortieth year they came again into the desert of Zin, to Kadesh (Numbers 20:1). All that we know respecting this journeying from Kadesh into the wilderness in the direction towards the Red Sea, and up to the time of their return to the desert of Zin, is limited to a number of names of places of encampment given in the list of journeying stages in Numbers 33:19-30, out of which, as the situation of the majority of them is altogether unknown, or at all events has not yet been determined, no connected account of the journeys of Israel during this interval of thirty-seven years can possibly be drawn. The most important event related in connection with this period is the rebellion of the company of Korah against Moses and Aaron, and the re-establishment of the Aaronic priesthood and confirmation of their rights, which this occasioned (chs. 16-18). This rebellion probably occurred in the first portion of the period in question. In addition to this there are only a few laws recorded, which were issued during this long time of punishment, and furnished a practical proof of the continuance of the covenant which the Lord had made with the nation of Israel at Sinai. There was nothing more to record in connection with these thirty-seven years, which formed the second stage in the guidance of Israel through the desert. For, as Baumgarten has well observed, "the fighting men of Israel had fallen under the judgment of Jehovah, and the sacred history, therefore, was no longer concerned with them; whilst the youth, in whom the life and hope of Israel were preserved, had as yet no history at all." Consequently we have no reason to complain, as Ewald does (Gesch. ii. pp. 241, 242), that "the great interval of forty years remains a perfect void;" and still less occasion to dispose of the gap, as this scholar has done, by supposing that the last historian left out a great deal from the history of the forty years' wanderings. The supposed "void" was completely filled up by the gradual dying out of the generation which had been rejected by God.
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