Lange Commentary - Numbers 15:32

Lange Commentary - Numbers 15:32 - 15:41

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Lange Commentary - Numbers 15:32 - 15:41

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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

SECOND SECTION

The Sabbath-breaker. Re-enforcement of the Law of the Sabbath, and of the Law in General

Num_15:32-41

³²And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day. ³³And they that found him gathering sticks ³⁴brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation. And they ³⁵put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him. And the Lord said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp. ³⁶And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the Lord commanded Moses.

³⁷And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, ³⁸Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments, throughout their generations, and that they put upon the ^bfringe of the ^cborders a ribband of blue: ³⁹And it shall be unto you for a ^bfringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the Lord, and do them; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring: ⁴⁰That ye may remember, and do all my commandments, and be holy ⁴¹unto your God. I am the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the Lord your God.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

This section expressly says that the children of Israel were in the wilderness at the time the event happened, i.e. that it belongs to the sojourn of thirty-eight years in Kadesh. But the story also proves how strictly they insisted on the law of the Sabbath. The dispersion of the tents in the desert could in many ways make the violation of the laws of the Sabbath an easy matter. Notwithstanding, the man was detected that gathered wood (for fagots), and was put in confinement. The story of the Sabbath-breaker is a companion-piece to that of the blasphemer (Leviticus 24). It serves as a corroboration of a chief requirement of the law, just as that does. But in this case they were not yet clear about the degree of the punishment. When he was brought before Moses, Aaron and the congregation, that is, the authorities, the college of elders appointed as judges, there was as yet no definition how he should suffer capital punishment. Their not proceeding at once to extremities, to the solemn act of stoning, seems to rest on the consideration that this transgression against the Sabbath might perhaps be a lesser guilt than blasphemy. It characterizes the prudence with which Moses and the college of judges proceed. They put him in confinement (perhaps for a considerable time, åַéַðִּéçåּ ). It was not yet expressly determined. ôָּøַùׁ is a word which, as in Lev_24:12, has a sacred sense, quite in contrast with that by which the Pharisees, at a later period, called themselves. Moses had to seek for the decision of Jehovah. That decision in this case, also, called for stoning outside of the camp, in which the congregation was to participate, because here, too, the whole congregation was involved in the guilt.

[It is a generally accepted view that the incident of the Sabbath-breaker is introduced here as an illustration of presumptuous sin, as Dr. Lange intimates above, § 5. The same connection also offers a natural explanation of the judicial proceeding in the case. It was not determined what one should do to him, is indefinite, and may either refer to the judges, or to the revelation of God in regard to such cases. The latter is the common view. (See in the London Polyglot all interpretations except the LXX. and Vulg. Yet they may not have independent value; but all, in this case, may perhaps only follow the lead of the Aramaic Paraphrase.) But the former seems quite as natural. The phrase åַéַðִּéçåּ àֹúåֹ áַּîִּùְׁîָø åâå seems to say: “They let him rest in custody, for one did not determine what one should do to him.” LXX.: ïὐ ãὰñ óõíÝêñéíáí ôß ðïéÞóùóéí áὐôïí . Vulg.: nescientes quid super eo facere deberent. The LXX. and Vulg., in the parallel passage, refer ìִôְøùׁ to the same subject, viz. the judges. The context suggests the ground of their indecision. The ordinances just given, including expiations for sins, Num_15:1-29, were made for the time “when ye be come into the land which I give unto you,” Num_15:2; Num_15:18. Regarding presumptuous sins, therefore (Num_15:30-31), it might be supposed that the penalty was only to be visited under the same conditions, viz. when they were settled in Canaan. It was likely this that divided the judges. The question was whether under present circumstances such a sinner was to be capitally punished. It had already been declared that death was to be the penalty (Exo_31:14-15; Exo_35:2).

Dr. Lange’s notion that the doubt was whether Sabbath-breaking might not be less criminal than blasphemy is quite untenable. The same may be said of the view that he shares with others, viz. that the judges were in doubt about the form of the death-penalty. Stoning was the common way of inflicting death (Exo_17:4; Num_14:10), and had already received divine sanction as the proper mode of doing it in the case of both man and beast (Exo_19:13; Exo_21:28). The point of the divine answer to Moses was, that the crime was then and there to be punished by death, as appears from the emphatic words that sum up the transaction: and he died, as the Lord commanded Moses(Num_15:36).

This episode begins with the words: And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness. This “is properly introduced here to contrast the ordinance of the Sabbath given some time ago (Exo_31:14) with the series of ordinances first given in this chapter. The latter were not obligatory until after the settlement in Canaan; the former was obligatory already. Transgression of it was therefore a presumptuous sin, and was punished accordingly.” The Bible Comm. This fact has its importance in determining the place of the law of the Sabbath among the Old Testament ordinances. It was unconditioned, as was also the law against blasphemy. It was in force and enforced when ceremonial laws were not. It was before symbolical ordinances, and it continues after them. Its observance or violation involved all that was vital in religion, for it involved the very question of loyalty to God, as did the law about blasphemy. And it involves the same now.—Tr.]

This occurrence has, as its consequence, an enforcement of the law in an increased degree, and in a symbolical form. But as, at a later period, the Pharisees with their ôָּøַùׁ misapplied the law concerning blasphemy and the violation of the Sabbath to the condemnation of Christ, so, too, the following ordinance was made to serve Pharisaic hypocrisy (Mat_23:5).

Num_15:37-41. Henceforth the Israelites were to wear memorials of the law on their garments. The ordinance is supplemented in Deu_22:12. The zizith (from öִéö , “ornament, bloom, curl,” to consist, according to Deut., of twisted cords, as âְּøִéìִéí ), as a tassel, is, so to speak, the blossom of the garments. According to Deut., it is fastened at the side of the upper garment, and that with a cord of blue purple. The meaning of it might be, that by the band of fidelity the law should remain for the Israelite a flower of life, an ornament. Thus, then, it was no longer the priestly garments only that had a symbolical meaning, but also the clothing of every Israelite—a contrast with the wearing finery of the fashions, that is made by tailors and women of the poetry of vanity. Still this symbol also was perverted by the later spirit of legalism into a means of self-righteousness. Probably at quite an early period this ornament was supplemented by a particular border or seam on the upper garment (LXX. êñÜóðåäïí ). See on Mat_23:5. The downward look, directed toward these signs of the law, was to counteract the danger of distracted wandering of the senses and of the lust of the eyes. Very significant is the expression: a whoring after the eyes, and spying about according to the heart, the lusts of the heart. In conclusion, the final object of this ordinance is strongly emphasized. They are not, by their hearts’ lusts and the vagaries of their eyes, to be ensnared in idolatrous lust of the world. And they are not thereby to forget that Jehovah is the Redeemer and Lord; as the highest Personality, He is the Protector of their personality which is elevated above the world. The conclusion may be taken to mean: I am your Divinity; ye shall, therefore, make no divinities for yourselves of the things of the world.

HOMILETICAL HINTS

The repetition of the law of sacrifice in the wilderness, a kingdom of grace, a sign of promise, a sign of continued training. The difference between sins of infirmity and of outrage with uplifted hand (of wickedness). The Sabbath-breaker. The outward mementoes of the law: their use; their danger (see Matthew 23).

Footnotes:

(Luther: expressed; De Wette, Zunz: decided; Bunsen: no declaration.)

tassels.

tips.

cord.