Numbers 15:32

15:32 When the Israelites were ¹  in the wilderness they found a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day. ² 

Numbers 18:22

18:22 No longer may the Israelites approach the tent of meeting, or else they will bear their sin ³  and die.

Numbers 31:32

31:32 The spoil that remained of the plunder which the fighting men ⁴  had gathered ⁵  was 675,000 sheep,

¹ tn The preterite of the verb “to be” is here subordinated to the next, parallel verb form, to form a temporal clause.

² sn For this brief passage, see A. Phillips, “The Case of the Woodgatherer Reconsidered,” VT 19 (1969): 125-28; J. Weingreen, “The Case of the Woodgatherer (Numbers XV 32-36),” VT 16 (1966): 361-64; and B. J. Bamberger, “Revelations of Torah after Sinai,” HUCA 16 (1941): 97-113. Weingreen argues that there is something of the Rabbinic method of setting a fence around the Law here; in other words, if this sin were not punished, the Law would have been violated in greater ways. Gathering of wood, although seemingly harmless, is done with intent to kindle fire, and so reveals a culpable intent.

³ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive construct of the verb “to bear” with the lamed (ל) preposition to express the result of such an action. “To bear their sin” would mean that they would have to suffer the consequences of their sin.

⁵ tn Heb “people.”

⁶ tn Heb “had plundered.”