Numbers 15:15-25

15:15 One statute must apply ¹  to you who belong to the congregation and to the resident foreigner who is living among you, as a permanent ²  statute for your future generations. You and the resident foreigner will be alike ³  before the Lord. 15:16 One law and one custom must apply to you and to the resident foreigner who lives alongside you.’”

Rules for First Fruits

15:17 The Lord spoke to Moses: 15:18 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When you enter the land to which I am bringing you ⁴  15:19 and you eat ⁵  some of the food of the land, you must offer up a raised offering ⁶  to the Lord. 15:20 You must offer up a cake of the first of your finely ground flour ⁷  as a raised offering; as you offer the raised offering of the threshing floor, so you must offer it up. 15:21 You must give to the Lord some of the first of your finely ground flour as a raised offering in your future generations.

Rules for Unintentional Offenses

15:22 ⁸ “‘If you ⁹  sin unintentionally and do not observe all these commandments that the Lord has spoken to Moses – 15:23 all that the Lord has commanded you by the authority ¹⁰  of Moses, from the day that the Lord commanded Moses and continuing through your future generations – 15:24 then if anything is done unintentionally ¹¹  without the knowledge of ¹²  the community, the whole community must prepare one young bull for a burnt offering – for a pleasing aroma to the Lord – along with its grain offering and its customary drink offering, and one male goat for a purification offering. 15:25 And the priest is to make atonement ¹³  for the whole community of the Israelites, and they will be forgiven, ¹⁴  because it was unintentional and they have brought their offering, an offering made by fire to the Lord, and their purification offering before the Lord, for their unintentional offense.

[15:15]  ¹ tn The word “apply” is supplied in the translation.

[15:15]  ² tn Or “a statute forever.”

[15:15]  ³ tn Heb “as you, as [so] the alien.”

[15:18]  ⁴ tn The relative clause is literally, “which I am causing you to enter there.” The final adverb is resumptive, and must be joined with the relative pronoun.

[15:19]  ⁷ tn The verse has a temporal clause that actually continues or supplements the temporal clause of the preceding verse. It is made up of the temporal indicator, the infinitive construct with the preposition, and the suffixed subjective genitive: “and it shall be when you eat.” Here it is translated simply “and eat” since the temporal element was introduced in the last verse.

[15:19]  ⁸ tn This is the תְּרוּמָה (tÿrumah), the “raised offering” or “heave offering” (cf. KJV, ASV). It may simply be called a “contribution” (so NAB). The verb of the sentence is from the same root: “you shall lift up/raise up.” It was to be an offering separated from the rest and raised up to the Lord in the sight of all. It was designed to remind the Israelites that the produce and the land belonged to God.

[15:20]  ¹⁰ tn Or “the first of your dough.” The phrase is not very clear. N. H. Snaith thinks it means a batch of loaves from the kneading trough – the first batch of the baking (Leviticus and Numbers [NCB], 251).

[15:22]  ¹³ sn These regulations supplement what was already ruled on in the Levitical code for the purification and reparation offerings. See those rulings in Lev 4-7 for all the details. Some biblical scholars view the rules in Leviticus as more elaborate and therefore later. However, this probably represents a misunderstanding of the purpose of each collection.

[15:22]  ¹⁴ tn The verb is the plural imperfect; the sin discussed here is a sin committed by the community, or the larger part of the community.

[15:23]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “hand.”

[15:24]  ¹⁹ tn The idea of לִשְׁגָגָה (lishgagah) seems to be that of “inadvertence” or “without intent.” The text gives no indication of how this offense might be committed, or what it might include. It probably describes any transgressions done in ignorance of the Law that involved a violation of tabernacle procedure or priestly protocol or social misdemeanor. Even though it was done unintentionally, it was still a violation and called for ritual purification.

[15:24]  ²⁰ tn Heb “[away] from the eyes of the community.”

[15:25]  ²² tn The verb is the Piel perfect with vav (ו) consecutive (וְכִפֶּר, vÿkhipper) to continue the instruction of the passage: “the priest shall make atonement,” meaning the priest is to make atonement for the sin (thus the present translation). This verb means “to expiate,” “to atone for,” “to pacify.” It describes the ritual events by which someone who was separated from the holy Lord God could find acceptance into his presence through the sacrificial blood of the substitutionary animal. See Lev 1 and Num 17:6-15.

[15:25]  ²³ tn Or “they will be forgiven.”