Numbers 15:30-31

Deliberate Sin

15:30 “‘But the person ¹  who acts defiantly, ²  whether native-born or a resident foreigner, insults ³  the Lord. ⁴  That person ⁵  must be cut off ⁶  from among his people. 15:31 Because he has despised ⁷  the word of the Lord and has broken ⁸  his commandment, that person ⁹  must be completely cut off. ¹⁰  His iniquity will be on him.’” ¹¹ 

Numbers 19:13

19:13 Anyone who touches the corpse of any dead person and does not purify himself defiles the tabernacle of the Lord. And that person must be cut off from Israel, ¹²  because the water of purification was not sprinkled on him. He will be unclean; his uncleanness remains on him.

Genesis 17:14

17:14 Any uncircumcised male ¹³  who has not been circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin will be cut off ¹⁴  from his people – he has failed to carry out my requirement.” ¹⁵ 

Exodus 12:15

12:15 For seven days ¹⁶  you must eat ¹⁷  bread made without yeast. ¹⁸  Surely ¹⁹  on the first day you must put away yeast from your houses because anyone who eats bread made with yeast ²⁰  from the first day to the seventh day will be cut off ²¹  from Israel.

Leviticus 17:4

17:4 but has not brought it to the entrance of the Meeting Tent ²²  to present it as ²³  an offering to the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord. He has shed blood, so that man will be cut off from the midst of his people. ²⁴ 

Leviticus 17:10

Prohibition against Eating Blood

17:10 “‘Any man ²⁵  from the house of Israel or from the foreigners who reside ²⁶  in their ²⁷  midst who eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats the blood, and I will cut him off from the midst of his people, ²⁸ 

Leviticus 17:14-16

17:14 for the life of all flesh is its blood. ²⁹  So I have said to the Israelites: You must not eat the blood of any living thing ³⁰  because the life of every living thing is its blood – all who eat it will be cut off. ³¹ 

Regulations for Eating Carcasses

17:15 “‘Any person ³²  who eats an animal that has died of natural causes ³³  or an animal torn by beasts, whether a native citizen or a foreigner, ³⁴  must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening; then he becomes clean. 17:16 But if he does not wash his clothes ³⁵  and does not bathe his body, he will bear his punishment for iniquity.’” ³⁶ 

Hebrews 2:3

2:3 how will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was first communicated through the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard him,

Hebrews 6:6

6:6 and then have committed apostasy, ³⁷  to renew them again to repentance, since ³⁸  they are crucifying the Son of God for themselves all over again ³⁹  and holding him up to contempt.

Hebrews 10:26-29

10:26 For if we deliberately keep on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, no further sacrifice for sins is left for us, ⁴⁰  10:27 but only a certain fearful expectation of judgment and a fury ⁴¹  of fire that will consume God’s enemies. ⁴²  10:28 Someone who rejected the law of Moses was put to death ⁴³  without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. ⁴⁴  10:29 How much greater punishment do you think that person deserves who has contempt for ⁴⁵  the Son of God, and profanes ⁴⁶  the blood of the covenant that made him holy, ⁴⁷  and insults the Spirit of grace?

Hebrews 12:25

12:25 Take care not to refuse the one who is speaking! For if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less shall we, if we reject the one who warns from heaven?

[15:30]  ¹ tn Heb “soul.”

[15:30]  ² tn The sin is described literally as acting “with a high hand” – בְּיָד רָמָה (bÿyad ramah). The expression means that someone would do something with deliberate defiance, with an arrogance in spite of what the Lord said. It is as if the sinner was about to attack God, or at least lifting his hand against God. The implication of the expression is that it was done in full knowledge of the Law (especially since this contrasts throughout with the sins of ignorance). Blatant defiance of the word of the Lord is dealt with differently. For similar expressions, see Exod 14:8 and Num 33:3.

[15:30]  ³ tn The verb occurs only in the Piel; it means “to blaspheme,” “to revile.”

[15:30]  ⁴ tn The word order in the Hebrew text places “Yahweh” first for emphasis – it is the Lord such a person insults.

[15:30]  ⁵ tn Heb “soul.”

[15:30]  ⁶ tn The clause begins with “and” because the verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive. As discussed with Num 9:13, to be cut off could mean excommunication from the community, death by the community, or death by divine intervention.

[15:31]  ⁷ tn The verb בָּזָה (bazah, “to despise”) means to treat something as worthless, to treat it with contempt, to look down the nose at something as it were.

[15:31]  ⁸ tn The verb פָּרַר (parar, “to break”) can mean to nullify, break, or violate a covenant.

[15:31]  ⁹ tn Heb “soul.”

[15:31]  ¹⁰ tn The construction uses the Niphal imperfect with the modifying Niphal infinitive absolute. The infinitive makes the sentence more emphatic. If the imperfect tense is taken as an instruction imperfect, then the infinitive makes the instruction more binding. If it is a simple future, then the future is certain. In either case, there is no exclusion from being cut off.

[15:31]  ¹¹ sn The point is that the person’s iniquity remains with him – he must pay for his sin. The judgment of God in such a case is both appropriate and unavoidable.

[19:13]  ¹² sn It is in passages like this that the view that being “cut off” meant the death penalty is the hardest to support. Would the Law prescribe death for someone who touches a corpse and fails to follow the ritual? Besides, the statement in this section that his uncleanness remains with him suggests that he still lives on.

[17:14]  ¹³ tn The disjunctive clause calls attention to the “uncircumcised male” and what will happen to him.

[17:14]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “that person will be cut off.” The words “that person” have not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[17:14]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “he has broken my covenant.” The noun בְּרִית (bÿrit) here refers to the obligation required by God in conjunction with the covenantal agreement. For the range of meaning of the term, see the note on the word “requirement” in v. 9.

[12:15]  ¹⁶ tn This expression is an adverbial accusative of time. The feast was to last from the 15th to the 21st of the month.

[12:15]  ¹⁷ tn Or “you will eat.” The statement stresses their obligation – they must eat unleavened bread and avoid all leaven.

[12:15]  ¹⁸ tn The etymology of מַצּוֹת (matsot, “unleavened bread,” i.e., “bread made without yeast”) is uncertain. Suggested connections to known verbs include “to squeeze, press,” “to depart, go out,” “to ransom,” or to an Egyptian word “food, cake, evening meal.” For a more detailed study of “unleavened bread” and related matters such as “yeast” or “leaven,” see A. P. Ross, NIDOTTE 4:448-53.

[12:15]  ¹⁹ tn The particle serves to emphasize, not restrict here (B. S. Childs, Exodus [OTL], 183, n. 15).

[12:15]  ²⁰ tn Heb “every eater of leavened bread.” The participial phrase stands at the beginning of the clause as a casus pendens, that is, it stands grammatically separate from the sentence. It names a condition, the contingent occurrences of which involve a further consequence (GKC 361 §116.w).

[12:15]  ²¹ tn The verb וְנִכְרְתָה (vÿnikhrÿtah) is the Niphal perfect with the vav (ו) consecutive; it is a common formula in the Law for divine punishment. Here, in sequence to the idea that someone might eat bread made with yeast, the result would be that “that soul [the verb is feminine] will be cut off.” The verb is the equivalent of the imperfect tense due to the consecutive; a translation with a nuance of the imperfect of possibility (“may be cut off”) fits better perhaps than a specific future. There is the real danger of being cut off, for while the punishment might include excommunication from the community, the greater danger was in the possibility of divine intervention to root out the evildoer (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 94). Gesenius lists this as the use of a perfect with a vav consecutive after a participle (a casus pendens) to introduce the apodosis (GKC 337 §112.mm).

[17:4]  ²² tn Smr and LXX add after “tent of meeting” the following: “to make it a burnt offering or a peace offering to the Lord for your acceptance as a soothing aroma, and slaughters it outside, and at the doorway of the tent of meeting has not brought it.”

[17:4]  ²³ tc Smr includes the suffix “it,” which is needed in any case in the translation to conform to English style.

[17:4]  ²⁴ sn The exact meaning of this penalty clause is not certain. It could mean (1) that he will be executed, whether by God or by man, (2) that he will be excommunicated from sanctuary worship and/or community benefits, or (3) that his line will be terminated by God (i.e., extirpation). See also the note on Lev 7:20.

[17:10]  ²⁵ tn Heb “And man, man.” The repetition of the word “man” is distributive, meaning “any (or every) man” (GKC 395-96 §123.c; cf. Lev 15:2).

[17:10]  ²⁶ tn Heb “from the sojourner who sojourns.”

[17:10]  ²⁷ tc The LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate have “your” (plural) rather than “their.”

[17:10]  ²⁸ tn Heb “I will give my faces against [literally “in”] the soul/person/life [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh, feminine] who eats the blood and I will cut it [i.e., that נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh] off from the midst of its people.” The uses of נֶפֶשׁ in this and the following verse are most significant for the use of animal blood in Israel’s sacrificial system. Unfortunately, it is a most difficult word to translate accurately and consistently, and this presents a major problem for the rendering of these verses (see, e.g., G. J. Wenham, Leviticus [NICOT], 244-45). No matter which translation of נֶפֶשׁ one uses here, it is important to see that both man and animal have נֶפֶשׁ and that this נֶפֶשׁ is identified with the blood. See the further remarks on v. 11 below. On the “cutting off” penalty see the note on v. 4 above. In this instance, God takes it on himself to “cut off” the person (i.e., extirpation).

[17:14]  ²⁹ tn Heb “for the life/soul (נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh) of all flesh, its blood in its life/soul (נֶפֶשׁ) it is.” The LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate leave out “in its life/soul,” which would naturally yield “for the life of all flesh, its blood it is” (see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 261, 263). The present translation is something of an oversimplification, but the meaning is basically the same in any case. Cf. NRSV “For the life of every creature – its blood is its life.”

[17:14]  ³⁰ tn Heb “of all flesh” (also later in this verse). See the note on “every living thing” in v. 11.

[17:14]  ³¹ tn For remarks on the “cut off” penalty see the note on v. 4 above.

[17:15]  ³² tn Heb “And any soul” (נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh).

[17:15]  ³³ tn Heb “carcass,” referring to the carcass of an animal that has died on its own, not the carcass of an animal slaughtered for sacrifice or killed by wild beasts. This has been clarified in the translation by supplying the phrase “of natural causes”; cf. NAB “that died of itself”; TEV “that has died a natural death.”

[17:15]  ³⁴ tn Heb “in the native or in the sojourner.”

[17:16]  ³⁵ tn The words “his clothes” are not in the Hebrew text, but are repeated in the translation for clarity.

[17:16]  ³⁶ tn Heb “and he shall bear his iniquity.” The rendering “bear the punishment for the iniquity” reflects the use of the word “iniquity” to refer to the punishment for iniquity. This is sometimes referred to as the consequential use of the term (cf. Lev 5:17; 7:18; 10:17; etc.).

[6:6]  ³⁷ tn Or “have fallen away.”

[6:6]  ³⁸ tn Or “while”; Grk “crucifying…and holding.” The Greek participles here (“crucifying…and holding”) can be understood as either causal (“since”) or temporal (“while”).

[6:6]  ³⁹ tn Grk “recrucifying the son of God for themselves.”

[10:26]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “is left,” with “for us” implied by the first half of the verse.

[10:27]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “zeal,” recalling God’s jealous protection of his holiness and honor (cf. Exod 20:5).

[10:27]  ⁴² tn Grk “the enemies.”

[10:28]  ⁴³ tn Grk “dies.”

[10:28]  ⁴⁴ sn An allusion to Deut 17:6.

[10:29]  ⁴⁵ tn Grk “tramples under foot.”

[10:29]  ⁴⁶ tn Grk “regarded as common.”

[10:29]  ⁴⁷ tn Grk “by which he was made holy.”