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 28:25

28:25 On the seventh day you are to have a holy assembly, you must do no regular work.

Numbers 29:17

29:17 “‘On the second day you must offer twelve young bulls, two rams, fourteen lambs one year old, all without blemish,

Numbers 29:35

29:35 “‘On the eighth day you are to have a holy assembly; you must do no ordinary work on it.

[15:32]  ¹ tn The preterite of the verb “to be” is here subordinated to the next, parallel verb form, to form a temporal clause.

[15:32]  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.