Those who found the man gathering wood brought him to Moses, Aaron, and the whole congregation,
Here is, I. The general doom passed upon presumptuous sinners. 1. Those are to be reckoned presumptuous sinners that sin with a high hand, as the original phrase is (Num 15:30), that is, that avowedly confront God's authority, and set up their own lust in competition with it, that sin for sinning-sake, in contradiction to the precept of the law, and in defiance of the...
Commenting on Numbers 15:30-36
And they put him in ward,.... In a certain prison in the camp; perhaps the same in which the blasphemer was put, Lev 24:12; and for much the same reason: because it was not declared what should be done to him: that is, what kind of death he should die, as Jarchi and Aben Ezra; it had been before declared that the sabbath breaker should...
Num 15:32-36 The History of the Sabbath-Breaker is no doubt inserted here as a practical illustration of sinning “with a high hand.” It shows, too, at the same time, how the nation, as a whole, was impressed with the inviolable sanctity of the Lord’s day.
Commenting on Numbers 15:32-36