Numbers 15:1-31

Regulations concerning offerings and the penalty for defiant sin 15:1-31

"Chapter 15 is another collection of texts designed to prepare the people for their life in the land. Hence this chapter is one of promise. Though a great deal has happened, and the results are overwhelming for the adult population involved; nonetheless there is a sense in which we may say that nothing has happened. God has pardoned his people (Numbers 14:20), the second generation will enter the land (Numbers 14:31), and preparations still need to be made for that period after the Conquest and the achieving of ’normalcy’ in Canaan.

"It seems that the connecting thought between chapters 14 and 15 is the phrase in Numbers 15:2: ’when you enter the land of your dwelling places that I am giving to you’ (pers[onal] tr[anslation]). This ties to Numbers 14:31: ’I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected.’" [Note: Allen, p. 824.]

"Lest there be the mistaken notion that the laws of Sinai, including the laws of offerings, had been abrogated or replaced, the Lord explicitly cited some of them again . . ." [Note: Jensen, p. 69.]

The Lord supplemented and completed the laws of sacrifice He had given formerly. These laws relate to life in the land (Numbers 15:1-2).

There are really seven laws in this pericope (Numbers 15:3-31). The first three are closely related, and we will consider them as one law. We can also combine the fifth and sixth laws and regard them as one, which I will refer to as the third.