Numbers 15:31

31 Because he has despised the word of the LORD, and has broken his mitzvah, that soul shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity shall be on him.

Numbers 15:31 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 15:31

Because he hath despised the word of the Lord, and hath
broken his commandment
That is, has broken it through contempt of it, despising it as a command of God, paying no regard to it as a law of his; otherwise such who sin ignorantly break the commandment of God:

that soul shall be utterly cut off;
or "in cutting off shall be cut off" ^F21; most certainly cut off and entirely ruined and destroyed in this world and in that to come, as the Targum of Jonathan; and Maimonides ^F23 understands it of such a cutting off, that the soul itself perishes and is no more; but such annihilation the Scripture nowhere gives us any reason to believe:

his iniquity [shall be] upon him;
the punishment of it, no atonement being made for it by sacrifice; it shall be upon him and him only, or be "in him" ^F24, not repented of and not forgiven.

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FOOTNOTES:

F21 (trkt trkh) "excidendo excidetur", Pagninus, Montanus, Drusius.
F23 In Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 11. sect. 1.
F24 (hb) "in ea", Montanus, Junins & Tremellius, Drusius; "in ipso", Piscator.

Numbers 15:31 In-Context

29 You shall have one law for him who does anything unwittingly, for him who is home-born among the children of Yisra'el, and for the stranger who sojourns among them.

30 But the soul who does anything with a high hand, whether he be home-born or a sojourner, the same blasphemes the LORD; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people.

31 Because he has despised the word of the LORD, and has broken his mitzvah, that soul shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity shall be on him.

32 While the children of Yisra'el were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the day of Shabbat.

33 Those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moshe and Aharon, and to all the congregation.