John Gill Commentary Numbers 15:31

John Gill Commentary

Numbers 15:31

1697–1771
Reformed Baptist
John Gill
John Gill

John Gill Commentary

Numbers 15:31

1697–1771
Reformed Baptist
SCRIPTURE

"Because he hath despised the word of Jehovah, and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him." — Numbers 15:31 (ASV)

Because he has despised the word of the Lord, and has
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. 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.


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.