Numbers 15:32
New International Version
While the Israelites were in the wilderness, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day.

New Living Translation
One day while the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they discovered a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day.

English Standard Version
While the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day.

Berean Standard Bible
While the Israelites were in the wilderness, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day.

King James Bible
And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day.

New King James Version
Now while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day.

New American Standard Bible
Now while the sons of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day.

NASB 1995
Now while the sons of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering wood on the sabbath day.

NASB 1977
Now while the sons of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering wood on the sabbath day.

Legacy Standard Bible
Now the sons of Israel were in the wilderness, and they found a man gathering wood on the sabbath day.

Amplified Bible
Now while the Israelites were in the wilderness, they found a man who was gathering wood on the Sabbath day.

Christian Standard Bible
While the Israelites were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
While the Israelites were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day.

American Standard Version
And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks upon the sabbath day.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And the children of Israel were in the wilderness and they found one man when he gathered wood in the day of the Sabbath.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And the children of Israel were in the wilderness, and they found a man gathering sticks on the sabbath-day.

Contemporary English Version
Once, while the Israelites were traveling through the desert, a man was caught gathering firewood on the Sabbath.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And it came to pass, when the children of Israel were in the wilderness, and had found a man gathering sticks on the sabbath day,

English Revised Version
And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks upon the sabbath day.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
While the Israelites were in the desert, they found a man gathering wood on the day of worship.

Good News Translation
Once, while the Israelites were still in the wilderness, a man was found gathering firewood on the Sabbath.

International Standard Version
As it was when the Israelis were in the wilderness, they found a man who was gathering wood on the Sabbath day.

JPS Tanakh 1917
And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks upon the sabbath day.

Literal Standard Version
And the sons of Israel are in the wilderness, and they find a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day,

Majority Standard Bible
While the Israelites were in the wilderness, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day.

New American Bible
While the Israelites were in the wilderness, a man was discovered gathering wood on the sabbath day.

NET Bible
When the Israelites were in the wilderness they found a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day.

New Revised Standard Version
When the Israelites were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the sabbath day.

New Heart English Bible
While the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day.

Webster's Bible Translation
And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath-day.

World English Bible
While the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day.

Young's Literal Translation
And the sons of Israel are in the wilderness, and they find a man gathering wood on the sabbath-day,

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
A Sabbath-Breaker Stoned
32While the Israelites were in the wilderness, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day. 33Those who found the man gathering wood brought him to Moses, Aaron, and the whole congregation,…

Cross References
Exodus 31:14
Keep the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. Anyone who profanes it must surely be put to death. Whoever does any work on that day must be cut off from among his people.

Exodus 31:15
For six days work may be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day must surely be put to death.

Exodus 35:2
For six days work may be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a Sabbath of complete rest to the LORD. Whoever does any work on that day must be put to death.

Exodus 35:3
Do not light a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day."

Numbers 15:33
Those who found the man gathering wood brought him to Moses, Aaron, and the whole congregation,

Jeremiah 17:21
This is what the LORD says: Take heed for yourselves; do not carry a load or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day.


Treasury of Scripture

And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks on the sabbath day.

they found a man.

Exodus 16:23,27,28
And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning…

Exodus 20:8-10
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy…

Exodus 35:2,3
Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a sabbath of rest to the LORD: whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death…

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Children Desert Israel Israelites Sabbath Sabbath-Day Sticks Waste Wilderness Wood
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Children Desert Israel Israelites Sabbath Sabbath-Day Sticks Waste Wilderness Wood
Numbers 15
1. The law of the meat offering, and the drink offering
14. The stranger is under the same law
17. The law of the first of the dough
22. The sacrifice for sins of ignorance
30. The punishment of presumption
32. He who violated the Sabbath is stoned
37. The law of tassels














(32) And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness . . . --Better, Now the children of Israel were in the wilderness, and they found, &c. It is probable that the incident which is here recorded is designed to illustrate the presumptuous sins which were to be punished by death. The offence may have been committed shortly after the promulgation of the commandments contained in this chapter, but all that is certain is that it was committed "in the wilderness," i.e., according to Ibn Ezra, in the wilderness of Sinai, but more probably during the period of the wanderings in the wilderness after the arrival at Kadesh. No inference can be drawn from this verse as to the time at which the account was committed to writing. The observance of the Sabbath was obligatory in the wilderness as well as in the land of Canaan (comp. Exodus 16:27-30), and the punishment of death had already been denounced against those who profaned it by doing any work thereon (see Exodus 31:15; Exodus 35:2), but the manner in which death was to be inflicted does not appear to have been hitherto declared. The same verb which is here rendered "declared" occurs in the parallel case of the blasphemer in Leviticus 24:12, where it is rendered "shewed":--"And they put him in ward, that the mind of the Lord might be shewed them." The punishment of death had already been denounced against those who cursed father or mother (Leviticus 20:9). It could hardly be thought that a lighter punishment was to be inflicted on one who blasphemed the name of Jehovah, but in that case, as in this, the mode of death does not appear to have been previously enjoined.

Verse 32. - And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness. It is maintained by some that these words were intended to mark the contrast between the previous laws, which were only to be observed when the people came into their own land, and the law of the sabbath, which was strictly enforced during the period of wandering. There is no doubt that such a distinction existed in fact, but there is no reason to find the intentional assertion of it in this expression. The simpler and more natural, and therefore more probable, explanation is, that the incident was recorded after the people had left the wilderness. At the same time, there is nothing unreasonable in ascribing the narrative to Moses himself if we suppose him to have written it at the end of his life, when the people were encamped in the steppes of Moab. It seems probable that the record of the incident was inserted here as an example of a "presumptuous" sin, and of its punishment. A man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day. This was clearly presumptuous, because the prohibition to do any work for oneself on the sabbath had been made so clear, and was so constantly forced upon their attention by the failure of the manna on that day, that ignorance could not possibly be pleaded here.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
While the Israelites
בְנֵֽי־ (ḇə·nê-)
Noun - masculine plural construct
Strong's 1121: A son

were
וַיִּהְי֥וּ (way·yih·yū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 1961: To fall out, come to pass, become, be

in the wilderness,
בַּמִּדְבָּ֑ר (bam·miḏ·bār)
Preposition-b, Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 4057: A pasture, a desert, speech

a man
אִ֛ישׁ (’îš)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 376: A man as an individual, a male person

was found
וַֽיִּמְצְא֗וּ (way·yim·ṣə·’ū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 4672: To come forth to, appear, exist, to attain, find, acquire, to occur, meet, be present

gathering
מְקֹשֵׁ֥שׁ (mə·qō·šêš)
Verb - Piel - Participle - masculine singular
Strong's 7197: To forage for, straw, stubble, wood, to assemble

wood
עֵצִ֖ים (‘ê·ṣîm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 6086: Tree, trees, wood

on the Sabbath
הַשַּׁבָּֽת׃ (haš·šab·bāṯ)
Article | Noun - common singular
Strong's 7676: Intermission, the Sabbath

day.
בְּי֥וֹם (bə·yō·wm)
Preposition-b | Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 3117: A day


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OT Law: Numbers 15:32 While the children of Israel were (Nu Num.)
Numbers 15:31
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