Numbers 15: Offerings in the land, the man who gathered wood, and the tassels

In plain English: Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

In plain English: "Speak to the Israelites and tell them, 'When you have come into the land where you are to live, which I am giving you,

In plain English: and you make an offering by fire to Yahweh, a burnt offering or a sacrifice, to keep a vow, or as a free will offering, or at your set feasts, to make a pleasant aroma to Yahweh, from the herd or from the flock,

In plain English: then the one who brings his offering is to offer Yahweh a meal offering of one tenth of an ephah of fine flour, mixed with a quarter of a hin of oil.

In plain English: With the burnt offering or the sacrifice, for each lamb, prepare a quarter of a hin of wine for the drink offering.

In plain English: For a ram, prepare a meal offering of two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a third of a hin of oil,

In plain English: and for the drink offering offer a third of a hin of wine, a pleasant aroma to Yahweh.

In plain English: When you prepare a young bull as a burnt offering or a sacrifice, to keep a vow, or for peace offerings to Yahweh,

In plain English: then with the bull he is to offer a meal offering of three tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with half a hin of oil,

In plain English: and offer half a hin of wine for the drink offering, an offering made by fire, a pleasant aroma to Yahweh.

In plain English: This is how it is to be done for each bull, each ram, and each of the male lambs or young goats.

In plain English: However many you prepare, do this for each one of them.

In plain English: Everyone who is native-born is to do these things in this way when he brings an offering made by fire, a pleasant aroma to Yahweh.

In plain English: If a foreigner lives with you, or anyone else who is among you through your generations, and he brings an offering made by fire, a pleasant aroma to Yahweh, he is to do it just as you do.

In plain English: For the assembly there is to be one rule for you and for the foreigner who lives with you, a rule forever through your generations. The foreigner is to be the same as you before Yahweh.

In plain English: One law and one rule are for you and for the foreigner who lives with you.'"

In plain English: Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

In plain English: "Speak to the Israelites and tell them, 'When you come into the land I am bringing you to,

In plain English: then, when you eat the food (literally: bread) of the land, you are to set apart an offering for Yahweh (this Bible: a wave offering; or: a contribution).

The Hebrew word: The offering here is terumah, which the dictionary gives as "a present (as offered up), especially in sacrifice or as tribute". It is a part lifted out and set apart from the rest.

How it is translated: In Numbers this Bible says "wave offering" or "wave offerings" in 15 of the 16 verses that use terumah. It also says "wave offering" for a different Hebrew word, tenuphah. Other Bibles say "heave offering" or "contribution" for terumah.

What changes: Read as "contribution" or "something set apart", the verse is about giving a part of the food to Yahweh, not about waving it. Chapter 18 says these offerings go to the priests (18:11 and 18:19).

In plain English: From the first of your dough you are to set apart a cake as an offering. Set it apart just as you set apart the offering from the threshing floor.

The Hebrew word: "Cake" is challah, which the dictionary gives as "a cake (as usually punctured)".

Church tradition: Jewish practice still keeps this rule: a small piece is taken from the dough when bread is made, and it is called challah. The braided Sabbath loaf takes its name from it. Verses 18 to 21 say only that the first of the dough is to be given to Yahweh.

In plain English: From the first of your dough you are to give Yahweh an offering (or: a contribution), through your generations.

In plain English: When you go wrong by mistake and do not keep all these commands that Yahweh has spoken to Moses,

In plain English: all that Yahweh has commanded you through Moses, from the day Yahweh gave the command and on through your generations,

In plain English: then, if it was done by mistake, without the community knowing (literally: away from the eyes of the community), the whole community is to offer one young bull as a burnt offering, a pleasant aroma to Yahweh, with its meal offering and its drink offering as the rule says, and one male goat as a sin offering.

In plain English: The priest is to make atonement for the whole community of the Israelites, and they will be forgiven, because it was a mistake, and they have brought their offering, an offering made by fire to Yahweh, and their sin offering before Yahweh, for their mistake.

In plain English: The whole community of the Israelites will be forgiven, and the foreigner who lives among them, because all the people were in it by mistake.

In plain English: If one person sins by mistake, he is to offer a female goat a year old as a sin offering.

In plain English: The priest is to make atonement for the person who went wrong when he sinned by mistake before Yahweh. He is to make atonement for him, and he will be forgiven.

In plain English: There is to be one law for anyone who does something by mistake, for the native-born among the Israelites and for the foreigner who lives among them.

In plain English: But the person who does anything with a high hand (on purpose, openly), whether native-born or foreigner, insults (or: blasphemes) Yahweh. That person is to be cut off from among his people.

The Hebrew words: "With a high hand" is beyad ramah, literally "with a raised hand". The same words are used when Israel left Egypt "with a high hand" in Exodus 14:8 and Numbers 33:3. "Blasphemes" is gadaph, which the dictionary gives as "to hack (with words), i.e. revile".

How it is translated: This Bible says "blaspheme" or a longer form of it in 6 of the 7 verses that use gadaph.

What changes: Here the raised hand stands against the mistakes in verses 22 to 29: a wrong done openly and on purpose. Read as "reviles" or "insults", the verse says the act itself is an insult to Yahweh, even if the person says nothing.

Good to know: The offerings for sin in Leviticus 4:2 are for anyone who "sins unintentionally". On "cut off", readers differ: put to death, sent out of the community, or cut off by God himself (see the note on Leviticus 17:4).

In plain English: Because he has despised Yahweh's word and broken his command, that person is to be completely cut off. His guilt (or: wrong) will be on him.'"

In plain English: While the Israelites were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering wood (this Bible: sticks) on the Sabbath day.

Good to know: Exodus 31:14 already says that anyone who works on the Sabbath is to be put to death, and Exodus 35:3 forbids lighting a fire on the Sabbath. The text here does not say why the man was gathering wood.

In plain English: Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and to the whole community.

In plain English: They kept him under guard, because it had not yet been made clear what was to be done to him.

The Hebrew word: "Declared" is parash, which the dictionary gives as "to separate", and figuratively "to specify": to make plain.

What changes: The text does not say what was not yet clear. Some readers take it that the people did not know whether gathering wood counted as work. Others take it that they knew he must die but not how. Yahweh's answer in verse 35 gives both: he is to die, by stoning outside the camp.

Good to know: The same thing happens with the man who cursed the Name in Leviticus 24:12: the same Hebrew words are used, he is kept under guard until Yahweh's will is made clear, and he is stoned outside the camp.

In plain English: Yahweh said to Moses, "The man must be put to death. The whole community is to stone him with stones outside the camp."

In plain English: So the whole community brought him outside the camp and stoned him with stones, and he died, as Yahweh had commanded Moses.

Church tradition: Jewish teaching discusses this case at length, and some Jewish teachers gave the man a name, which the text does not do. Christian readers differ on how the Sabbath laws of Moses apply today. The text records only what was done and that Yahweh commanded it.

In plain English: Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

In plain English: "Speak to the Israelites and tell them to make tassels (this Bible: fringes) on the corners of their clothes, through their generations, and to put a blue cord on the tassel of each corner.

The Hebrew words: "Fringes" is tsitsit, which the dictionary gives as "a floral or wing-like projection, i.e. a forelock of hair, a tassel". "Borders" is kanaph, the word for a wing or the edge of a garment. "Blue" is tekhelet, which the dictionary gives as "the cerulean mussel, i.e. the color (violet) obtained therefrom".

How it is translated: Tsitsit is in only 3 verses of the Bible: this one and the next, where this Bible says "fringe", and Ezekiel 8:3, where it is "a lock" of hair. This Bible says "blue" in all 49 verses that use tekhelet. Deuteronomy 22:12 gives a like rule with a different word for the fringes: "fringes on the four corners".

What changes: Read as "tassel", the word means a bunch of threads hanging from each corner, not a fringe along the whole edge. Read as violet, the cord is the colour of the dye the dictionary says was made from a sea mussel.

In plain English: It will be a tassel for you to look at, so that you remember all Yahweh's commands and do them, and do not go wandering after your own heart and your own eyes, which you chase after like a prostitute (this Bible: used to play the prostitute).

The Hebrew words: "Follow" is tur, the same word used for the men sent to "spy out" the land in 13:2. "Play the prostitute" is zanah, which the dictionary gives as "to commit adultery", and figuratively as turning to other gods.

How it is translated: In Numbers this Bible says "spy" or a longer form in 8 of the 13 verses that use tur, and "follow" only here.

What changes: Read as "go scouting after", the verse pictures the heart and eyes as scouts that lead a person astray.

In plain English: So you will remember and do all my commands, and be holy to your God.

In plain English: I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am Yahweh your God."

Church tradition: In Jewish prayer, verses 37 to 41 are said morning and evening as the third part of the Shema, after Deuteronomy 6:4 to 9 and 11:13 to 21, and many Jewish men wear tassels on the corners of a prayer shawl. The Gospels tell of people touching "the fringe" of Jesus' garment (Matthew 9:20, Mark 6:56), and in Matthew 23:5 Jesus speaks of those who "enlarge the fringes of their garments" to be seen.