Bilangan 10:12

10:12 So the Israelites set out ¹  on their journeys from the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud settled in the wilderness of Paran.

Bilangan 15:32

15:32 When the Israelites were ²  in the wilderness they found a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day. ³ 

[10:12]  ¹ sn The verb is the same as the noun: “they journeyed on their journeyings.” This underscores the point of their continual traveling.

[15:32]  ² tn The preterite of the verb “to be” is here subordinated to the next, parallel verb form, to form a temporal clause.

[15:32]  ³ sn For this brief passage, see A. Phillips, “The Case of the Woodgatherer Reconsidered,” VT 19 (1969): 125-28; J. Weingreen, “The Case of the Woodgatherer (Numbers XV 32-36),” VT 16 (1966): 361-64; and B. J. Bamberger, “Revelations of Torah after Sinai,” HUCA 16 (1941): 97-113. Weingreen argues that there is something of the Rabbinic method of setting a fence around the Law here; in other words, if this sin were not punished, the Law would have been violated in greater ways. Gathering of wood, although seemingly harmless, is done with intent to kindle fire, and so reveals a culpable intent.