Bilangan 15:32

15:32 When the Israelites were ¹  in the wilderness they found a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day. ² 

Bilangan 27:16

27:16 “Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all humankind, ³  appoint ⁴  a man over the community,

[15:32]  ¹ tn The preterite of the verb “to be” is here subordinated to the next, parallel verb form, to form a temporal clause.

[15:32]  ² 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.

[27:16]  ³ tn Heb “flesh”; cf. NAB, NIV “all mankind”; NCV “all people”; NLT “all living things.”

[27:16]  ⁴ tn This is the same verb פָּקַד (paqad) that is used throughout the book for the aspect of “numbering” the people.