🔢WEB · Numbers 15:2
What does Numbers 15:2 mean?
"“Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘When you have come into the land of your habitations, which I give to you,"
— Numbers 15:2 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
“Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘When you have come into the land of your habitations, which I give to you,
and will make an offering by fire to Yahweh, a burnt offering, or a sacrifice, to accomplish a vow, or as a freewill offering, or in your set feasts, to make a pleasant aroma to Yahweh, of the herd, or of the flock;
then he who offers his offering shall offer to Yahweh a meal offering of one tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with the fourth part of a hin of oil.
You shall prepare wine for the drink offering, the fourth part of a hin, with the burnt offering, or for the sacrifice, for each lamb.
Explanation
Numbers 15:2 is the opening line of a divine command that God gives to Moses, instructing him to relay a message to the Israelites. In plain language, the verse simply sets the scene for what follows: God tells Moses to inform the people that this instruction applies to the time after they have entered and settled in the land of Canaan, the land God promised to give them. It is a preface — a "when this happens" clause — that introduces a longer set of regulations about offerings and sacrifices that follow in the rest of the chapter (verses 3–31).
The context here is significant. Numbers 15 comes immediately after the account in Numbers 13–14 of the twelve spies, the people's refusal to enter Canaan out of fear, and God's judgment that the unbelieving generation would die in the wilderness over forty years. Right after this devastating pronouncement, God gives Moses instructions for offerings to be practiced "when" — not "if" — the people finally enter the land. The author, traditionally understood to be Moses under divine inspiration, wrote this as part of the larger book of Numbers, which chronicles Israel's wilderness journey and the laws given to shape them as a covenant people.
Theologically, this small phrase carries real weight. Coming right after the judgment of an entire
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