🔢WEB · Numbers 15:22
What does Numbers 15:22 mean?
"“‘When you err, and don’t observe all these commandments, which Yahweh has spoken to Moses,"
— Numbers 15:22 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
then it shall be that when you eat of the bread of the land, you shall offer up a wave offering to Yahweh.
Of the first of your dough you shall offer up a cake for a wave offering. As the wave offering of the threshing floor, so you shall heave it.
Of the first of your dough, you shall give to Yahweh a wave offering throughout your generations.
“‘When you err, and don’t observe all these commandments, which Yahweh has spoken to Moses,
even all that Yahweh has commanded you by Moses, from the day that Yahweh gave commandment, and onward throughout your generations;
then it shall be, if it was done unwittingly, without the knowledge of the congregation, that all the congregation shall offer one young bull for a burnt offering, for a pleasant aroma to Yahweh, with its meal offering, and its drink offering, according to the ordinance, and one male goat for a sin offering.
The priest shall make atonement for all the congregation of the children of Israel, and they shall be forgiven; for it was an error, and they have brought their offering, an offering made by fire to Yahweh, and their sin offering before Yahweh, for their error.
Explanation
This verse opens a section of instruction that Moses received from Yahweh for the Israelites, addressing what should happen when the community, as a whole, fails to keep God's commands—not through deliberate rebellion, but through error or oversight. In plain language, the verse is saying: "If you make a mistake and fail to keep all the commands that Yahweh gave to Moses..." It's the beginning of a conditional statement, the "if" clause of a case
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