🔢WEB · Numbers 15:23
What does Numbers 15:23 mean?
"even all that Yahweh has commanded you by Moses, from the day that Yahweh gave commandment, and onward throughout your generations;"
— Numbers 15:23 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
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.
All the congregation of the children of Israel shall be forgiven, as well as the stranger who lives as a foreigner among them; for with regard to all the people, it was done unwittingly.
Explanation
Numbers 15:23 is not a complete thought on its own — it's part of a longer sentence that begins in verse 22. Together they read something like: "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." In plain language, the verse is clarifying the scope of "these commandments" mentioned just before it. It means that every law and instruction the Lord gave through Moses — starting from the moment it was first given and continuing on into all future generations — falls under this category of divine command. The verse functions as an expansive clause, making sure the reader understands that God's law wasn't a one-time or temporary set of rules but something meant to bind the people permanently.
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