🔢WEB · Numbers 15:37
What does Numbers 15:37 mean?
"Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,"
— Numbers 15:37 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
They put him in custody, because it had not been declared what should be done to him.
Yahweh said to Moses, “The man shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him with stones outside of the camp.”
All the congregation brought him outside of the camp, and stoned him to death with stones, as Yahweh commanded Moses.
Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
“Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them that they should make themselves fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put on the fringe of each border a cord of blue:
and it shall be to you for a fringe, that you may look on it, and remember all Yahweh’s commandments, and do them; and that you don’ t follow your own heart and your own eyes, after which you use to play the prostitute;
so that you may remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God.
Explanation
Numbers 15:37 is a brief introductory formula: "Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying." On its own, this single line simply announces that God is about to deliver a message through Moses. It does not contain the content of the message itself — that comes in the verses immediately following (15:38-41), where God instructs the Israelites to make tassels (tzitzit) on the corners of their garments, with a blue cord, so that when they look at the tassels they will remember all of Yahweh's commandments and not follow after their own hearts and eyes, but be holy to their God.
This phrase, or close variations of it, appears dozens of times throughout the Pentateuch, particularly in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. It functions as a literary and theological marker signaling that what follows is not Moses' own opinion or a human tradition, but direct revelation from God. Numbers as a whole was written to record Israel's journey from Sinai to the edge of the Promised Land, chronicling both their failures (like the rebellion of Korah and the refusal to enter Canaan after the spies' report) and God's ongoing instruction of the people through Moses. This particular introduction sets up the commandment about tassels, which was given after the incident of the spies and the people's unbelief in chapter 13-14, and after the account
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