Then the Lord said to Moses, “The man must be put to death! The whole community must stone him outside the camp.”
Parallel translations
- WEB Yahweh said to Moses, “The man shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him with stones outside of the camp.”
- KJV And the LORD said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp.
- BSB And the LORD said to Moses, “The man must surely be put to death. The whole congregation is to stone him outside the camp.”
- NKJV Then the Lord said to Moses, “The man must surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.”
- NASB Then the Lord said to Moses, “The man must be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The LORD declared the man must be put to death by stoning outside the camp. Deliberate defiance of God's covenant sign brought the ultimate penalty.
Overview
God himself pronounces the sentence, confirming the gravity of presumptuous Sabbath-breaking under the covenant. The execution outside the camp marked the removal of defilement from the community. Strikingly, Jesus too suffered 'outside the camp,' bearing reproach to sanctify his people (Hebrews 13:12-13), taking upon himself the penalty sinners deserve.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Acts 7:58They threw him out of the city, and stoned him. The witnesses placed their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
- Exod 31:14–15You shall keep the Sabbath therefore; for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
- 1 Kgs 21:13The two men, the base fellows, came in and sat before him. The base fellows testified against him, even against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, “Naboth cursed God and the king!” Then they carried him out of the city and stoned him to death with stones.
- Deut 21:21All the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall remove the evil from among you. All Israel shall hear, and fear.
- Lev 24:14–16“Bring out of the camp him who cursed; and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him.
- Lev 24:23Moses spoke to the children of Israel; and they brought out him who had cursed out of the camp, and stoned him with stones. The children of Israel did as Yahweh commanded Moses.
- Heb 13:11–12For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside of the camp.
- Lev 20:2“Moreover, you shall tell the children of Israel, ‘Anyone of the children of Israel, or of the strangers who live as foreigners in Israel, who gives any of his offspring to Molech; he shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones.
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Christ at the center
In the wilderness Christ is the water from the rock, the bronze serpent lifted up that the dying might look and live (John 3:14), and the star and scepter that Balaam saw rising out of Jacob.
How Numbers 15:35 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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