Numbers 15:33

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to all the congregation.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

Septuagint runs longer here — compare

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מְקֹשֵׁ֣שׁ

qâshash

H7197

“gathering”

Verb, Poel, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute

Appears 8× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Exodus 5:7

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 2091 , 2092

to gather, assemble, collect, gather stubble or sticks - (Qal) to gather together - (Poel) to gather stubble - (Hithpoel) to gather oneself together

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

13: words
10: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is מְקֹשֵׁ֣שׁ to gather H7197 — appearing just 8 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

מְקֹשֵׁ֣שׁ to gather H7197 occurs in 7 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
5 nouns
3 prepositions
2 particles

Verb forms

וַיַּקְרִ֣יבוּ Hiphil · Sequential Imperfect
הַמֹּצְאִ֥ים Qal · Participle Active
מְקֹשֵׁ֣שׁ Poel · Participle Active

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

אֶל to H413 ×3

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 17 words from the Hebrew and 26 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — the Septuagint runs noticeably longer here. See the side-by-side →

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 13 Hebrew tokens and 22 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Numbers 15:33 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

John 8:3–20 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman taken in adultery. Having set her in the midst,

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

Here the Septuagint runs noticeably longer than the Hebrew — LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) 26 words vs World English Bible 17. A rough length comparison of the two English translations, not a word-level alignment — read both below.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Numbers 15:33 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיַּקְרִ֣יבוּ אֹת֔וֹ הַמֹּצְאִ֥ים אֹת֖וֹ מְקֹשֵׁ֣שׁ עֵצִ֑ים אֶל מֹשֶׁה֙ וְאֶֽל אַהֲרֹ֔ן וְאֶ֖ל כָּל הָעֵדָֽה

Those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to all the congregation.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Numbers 15:33 Septuagint · lemma form

καί προςἄγω αὐτός ὁ εὑρίσκω αὐτός συνλέγω ξύλον ὁ ἡμέρα ὁ σάββατον πρός μωυσῆς καί ἀαρών καί πρός πᾶς συναγωγή υἱός ἰσραήλ

And they who found him gathering sticks on the sabbath-day brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וְקָרִיבוּ יָתֵהּ דְאַשְׁכַּחוּ יָתֵהּ כַּד מְגַבֵּב אָעִין לְוָת משֶׁה וּלְוָת אַהֲרֹן וּלְוָת כָּל כְּנִשְׁתָּא

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וְקָרִיבוּ יָתֵיהּ בָּתַר דְאַתְרוּ בֵּיהּ וְתָּלַשׁ סַהֲדַיָא דְהַשְׁכָּחוּ יָתֵיהּ תָּלִישׁ קִיסִין לְוַת משֶׁה וּלְוַת אַהֲרן וּלְוַת כָּל כְּנִישְׁתָּא

and, after they had monished him, and he had wounded the witnesses who had found him pulling up wood, brought him to Mosheh and Aharon, and all the congregation.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Numbers 15:33 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Joseph Benson's Commentary

Num 15:33-34. To all the congregation — That is, to the rulers of the congregation. They (Moses and Aaron, and the other rulers) put him in ward — Till the will of the Lord concerning him should be declared. What should be done — That is, in what manner, or by what kind of death he was to die, which, therefore, God here particularly determines: otherwise it was known in general that sabbath-breakers were to be put to death.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And they put him in ward,.... In a certain prison in the camp; perhaps the same in which the blasphemer was put, Lev 24:12; and for much the same reason:

because it was not declared what should be done to him: that is, what kind of death he should die, as Jarchi and Aben Ezra; it had been before declared that the sabbath breaker should die, but not what death he should die, Exo 31:15; though some think it was a matter of doubt whether gathering of sticks was a breach of the sabbath, or at least such a breach of it as required death; and the answer of the Lord seems to confirm this sense, as follows.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

i.e. To the rulers of the congregation, who, as they represented and governed the congregation, are called by the name of the congregation.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

33. Brought him unto Moses — They were shocked at wickedness so defiant of public sentiment and of Jehovah. Like good citizens they secured his arrest, lest the example might spread as a contagion.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

Unto all the congregation, i.e., unto the council of elders, who were the congregation by representation. (see on Exo_18:25, Exo_18:26)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Wesley's Explanatory Notes

To all the congregation - That is, to the rulers of the congregation.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

המצאים אתו מקשש THEY THAT FOUND HIM PICKING UP WOOD — [The redundancy of the phrase המצאים אתו מקשש עצים intimates that] they warned him not to do this and yet he did not refrain from picking them up even after they had found him and warned him (cf. Sifrei Bamidbar 113; Sanhedrin 41a).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Numbers, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 13 words (10 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is qâshash (“to gather”). The Greek Septuagint runs longer here. A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “to gather” (qâshash) contribute to the verse as a whole?
Exodus 5:7 shares the word «to gather» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
“to” occurs 3× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
Compared with the Hebrew, the Septuagint runs longer here. What questions does that raise?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
The verb «וַיַּקְרִ֣יבוּ» is Hiphil Sequential Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Joseph Benson's Commentary and John Gill's Exposition read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 13 Hebrew ↔ 22 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 8 words in this verse.
“to” occurs 3× in this single verse.
10 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 13 words in this verse.