2. When you come to the land. After the incident of the spies, the narrative movement is broken off by the insertion of a miscellany of laws pertaining to the cult, the sabbath, and the mnemonic ritual fringes. The narrative of Wilderness rebellions will resume in the next chapter with the story of Korah’s mutiny. It is not clear why the redactors deemed it appropriate to introduce this legal miscellany here, though the best effort of explanation has been made by Abraham ibn Ezra, with his characteristic alertness to possibilities of continuity in disjunct texts: “This section was juxtaposed to the previous because they [the ten scouts and their followers] had been cut down and people were mourning, to comfort the sons by letting them know that they would come to the land.” Ibn Ezra goes on to say that the emphasis here on forgiveness (verse 25) is also a response to the sin of the ten scouts and their followers, and the reference to a “high hand” (verse 30) looks back to their arrogance in trying to storm the Canaanite heights without divine authorization.

4. one-tenth measure. This is evidently the dry measure ʾephah, roughly a bushel.

15. one statute for you and for the sojourner. Apologetic commentary has made much of the egalitarianism of this reiterated formula. In fact, it was common in the ancient Near East for resident aliens to participate in the cult of the community in which they were, in effect, naturalized citizens. In this early period, no special ceremony of conversion was involved, and as a matter of historical actuality, it is likely that the descendants of resident aliens in the course of time would have become indistinguishable from native Israelites.

22. And should you err. The Hebrew root sh-g-h (here) or sh-g-g (in all the subsequent occurrences in this chapter) denotes an inadvertent offense, because the person either is not aware of the law or is not cognizant of what he is doing.

24. the whole community. A prohibited act performed inadvertently by members of the community incurs guilt on the whole group that must be expiated. (Compare the plagues that descend on Thebes in Oedipus the King and Antigone.)

30. with a high hand. This phrase, which suggests bold defiance, is the obvious legal antithesis to inadvertent transgressing, or erring.

32. And the Israelites were in the wilderness. This clause takes us back from the listing of timeless laws to the narrative setting of the Wilderness tales. The anecdote, however, proves to be a piece of case law indicating what is the sentence of a person willfully violating the sabbath.

35. Let all the community pelt him with stones outside the camp. The death sentence for violating the sabbath offers a grim prospect, which might well make one think of the brutal enforcement of strict theological conformity in certain modern theocracies. Ibn Ezra seeks to provide a palliative by linking this episode with the “high hand” of the immediately preceding passage, suggesting that the wood gatherer had been duly warned but high-handedly went on with his action. The larger narrative context comprises a series of acts of mutiny, threatening both the authority of Moses and the cohesiveness of the community, and this episode is conceived as a grave instance of such mutiny. Israel as a community is in part defined by its adherence to the sabbath. In the harsh reality of the Wilderness setting, he who has broken ranks is taken outside the camp and executed by the whole community.

38. make them a fringe on the skirts of their garments. The “skirts” of the garment are literally “wings” (kenafayim). The garment would typically be a kind of tunic (and so would not have “corners”), and the reference is thus to the hem or bottom edge. The fringe—elsewhere the Hebrew tsitsit refers to a lock of hair—is made up of uncut threads extending down from the hem.

an indigo twist. Though indigo may be a reasonable approximation of the color in question, it should be noted that the dye is not derived from a plant, as is indigo, but from a substance secreted by the murex, harvested off the coast of Phoenicia (see the comment on Exodus 25:4). The extraction and preparation of this dye were labor-intensive and thus made it quite costly. It was used for royal garments in many places in the Mediterranean region, and in Israel it was also used for priestly garments and for the cloth furnishings of the Tabernacle. One may infer that the indigo twist was a token of the idea that Israel should become a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation” and perhaps also that, as the covenanted people, metaphorically God’s firstborn, the nation as a whole had royal status. Remnants of clothing found in the caves inhabited by Bar Kokhba’s men demonstrate that such indigo twists were still worn at the hems of ordinary outer garments in the second century C.E. Eventually, the indigo color was dropped as dye for the authentic hue became inaccessible. The fringes were transferred to the talit, or prayer shawl, though some devout Orthodox men and boys still wear as an inner garment a sleeveless piece of cloth with a large neckhole and fringes at its four corners.

39. be mindful of all the LORD’s commandments. The key Hebrew verb z-k-r means both “to remember” and “to be cognizant of.” There is a continuing concern with mnemonic devices and stories in Numbers. This fringe with the indigo twist is presumably meant to remind the Israelites of their obligation as a holy people and of their quasiroyal status before God: when tempted to look at the objects of desire, they are to look instead upon the mnemonic fringe.

you shall not stray. The Hebrew verb here also has the more neutral meaning of “to go about,” “to explore,” “to scout”; and, as many commentators have noted, it is the very verb used for the expedition of the twelve spies. Perhaps the “straying” is also intended, at least by the redactor, as a glance back at the sabbath wood gatherer.

41. I am the LORD your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Throughout the Hebrew Bible, theology is an inseparable part of story. Israel’s fealty to God is not a consequence of abstract theological principle but of its experience of God’s workings in history. The indigo twist—Rashi even seeks to link it with the color of the sky on the night of the Exodus—is thus a reminder not only of the commandments but of the liberation from slavery, prelude to the Sinai epiphany through which Israel took on the obligation to become a kingdom of priests. The once enslaved people is henceforth to wear a constant token of royalty and sanctity.