Saturday, March 26, 2022

Dale Launderville on Numbers 16:32-36

 

 

(vv. 32-36). The story of the Sabbath breaker is an “oracular narrative” (e.g., Lev 24:10-23; Num 9:1-14, 27:1-11 . . .) that legislates through its story. The plot and characters of this narrative not only frame an abstract legal statement (cf. Num 9:1-14 and 27:1-11) but also emphasize the process and moment of lawgiving.

 

A man is caught gathering wood on the Sabbath. The story presumes that this activity is a violation of the Sabbath (Exod 35:2). But when the man is brought before Moses and Aaron and the whole community and placed in custody (vv. 32-34), it was not clear what was to be done to hum. The ambiguity seemed to arise (1) from whether what he did constituted “work” or (2) from how the death penalty was to be applied (cf. Exod 31:14). The oracular verdict in verse 35 directed that the man be stoned (cf. Lev 24:10-23; 20:1-5, 27): a more severe penalty that being cut off from the community (cf. vv. 30-31). Stoning was to be carried out by the whole community (Lev 24:14, 16, 23) outside the camp in order to avoid ritual contamination (Num 19:11, 14) and bloodguilt (Gen 9:5-6; Num 35:33). (Dale Launderville, “Numbers,” in The Jerome Biblical Commentary for the Twenty-First Century, ed. John J. Collins, Gina Hens-Piazza, Barbara Reid, and Donald Senior [3d ed.; London: T&T Clark, 2022], 324)