What Does Numbers 15:22 Mean?
And if you have strayed, and have not kept all these commands, which the LORD has spoken to Moses,
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And if ye have erred, and not observed all these commandments, which the LORD hath spoken unto Moses,THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “erred” carries the image of wandering, so missing the command is pictured as leaving a way.
THE MEANING
You can receive what God speaks and still miss its full practice. This verse names that gap as wandering: the instruction is spoken, yet the path of action can drift from it. It speaks to the present possibility that a person or community may not observe all that is given.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Clear instruction does not make deviation impossible; knowing what is spoken does not guarantee that every part is observed.
THE ROOT
תִּשְׁגּוּ
tishgu
GROWS FROM
שגה
to wander, stray, or go astray; by extension, to err
“strayed” in this verse is tishgu. תִּשְׁגּוּ (tishgu) carries the image of wandering or going astray, a movement away from a way. Beside “not observed,” it makes the gap visible between the instruction spoken and the path taken.
ALSO GROWS
shāgāh: to wander, stray, or err
שָׁגָה
This verb form shows the root’s basic movement: error as going astray.
shōgeh: one who wanders or errs
שֹׁגֶה
This participial form describes the one in the act of straying, keeping the same root consonants ש־ג־ה.
THE PATTERN
Scripture pictures departure from instruction as wandering from the way it marks.
Speak to the children of Israel, saying, If a living soul misses the mark through straying from any of the commandments of the LORD, concerning the things which ought not to be done, and does against one of them;He dies without straightening, and in the abundance of his folly he reels.My brethren, if anyone among you wanders away from the truth, and someone turns him back.THE THREAD
He dies without straightening, and in the abundance of his folly he reels.Numbers uses תִּשְׁגּוּ (tishgu), from שגה, the same root rendered “go astray” here. Proverbs ties that wandering to being without instruction, sharpening the verse’s image of departure from the way instruction gives.
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