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Numbers 15 Bible study: A cord of blue

In "that you don’t follow your own heart and your own eyes" (15:39), the Hebrew word for follow is tur, the word for the spies sent to "spy out the land" (13:2). And the "cord of blue" on every Israelite's fringe (15:38) is the same Hebrew as the lace of blue that held "HOLY TO THE LORD" on the high priest (Exodus 28:36-37).

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“so that you may remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God.”
Numbers 15:40 · World English Bible

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“The words "with a high hand" in Numbers 15:30 are also used of Israel going out of Egypt.”

Is that in Numbers 15, or not? Make your call.

What's really going on

"When you have come into the land"

In the text

In chapter 14 the LORD said to those counted "from twenty years old and upward" (14:29), "surely you shall not come into the land" (14:30), "But I will bring in your little ones" (14:31). Then "they presumed to go up" anyway (14:44), and the Amalekites and the Canaanites "beat them down even to Hormah" (14:45). The next time the LORD speaks, the words he gives Moses for the people begin, "When you have come into the land of your habitations, which I give to you" (15:2), and a few verses on, "When you come into the land where I bring you" (15:18). The chapter doesn't comment on the order, or say when these laws were given. It simply sets them next.

Where it leads to Jesus

The fringe of his garment

Interpretation

Numbers 15:38leads toMatthew 14:36

The LORD told Israel to "make themselves fringes on the borders of their garments" (15:38). A woman "came behind him, and touched the fringe of his garment" (Matthew 9:20). At Gennesaret the sick were brought to Jesus, "and they begged him that they might just touch the fringe of his garment. As many as touched it were made whole" (Matthew 14:36). Mark tells it too (Mark 6:56). Matthew doesn't mention Numbers 15, so joining the two is a reading: some take "the fringe of his garment" to be the fringes this chapter commands, worn by Jesus; others read it simply as the edge of his clothes.

Honest questions

Questions people ask about Numbers 15

That was a taste

The rest of Numbers 15 is waiting in Favor

  • One law for you and the stranger
  • By mistake, or with a high hand
  • Something to see, and remember
  • The same cord the high priest wore
  • Fringes in Deuteronomy
  • 16 questions as you read
  • 9 more Hebrew words
  • A short check at the end
  • Your notes, saved as you go
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The Hebrew word behind it

צִיצִתtsitsitsay tsee-TSEET

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "tassel, lock". Strong's: "a floral or wing-like projection, i.e. a fore-lock of hair, a tassel". The Hebrew Bible uses it four times. Three are here: "make themselves fringes on the borders of their garments" and "the fringe of each border" (15:38), and "It shall be to you for a fringe, that you may see it, and remember" (15:39). The fourth is a lock of hair: "took me by a lock of my head" (Ezekiel 8:3). When Deuteronomy gives the command again, it uses another word, gedilim (Deuteronomy 22:12).

For your group

Numbers 15 Bible study questions

  1. 1Right after the LORD said those who rejected the land would not come into it (14:30-31), the next words he gives for the people begin, "When you have come into the land" (15:2). When have you needed to hear about a future after a failure?
  2. 2"As you are, so the foreigner shall be before the LORD" (15:15). How can your group make sure someone new knows they stand on the same ground as everyone else?
  3. 3The fringes were "that you may see it, and remember" and "that you don’t follow your own heart and your own eyes" (15:39). What do you follow when you aren't paying attention, and what could you keep in sight to help you remember?

Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Numbers 15 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.

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Questions

What is Favor?

Favor is a Bible study app that explains every chapter as you read: the Hebrew and Greek behind the words, the details most readers miss, and how each part of the Bible leads to Jesus. Read on your own, or start a Bible study with friends, family or your church.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home