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Numbers 15 · a question people ask

What does it mean to sin "with a high hand"?

In the text

The chapter sets two kinds of sin side by side. For sin done "unwittingly" there is an offering, and "he shall be forgiven" (15:27-28). For sin done "with a high hand" the chapter names none: that soul "blasphemes the LORD" and "shall be cut off from among his people" (15:30), "Because he has despised the LORD’s word, and has broken his commandment" (15:31). It doesn't describe it further. The same words are used of Israel leaving Egypt: "the children of Israel went out with a high hand" (Exodus 14:8), "in the sight of all the Egyptians" (Numbers 33:3). Elsewhere the law gives a trespass offering for someone who has "lied about it, and swearing to a lie" (Leviticus 6:3), and says "he will be forgiven" (Leviticus 6:7); Numbers 15 doesn't say how its two kinds fit with that law. A psalm prays, "Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins" (Psalm 19:13).

The verses

“The LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the children of Israel; for the children of Israel went out with a high hand.”
Exodus 14:8 · World English Bible
“They traveled from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the next day after the Passover, the children of Israel went out with a high hand in the sight of all the Egyptians,”
Numbers 33:3 · World English Bible
“Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then I will be upright. I will be blameless and innocent of great transgression.”
Psalm 19:13 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Numbers 15

Numbers 15: 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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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions