Numbers 15:30

Summary

The verse addresses the person who acts "with a raised hand" (be-yad ramah), meaning defiantly or presumptuously, whether native-born or a resident sojourner. Such a person is declared to blaspheme Yehovah, and the consequence is being cut off from among the people.

Key words

• Ne.fesh ("person", H5315J) — feminine singular noun, appears twice (the subject in v.30a and the referent of punishment in v.30b), framing the verse as being about an individual, not a collective act.
• ra.Mah ("raised", H7311A) — qal participle feminine singular, modifying yad ("hand") in the idiom be-yad ramah, "with a raised/high hand," describing the manner of the action rather than the action itself.
• me.ga.Def ("blaspheming", H1442) — piel participle masculine singular; the piel (intensive) stem marks this as a strong, deliberate act of contempt, not a simple verbal offense.
• nikh.re.Tah ("it will be cut off", H3772I) — niphal (passive/reflexive) sequential perfect; the niphal stem presents the cutting-off as something that happens to the person rather than naming an agent who performs it.
• hu' / Hiv' ("he" / "that", H1931) — the same pronoun form appears twice, first resuming the subject before the participle me.ga.Def, then modifying ha-Nefesh ("that person") before the punishment clause, tying the two halves of the verse together.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence divides into two linked clauses joined by the narrative ve (H9001) before nikh.re.Tah. The first clause identifies the subject: ha-Nefesh ("the person") who ta.'a.Seh ("acts," qal imperfect) be-yad ramah ("with a raised hand"), specifying that this applies equally min-ha-'ezrach ("from the native-born") and min-ha-ger ("from the sojourner"). The pronoun hu' then resumes the subject before the predicate et-Yehovah...me.ga.Def ("blasphemes Yehovah"), where et (H0853) marks Yehovah as the direct object of the participle me.ga.Def. This participle, in the piel stem, denotes an ongoing or characteristic act rather than a single momentary one.

The second clause repeats ha-Nefesh ha-Hiv' ("that person") as the subject of nikh.re.Tah, a niphal sequential perfect verb continuing the logical sequence begun in the first clause. The niphal form leaves the agent of the cutting-off unexpressed grammatically. The phrase mi-Kerev 'amAh ("from the midst of its people") uses two construct nouns, Kerev ("midst," construct) and 'am ("people," construct with pronominal suffix "her/its"), indicating separation from a specific community.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders be-yad ramah ("with a raised hand") as ἐν χειρὶ ὑπερηφανίας ("with a hand of arrogance/pride"), interpreting the idiom explicitly as pride. The Vulgate similarly renders it as per superbiam ("through pride"), adding an explanatory clause "quoniam adversus Dominum rebellis fuit" ("because he was rebellious against the Lord") not present as a separate clause in the Hebrew, where the blaspheming is stated directly via the participle me.ga.Def rather than as a causal explanation.