15:2 come into the land. Despite all their disobedience and rebellion, God still purposed to bring the children of Israel into the promised land, in accord with His promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
15:4 shall he that offereth. The reason why a number of new legal regulations are inserted here between the historical narratives of Numbers 14 and 16 can only be that this was the point in time when Moses received them from the Lord. This is an incidental confirmation of the Mosaic authorship of Numbers. Any later “redactor” would surely have included them with the other regulations on the offerings in Leviticus.
15:31 despised the word. Nowhere did the Mosaic laws provide any offerings whereby the willful sinner–one who had deliberately and intentionally rebelled against God’s Word–could receive forgiveness. The example in Numbers 15:32-36 graphically illustrates this truth. David’s experience, however, as described in the Psalm 51 (also in II Samuel 12:9-13), illustrates the fact that a genuine believer could be spared and restored through sincere repentance and confession. Nevertheless, even in such a case, severe temporal chastisement was incurred (II Samuel 12:14-18).
15:38 fringes in the borders. The Hebrew word for “fringes” evidently means “tassels.” It is used elsewhere only in Ezekiel 8:3, there translated “lock” (that is, of hair). It seems primarily to have been a memory aid, their very clothing thus always reminding them to keep all God’s commandments (Numbers 15:40).
