And while the children of Israel, &c.— The following case of the sabbath-breaker seems evidently to be inserted as an instance of that presumptuous manner of sinning spoken of in the preceding verses: in which view, the passages mutually illustrate each other; and, to mark the connection more strongly, the present verse might be better rendered thus, now, [or accordingly] while the children of Israel were in [that part of] the wilderness, &c. This man's crime was, certainly, not that of merely gathering a few sticks on the sabbath-day, but of doing it in a presumptuous manner, in open contempt of the law of the sabbath, and of his authority who had instituted that law.
Related Commentaries of Numbers 15:32
Numbers 15:32
32 And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day.