Numbers 15:32

When the Israelites were ¹  in the wilderness they found a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day. ² 

While the Israelites were in the desert, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day.

Now while the sons of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering wood on the sabbath day.

One day while the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they caught a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day.

Once, during those wilderness years of the People of Israel, a man was caught gathering wood on the Sabbath.

Now while the children of Israel were in the waste land, they saw a man who was getting sticks on the Sabbath day.

When the Israelites were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the sabbath day.

Now while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day.

When the Israelites were ¹  in the wilderness they found a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day. ² 

¹ tn The preterite of the verb “to be” is here subordinated to the next, parallel verb form, to form a temporal clause.

² sn For this brief passage, see A. Phillips, “The Case of the Woodgatherer Reconsidered,” VT 19 (1969): 125-28; J. Weingreen, “The Case of the Woodgatherer (Numbers XV 32-36),” VT 16 (1966): 361-64; and B. J. Bamberger, “Revelations of Torah after Sinai,” HUCA 16 (1941): 97-113. Weingreen argues that there is something of the Rabbinic method of setting a fence around the Law here; in other words, if this sin were not punished, the Law would have been violated in greater ways. Gathering of wood, although seemingly harmless, is done with intent to kindle fire, and so reveals a culpable intent.