Num 15:38 | Clarke | STEP | Verse 38 Bid them - make them fringes - We learn from that these fringes were emblematical of the various commands of God. That there was any analogy between a fringe and a precept, it would be bold to assert; but when a thing is appointed to represent another, no matter how different, that first object be comes the regular representative or sign of the other. There is no analogy between the term bread and the farinaceous nutritive substance thereby signified; but because this term is used to express and represent that thing, every person thus understands it; and when the word bread is seen or heard, a perfect knowledge, not of the letters which compose that word, but of the thing signified by it, is conveyed to the mind. So the fringes, being appointed by God to represent and bring to mind the commandments of God, , the mention or sight of them conveyed the intelligence intended. All the Jews wore these, and so probably did our Lord; see , where the word κρασπε ον is rather to be understood of the fringe than of the hem of his garment.

Numbers 15:38

Verse 38

Bid them - make them fringes - We learn from Num 15:39 that these fringes were emblematical of the various commands of God. That there was any analogy between a fringe and a precept, it would be bold to assert; but when a thing is appointed to represent another, no matter how different, that first object be comes the regular representative or sign of the other. There is no analogy between the term bread and the farinaceous nutritive substance thereby signified; but because this term is used to express and represent that thing, every person thus understands it; and when the word bread is seen or heard, a perfect knowledge, not of the letters which compose that word, but of the thing signified by it, is conveyed to the mind. So the fringes, being appointed by God to represent and bring to mind the commandments of God, Num 15:39, the mention or sight of them conveyed the intelligence intended. All the Jews wore these, and so probably did our Lord; see Mat 9:20, where the word κρασπε ον is rather to be understood of the fringe than of the hem of his garment.