민수기 15:33 해설: Rashi, Rabbeinu Bahya, Siftei Chakhamim & Rav Hirsch

המצאים אתו מקשש THEY THAT FOUND HIM PICKING UP WOOD — [The redundancy of the phrase המצאים אתו מקשש עצים intimates that] they warned him not to do this and yet he did not refrain from picking them up even after they had found him and warned him (cf. Sifrei Bamidbar 113; Sanhedrin 41a).

ויקריבו אותו, “they brought him (to Moses).” As soon as the Sabbath had ended.
המוצאים אותו, “the people who had found him (collecting the kindling).” By rights the Torah should have written: אשר מצאו אותו, the ones who had found him (past tense) seeing that they did not find him now. The Torah chose the present tense to inform us that this man had continued to collect the kindling in spite of having been warned of the impending penalty if he would not stop (compare Sifri 113).

It is worth noting that the word אותו, “him,” occurs no fewer than six times in this short paragraph. This appears unnecessary as the Torah could have appended the suffix הו in most of these instances saving several letters. When you compare the Torah’s report about the blasphemer at the end of Parshat Emor (Leviticus 24,11-23) you will note that the Torah did make use of the suffix after the first time the man was mentioned. Another unusual feature of this paragraph is the description of the sinner as מקושש עצים, when we would have expected to read מלקט עצים בשבת, “someone collecting wood on the Sabbath.” The expression מקושש is reserved for matters connected with hay and straw. Examples are Exodus 5,7 and 5,12. On the other hand, the expression לקט is appropriate for the collecting of wood as we know from Jeremiah 7,18.