Vagabonds into various Countries where they carried this Mark of Infamy along with them that all might be instructed to make no more such Attempts But in the fifth Century they made new Commotions and were driven out of Alexandria for their Seditious Practices where they had been settled ever since the time of Alexander the Great and dispersed into several Countries as Socrates observes in his Ecclesiastical History Lib. VII Cap. XVI And in the next Chapter relates how miserably they were deluded in Crete by one that pretended to be Moses come down from Heaven to lead them to their own Land through the Sea into which many threw themselves and perished That Expulsion out of Alexandria is mentioned by David Ganz also one of their own Authors In the sixth Century as Elmacinus tells us they again rebelled in Palestine against the Romans who slew a great number of them And in the seventh they were expelled from Antioch by Phocas and out of Hierusalem by Heraclius and out of Spain An. 604. by Sisebutus or as some call him Sisebodus King of the Goths And they flying in great numbers into France were shortly after put to this hard choice either to renounce their Religion or lose all they had Which Persecution Dr. Jackson observes in the Book often mentioned Cap. XXVIII Paragr 1. is recorded by those who wrote the Life of Dagobert as one of the chief Memorables of his Reign What their state was in the next three Centuries he saith he had observed nothing remarkable Nor can I find any thing notable in the eighth but the appearance of a false Messiah by whom they were deluded and brought into trouble As for the ninth there were no learned Men among them in that Age nor in the Christian World And in the tenth they were in the same condition insomuch that they were fain to make a Weaver the Head of one of their Universities Neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest They being not able to obtain a long Settlement any where but were tossed up and down and forced from one Country to another For so it was that in the beginning of the eleventh Century about the Year of our Lord One thousand they were so vexed throughout the most part of Europe that quid agerent aut quo se verterent nesciebant they knew not what they should do or which way they should turn themselves as the forenamed Doctor observes Paragr 4. out of Papirius Massonus who hath it out of Glauber To which I will add this Testimony out of David Ganz in his Book called Tzemach David that in the latter end of this Century An. MXCVI. when there was a famous Expedition for the recovery of the Holy Land the Jews felt it a most calamitous time as he speaks being robbed and pillaged and killed by the Souldiers as they went along And indeed so much Cruelty was exercised upon them that it moved St. Bernard's Compassion to write to the Bishop Clergy and People of Spire not to persecute them much less kill them or drive them out of their Country For they are dispersed said he into all Lands that while they suffer the just punishment of their horrid wickedness they may be witnesses of our redemption Epist. CCCXXII And the Author of Schebet Juda mentioning their Banishment out of Savoy Piedmont Lombardy Sicily and other Countries quotes these very words of Moses among those Nations thou shalt find no rest c. as a Prophecy of that Exile which was accompanied with many other Mischiefs For as they fled to other Countries an immense multitude of People fell upon them and pillaged them of all the Gold and Silver they were carrying away with them as he relates there Sect. XI And the LORD shall give thee a trembling heart They being always in dread of some new Misery their Condition still growing more dismal in the twelfth Century For as there is a progress in Moses his Prophecy of the increase of their Calamities so it proved in the event that their Sufferings grew greater and greater They themselves in Tzemach David and other Books relate that in the Year 1142. an Hundred and twenty of their Congregations were utterly subverted and dispersed And in the Year 1170. they were expelled again out of France and spoiled of their Treasure which was renewed in the Year 1198. How they were used here in England our own Chronicles tell us and the like ill usage they met withal in Germany and Spain So that R. Zacut complains of no less than ten grievous Persecutions in this one Age to abolish the name of Jews out of the World This could not but give them a very trembling heart And failing of thine eyes Which looked for some relief instead whereof they were still more hardly used in the thirteenth Century being in the Year 1253. again expelled out of France whither they had returned and again in 1295. when they expected some rest there was a fresh Expulsion mentioned by R. Levi ben Gersom who saith they were spoiled of all their Goods and sent away only with their Clothes upon their backs Which he affirms with the more confidence because it was done in his time when he saith there was such a number of them that they exceeded those that came out of Egypt So he writes in his Exposition of those words XXIII Numb 10. Who can count the dust of Jacob I will forbear to mention how they were treated here in England 1290. and in Germany into which they flying out of France were most cruelly used And sorrow of mind Which must needs seize upon them heavily to find their Miseries so far from abating that they still increased in the fourteenth Century When they were banished again out of France and spoiled of their Goods 1306. and once more 1395. which the Jews call their fourth and last Banishment About the same time they were banished out of Germany An. 1392. In Castile indeed they redeemed their Lives with Money which they could not part withal without much sorrow of mind but in Catalonia Arragon and in other parts of Spain such a terrible Storm fell upon them that they themselves in Juchasin say there were no less than Two hundred thousand turned Christians with heavy hearts It would be too tedious to mention all that they suffered in the fifteenth Century in Germany Hungary Polonia and in Italy Spain and Portugal I will only observe what befel them in the Country last named in the next Century An. 1506. when all that is said in this Verse is fulfilled by that dreadful Massacre which was made of them at Lisbon for three days together Where Men were not suffered to die of their deadly wounds but were dragged by their mangled Limbs into the Market Place where the Bodies of the living and the slain with others half alive half dead were burnt together in heaps The Spectacle was so horrible that it quite astonished the rest of this wretched People two
them on the Ground and needed not to be told by Moses how tall he was And therefore they conclude this was written by some body else in after times As if Moses did not write for the benefit of those that came after as well as for the present Generation Who that they might be satisfied what a vast Man Og was he left it upon record how large his Bedstead was and where it might be seen whereby they might judge of his Stature Besides there were in the present Generation great numbers of Children old Men Women and Servants who could not go to see Og lye at length upon the Field but by this means were instructed from what a terrible Enemy God had delivered them They that question the truth of this Relation may read if they be able what the learned Huetius hath at large discoursed concerning Men of a portentous bigness in all Countries in his Quaestiones Alnetanae Lib. II. Cap. XII N. III. of which no Man can doubt who is not resolved to disbelieve all the World In his Demonstratio Evangelica also he observes that Homer makes Tityon when he was dead to have lain stretcht out upon not nine Cubits but nine Acres of Ground 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which Hyperbole may excuse the Jewish Rabbins when they say that Og was nine Cubits long when he lay in his Cradle See Propos IV. Cap. VIII N. IV. Verse 12 Ver. 12. And this Land which we possessed at that time from Aroer which is by the River Arnon See II. 36. And half mount Gilead and the Cities thereof gave I unto the Reubenites and to the Gadites See XXXII Numb 34 35 c. but especially XIII Josh 15 c. where he distinctly relates what Portion of this Country was given to the Reubenites and v. 23 24 c. what was given to the Gadites And it appears that none of Gilead belonged to the Reubenites but the Gadites had one half of it as the Manassites had the other Ver. 13. And the rest of Gilead Which was not Verse 13 given to the Gadites And all Bashan being the Kingdom of Og. That is all that was taken from Og of which he was King Gave I unto the half Tribe of Manasseh all the Region of Argob with all Bashan It is repeated again lest any one should think that Argob which was a distinct Province in that Kingdom was not given to them by this Grant See v. 4. Which was called the Land of Giants Where the Rephaims formerly inhabited of whom Og was the last See XIV Gen. 5. compared with XV. 20. XIII Josh 12. Ver. 14. Jair the Son of Manasseh took all the Country Verse 14 of Argob This is one reason why he gave this Country to them See XXXII Numb 41. Vnto the Coasts of Geshuri and Maachathi We had no mention of these places before which were in the Northern part of this Country as appears from XII Josh 4 5. XIII 11. But the People of these places they could not expel XIII Josh 13. And called them after his own Name XXXII Numb 4. Vnto this day From hence likewise Cavils are raised against Moses being the Author of this Book when the most that can be concluded from hence is that upon the revising of these Books by Ezra he put in these few words to certifie the Reader that still they retained this Name as some body no doubt added the History of Moses his death at the end of this Book This the greatest Defenders of the Authority of these Books as written by Moses himself make no scruple to allow particularly Huetius and since him Hermannus Witzius in his Miscellanea Sacra Lib. I. Cap. XIV Sect. 47. But there is no necessity to yield so much for Moses might say this himself though it was not long before he wrote this Book For so the holy Writers do sometimes mention places which had their Name but newly given them from a particular Fact that Posterity might know the Original of it See I Acts 19. Verse 15 Ver. 15. And I gave Gilead All that was not possessed by the Gadites Vnto Machir To the Posterity of Machir XXXII Numb 40. Verse 16 Ver. 16. And unto the Reubenites and unto the Gadites Here is a more exact Description of that part of the Country which was given to the other two Tribes I gave from Gilead Half of which as I observed was given to the Gadites v. 12. Even unto the River Arnon Which was the Bounds of the Country toward Moab See II. 36. Half the Valley The same word in the Hebrew Language signifies both a Valley and a Brook or River and being translated in the foregoing words the River it should be so here likewise half the River That is to the middle of the River Arnon by which the Bounds of their Country is most exactly set And thus not only the LXX and the Vulgar but Onkelos also translates it the middle of the Torrent yea we our selves also in the XIIth of Josh 2. where there are the same words which in the Hebrew run thus Vnto the River Arnon the midst of the River where the City of Aroar stood incompassed by the River as I observed in the foregoing Chapter v. 36. And the border Something is understood viz. went as the Phrase is XV Josh 6 7 c. or reached or some such word Or the meaning must be the Country bordering upon that River Even unto the River Jabbok which is the border of the Children of Ammon This River was the other Boundary of the Country Ver. 17. The Plain also and Jordan The flat Verse 17 Country toward the River Jordan which was the Western Bounds of this Country of Sihon as the River Arnon was the Southern and the River Jabbok the Northern the Country of the Children of Ammon being on the East And the Coast thereof from Cinnereth The word thereof is not in the Hebrew therefore these words may be better rendred the Coast from Cinnereth Called the Sea of Cinnereth XII Josh 3. XIII 27. it lying upon a Country and a City called by that Name XI Josh 2. XIX 35. Which gave the Name to this Sea called in the New Tastament the Sea of Galilee and the Sea of Genesareth and at last the Sea of Tiberias in honour of the Emperour Tiberius See upon XXXIV Numb 11. Even unto the Sea of the Plain even the Salt-Sea The Dead-Sea as it is called in other places which before the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah had been a most pleasant Plain Vnder Ashdoth Pisgah The Name of a City in this Country XIII Josh 20. Eastward Which lay East of the Salt-Sea and Jordan which was the Western Bounds as I said of this Country Verse 18 Ver. 18. And I commanded you at that time That is he gave this Charge to the two Tribes of Reuben and Gad and to the half Tribe of Manasseh before mentioned The LORD your God hath given you this Land to possess
A COMMENTARY UPON THE Fifth Book of MOSES CALLED DEUTERONOMY BY The Right Reverend Father in GOD SYMON Lord Bishop of ELY LONDON Printed for Ri. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Churchyard 1700. A COMMENTARY UPON DEUTERONOMY Chapter I. THE Fifth Book of MOSES CALLED DEUTERONOMY CHAP. I. THIS Book had the Name of DEUTERONOMY given it by the Greeks from the principal Scope and Design of it which was to repeat unto the Israelites before he left them the chief Laws of God which had been given them that they who were not then born when they were first delivered or were uncapable to understand them or had not sufficiently regarded them might be instructed in them and awakned to attend to them See v. 1. 5. In order to this he premises a short Narrative of what had befaln them since they came from Mount Sinai unto this time in the three first Chapters And then in the fourth urges them by a most pathetical Exhortation to the observance of those Laws which he had taught them especially the Ten Commandments with which he begins the fifth Chapter Where he makes a solemn Rehearsal of the Covenant God made with them in Horeb and what immediately followed upon the delivery of the Law by God himself from Mount Sinai And then having earnestly pressed the observation of the first Commandment in the former part of the sixth Chapter and in the latter part of it and in several Chapters that follow to the end of the eleventh reminded them of a great many things which God had done for them and given them several Cautions lest they let them slip out of their Minds and used many Arguments from several Topicks as we call them to move them to be obedient to all the other Commandments he proceeds in the twelfth Chapter and so forward to the twenty eighth to remember them of a great many other Laws besides the Ten Commandments which he had delivered to them Some of which he explains others he inforces with further Reasons and in several places adds new Laws for the greater Security of the whole particularly he orders the writing of God's Law upon Stones when they came into the Land of Canaan Chapter XXVII And then pronounces those Promises which God had made to the Obedient and his Threatnings to the Disobedient more largely and with greater force then he had done in the XXVIth of Leviticus After which he again remembers them of several wonderful Works of God for them Chapter XXIX and renews the Covenant between God and them using several Arguments to perswade them to a dutiful observance of God's Law Which he commands Chapter XXXI to be read to all the People in the conclusion of every Seventh Year that none might pretend ignorance of it And then concludes all with a most admirable Song which he orders every one to learn and with a Blessing upon the Twelve Tribes All this was done in the two last Months of the last Year of Moses his life But not all at once as plainly appears by several parts of the Book in which he writes what he delivered to them at several times Which is the reason of the Repetition of the very same thing over and over again that he might make it sink into their Minds by being often inculcated Some have been so foolish as to make this an Objection against this Book being composed by Moses But it shows their great ignorance all wise Men having ever judged it necessary to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very same things concerning the same things that they might be thoroughly understood and fixed in the memory of their Auditors and setled in their Hearts and Affections Particularly Epictetus as David Chytraeus long ago observed delivered this as a profitable Rule in all Studies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This must be known as a certain Truth that it is not easie for a Man to attain the solid knowledge of any thing unless he both read and hear the same things every day and also set himself to the practice of them This Course Moses took with the Children of Israel spending every day it is likely of the latter end of his life in calling to their mind again and again what he had taught them and the reason they had to do accordingly Verse 1. THese be the words This Book contains the words Verse 1 Which Moses spake unto all Israel All the People could not hear what he said but he ordered the Elders and Heads of the several Tribes to communicate to the whole Congregation what he delivered to them in the Audience of many of the People who were assembled with them Thus these words are commonly understood But considering the great weight of what is here said I rather think that Moses himself at several times spake what here follows in the Ears of the People See V. 1. On this side Jordan The Vulgar Latin having translated the Hebrew words beeber on the other side Jordan it hath furnished some ill disposed Minds with an Argument that Moses was not the Author of this Book For he that wrote plainly shows that he was in Canaan when he wrote it But a very little consideration would have prevented this frivolous Objection there being nothing more certain than that the Hebrew words signifie indifferently either one side or the other and may be literally translated in the passage over Jordan or as they were about to pass over it as Huetius observes and proves by plain Examples that the Hebrews have no other word to express their mind when they would say either on this side or beyond See Demonstr Evang. Propos IV. Cap. XIV To which another learned Writer since him Hermannus Witsius Lib. I. Miscel Sacr. Cap. XIV hath added several other places which evidently show that beeber is a word that indifferently belongs to either side of any place See 1 Sam. XIV 40. and must be determined by the Matter in hand to which it is to be applied And here undoubtedly it is to be rendered on this side Jordan See III. 8. In the Wilderness in the Plain In the Plain of Moab where they had remained a long while as appears from the foregoing Book XXII Numb 1. XXVI 3 63. XXXI 12. XXXIII 48 49. XXXV 1. XXXVI 13. Over against the Red Sea There is no word in the Hebrew Text for Sea and therefore the Marginal Translation is to be preferred which is over against Suph which was a place in the Country of Moab See XXI Numb 14. over against which they now lay encamped but were so far distant from the Red Sea that there can be no respect to it here Between Paran He doth not mean the Wilderness of Paran frequently mentioned in the foregoing Book for that was as remote from hence as the Red Sea but some place in the Country of Moab as Zuph was and the rest of the places which here follow And Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth
be corrupted by Bribery From which Moses took care all Judges should be so free that he expresly requires they should be Men hating Covetousness XVIII Exod. 21. And Solon did not forget to make this a part of the Oath which every Judge in Athens took which is mentioned at large by Demosthenes in his Oration against Timocrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I will receive no Gift upon the account of my Sentence neither I my self nor any body else for me nor others with my knowledge by any artifice or device whatsoever And made them Heads over you Set them to govern and rule the People as it is expressed v. 13. by deciding all Causes which were brought before them as far as they were able to understand them Captains over thousands and Captains over hundreds and Captains over fifties and Captains over tens It is a question whether they were Commanders over so many Families or Persons as I observed upon XVIII Exod. 25. Hermannus Conringius thinks they were Rulers as the word signifies over so many Fathers of Families understanding by a Family that which we now call an Houshold De Republ. Hebraeorum Sect. XVIII And Officers among your Tribes The same great Man in the XXVIth Section of the same Book takes Schotrim to have been Judges as well as the rest His great reason is because the Seventy Elders were ordered to be chosen out of them among others XI Numb 16. Now it is altogether improbable he thinks that such a Prophetical Colledge as that was should be chosen out of such mean Officers as the Hebrew Doctors make these Schotrim to have been But see what I have noted upon V Exod. 14. and XI Numb 16. And let me here add that if they were Judges and not Attendants upon them they were very mean ones being put below the Rulers of ten But howsoever this be it is certain some of these Judges had greater Authority then others being intrusted with a larger Jurisdiction and its likely greater Abilities were required in those over thousands than in those over tens As in the great Sanhedrim afterwards the Jews make more things necessary to qualifie Men for a Place in it then were requisite for those in lower Courts Where no Man could sit much less in the highest unless these seven things were remarkable in him as Maimonides saith Halacah Sanhedrim Cap. IV. Sect. 7. Wisdom Humility the Fear of God Contempt of Riches Love of Truth a good Fame and he was beloved also of others Ver. 16. And I charged your Judges at that time Verse 16 saying As the quality of their Persons and their Endowments made them considerable so they were dignified with the honourable Name of Schofetim and were also called Elders which had been a long time a Title of Honour among the Jews and in other Nations Hear the Causes between your Brethren This was a necessary quality in a good Judge to give Audience to every one that brought a Cause before him and not to delay any Man But the Jews infer from these words that it was not lawful to hear any Man when his Adversary was absent but both Parties were to be there present And they were also to be heard speak for themselves if they pleased Which was part of the forenamed Oath which Solon ordered all the Athenian Judges to take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will hear the Accuser and the Defender both alike And judge righteously The next thing required of a Judge was to be upright and impartial not considering what the Man was but his Cause This is implied in the following words Between every Man and his Brother i. e. Between one Israelite and another And the Stranger that is with you i. e. Between an Israelite and a Proselyte whether he were received into the Covenant by Circumcision or not For of this latter sort there were no doubt a great number amongst that mixt multitude who came with them out of Egypt XII Exod. 38. And while they were in the Wilderness there was not a distinct Court for Israelites and Proselytes but their Causes were tried in one and the same as Mr. Selden observes Lib. II. de Synedris Cap. III. N. 1. Verse 17 Ver. 17. And ye shall not respect Persons in Judgment Not be swayed by particular Affection or Interest but judge sincerely without respect to Relation or any Benefit or Injury received Ye shall hear the small as well as the great Be equally disposed patiently to attend to the Cause of a poor Man as of a great and to do him as speedy and impartial Justice See XIX Lev. 15. And here the Hebrew Doctors tell us of some singular Practices in their Courts to preserve the dispensation of exact Justice For if one of the contending Parties came into them richly clothed and the other poorly they would not hear them till both were clothed alike Nor would they suffer one of them to sit and the other stand but both of them either sat or stood And if they sat one of them was not permitted to sit higher than the other but they sat by each others side c. See Selden Lib. II. de Synedr Cap. XIII N. 10. Ye shall not be afraid of the face of Men. Courage and undaunted Resolution is another necessary qualification in a Judge who must not be over-awed by what any Man can do unto him but remember as it here follows that he is in God's place For the judgment is Gods God gave them their Commission by Moses so that they were his Ministers and acted by his Authority and therefore might be confident he would defend them in the discharge of their Office This shows that though Moses alone acted by immediate Authority from God yet these also being constituted by him were to be lookt upon as pronouncing Sentence in his Name who after a peculiar manner was the King and Supreme Governour of the People of Israel And the Cause which is too hard for you bring it unto me and I will hear it Another quality is Humility in not adventuring to judge of Things above their reach Some think there were certain Causes reserved to the cognizance of Moses as I observed upon XVIII Exod. 12. but the contrary appears by these words that all manner of Causes were brought before these Judges and they not the People brought such Causes before Moses as they found too hard for them to determine So that they not the Person whose Cause it was judged of the difficulty of the Cause See Selden Lib. I. de Synedris Cap. XVI Ver. 18. And I commanded you at that time all Verse 18 the things that ye should do As he rightly informed their Judges so he instructed the People also in their Duty before they went from Horeb by delivering to them the judgments which God commanded him to set before them XXI Exod. 1. contained in that and in the two following Chapters whereby both they and their Judges were to govern
these Expeditions But they seem to be here remembred as an Encouragement to the Israelites to hope that they might drive out the Inhabitants of Canaan who were not stronger than these as they had already driven the Amorites out of the Country of Sihon as it here follows As Israel did unto the Land of his possession which the LORD gave unto them Some have argued from hence that this Book was not written by Moses but by some body else after they had got possession of the Land of Canaan But it is manifest this may relate to what they had done already in dispossessing Sihon King of the Amorites and Og King of Bashan of their Country which it is expresly said Moses had given for a possession to the Tribe of Reuben and Gad and the half Tribe of Manasseh and that by God's direction XXXII Numb 33. XXXIV 14 15. and in this Book XXIX 8. This hath been observed by many particularly by Huetius in his Demonstratio Evangelica Propos IV. Cap. XIV N. XV. Ver. 13. Now rise up said I and get you over the Verse 13 Brook Zered c. Which elsewhere we translate the Valley of Zered See XXI Numb 12. Ver. 14. And the space in which we came from Kadesh-Barnea Verse 14 until we came over the Brook Zered was thirty eight years For it is evident by the story in Numbers that they came to Kadesh-Barnea about the fourth Month of the second Year after they came out of Egypt See upon XII Numb 16. And if we suppose that they removed from hence in the seventh or eighth Month of that Year it is certain that they could not come to this Brook till the seventh or eighth Month of the fortieth Year For Aaron died at Mount Hor on the first day of the fifth Month of this Year and we must allow two or three Months time for all that followed between that and this viz. the conquest of King Arad and of Sihon and Og c. Vntil all the Generation of the Men of War So they were called who were above twenty years old I Numb 3. Were wasted out from among the People Utterly consumed so that not one of them was left XXVI Numb 64 65. As the LORD sware unto them See XIV Numb 28 29. Verse 15 Ver. 15. For indeed the hand of the LORD was against them to destroy them from among the Host Some of them it is likely died a Natural death but many of them might in the course of Nature have lived longer if God had not several ways cut them off before their time Vntil they were consumed By one Plague or other which God sent among them So that a great deal of their time in the thirty eight Years before mentioned were spent it is likely in burying and mourning for their dead Verse 16 17. Ver. 16 17. So it came to pass when all the Men of War were consumed and dead from among the People that the LORD spake unto me saying This was spoken it is probable just as they passed over the Brook Zered or in their next Station at Dibon-Gad XXXIII Numb 45. Ver. 18. Thou art to pass through Ar the Coast of Verse 18 Moab this day Or rather to pass by the Border of Moab for they were not permitted to come into their Country v. 9. See upon v. 4. Ver. 19. And when thou comest nigh over against the Verse 19 Children of Ammon As they did after the conquest of Sihon King of the Amorites whose Country bordered upon the Ammonites XXI Numb 13 24. Distress them not neither meddle with them The same command with that about the Edomites and Moabites v. 5 9. For I will not give thee of the Land of the Children of Ammon any possession As he had said before of the Land of Moab v. 9. Because I have given it unto the Children of Lot for a possession To the Descendants of his youngest Son as he had done the Country of Moab to the Children of the eldest Ver. 20. And that also was accounted a Land of Giants Verse 20 c. Was called the Country of Giants or Rephaim for People so called inhabited it And the Ammonites called them Zamzummims Changed their Names it is probable from Zuzims See XIV Gen. 5. as they were called before into Zamzummims But why they were called either by the one Name or the other it is but conjectured Some conceive they were called Zuzims from their swiftness or nimble running which in Warriours was a quality always highly valued and Zamzummims from their abominable Wickedness or their craft and cunning in doing Mischief Ver. 21. A people great and many and tall as the Anakims The same description which he gave of the Emims v. 10. Verse 21 But the LORD destroyed them before them i. e. Before the Ammonites who expelled them out of their Country and it 's like cut off the most of them And they succeeded them and dwelt in their Land This is so often repeated to possess the Minds of the Israelites with a sense of God's Providence which rules every where displacing one People and setling another in their stead and fixing their Bounds also which they shall not pass without his leave Verse 22 Ver. 22. As he did to the Children of Esau which dwelt in Seir when he destroyed the Horites from before them c. He repeats this which he had said before v. 12. because it was a fresher Instance of God's disposal of Countries unto what People he pleases and nearly touched the Israelites because they were their Brethren Verse 23 Ver. 23. And the Avims which dwelt in Hazerim even unto Azzah Unto which he adds an instance which seems to be elder than any of the former concerning a People called Avims who inhabited some part of the Land of Canaan whither they were going For though we do not read of Hazerim in any other place yet Azzah i. e. Gaza was in the Country of the Philistims who expelled these Avims And David Chytraeus thinks that Hazerim was a Town afterward in the Tribe of Judah called Haza-gaddah XV Josh 27. The Caphtorim which came out of Caphtor That is some People of Cappadocia who were near of Kin to the Philistims See X Gen. 14. Destroyed them and dwelt in their stead Concerning which see in the place above-named Unto which I shall only add That the Avims being expelled out of Canaan by the Caphtorims went it is very probable over Euphrates and settled there till the King of Assyria brought some of them back again to plant the Country of Samaria 2 Kings XVII 31. where we translate this word Avites See Bochart in his Phaleg Lib. IV. Cap. XXXVI Ver. 24. Rise ye up take your Journey and pass over Verse 24 the River Arnon See XXI Numb 13 14. Behold I have given into thy hand Sihon King of Heshbon and his Land c. You your selves shall do to him what your Brethren the Children of Esau did to the
Laws nor diminish that Worship Which Interpretation seems to be warranted by what follows Thy eyes have seen what the LORD thy God did because of Baal-Peor But in the words before-going which introduce these Judgments being mentioned as well as Statutes there must be a larger sense of this Injunction which relates to all the Laws of God and the meaning seems to be Ye shall not transgress any of these Precepts either by doing any thing contrary to them which was to add or omitting any thing which they required which was to diminish Thus Grotius interprets it upon 2 Corinth XI 24. Addere ad legem est facere quod lex vetat diminuere est omittere quod lex jubet But which way soever we take it nothing is more certain than that this Prohibition preserved these Books from any alteration since the time they were written For the whole Body of the People acknowledging their Divine Authority none of them dared to change any thing either by addition or diminution Of which there is a wonderful instance in the People that came out of Assyria in the room of the Israelites who were transported thither to inhabit the Country of Samaria who receiving this Law their Posterity have kept it all along to this day as uncorrupted as the Jews themselves have done although they were their mortal Enemies and have been exposed to all the Changes and Revolutions that can befall a Nation during the long interval of Two thousand and four hundred years Thus the most learned Dr. Alix observes in his Reflections upon the four last Books of Moses p. 144. And I do not see why the perfection of the Scripture without the Oral Law of the Jews should not be thought to be established by these words as another learned Person Joh. Wagenseil understands them in his Confut. Carminis Lipmanni p. 585. Yet as the forenamed Chiskuni notes it doth not seem reasonable to conclude from hence that they were prohibited to add any Constitutions as a Hedge and Fence to the Law or as an Explication of it when the sense was doubtful See Mr. Thorndike in his Rights of the Church in a Christian State p. 180 c. That ye may keep the Commandments of the LORD your God which I command you This justifies the Explication I gave of the foregoing words as respecting all God's Laws and XII 32. makes it more plain And indeed God being their Law-giver it was the highest presumption to make any Alteration in any of his Laws Verse 3 Ver. 3. Your eyes have seen what the LORD did because of Baal-peor c. How he cut off Twenty four thousand by a Plague and by the Hand of Justice who had been guilty of Idolatry by the enticements of the Midianitish Women XXV Numb 5 9. Which seems to be a reason why they should take a special Care about the Worship of God that nothing were done contrary to the Laws he had ordained concerning it For all the men that followed Baal-peor the LORD thy God hath destroyed them from among you The Judges put to death all those that they knew to be guilty and the Hand of God found out all the rest so that there was not a Man of them left who was not swept away by the Pestilence Verse 4 Ver. 4. But ye that did cleave unto the LORD Did not depart from his Worship but bewailed the Apostasie of some of their Brethren XXV Numb 6. Are alive every one of you this day A singular Providence watched over them to preserve them in such good health that not one in so many Thousands was dead since that time Nor in the War with the Midianites wherein they slew all the Males did they lose so much as one Man XXXI Numb 7 49. Ver. 5. Behold I have taught you Statutes and Judgments Verse 5 v. 1. Even as the LORD my God commanded me Sincerely and uprightly without adding any thing of my self or diminishing any thing that he said That ye should do so in the Land whither ye go to possess it To be the Rule of your Life when ye come into the Land of Canaan Ver. 6. Keep therefore and do them for this is your Verse 6 wisdom and understanding in the fight of all the Nations It is your interest to observe them as you will soon find by experience which will teach you that it is not only the wisest Course in it self but will get you the reputation of being a wise People among all your Neighbours Which shall hear of all these Statutes There being mention before v. 1 5. of Judgments as well as Statutes and here only of the latter Abarbinel thence infers That even those Laws which depended wholly upon the Will and Pleasure of God and for which they could give no reason for such they understood by Chukkim would procure them very great Honour if they were carefully observed For the Nations seeing how wonderfully they prospered would be apt to impute it to these extraordinary Prescriptions which they followed Just saith he as a Physician who cures desperate Diseases by some small trifling Remedies as they seem to others is highly applauded for the profoundness of his Knowledge and Wisdom But Maimonides takes this word Statutes to comprehend all the Laws of God and undertakes to show that all the Six hundred and thirteen Precepts have a wise End in them for the Profit and Benefit of those that observe them either to beget some wholesome Opinion in their Mind or to pull out some perverse one either to institute some good Order or to take away Iniquity c. See More Nevochim P. III. Cap. XXXI And say Surely this Nation is a wise and understanding People Who continued in Safety Liberty and Prosperity abounding with all manner of Blessings while they continued all to go up to worship One God sincerely at one Place at certain Set-times as if the whole Nation was but one Family All the rest of their Laws also were admirably fitted to unite them unto God and one to another and consequently to make them appear a wise People in the Eyes of other Nations whose Writers have not only highly magnified Moses but their Law-Givers have transcribed several of his Laws into their own Constitutions This appears by the old Attick Laws and those of the Twelve Tables as many learned Men have observed Nay the Oracle reported by Porphyry in Eusebius his Praeparatio Evangelica Lib. IX Cap. X. thus extols this Nation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Chaldaeans and the Hebrews who came from Chaldaea are the only wise People who worship God the Eternal King in a pure manner And the Oracle of Apollo Clarius recorded by Macrobius Lib. I. Saturnal Cap. 18. is no less remarkable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acknowledge Jao so they pronounced the Name JEHOVAH to be the highest God of all For though Macrobius fancied the Sun to be here called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no Body
can tell why yet Diodorus Siculus acknowledges 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be the God from whom Moses pretended to have his Laws i. e. JEHOVAH Ver. 7. For what Nation is there so great who hath Verse 7 God so nigh unto them as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for Both Onkelos and the Paraphrase of Jonathan and likewise the Hierusalem Targum are very significant upon this place What People is there who have a God that approaches to them so as the LORD our God doth to us At whatsoever Hour we cry unto him he answers us It is the manner of other People to carry their Gods upon their Shoulders to shew that they are near to them when alas they are afar off and cannot hear them But the LORD our God sits on his Throne on high and hears our Prayers whatsoever time we call upon him c. To which may be added that they had a Symbol of God's Presence continually among them in the Holy Place where he dwelt with them and Moses whensoever he pleased consulted him in all difficult Affairs as their High-Priest might do with the Vrim and Thummim in all times to come Ver. 8. And what Nation is there so great that hath Verse 8 Statutes and Judgments so righteous as all this Law which I set before you this Day The true Greatness of a Nation it appears by this and the foregoing Verse consists in the sincere Worship of God and in the upright Administration of Justice Both which were so provided for by the Divine Laws among the Jews that no Nation could compare with them or was really so great as they were For though their Country was but small and they were often oppressed by several cruel Enemies who desired their Extirpation yet they recovered themselves and kept their Laws in their worst Condition when commonly they best observed them Insomuch that as a very learned Person of our own Church long ago observed After so many Changes and Alterations as there were in their State from better to worse and back again after so many Victories got by them over others and so many Captivities of their Persons and Desolations of their Country as others had wrought they continued still one and the same People governed by the same Laws under several great and potent Monarchies The successive Rise and Fall of Three of which they were preserved to behold and in their declining State able to stand out a great while against the Fourth the mightiest that ever was on Earth and that when this Monarchy was in its full strength This is a plain Demonstration of the Truth of these Words of Moses That no Nation was so great as they See Dr. Jackson's First Book upon the Creed Chap. XXI Maimonides observes That the word Zaddikim which we translate righteous signifies as much as equal and proportionate Such saith he were all these Laws of God in which there was no excess by the prescription of long Pilgrimages or severe Fastings nor any defect which might open the Window to any Vice or make them careless in the Practice of Vertue More Nevochim P. II. Cap. XXXIX Verse 9 Ver. 9. Only take heed to thy self and keep thy Soul diligently lest thou forget the things which thou hast seen c. Their only danger was lest they should grow careless and unmindful of all the wonderful Things that God had done for them Which he therefore exhorts them to think of frequently and to keep in Memory and lay to Heart so that they might preserve the Sence of them as long as they lived and likewise teach all Posterity to be mindful of them Ver. 10. Especially the Day that thou stoodest before Verse 10 the LORD thy God in Horeb. But above all that memorable Day when the LORD delivered his Law to them from Mount Sinai at which the oldest of them were present and had seen and heard what he said and how it was delivered When the LORD said unto me Gather me the People together Unto the foot of Mount Sinai where they stood at such a distance from it as God prescribed XIX Exod. 10 11 12 13. And I will make them hear my Words XIX Exod. 9 c. XX Exod. 1 c. That they may learn to fear me all the Days that they shall live upon the Earth c. For those Words which they heard were pronounced in so terrible a manner as to make them dread to offend his Majesty and to instruct their Children to stand in awe of him Ver. 11. And ye came near and stood under the Verse 11 Mountain XIX Exod. 17. And the Mountain burnt with Fire XIX Exod. 16 18. Into the midst of Heaven Into the middle of the Air which is frequently called Heaven in Scripture as the Fouls of Heaven are the Fouls of the Air But whether the Fire flamed up precisely into the very midst of the lower Region of the Air or only a great height is not material either way the Expression is proper enough Ver. 12. And the LORD spake unto you out of the midst of the Fire XIX Exod 20. XX. 1 22. Ye heard the Voice of the Words XX Exod. 19. Verse 12 But saw no Similitude Tho' sometimes the Divine Majesty seems to have appeared in a visible Shape VII Dan. 9 10. yet when he came to give them his Law he would not appear in the Figure of a Man or any other thing that might seem to represent him to their outward Senses or their Imagination For it had been dangerous then to manifest himself under any Resemblance when he forbad them to make any Resemblance of him They would have thought he forbad them to make any other Resemblance but that wherein he shewed himself to them in which they would have concluded it was lawful to represent him Only ye heard a Voice From hence some of the Jews would gather that the People only heard the Sound of God's Words when he spake the Ten Commandments but not the Distinction of the Sound so as to understand the Sense of what he said Thus Maimonides in his More Nevochim P. 2. Cap. XXXIII Which is manifestly false as appears from Ver. 10. and 13. and XX Exod. 22. For therefore the Day wherein he spake to them in Horeb was so remarkable as never to be forgotten because he made them hear his Words so that they might learn to fear him c. For tho' he did not appear in the likeness of any thing to them yet he vouchsafed to speak to them plainly in their own Language that they might be instructed in their Duty both which was to keep them from Idolatry He did not let them see any Shape that they might not make any Image of him to worship it or him by it after the manner of the Heathens but he let them hear his Voice that they might not go and worship any other Gods which the Heathens pretended spake to them Ver.
no long time XXVI Numb 15 16 17 23 24 35 38 39 c. And from Gudgodah to Jotbath And so to the rest of the Places mentioned XXXIII Numb 34 35 36. till they came to Mount Hor. A Land of Rivers of Waters A place where there was plenty of Water which he mentions I suppose that they might reflect upon their foul distrust of God's Providence a little after when they murmured for want of Water at Kadesh XX Numb 3 4 c. Verse 8 Ver. 8. At that time Not long after Moses came down from the Mount the second time of which he had been speaking v. 5. The LORD separated the Tribe of Levi. To his own special Service as we read III Numb Some think that God renewed his Choice of them to the Employment here mentioned after Aaron's death when he confirm'd them in their Office But we read of no such thing and it cannot be inferred meerly from these words at that time which may well relate to the time mentioned v. 5. To bear the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD Here are three parts of their Office mentioned in these and the following words The first of which was to carry the Ark which peculiarly belonged to the Kohathites III Numb 27 31. when the Camp removed from one place to another Who were good Witnesses that the same Ark still remained at that day wherein Moses first placed the Tables of the Covenant for it never stirred but by their means To stand before the LORD This is a Phrase used of Servants that wait upon their Masters before whom they are said to stand Thus Gehazi attended the Prophet Elisha 2 Kings V. 25. And the Prophets tnemselves are thus said to stand before the LORD 1 Kings XVII 1. XVIII 15. Therefore here signifies that the Levites were separated to be God's Ministers as it follows To minister unto him As Assistants to the Priests in the Tabernacle III Numb 6. and as a guard to the Tabernacle v. 7 8. Which was the second part of their Office And to bless in his Name unto this day This was the greatest thing of all and was peculiar to the Priests who were a part of the Tribe of Levi but had the sole Priviledge among them to bless in the Name of the Lord as we read expresly VI Numb 23 24. If indeed it could be made out that by blessing in the Name of the LORD is meant only to bless the Name of the LORD that was common to all the Levites who sang Praises and gave Thanks continually to him in the Temple as I suppose they did in the Tabernacle But I find no Example of the use of this Expression in this sence And therefore it must be restrained to the Priests who were Sons of Levi as well as the rest and are so called when Moses mentions this part of their Office XXI Deut. 5. Verse 9 Ver. 9. Wherefore Levi hath no part nor inheritance with his Brethren Because God would have them only attend to this Service and not look after other Affairs Particularly of guarding the Sanctuary and keeping constant watch there to secure all the Holy Things especially the Ark which they took care none should meddle withal And therefore the People might be sure it remained as Moses left it when he put it into the Tabernacle with the Tables of the Covenant in it The LORD if his Inheritance according as the LORD thy God promised him He took care to provide for the Levites without having any Land to plough or sow c. See XVIII Numb 20. Verse 10 Ver. 10. And I stayed in the Mount according to the first time forty days and forty nights This doth not signifie that after the separation of the Levites he went up again into the Mount but having confirmed what he said concerning his putting the Tables of Stone in the Ark which he made after he came the second time down from the Mount v. 5. he returns to what he was speaking of in the beginning of the Chapter and had begun to say before IX 25. how he prayed to God for them when he went to carry the Tables he had hewn up unto God in the Mount that now he might relate to them the Success of his Prayers which follows in the next words And the LORD hearkened unto me at that time also and the LORD would not destroy thee As he feared he would because he had so threatned IX 15. Ver. 11. And the LORD said unto me Arise take Verse 11 thy journey before the People that they may go in and possess the Land c. This cannot refer to what he said unto him after the making the Golden Calf as I find some take it from XXXIII Exod. 1. for that was before he went up into the Mount again But to what he said at the Conclusion of their Removals from place to place some of which he mentions here v. 6 7. for then he orders them what to do when they entred into Canaan which he saith I have given you to possess it XXXIII Numb 51 52 53. Ver. 12. And now Israel what doth the LORD thy Verse 12 God require of thee Unto whom he hath given Tables wherein he himself hath wrote his Will with his own Hand v. 4 5. and hath graciously pardoned your foul Breach of his Covenant upon my Intercession v. 10. But to fear the LORD thy God The Fear of God sometimes includes in it all Religion but here seems to signifie one of the great Principles of Obedience See VI. 2. And to walk in all his ways Unto which the Fear of God inclines Men when their Hearts are possessed with it And to love him Especially if the Love of God be in them which is still a stronger Principle of Obedience VI. 1. And to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul Being constant in his Worship and Service and worshipping him alone VI. 13. XIII 3. For loving him with all the Heart and Soul seems here to have particular respect to their having no inclination to serve other Gods 1 Kings VIII 23 48. Which the Jews after they had smarted for their Idolatry understood to be the great Commandment As their Father Jacob they say taught his Twelve Sons when they came about him on his Death-bed saying to them Ye perhaps worship the Idols which Terah the Father of Abraham worshipped or those which Laban my Mother's Brother worshipped or ye worship the God of Jacob. To whom they all made this Answer with a perfect Fear Hear O Israel our Father THE LORD OVR GOD IS ONE LORD Whereupon Jacob said LET HIS GREAT NAME BE BLESSED FOR EVER Thus the Hierusalem Targum upon VI. 4. of this Book Verse 13 Ver. 13. To keep the Commandments of the LORD and his Statutes which I command this day for thy good Self-love should have inclined them to obedience to God's Commands which he gave them for their good though he
without repeating them all again In every place that thou seest To be beautiful lovely and inviting by its situation and shady Trees and Fountains c. Such as are mentioned v. 2. Which the Gentiles chose perhaps wherein to Sacrifice because they were more delightful or solemn than other Whence Ezekiel VI. 3. mentions Rivers and Valleys together with Mountains where there were fine Pastures and Springs of Water which were so pleasant and refreshing in those Countries that they fancied the gods delighted in them So St. Hierom notes upon VII Jerem. that this Gentile Error omnes provincias occupavit c. spread it self in all parts of the World That they should offer their Sacrifices at the heads of Fountains and delightful Groves Verse 14 Ver. 14. But in the place which the LORD shall chuse in one of thy Tribes there shalt thou offer thy Burnt-offerings This he had said before v 5 6 11. but repeats it again because of the great importance of it to prevent all strange Worship Elijah indeed offered upon Mount Carmel after the Temple was built but it was by a Prophetical Inspiration and if any one at that time had askt him if they might take that liberty he would have answered by no means but he that offers out of Jerusalem shall be cut off XVII Levit. 4. As for what I do now it is an extraordinary Case to convince the lying Prophets of Baal c. Thus Maimonides in Geder Zeraim And there thou shalt do all that I command thee Bring their Tithes and First-fruits before-mentioned v. 6. and eat and rejoyce before the LORD v. 7. Ver. 15. Notwithstanding thou mayest kill and eat Verse 15 flesh For common Food In all thy Gates In any City Town or House While they were in the Wilderness indeed they might not kill their Beasts but only at the Door of the Tabernacle and consequently they eat nothing but Peace-offerings which had been first presented unto God and part of them burnt at his Altar XVII Levit. 3 4 c. But when they went into Canaan they were freely indulged to kill their Beasts in any place without bringing any part of them to the Altar Whatsoever thy Soul lusteth after Of all sorts of Creatures not prohibited in the XIth of Leviticus According to the Blessings of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee Suitable to every Man's Estate and Condition The unclean and the clean may eat thereof They who were under any Legal Uncleanness might not eat of the Sacrifices but of common Food at their ordinary Tables they might as well as others As of the Roe-buck and as of the Hart. He instances in these because there was great plenty of them in that Country as Aelian observes in the end of his fifth Book Where he saith they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the highest Mountains of Amanus Libanus and Carmel These Creatures might not be sacrificed to God but they might eat of others which were used in Sacrifice Sheep Goats Oxen as freely as of these which were not Verse 16 Ver. 16. Only ye shall not eat the Blood But of the Blood of those Creatures they might no more eat than of those that were sacrificed at the Altar But as there it was to be sprinkled upon the Altar and then poured out at the foot of it so here it was to be poured on the Earth Ye shall pour it upon the Earth as water So that it might sink into the Ground and disappear as Water doth when it is poured on the Earth Which is so strictly enjoyned though it was not the Blood of an Oblation to prevent those Superstitions which were exercised by the old Idolaters about the Blood of their Sacrifices In which they thought their Daemons delighted and by eating of which they hoped to have Communion with them as Maimonides observes in his More Nevochim P. III. Cap. XLVI Verse 17 Ver. 17. Thou mayest not eat within thy Gates In their own private Habitations The Tithe of thy Corn or of thy Wine or of thy Oil. This cannot be meant of the Tithe paid to the Levites which the People might not eat any where being appropriated to the Levites alone He speaking therefore of a Tithe which the People might eat though not at home yet in the place where the Sanctuary was it must be meant of that which the Hebrews call the second Tithe which was set out after that to the Levites was paid Concerning which he speaks XIV 22 23 c. Or the firstlings of the Herds or of thy Flock These were entirely the Priests Portion by an express Law XVIII Numb 15 17 18. and therefore could not lawfully be eaten by the People either at home or at the Sanctuary Which makes it necessary to understand this of some other Firstlings and it is not improbable that it is meant of the Females which opened the Womb. For the Males only were the LORD's as appears from XIII Exodus and other places who gave them to his Priests but he would have the First-born Females also to be in some sort Sacred by requiring them to be eaten at his Sanctuary where his Priests had their share of them For I see no ground to think that as there was a secondary Tithe so there was a secondary Firstling set apart by every Man to this use Nor any of thy Vows which thou vowest c. All such things were also wholly the LORD's XXVII Levit. 28. and given by him to his Priests XVIII Numb 14. But that is only to be understood of what was vowed to God absolutely without mentioning any particular use to which it was designed Besides which they might vow what they pleased to be spent in Solemn Feasts with the Levites the Widows the Fatherless and other poor People and of such Moses here speaks Or Heave-offerings of thine hand These were First-fruits of Corn Wine and Oil as I said upon v. 6. which were also the Priests Portion XVIII Numb 12. Therefore this can be meant of no other First-fruits but such as Men freely offered without any obligation to it to be spent in this fashion for he was speaking before of such kind of things Unless we will understand this of the First-fruits of young Trees which might not be eaten in three Years after they were planted but in the fourth Year were to be holy to praise the LORD withal XIX Levit. 24. which as Josephus saith were spent in these Sacred Feasts See there Verse 18 Ver. 18. But thou must eat them before the LORD thy God in the place which the LORD thy God shall chuse thou and thy Son and thy Daughter c. See before v. 11 12. Verse 19 Ver. 19. Take heed to thy self that thou forsake not the Levite as long as thou livest upon the Earth He gives this Caution lest Covetousness should make them defraud the Levites of their Tithes and not let them have convenient Habitations or prophaneness make them not invite
This was the great Commandment to serve God alone and the observance of it was the great Condition upon which all their Happiness depended Which makes him again press their care in this matter When thou dost that which is good and right in the sight of the LORD thy God Pleased God by a strict obedience to this Precept Verse 29 Ver. 29. And when the LORD thy God shall cut off the Nations from before thee whither thou goest to possess them c. See IX 1. Ver. 30. Take heed to thy self that thou be not snared by following them after that they be destroyed from before thee It is plain from hence that in this Chapter as well as the foregoing he is still endeavouring Verse 30 to secure them from the Idolatrous Customs of the Country which they went to possess Which is the ground of the following Prohibition about which he could not say too much they being so prone to Idolatry and the danger they incurred thereby so exceeding great There are some of the Jews who think that by following them is meant following their Fashions in their Clothes and in their Ornaments as it is explained in the Book Siphri which might intice them to imitate their Religious Rites which it appears by the next words are principally intended After that they be destroyed from before thee It was the most unaccountable folly to worship the gods of those Nations whom they saw expelled their Country for their Idolatries And that thou enquire not after their gods They were not so much as to ask what gods they worshipped Saying How did these Nations serve their gods Nor endeavour to know the manner of their Worship Which was very different as Maimonides observes according as their gods differed one from another for that sort of Worship which was acceptable to one god might not be given to another As they uncovered themselves if we may believe him before Baal-peor and threw a Stone to Mercury See his Tract concerning the Worship of the Planets Cap. III. Sect. 2 c. and Dionys Vossius his Annotations there Where he resolves that if they uncovered themselves to Mercury or threw a Stone to Baal-peor it was not Idolatry because not their proper Worship Which is a foolish Opinion for they were not to use any of their Religious Rites no more than to offer Sacrifice burn Incense or bow down to any of their Idols which he acknowledges was Idolatry In short if they gave the Idol the Worship proper to him or that Worship which was proper to the true God he acknowledges they were guilty Even so will I do likewise Though Men only resolved to do it yet they were guilty of committing this Sin The Jews indeed make no great account of sins committed in the heart yet in this Case they are very strict having framed this Maxim as R. Levi Barcelonita observes Proecept CCXXVI which their Rabbins industriously inculcate into their Scholars That the blessed God imputes no thought of any Transgression to an Israelite as if it were the fact it self except only the thought of Idolatry which is imputed to a Man as if he had committed Idolatry Now it was a reasonable Presumption that he who enquired how the People of Canaan worshipped their gods intended at least to worship the God of Israel as they did those Idols And this gave too much cause to suspect that he had an inclination to worship their Idols instead of God For otherwise he would have rested content with that way of worshipping God which the Law had prescribed Whereupon the Jews have determined as our Mr. Thorndike hath observed that there are four Ceremonies which whosoever performs to any thing but to God alone must be understood to worship it for God which are Sacrificing Burning Incense Pouring out Drink-offerings and Adoration But others there are by doing which Men cannot be concluded to worship any thing but God till they do it in that way and fashion as is done by those who profess to worship it for God See his Principles of Christian Truth Chap. XXVI Ver. 31. Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy Verse 31 God See v. 4. Of which the Reason is here given For every Abomination to the LORD which he hateth have they done unto their gods For instance The Zabij saith Maimonides I find in their Books offered to their great God the Sun seven Batts and seven Mice and seven other creeping Things which alone may suffice to demonstrate how vile and abominable their Worship was and what reason there was so severely to prohibit their Idolatry and every thing pertaining to it More Nevochim P. III. Cap. XXIX For even their Sons and their Daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods This is the great Instance of their abominable Wickedness Of which see XVIII Levit. 21. XX. 2. This was notoriously practised by the Carthaginians who it is certain derived it from the Phaenicians the ancient Inhabitants of this Country Plato mentions it in Protagora where he saith The Athenian Laws did not permit them to sacrifice Men but among the Carthaginians it was an holy Rite so that some of them permitted their Sons to be offered to Saturn Which wicked Custom at last overspread all Nations even the Greeks themselves as Joh. Gensius hath demonstrated Lib. de Victimis Humanis P. I. Cap. XI and P. II. Cap. VI. Ver. 32. Whatsoever thing I command you observe to Verse 32 do it Keep close to the Precepts I have given you about my Worship v. 28. and see IV. 2. Thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish from it They were not to add any other Rites of Worship of their own devising or from the Idolatrous Customs of those Countries nor omit any of those which God had commanded them to use For if they had used any of the Gentile Ceremonies whereby they honoured their gods it would easily have introduced the Worship of the gods themselves and if they had omitted any of the Rites which God had ordained some other would have easily stept into their room which were used by Idolaters Maimonides from these words labours to prove the Eternity of the Law of Moses But it is very strange that so great a Man should be so blind as not to see what some of his Brethren could discern That God did not bind up himself neither to change nor alter these Laws though he did not permit the Israelites to do it So the Author Sepher Ikkarim wisely glosses upon these words Lib. III. Cap. XIV The Scripture prohibits us to add unto or detract from these Precepts according to our Will and Pleasure but what hinders the blessed God either to add or detract when his blessed Wisdom shall think fit Which he illustrates in the foregoing Chapter by this Example among others A Physician prescribes a Diet to his Patient for such a time as he judges convenient which he doth not declare to the sick Man Now when the time
their Court which was in the Gate For there as I observed XXXIV Gen. 24. all Publick Business was transacted in the time of Abraham and Jacob and continued so afterward Insomuch that the highest Court in Moses his time met at the Door of the Tabernacle XI Numb 24. the Gate among the Hebrews being the same with the Forum as I observed among the Romans As we see by 1 Kings VII 1. where Elisha foretells at what low rates Provision should be sold on the morrow in the gate of Samaria Where it is evident there was a place so spacious that Ahab assembled Four hundred Prophets there before him and King Jehoshaphat who had no doubt both of them numerous Attendants 2 Kings XXII 10. And before this time David it is said upon the news of Absolom's Death went up to the Chamber over the Gate and wept which we may well think was the Council Chamber 2 Sam. XVIII 33. And when Joab advised him to come down and show himself publickly it is said he rose and sat in the Gate and all the People came before him XIX 6. And therefore in these Gates which were so large there was some place I make no question where there were Benches for the Judges Which the LORD thy God giveth thee throughout thy Tribes In the Cities of every Tribe there was to be such a Court erected that People might have Justice easily and speedily done them And the Talmudists unanimously agree that the number of Judges was proportionable to the greatness of the City wherein they were placed and of the Causes which they judged Where there were less than an Hundred and twenty Families in any Town or City there was seated the lowest Court of all consisting of three Judges which tried only Actions of Debt or Damages done by Man or Beast or Defamation c. But in Cities where there were above an Hundred and twenty Families there was placed an higher Court consisting of Three and twenty Judges who tried Capital Causes Josephus indeed differs from the Talmudists about the number for he saith they were but Seven Both of them it is likely may say true with respect to different times and places for it cannot but be presumed that both he and they understood the state of their Country in such Publick Matters But at the place where God chose to settle his Sanctuary unto which all the Country resorted at certain times there was the Supream Court of all consisting as the Talmudists say of Seventy Persons besides their President who judged all manner of Causes and none but they could judge a false Prophet or a City fall'n to Idolatry All Appeals were made to them but from them there was none their Sentence being final See Selden Lib. II. de Synedr Cap. IV. Such a Court it is certain there was in future Ages whose number was according to that of the Seventy Elders chosen by God himself to assist Moses in the Government and indued with the Spirit of Judgment to qualifie them for that Office XI Numb 25. In Moses his time they sat at the Door of the Tabernacle as I observed before and afterward at Shiloh or wheresoever the Sanctuary was Though it may be doubted whether after Moses his death and the death of the Elders there was a Court consisting of so many Judges Nay it is highly probable that this Consistory it self was not constantly settled there according to Law till the time of Jehosaphat at least not the Inferior Consistories before-mentioned which were to be settled in every City For if they were what Reason can be given why the Judges V Judg. 10. X. 4. XII 14. and Samuel should ride Circuit up and down the Country to minister Justice according to the Law when the People might have had it every day in their several Cities And for this Reason it is likely Jehosaphat himself desiring to put this Law in force first sent some great Men who went about through all the Cities of Judah 2 Chron. XVII 8 9. and then settled Judges according to this Law throughout all the fenced Cities of Judah City by City as well as in Jerusalem 2 Chron. XIX 5 8. See Mr. Thorndike in his Rights of the Church in a Christian State Chap. IV. p. 226. where he observes that Josephus in express terms rendring a Reason of the great Leudness upon which the War against Benjamin followed attributes it to this that these Courts of Judgment were not established according to this Law Lib. V. Antiq. Cap. II. But though this I think be very evident yet it is scarce credible that David after he was set upon the Throne of God in Peace did not take care to settle these Courts as he did to regulate a great many other things And indeed we find a plain intimation of it in 1 Chron. XXVI 29. but succeeding Kings it is probable were negligent in keeping up this Constitution till the time of Jehosaphat who exercised his Authority to inforce the exact practice of this Law And they shall judge the people with just judgment According to the Rules of this Law The Judges saith R. Solomon were to judge the People and the Officers to constrain them to do as the Judges commanded Ver. 19. Thou shalt not wrest judgment See XXIII Exod. 6. Thou shalt not respect persons See XIX Levit. 15. Verse 19 and I Deut. 17. Neither take a gift for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise and pervert the words of the righteous The very same is said XXIII Exod. 8. Verse 20 Ver. 20. That which is altogether just shalt thou follow The words in the Hebrew are far more emphatical as they are in the Margin justice justice shalt thou follow Mind nothing but the justice of the Cause and do it to all Persons equally That thou mayest live and inherit the Land which the LORD thy God giveth thee Be happy and continue long in the Land of Canaan For nothing contributes more to the Establishment of a Government than the exact and impartial Administration of Justice Verse 21 Ver. 21. Thou shalt not plant thee a Grove of any Trees near unto the Altar of the LORD thy God which thou shalt make thee It is evident from this that his great aim is to keep them from Idolatry which he still pursues as he hath done from the beginning of his Exhortation in this Book And their History teaches us that it was very needful to inculcate this so often for notwithstanding all that Moses could say they fell immediately after Joshua's death into the idolatrous Customs of Canaan and could never be wholly purged from their Idolatry till the Captivity of Babylon And these words may be translated Thou shalt not plant thee a Grove nor make any Wood i. e. a wooden Image near to the Altar of the LORD thy God So the LXX for the very word we translate Grove sometimes imports the Idol in the Grove as well as the Grove it self See 2
Abominations which no doubt had some relation to Idolatry and therefore were forbidden to the Israelites Ver. 13. Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy Verse 13 God This shows there was something of Idolatrous Worship in all the forenamed Practices which if they followed it was in some degree to forsake the LORD on whom they were wholly to depend and seek to him alone in the ways which he had prescribed in his Laws For this was to be perfect with the LORD to have nothing to do with any other god nor with the Rites and Ceremonies that were used in their Worship And therefore the LXX translate this word sometimes by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 XXII Job 3. as well as by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for then they were perfect with God when they kept his Worship simple and pure without the mixture of any Forreign Religion Which the whole Context shows to be the sense both in the words foregoing and followng Ver. 14. For those Nations which thou shalt possess hearkned unto observers of times and to diviners The ancient Heathen as Strabo tells us Lib. VI. had these Verse 14 Diviners in such esteem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they thought them worthy of the highest Authority But God would not have his People so much as to consult such Persons for it appears by these words that not only they who were Diviners for instance but they who hearkned to them were odious to God For that even the Art of Divination depended upon some Idolatrous Opinions and Practices appears evidently even from the most refined Account we have of it in ancient Authors For Instance Ammianus Marcellinus who to acquit his Master Julian from the suspicion of Sorcery which some said he used to get the fore-knowledge of things future makes it a principal point of Wisdom not unworthy such a Prince who was a professed Lover of all Sciences to offer placatory Sacrifices to draw in the Spirit of all the Elements to endue him with a Spirit of Divination For so his words are in the beginning of his One and twentieth Book The spirit of all the Elements being alway and every way invigorated with the fore-perceiving motion of the everlasting i. e. the heavenly bodies make us partakers of the gifts of divining and the substantial Powers ritu diverso placatae being rendred favourable by respective Rites i. e. such as were proper and sutable to each of them convey Praedictions to Mortality as from so many perpetual Springs or Fountains Over which Substantial Powers the goddess Themis is said to praeside c. Which shows that Julian who called Jupiter the most high god the king of all yet courted other inferiour powers by such rites as he imagined would win their favour which was rank Idolatry But as for thee the LORD thy God hath not suffered thee so to do But absolutely forbad it XIX Lev. 31. XX. 6. where he warns them to have nothing to do with some of the Persons here mentioned and not only instructed them in the way to live happily but established an Oracle among them to be consulted on all weighty occasions and governed them by Men whom he had endued with his Spirit XI Numb 16 17 25. Therefore if any Israelite practised any of the things here forbidden though he did not worship any Idol he was scourged by the Sentence of the Court of Judgment See Selden Lib. de Jure Nat. Gent. Cap. VII Ver. 15. The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Verse 15 Prophet Since the Jews as all other Nations were extreamly desirous to know things to come Moses reveals unto them from God a thing future of the highest importance viz. the Coming of CHRIST and the greatness of his Authority and in after times God revealed to them by degrees the time of his Birth his Death Resurrection c. The Jews indeed commonly take these words to be a promise of a constant Succession of Prophets that should be among them to preserve them from going to such Diviners as were famous among their Heathen Neighbours and thus many Christian Interpreters make out the connexion of these words with the foregoing But though this may be allowed to be intimated and this Promise be acknowledged to be partly verified in those Prophets which God raised up from Age to Age after Moses for further knowledge of his Will as the promise of a Saviour was in part verified in those Judges and Kings by whom God delivered his People from their Enemies yet it is very evident that he speaks of a single Prophet more eminent than all the rest and that these words in their most literal sense cannot belong to any other Person but the MESSIAH So that albeit the continuance of Prophets among this People was a means to prevent all occasions of consulting Sorcerers or Witches yet the chief ground upon which Moses disswades them from such practices according to the literal connexion of these words with the foregoing the LORD thy God hath not suffered thee to do so i. e. to hearken unto Observers of Times and Diviners was the consideration of their late mighty Deliverance by Moses the excellency of their present Law which God had given them for their direction and their expectation of a greater Law-giver in future times when the first Covenant should wax old and Prophecy it self for a long time fail as it did before the Coming of this great Prophet the LORD CHRIST To this purpose Dr. Jackson in his Third Book upon the Creed Chap. XXI paragr 19. From the midst of thee of thy brethren It was a great honour to them to have such a Prophet as is here spoken of arise out of their Nation but as he was after a peculiar sort raised up by JEHOVAH not meerly by the External Assistances or Impulsion of his Spirit to use the words of the same excellent Person paragr 9. but by intrinsick assumption into the Unity of his Person So likewise he was raised up in a strict and proper sense from the midst of them being as it were extracted out of a pure Virgin as the first Woman was out of the Man by the Almighty's own immediate hand Like unto me This shows he speaks of a single Prophet and not of a constant Succession of Prophets there being none of them like to Moses whom God himself distinguished from them all XII Numb 6 7 8. And accordingly that Divine Writer who added those Verses which are at the end of this Book concerning the Death of Moses testifies that there never rose in Israel a Prophet like to Moses See XXXIV Deut. 10. It is commonly thought to be done by Ezra who hath effectually confuted all the Conceits of R. Bechai Aben-Ezra Abarbinel and other Jewish Doctors who take either Joshua or Jeremiah to have been this Prophet If Joshua as some fancy added these words then he excluded himself from being the Person nor did Joshua act as a Prophet but
to Sever Zeraim Thou shalt not be terrified Chapter XIX or averted from endeavouring to have him put to death by his Religion Goodness or Knowledge since in his proud brags he hath spoken false things of God For to be afraid of such a Person and of his Partakers was to distrust God who is the Defender of those that defend the Cause of Religion CHAP. XIX HAving sufficiently pressed upon the People the great Commandment of Loving God with all the Heart and Soul and Strength and Him alone Moses now proceeds to remember them of other Precepts belonging to the Second Table as we now speak but not in an exact method nor without interspersing some Ceremonial Matters And he begins with what concerns that Commandment Thou shalt not kill Verse 1. WHen the LORD thy God hath cut off Verse 1 the Nations whose Land the LORD thy God giveth thee c. The very same words we had before upon another occasion XII 29. Which are now used to signifie that they were not bound to what follows till God had subdued the Land of Canaan for them and they were settled in it as the last words of the Verse import dwellest in their Cities and in their Houses Accordingly after the division of the Land God puts Joshua in mind of this business XX Josh 1 2 c. Ver. 2. Thou shalt separate three Cities for thee According to an order God had given to Moses XXXV Numb 14 15. to set aside six Cities in all for the Verse 2 use here mentioned Three on this side Jordan where they now were and three on the other side in the Land of Canaan The former part of which Command Moses himself had executed IV Deut. 42 c. and now gives them a Charge to perform the other In the midst of thy Land which the LORD thy God giveth thee to possess it In the midst of their Land signifies no more but within their Land For if they had been all three in the very heart of the Country it would have crossed the end and intention of them which was that they should be placed so conveniently in several parts of the Country that Men might easily and speedily flee to them And therefore the midst of the Land may be opposed to the skirts of the Country where they would have been too far distant from some parts of it or may denote that they should be set in an eminent place upon the top of Mountains where they might be seen afar off And so they all three were it is apparent from XX Josh 7. where they are said to be in Mount Naphtali Mount Ephraim and the Mountain of Judah Verse 3 Ver. 3. And thou shalt prepare thee a way Make a plain Rode to them and keep it in good repair that both in Winter and Summer the Man-slayer might without difficulty flee thither And for his more safe passage the Hebrews say where there were any turnings or two ways parted they were bound to set up a Post or Stone wherein was engraven in great Letters the word MIKLAT i. e. Refuge that he might not mistake his way to the place And divide the Coast of thy Land which the LORD thy God giveth thee to inherit into three parts The Jews understand it that they were to be placed at an equal distance in three several parts of the Country that all might have the same benefit by them and no Body have a longer Journey to go than his Neighbour for his safety That every Slayer may flee thither Have the convenience of preserving himself in one or other of them It is observable that there were as many of these Cities in the two Tribes and a half as there were in all the other nine Tribes and a half in which there seems to be a great inequality I have given some account of it upon XXXV Numb 14. and the Hebrews fancy there was another reason for it because of the frequent Murders which were likely to be committed by the fierce Nature of the Gileadites See the Book of Judges Chap. X. and XI and VI Hosea 8. Ver. 4. And this is the case of the slayer which shall Verse 4 flee thither that he may live Be preserved from the Avenger of Blood who otherwise might kill him Whoso killeth his Neighbour ignorantly whom he hated not in time past These Cities were not to be a protection to a wilful Murderer but to an innocent Person who against his intention was so unhappy as to kill a Man belidaath as the words are in the Hebrew without his knowledge being free that is from any design to do him the least harm But as for such as out of hatred and malice in their hearts killed another they were so far from finding safety in these Cities that they were to be pulled from the Altar if they fled thither for Sanctuary as we now speak XXI Exod. 12 14. Or if they would not stir from thence they might be killed there as appears by the case of Joab 1 Kings II. 28 30 31. Ver. 5. As when a man goeth into the wood with his neighbour to hew wood and his hand fetcheth a stroke with the Ax to cut down the Tree and the head slippeth Verse 5 from the helve and lighteth upon his neighbour that he die By this all other like Cases were to be judged That is when a Man was about a lawful business if any thing hapned which he intended not he was not accountable for it See Selden Lib. IV. de Jure Nat. Gent. Cap. II. He shall flee unto one of those Cities and live He might get to which of them he could most conveniently and there be preserved The Jews from this word live conclude without any other ground for it that a Master was bound to go along with his Scholar who fled hither because without the Doctrine of the Law Men did not live but were dead Verse 6 Ver. 6. Lest the avenger of blood pursue the slayer while his heart is hot With Anger which might boil up to such a degree as to move him to kill the Slayer before he had examined whether there was a just Cause It is evident that this Verse is to be connected with Verse the third the two next v. 4 5. coming in as a Parenthesis to show who should be preserved in these Cities and who not being a reason why the Cities of Refuge should be placed at an equal distance in several parts of the Country that the Journey might not be too long to any of them but a Man might soon flee thither before the Avenger of Blood could lay hold of him Because the way is long and slay him If he could not have gotten thither in a short time he might have been in danger to lose his Life though not worthy of death For as the Law did not punish him that kill'd a Man-slayer when he found him out of the Bounds of the City of Refuge XXXV Numb 27. so
speaks only of Fruit-trees From whence Grotius thinks that saying of the Pythagoraeans took its original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Trees that do not grow wild and bear fruit ought not to be hurt much less cut down And yet it seems to be more agreeable to the Hebrew words than our Marginal Translation which makes this sense That there are Trees of the Field sufficient to employ in the Siege so that they need not cut down Fruit-trees to carry it on Ver. 20. Only the Trees which thou knowest that they Verse 20 be not Trees for Meat thou shalt destroy and cut them down If it were necessary for the raising Bulwarks as it here follows or otherways to distress the Enemy they had liberty to cut down Trees that did not bear Fruit but not meerly to make Waste and Desolation And thou shalt build Bulwarks against the City that maketh war with thee From whence they battered the City and threw great Sones into it as well as begirt them round that no Provisions might be brought in to them Thus we find they did in after times 2 Chron. XXVI 15. 2 Sam. XX. 15. And they must have some such Inventions in Moses his days or else how could they take Cities fortified with such high Walls as are mentioned I Deut. 28. Or to what purpose should they build Bulwarks and cast up Banks but from thence to batter the City with some Engine or other Vntil it be subdued From these words the Jewish Doctors conclude that it was lawful to make War even upon the Sabbath because having set down before a City they were to proceed till it was subdued which these words suppose might not be in a short time Only they say that the Siege was to be begun at least three days before the Sabbath Thus these Superstitious People not thinking common reason sufficient to justifie them in so plain a case Chapter XXI make the Scripture speak what it intended not for their warrant See Schickard in his Jus Regium Cap. V. Theorem XVIII where he alledges Maimonides in his Hilkoth Melachim to this purpose And Joh. Benedictus Carpzovius produces a plainer out of Hilkoth Schabbath where he delivers their sense in these words A Siege is to be begun three days before the Sabbath and then it may be continued every day even upon the Sabbath until the City be taken and this may be done in a War that is voluntarily undertaken For thus our wise Men understand these words by ancient Tradition until it be subdued CHAP. XXI Verse 1 Verse 1. IF one shall be found slain in the Land which the LORD thy God giveth thee to possess This follows very properly after the Law he had delivered about making War because then the Bodies of dead Men were most frequently found About which the wisest Law-givers took the greatest care that Inquisition should be made how and by whom they were slain This appears by Plato who in his Ninth Book de Legibus hath a Law something like to this though far short of the Solemnity that is here required to be used as I shall observe in the Conclusion of this Statute Lying in the field and it be not known who hath slain him The Hebrew Doctors here stick too much to the letter of these words for they will not have them reach to a dead Body hanging in the Air upon a Tree or hid in the Sand or Dust or floating upon the Water which is extream absurd Ver. 2. Then thy Elders and thy Judges shall come forth The great Sanhedrim were to send forth some Verse 2 of their Members so the Jews interpret it to do what here follows And indeed it may be thought that none but they could take care of this matter the doubt being to which of the neighbouring Cities where the other Judges lived it belonged Therefore the Paraphrase ascribed to Vzielides saith Two of the wise Men or Elders and three of the Judges were sent by the great Sanhedrim about this business See Selden Lib. III. de Synedr Cap. VII N. 2. Yet he observes in another part of that most Learned Work Lib. II. Cap. VII N. 3. that there were a sort of Elders who were not ordained by laying on of Hands but only were venerable Persons for their Age and Prudence who some think might serve for this Employment And they called such Elders Zikne Hashuk Elders of the Street or Vulgar Elders But none I think hath discoursed more critically upon these words thy Elders and thy Judges than our Mr. Thorndike who observes that there had been Judges constituted to determine Causes by Jethro's advice XVIII Exod. the greater Causes being reserved for Moses alone For whose Assistance God afterward appointed Seventy Elders Numb XI who made up the great Court of Judgment in that Nation Now they of this great Consistory are called the Elders of Israel but they of other Consistories or Inferiour Courts are called barely Elders or Elders of such a City See Review of the Rights of the Church p. 70. where he alledges this very place for it and by thy Elders understands the Elders of Israel the lower Elders being mentioned in the next Verse And so those of the great Consistory are commonly called in the Gospel And in like manner the Scribes of the People and thy Scribes signifie there those of this High Court. Whereas the bare Name of Scribes is extended further to the inferiour Doctors of the Law As also the Name of Rulers and that of Rulers of the People are to be understood with the like difference And they shall measure unto the Cities that are round about him that is slain That is if it were dubious what City lay nearest to the dead Body as it sometimes hapned But commonly it is probable at the first view they easily discerned this and so did not trouble themselves to measure It is a frivolous dispute in the Mischnah from whence they were to measure whether from the Navel or the Nose or the Forehead which last seems most rational to Maimonides who calls it the Center of the Body But they did not if we believe the Jewish Doctors in their measuring take notice of any City wherein there was not a Court of XXIII Elders and Jerusalem was always excepted See Selden in the place forenamed N. III. and L'Empereur upon Bava kama p. 173. and Wagenseil upon Sota p. 899. If the dead Body lay nearest to the Country of the Gentiles then they did not measure at all but it was presumed the Man was killed by them Verse 3 Ver. 3. And it shall be that the City which is next to the slain Man From whence it might be presumed the Murderer came or was fled thither as Abarbinel discourses Even the Elders of that City Who were different from the Elders before-mentioned See the foregoing Verse for they returned to Jerusalem when they had seen the Body buried if there was no discovery of the Murderer and
to have married her But all this is judged by the famous Abarbinel upon 2 Sam. XIII to be very absurd and neither believes that David would have committed such a Fact as to lie with a Woman in her Gentilism nor if he had that this Child would have been lookt upon as a Gentile since he afterward married her Mother And therefore he takes those words of Tamar v. 13. Speak to the King and he will not withhold me from thee to be a meer put off as we speak to get rid of his Company which Amnon understood very well who knowing he could not have her to Wife proceeded to force her Ver. 14. And it shall be if thou have no delight in Verse 14 her then thou shalt let her go whither she will If at the Months end or before his Mind was changed and he did not like to take her for his Wife then he might neither meddle with her any more as the Hebrew Doctors understand it nor keep her any longer as a Slave nor sell her or make merchandise of her as the Text here expresly orders but give her liberty to go whither she her self thought good This he lost say the Jews by his short pleasure he took at first For other Captives whom a Man had made himself Master of by the Law of War he might imploy in his Work as Slaves or make Money of them but one whom he had lain with he was either to marry or set her a liberty This they ground upon the last words of this Verse which I shall show may have another interpretation And therefore I shall not insist upon their sense which depends upon the same words who think Moses speaks of his not likeing her after she was become his Wife her Humour Manners and Conversation being disagreeable to him in which case he was to give her a Bill of Divorce as he might do another Wife but not keep her as a Slave Because thou hast humbled her It must be acknowledged that this is an usual Phrase for having had Carnal Knowledge of a Woman as the Scripture modestly elsewhere speaks in the like case It signifies so in the very next Chapter of this Book XXII Deut. 29. XIX Judg. 24. XX. 2. and many other places where it is used for Violence offered to a Woman which was the greatest Affliction to her as the Hebrew word properly signifies From which I see no reason why we should depart in this place for it was sufficient Affliction and Humiliation to a Captive Woman as Carpsovius observes in his Annotations upon Schickard's Book which I have so often named that after she had been brought into a Souldiers House and kept there a Month having her Head shaved Garments changed c. in hope of Marriage she was rejected at last when it should have been consummated And thus Abarbinel here understands the word humbled not of his lying with her but of all the forementioned Conditions which were imposed upon her as a preparation for his Bed and of her disappointment after she had submitted to be baptized And indeed the Hebrew word denotes any sort of Affliction See I Exod. 11. LXXXVIII Psal 8. LXXXIX 23. XC 15. XCIV 5 c. Verse 15 Ver. 15. If a Man have two Wives one beloved and another hated That is less loved as the word hated sometimes signifies XXIX Gen. 31. VI Matth. 24. R. Solomon thinks that this Case follows the other because it might so happen that if a Man suffered himself to be carried with too violent a passion towards such a Woman as is before-mentioned it might turn into hatred when he found her not to be agreeable to him And they have born him Children both the beloved and the hated Towards which it was likely he would be affected very differently as he was to his Wives And if the first-born Son be hers that was hated As it fell out in the Case of Leah and Rachel Ver. 16. Then it shall be when he makes his Sons to Verse 16 inherit that which he hath that he may not make the Son of the beloved first-born c. He speaks of Sons for Daughters were not to have a double Portion And he speaks of Sons as the Jews will have it born before the death of their Father to whom he divided his Inheritance For a posthumous Son had not a double Portion as the Gemara upon Bathra saith See Selden de Successionibus Cap. VII p. 29. Ver. 17. But he shall acknowledge the Son of the hated Verse 17 for the first-born Which had his first love and was to enjoy the effects of it By giving him a double portion of all that he hath Of all that he was in possession of when he died but not of that which was his in Reversion after his death as Mr. Selden shows the Opinion of the Jewish Lawyers is Lib. de Success Cap. VI. p. 24. For he is the beginning of his strength See XLIX Gen. 1. The right of the first-born is his By a very ancient Custom antecedent to the Law which made the first-born the Head of the Family and gave him as much more as any of his Brethren of the Estate belonging to it that he might be able to maintain and support the Dignity of it XXV Gen. 31. But if there was no Son and the Inheritance was to be divided among Daughters the eldest Daughter had not a double share of the Estate as Mr. Selden shows in the same Book Cap. VIII Verse 18 Ver. 18. If a Man have a stubborn and rebellious Son By a stubborn Son the Jews understand one that will not do as he is bidden and by a rebellious one that doth what he is forbidden And they imagine this Law is annexed to the foregoing about the marriage of a Souldier to a Captive Woman because the Issue of such Marriages commonly proved refractory or at least gave their Parents great trouble So Schickard observes out of Tanchuma And they confirm it by an Example out of Scripture viz. the two Children of David Absolom and Tamar who were both born of a Captive Woman made a Proselyte the former of which conspired the Death of his Father and the other being ravished by Amnon was the occasion of the Death of some of her Brethren Mischpat Hammelech Cap. V. Theorem XVII Which will not obey the voice of his Father or the voice of his Mother Behaved himself not only undutifully but crosly to them and with such contempt of their Authority as argued he had not only lost all filial Affection and Reverence to them but would if he could undo them And that when they have chastned him will not hearken unto them Is never the better for Admonitions Reprehensions and Corrections which they were bound to give him Verse 19 Ver. 19. Then shall his Father and his Mother lay hold of him It is absurd to say as the Hebrew Doctors do in their qualifications of this Law that his Parents were with
Basil de vera Virginitate Tom. I. p. 782 c. where there is too free a description of the unextinguishable Lust of such Eunuchs as were only deprived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose Company he charges Virgins to avoid not only because they hoped to corrupt them without danger of discovery but were insatiable in their desires And on the other side though they were unfit for Marriage yet it appears by many Instances in History that they were not unfit for Government nor wanted Courage for the greatest Undertakings I need only refer the Reader for this to Xenophon's Cyropaedia Lib. VII They that follow Allegorical Senses free themselves from all these difficulties See Filesacus Lib. I. Selectorum p. 169. 185. But one cannot think that Moses intended any of those things though such pious use may be made of his words Ver. 2. A Bastard The Hebrews do not understand Verse 2 by the word Mamzer one that was begotten in simple Fornication out of the state of Marriage but one that was begotten of such Persons as the Law forbad them to marry or lie withal under pain of being cut off viz. those mentioned in the Eighteenth of Leviticus They only except this single Case If a Man lay with a menstruous Woman and begat a Child of her at that time it was not a Mamzer See Selden Lib. de Succession in bona defunct Cap. III. and L. V. de Jure Nat. Gent. Cap. XVI and Wagenseil lately in his very Learned Annotation upon Mischna Sotae Cap. IV. Sect. I. where he observes out of a MS. which he calls very precious EZ Hachajim in Hilcoth Nidda that Mamzer whether Male or Female was excluded from the Congregation of the LORD And they were Mamzers who were born of any Woman whom the Law prohibited them to have knowledge of whether it was by violence or by consent by error or advisedly it made no difference Shall not enter into the Congregation of the LORD Nor marry with an Israelite So all the Doctors none excepted expound it as Mr. Selden observes Lib. II. de Successione in Pontific Cap. II. p. 209. If any Man of Israel married such a Woman or any Woman of Israel married such a Man and they were found in Bed together after Espousals they were both whipt for violating this Precept But if they lay together without any Espousals this Punishment was not inflicted on them Even unto his tenth Generation shall he not enter into the Congregation of the LORD That is never as the Hebrew Doctors expound it And Maimonides More Nevochim P. III. Cap. XLIX gives this reason for it That People might be deterred from such Marriages or Conjunctions which would leave an indelible blot upon their Posterity And indeed some Heathens anciently put such a Mark of Infamy upon meer Bastards as to prohibit both Males and Females to come to their Sacred Offices Such a Law there was at Athens mentioned by Isaeus as Casaubon observes upon Athenaeus Lib. VI. Cap. VI. p. 410. There were some also of these Mamzers who were not manifestly born of such incestuous or other forbidden Mixtures but were called dubious because their Fathers were not known or being exposed and found in the Fields or the Streets neither Father nor Mother were known Yet it being uncertain whence they were descended the Israelites might not marry with them for fear they should be polluted by those who perhaps were born of incestuous Parents But Proselytes of Justice they say might marry with Mamzers and that they might not for ever be excluded from the Congregation of the LORD they contrived this Remedy for the Restitution of their Blood They might marry a Slave who was baptized and become a Jew whose Children were not reputed Mamzers but only Slaves Who being made Jews and having their freedom given them might lawfully marry with a Jewish Woman and then they were entirely incorporated into the Congregation of the LORD for proles sequitur matrem the Issue follows the Mother as that MS. of Wagenseils hath it p. 565. and there was no regard had to the Father Ver. 3. An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into the Congregation of the LORD even to the tenth Generation shall they not enter for ever These last words for ever in this Verse the Jews think warrants them Verse 3 to interpret those words to the tenth Generation in the foregoing Verse as if he said never It is certain indeed that Moses intended to exclude the Moabites and Ammonites from marrying with the Jews for ever for so Nehemiah understood him when he quoted this Law XIII 1. as a reason against the Israelites Marriages with them in his time when more then ten Generations were past But then these words for ever being omitted in the foregoing Verse where he speaks of Mamzers it seems reasonable that they should not be so interpreted but that after ten Generations were past all distinction between them and others should be abolished This one would have expected should have been the sense of those who examine every word so nicely as the Jews do For here being mention made only of an Ammonite and Moabite that is of the Males of these two Nations they will not have their Women concerned in this Law but say that an Israelite might take one of them to Wife if she embraced their Religion For thus they expound this whole Matter of Marriages with Proselytes of Justice that is such of other Nations as became intirely of the Jews Religion With such Proselytes of some Nations whether Men or Women the Israelites were never to make any Marriages With those of some other Nations they were prohibited only to marry with their Men with others they were prohibited to marry only for some Generations and there were others with whom they might marry as soon as they were made perfect Proselytes Of the first kind were the Seven Nations of Canaan mentioned VII Deut. 1. with the Males or Females of which they might never contract an Affinity To the second kind belong the Ammonites and Moabites to whose Males an Israelitish Woman was forbid by this Precept to marry but a Man of Israel might marry any of their Women after they professed the Jewish Religion Otherwise David who descended from Ruth a Moabitess had been illegitimate Of the third kind were the Edomites and Egyptians with whom and with their Children the Israelites might not marry but their Grand-children might And of the fourth kind were all other Nations besides these mentioned This is an Abridgment of what our great Selden hath more largely shown to be the sense of the Jews in his fifth Book de Jure Nat. Gent. c. Cap. XIV which another excellent Person J. Christoph Wagenseil hath confirmed out of his inestimable MS. as he call Etz-Hachajim in Hilchot Nidda Cap. X. See Excerp Gem. in Sota Cap. I. p. 143. Verse 4 Ver. 4. Because they met you not with bread and water when ye came
forth out of Egypt This seems to belong to the Ammonites who had no Compassion towards the Israelites when they were distressed in the Wilderness but though they were near of kin to them did not show them that Civility which is commonly expressed to meer strangers in their Travels XIV Gen. 18. XVIII 2 31. XIX 1 2. We do not find any mention of this barbarity of theirs in the foregoing History but we read how kind God ordered the Israelites to be to them in not medling with them much less distressing them as they passed by their Country II Deut. 19. Which aggravated their Inhumanity in not vouchsafing this common kindness to the Israelites of giving them the Refreshment of Bread and Water as they went by them And because they hired against thee Balaam the Son of Beor of Pethor of Mesopotamia to curse thee As the foregoing passage peculiarly refers to the Ammonites so this doth to the Moabites who with the Assistance of the Midianites invited Balaam by the Promises of a great Reward to come from the Eastern Country and curse the Israelites See XXII Numb 5 6 7. For these two Reasons God laid this Prohibition upon his People in which Maimonides observes the Divine Justice in proportioning Punishments to Offences For Amalek coming out against the Israelites when they were newly come forth from Egypt to cut them off with the Sword God commanded their Memory to be blotted out XXV 19. but the Ammonites being only basely covetous and the Moabites acting against them only by Craft and not by Force God inflicted no other Punishment upon them but this That his People should avoid all Affinity with them and show no love to them More Nevochim P. III. Cap. XLI And the MS. Author of Etz-Hachajim mentioned by Wagenseil in the place forenamed makes this the ground of the distinction mentioned before between the Males and the Females of those Countries Their Males saith he might never marry with an Israelitish Woman but by a Tradition delivered down to us from Moses in Mount Sinai we hold that the Women of those Countries if they embraced the Jewish Religion might be married to a Man of Israel For the Women must be thought in all reason not to have been guilty as the Men were of that which was the reason of this Law it not being the Custom for Women to bring out Bread and Water to Travellers nor did they send Ambassadors to hire Balaam to come and curse the Israelites Accordingly we find Ruth who was a Moabitess married to Boaz the Ancestor of David Verse 5 Ver. 5. Nevertheless the LORD thy God would not hearken unto Balaam but the LORD thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee because the LORD thy God loved thee Balaam indeed did not Curse the Israelites as the Moabites desired and he intended but no Thanks was owing to him for that but it was to be ascribed to the Love of God to his People who constrained him against his will to Bless them Verse 6 Ver. 6. Thou shalt not seek their peace nor their prosperity all thy days for ever By entering into any League with them much less by taking them into Conjugal Society but on the contrary they were to look upon them as dangerous Enemies who being their near Neighbours would watch all Opportunities to ensnare or disturb them Some of the Jews would have this to be an Exception to the General Rule XX. 10. that they might not offer them Terms of Peace as they were bound to do to all Men but the Seven Nations of Canaan though if they desired Peace they were bound they say to grant it See Schickard in his Mischpat Hammelech p. 118. But Grotius hath well observed upon V Matth. 43. that God did not give the Jews any Right to their Country as appears from I Deut. 19. and therefore the meaning here is that they should not make any League with them of mutual Assistance which they called foedera 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verse 7 Ver. 7. Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite So as never to enter into the Society of Marriage with them they being a circumcised People For he is thy brother Nearer of kin to them than the Ammonites and Moabites Esau their Father being the Twin-brother of Jacob. And so Moses calls them when he delivers God's Command to the Israelites not to meddle with them II Deut. 8. We passed by from our Brethren the Children of Esau c. Here it may be observed that the word Brother comprehended more than the Israelites as our Saviour shows the word Neighbour did X Luke 29 c. Thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian because thou wast a stranger in his Land That is the Egyptians in a sore Famine sustained them their Children Flocks and Herds very kindly the memory of which benefit God would not have forgotten though in future Generations they were cruelly oppressed by them Ver. 8. The Children that are begotten of them shall Verse 8 enter into the Congregation of the LORD in the third Generation When they had been Proselytes for three Generations it was lawful to marry with them Nay some of the Jews are so liberal here of their kindness as to understand by banim not Children in general but Sons with whom only Marriage is forbidden till the third Generation Marriage with their Daughters being lawful as they think as soon as they turned compleat Proselytes Upon which account Solomon took Pharaoh's Daughter to Wife See Selden Lib. V. de Jure Nat. Gent. Cap. XIV XV. where he observes that all this held good only till the Captivity of Babylon when all these Nations being confused they might marry with any of them if they became Jews For Wars and Colonies and Deportations had made such a mixture of People that one could not be known from another This Wagenseil hath lately confirmed out of several Hebrew Authors whom Mr. Selden did not trouble himself to mention and particularly out of the MS. Etz-Hachajim which he most highly commends See p. 149. upon Sota They all agree likewise that none of these Laws extended to Proselytes who might marry with any of these Nations See Selden ib. Cap. XVIII Verse 9 Ver. 9. When the host goeth forth against thine Enemy then keep thee from every wicked thing This was a Rule to be observed at all times but then especially when they had the greatest need of the Divine help for which wicked People could not reasonably hope and when there was the greatest danger of being wicked in a time of such licence as Soldiers commonly take There is a Sentence very like this in Agathias Lib. II. mentioned by Grotius towards the conclusion of his Prolegomena to the Book de Jure Belli Pacis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Injustice and neglect of God's Service are ever to be avoided as most pernicious but especially in a time of War and when Men are upon the point of giving battle Which he proves
them Yet there is a Traditional Doctrine among them practised at this day That if any Man or Woman make a Vow which afterward they wish unmade and it be not to the prejudice of any third Person that it should be broken in this case they may go to a Rabbine or to any other three Men who hearing their Reasons why they repent of having made such a Vow and judging them good they may free them from their Obligation saying to such a Person thrice Be thou absolved from this Vow c. and so he is discharged Thus Leo Modena in his History of the present Jews Part II. Chap. IV. Verse 24 Ver. 24. When thou comest into thy neighbours vineyard then thou mayest eat grapes thy fill at thine own pleasure This the Hebrew Doctors take to be a Law made in favour of poor Labourers who were hired to work in their Vineyards in the time of Vintage Whom the Owners might not hinder from eating as many Grapes as they pleased and the same held good in Olives Figs Dates and all other Fruit as long as they were at work but not after they had done working And if their Masters would not suffer them so to do they were to be scourged with forty stripes save one for it was not reasonable to deny them this liberty when the very Oxen were not to be muzzled whilst they trod out the Corn. See Selden Lib. VI. de Jure Nat. Gent. Cap. 2. p. 670. Which must be confessed to be as good a natured Law as that of Plato's was harsh and unnatural which enacted a Servant should receive as many Stripes as he eat Grapes or Figs. See Eusebius Lib. XIII Praepar Evangel Cap. ult But I see no reason at all to restrain this Indulgence only to Hirelings of whom there is no mention at all in this Law and therefore Josephus seems to me to have justly enlarged this Benefit Lib. IV. Archaeol Cap. VIII to all Travellers on the High-way though they were not Israelites to whom and to Proselytes of Justice alone the Jews consine this Priviledge but meer Strangers of any other Nation who had occasion to pass by a Vineyard and needed a Refreshment Which Permission may seem to have great Inconvenience if not Mischief in it because they might tread down the Vines and make great waste among the Grapes Therefore by coming into their Neighbour's Vineyard is not meant going into every part of it with a liberty to pick out the best Grapes but only stepping aside out of their way into the Skirts of the Vineyard which lay near the Rode and satisfying their hunger without entering further into the Vineyard This made it no Damage to the Owners considering the great plenty of Fruit in that Country Chapter XXIV But thou shalt not put any in thy vessel They were only to eat for their present necessity or delight but not to carry any away with them for the benefit of others or their own Refreshment at another time And therefore might not put any in their Pouches or their Garments or Bosoms or so much as carry away in their Hands what they could not eat Verse 25 Ver. 25. When thou comest into the standing Corn of thy neighbours thou mayest pluck the ears with thine hand As the Disciples of our Saviour did when they walked through the Corn XII Matth. 1. which they might have justified by the strictest Rules of the Pharisaical Doctors who granted this Priviledge unto Jews but not unto Gentiles But thou shalt not move a sickle into thy neighbour's standing Corn. They might not cut down any Corn but only pluck with their Hands as much as was necessary to satisfie their hunger or for their pleasure CHAP. XXIV Verse 1 Verse 1. WHen a man hath taken a wife and married her The Hebrew Doctors make a difference between these two understanding by taking a wife his espousing her to be his Wife and by marrying her his compleating the Contract by lying with her And it come to pass Either after he hath espoused her or after he hath consummated the Marriage That she find no favour in his eyes i. e. He dislikes her or as it is expressed v. 3. hates her Which signifies either an absolute dislike to her or comparatively with some other Person whom he likes better Because he hath found some uncleanness in her This is assigned as the reason and ground of his dislike which signifies something odious to him though perhaps it might not be so to another whom Moses supposes she might marry after this Husband had discharged her Some of the Jews indeed extend this liberty so far as to fancy they might without any reason at all for their meer pleasure part with their Wives See Buxtorf de Sponsal Divortiis Sect. 89. But others are more modest and acknowledge that these words matter of uncleanness signifie some weighty Cause Yet they distinguish between the first Wife a Man took who might not be put away but for some Uncleanness and the second who might be put away for a lesser reason But there were great differences between the School of Hillel and the School of Samai whom the Talmudists so much talk of about this matter of Vncleanness Yet both agree it hath a far lower signification here than in the Book of LEVITICUS where it signifies Adultery Incest or such like Turpitude For if Adultery had been here meant she might have been put to death or the meer suspicion of it tried by the Water of Jealousie See Buxtorf in the Book before-named Sect. 90. and our Selden L. III. Vxor Hebr. Cap. XX XXI Abarbinel thinks the two plainest Causes of dislike signified by these words were either such behaviour as might make her suspected of Impurity as going with her Face uncovered or her Breast naked sporting with young Men or washing in the same place with them or having her Arms bare or secondly when they were of such a different Temper Humour and Disposition that they disliked and nauseated each others Company and consequently lived in continual Brawls and Contentions And besides such moral Causes they allowed also such natural as made a Woman offensive viz. Leprosie or some such Disease in her Body as he did not discover before Marriage And sometimes they extended this as far as to a stinking Breath Then let him write her a Bill of Divorcement Whatsoever was the Cause of the Husband's dislike this Law provides the Wife should not be damaged by it being made rather for her Advantage than her Husband 's viz. to free her as Dr. Hammond observes from the pain and vexation of her Husband's unkindness and the danger of seeing another taken in and preferred before her and she might be perfectly at liberty to leave one who did not love her and take another Husband who might possibly delight in her See Answer to six Queries Q. III. Cap. II. Some think that this Custom of putting away Wives which they did not
like prevailed before the Law of Moses Which Opinion hath something to countenance it from the mention of Divorces in several places XXI Levit. 14. XXII 13. XXX Numb 9. before the Book of Deuteronomy was written wherein he orders a Bill to be given in writing to discharge them If this be true it gives a good reason why God was pleased to grant this permission because they were so settled in this practice that it was safer still to indulge it to them than quite to abolish it Which he did with this Caution that Husbands should not discharge their Wives with a Word bidding them be gone out of Doors i. e. putting them away rashly and in a sudden fit of Anger but first write them a Bill containing their pleasure herein Which being a deliberate act might possibly hinder this Divorce to which they might be prone in a passion but not after some consideration The form of this Bill is in Mr. Selden and exactly scanned Lib. III. Vxor Hebr. Cap. XXIV who observes also in another place of that Book Cap. XIX that as for five hundred years or more the Roman State flourished without the use of Divorces so for seven hundred years after the making of this Law there is no mention of any Bill of Divorce among the Jews that is till the days of Isaiah See Chap. L. 1. and but rarely afterwards And give it into her hand Saying these or some such like words Behold this is thy Bill of Divorce otherwise it was not good And there were to be at least two Witnesses unto it as the Jews say Who make ten things necessary which they think to be founded upon the Law it self to make the Bill legal See Selden in the same Book Cap. XXV And send her out of his house This Dr. Hammond in the place above-mentioned looks upon as an Obligation upon her Husband to furnish her for her Journey to endow her and make provision for her For so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to send out signifies in the New Testament to provide a viaticum 1 Corinth XVI 6 11. III Titus 13. where it is explained by letting nothing be wanting But the Jews are of opinion that the Divorce was perfect and legitimate before he sent her out of his Doors For it was sufficient to give her a Bill in such a form as plainly show'd their Matrimony was dissolved and that she was no part of his Family though he had not actually sent her away Yet if he kept her still in his House after this Bill was delivered into her hand it was presumed they cohabited together and he was to give her a new Bill of Divorce In all which I can see nothing like a Command for putting away their Wives if they were disagreeable which the Jews would fain extort out of these words And so they spake unto our blessed Lord XIX Matth. 7. though in another place they spake of it only as a permission X Mark 3. The plain intent of this Law being this That if a Man did put away his Wife as they are here suffered to do she might marry another Man but if that new Husband died she might not return to her first Husband again See Buxtorf de Sponsal Divort. p. 107 108 c. and to show that Moses rather supposed than permitted Divorces p. 113 c. Verse 2 Ver. 2. And when she is departed out of his house So that it is publickly known she is no longer his Wife She may go and be another man's wife The Bond of Marriage being wholly broken by the Bill of Divorce whereby he renounced all interest in her and expresly said in the very body of the Bill as we speak It may be free to thee to marry with whom thou wilt Much more was the Bond broken by Adultery for which our Saviour gives a Man leave to put away his Wife and take another See David Chytraeus concerning this matter p. 117 c. where he reports a very wise Resolution of Luther's Pomeranus and Melancthon in the Case of the Criminal Person Verse 3 Ver. 3. And if the latter husband hate her and write her a Bill of Divorce and give it her in her hand and send her out of his house This shows that no other way of putting away a Wife was allowed but only this For as Maimonides well observes More Nevochim P. III. Cap. XLIX if it had been lawful to do it by bare words or simply sending her out of his House any Woman might have left her Husband and said she was put away both she and he that committed Adultery with her pretending a Divorce when her Husband had given her none Therefore the Law wisely provided none should be put away but by such a Bill as is before-mentioned whereby an Authentick Testimony was given of it Or if her latter husband die which took her to wife Whereby she became free again as the Apostle hath observed VII Rom. 2. Ver. 4. Her former husband which sent her away may Verse 4 not take her again to be his wife One would have thought there could have been no danger of any Man 's desiring her again whom he had solemnly sent away with dislike But such is the levity and fickleness of Humane Nature the Jews at least were so inconstant that it seems Men sometimes sought after that which they had rejected and this was the Punishment of their Injustice in putting away a Wife without sufficient Cause as by this they acknowledged that they might not again enjoy her After that she is defiled This is the reason why the former Husband might not marry her again as the Jews take it because by her second Marriage she was defiled Which they say she was so that he could not have her again though she had been only espoused to a new Husband who had never lain with her For they make no difference between her second Marriage and second Espousals but think a Woman contracted such a Pollution by her second Espousals that she would not have been so much polluted if she had plaid the Whore after her Divorce For in that case they say he might notwithstanding have married her again but not after she had been married to another Thus Mr. Selden reports their opinion Lib. I. Vxor Hebr. Cap. XI where he observes that the Mahometans who are wont in many things to ape the Jews here quite differ from them allowing a Man liberty to take his Wife again though he had divorced her three times Now the ground upon which a divorced Woman was accounted defiled or unclean after another Man had married her I suppose was that this was lookt upon as a Solemn Renunciation of her former Husband on her part who had been renounced by him by the Bill of Divorce but he was not absolutely renounced by her till she married another whereby she was totally alienated from him This made her unclean not in her self nor with respect to her
Ver. 8. Take heed in the plague of Leprosie that thou observe diligently This was the highest legal Uncleanness and therefore the greatest Caution was to be used to prevent its Contagion And do according to all that the Priests the Levites They were constituted by the Law the sole Judges whether a Man had the Leprosie or no and were to order his Separation from others if he had and frequently make inspection whether it spread or was at a stand c. See the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Chapters of LEVITICVS where there are Laws about Houses and Garments as well as Persons infected with this Disease by the Hand of God as the Jews understand it Shall teach you To teach in this place signifies to declare the Obligation of the Law by the Judges of it the Priests the Levites Thus Jehosaphat is said to have sent his Princes to teach in the Cities of Judah and with them he sent Levites and Priests 2 Chron. XVIII 18. where R. Solomon notes that it was the business of the Priests and Levites to teach and instruct as is here written in this place which he quotes and the Princes went with them that none might disobey them but be constrained by their Authority to do according to their command See Mr. Thorndike in his Religious Assemblies Chap. II. p. 22. where he observes that in LEVITICUS direction is given to the Priests how to proceed in judging Leprosies but no Provision made till now that the People should stand to their Judgment They who imagine that the Priest had the care of Lepers as their Physicians forget that no other diseased Persons are ordered to repair to them which is a sign they did not pretend to cure them but only to preserve others from being defiled by them and to do what was necessary for their cleansing when they were healed by God As I command them so shall ye observe to do They were so to observe the Priests as to mark what God commanded and accordingly obey them not against but according to his command Ver. 9. Remember what the LORD thy God did unto Verse 9 Miriam by the way after that ye were come forth out of Egypt This seems to be mentioned that they might not think much to be shut up seven days when they were but suspected to have the Leprosie and seven days more to make farther trial and to be put out of the Camp when it appeared plainly they had this Disease XIII Levit. 4 5 45 46. Since so great a Person as Miriam was excluded so long from the Society of God's People XII Numb 15. And this may be also lookt upon as an Admonition to take care lest they spoke Evil of Dignities which brought this Punishment on Miriam or disobeyed the Commands of the Priests which might bring the like or some other Judgment upon them Verse 10 Ver. 10. When thou dost lend thy brother any thing thou shalt not go into his house to fetch his pledge This was a very merciful provision for the Poor whose Houses he would have so priviledged that no Man might enter into them without their consent and there chuse what he pleased for the Security of his Debt But he was to take what the Borrower could best spare Verse 11 Ver. 11. Thou shalt stand abroad Keep without door And the Man to whom thou dost lend shall bring out the pledge abroad unto thee So the Debtor not the Creditor was to chuse what Pledge he would give For he best knew what he could with most convenience to himself part withal and if it was sufficient the Lender had reason to be satisfied with it Verse 12 Ver. 12. And if the Man be poor thou shalt not sleep with his pledge But restore it before Night Which is to be understood of such things as were necessary for the preservation of his Life or Health as the following words demonstrate Verse 13 Ver. 13. In any case thou shalt deliver him the pledge again when the Sun goeth down that he may sleep in his own raiment And not to be forced to borrow of others a necessary Covering to defend him from the Cold and not be able perhaps to procure it See XXII Exod. 26 27. which Laws seems to have been intended to keep them from taking any pledge of a very poor Man For to what purpose should they every Morning fetch a pledge and every Evening carry it back again which would only create them a great deal of trouble And bless thee Pray God to bless thee And it shall be righteousness unto thee before the LORD thy God Procure thee a Blessing from God who will esteem it an Act of great Mercy which is often called by the name of Righteousness in the Holy Books CXII Psalm 9. X Prov. 2 c. Nay such like actions are properly called tzedekah or righteousness according to the opinion of Maimonides who observes More Nevochim P. III. Cap. LIII that this word doth not meerly signifie giving to every Man his own For when a Man pays the Hireling his wages or a Debtor pays his Creditor that is not called tzedekah but what a Man doth out of pure love to Vertue and Goodness as when a Man cures a poor Wretch of his wounds is properly called by that name From whence it is said concerning the restoring of a poor Man's pledge it shall be to thee for righteousness That is saith Dr. Hammond in his Practical Catechism that degree of Mercy which the Law required of every Jew without which he could not be accounted righteous but there was a degree of Bounty beyond this called chusidah which was an excess of Righteousness or Goodness Ver. 14. Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant Verse 14 Either by putting more work upon him than he is able to do or by detaining his Wages when it is done The latter of these is most properly here denoted as Const L'Empereur observes out of D. Kimchi who in his Book of Roots saith the difference between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the word here and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not lye in this that the former signifies to defraud the latter to take away by violence but the former signifies to detain by force and the other to take away by force what belongs to another And for the proof of it alledges this place in Deuteronomy which he thus translates Thou shalt not detain by force the wages of the hireling Which is expressed more clearly III Malachi 5. Annot. in Bava kama Cap. IX Sect. VII p. 247. That is poor and needy And therefore the more to be pitied and not oppressed either by giving him less Wages than another Man when he ought rather to have greater or by keeping back his hire beyond the time wherein it ought to be paid For as the ancient Lawyers say Minus solvit qui tempore minus solvit as it is observed by Grotius upon V James 4. Whether he be of thy brethren or
about Cleansing were not then delivered And feared not God This he makes the fourth Cause that though they feared Israel whom they durst not look in the Face but cut them off behind yet they feared not God who had done such wonderful things for them in Egypt and brought them thence with a mighty hand and overthrown Pharaoh in the Red-sea Which might have made them understand that he sets up Kings and pulls down Kings as Daniel speaks 2.21 But instead of considering this they would have prophaned the Glory of the LORD as he speaks by inslaving those whom he had but newly delivered and continued under the protection of a glorious Cloud Unto all which may be added that they were originally derived from the same Stock with the Israelites viz. from Isaac Verse 19 Ver. 19. Therefore it shall be when the LORD thy God hath given thee rest from all thine Enemies round a-about in the Land which the LORD thy God giveth thee God did not require them to put this Command in Execution immediately after they were possessed of the Land of Canaan but after they were well settled there So that there were some Ages passed before they went about it and then God himself put them in mind of it or rather strictly enjoyned it to be performed by Saul their first King and we do not find them blamed for not doing it in the time of the Judges 1 Sam. XV. 1 2 3. Thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven So God commandeth Saul in the place now mentioned Vtterly destroy all they have and spare them not but slay both men and women c. For by the same Justice that one Person is cut off a whole Family or a whole Nation may be utterly destroyed that other Families or Nations seeing or hearing God's Judgments upon them may be moved to flee from that wickedness for which they are punished They are the words of Maimonides P. III. More Nevochim Cap. XLI If we could believe all that the Talmudists say we might think there were some among the Jews who indeavoured to mollifie the Severity of this Precept For they tell a story in Bava-bathra of Joab his Master who taught him to read it thus Blot out Zachar the Male of Amalek not Zecher the Remembrance But at the same time they tell us Joab thought to have killed him for leading him into an Error Thou shalt not forget it This is not a distinct Precept but only a Repetition of the foregoing to imprint it more on their minds and hearts And accordingly the Jews pretend to have had their hearts so set upon it that when the Officers were about to proclaim freedom from War to those Persons mentioned XX. 5 6 c. they always excepted the War against the Seven Nations and Amalek in which every Body was bound to assist Chapter XXVI I shall end this matter with an Observation of Abarbinel that in this Paragraph about Amalek the Injunction which God gave to Moses XVII Exod. 14. was fulfilled by him Write this for a memorial in a book No other Book saith he is hereby meant but the Book of the Law which when Moses wrote he was bound to mention this Precept about Amalek which he doth in this place And if we suppose that he immediately wrote a distinct History of this matter yet he inserted it afterwards into the Pentateuch both here and in the Book of EXODVS CHAP. XXVI Verse 1 Verse 1. AND it shall be when thou art come into the Land which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance and possessest it and dwellest therein When they had a settled possession of the several Inheritances which fell to their share in the Land of Canaan Verse 2 Ver. 2. That thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the earth This is not meant meerly of the first First-fruits they should have after they were settled in Canaan but of the First-fruits they should have every year Which being the most desirable as Conradus Pellicanus here observes of all other and coveted by every one majori aviditate with a greater Appetite than ordinary Nature it self directed Men to offer them to God the giver of all good things And these were distinct from that mentioned XXIII Levit. 10. being of all the Fruits of the Earth The principal of which being Seven the Jews commonly say these only were to be carried to God viz. Wheat Barley Grapes Figs Pomegranates Olives and Dates Some of the Doctors say the First-fruits of all kind of things whatsoever were due and a question being raised Whether a Stranger was bound to pay them or not some of them say no because they could not use the Protestation mentioned v. 3. But the more common Opinion is that they might both bring First-fruits and use the Protestation because Abraham was also the Father of Strangers XVII Gen. 5. and it may be saith R. Bechai that is pointed at v. 11. of this Chapter where it is said Thou and the Levite and the Stranger that is among you Which thou shalt bring of thy Land which the LORD thy God giveth thee In order to which they say every owner of Land when he went into his ground and found any Figs or Bunch of Grapes or a Pomegranate more forward than the rest he was to tye a Rush about it and write upon it These are First-fruits So Wagenseil and many others have observed out of the Title Biccurim Cap. III. And shalt put it in a basket The quantity of each they say was to be at least a sixtieth part And they might be all put into the same Basket provided they were not mingled but preserved distinct Barley being laid at the bottom and then Wheat and next Olives and above them Dates and then Pomegranates and last of all Figs and Grapes being hung on the out-side and Leaves of Palm or other Trees put between every kind of First-fruits R. Bechai saith that the Rich brought these Fruits in Baskets of Gold and Silver that is covered with Gold or Silver as Maimonides speaks and we read of the like golden Baskets carried by Virgins in the Feast of Bacchus at Athens See Ezek. Spanhemius on Callimachus his Hymn to Ceres p. 733. Now if the Basket here mentioned was made of these or any other Metal the Jews say the Priest was to restore it to the owner when he had emptied it But if it was a wicker Basket or such like the Priest had it together with the First-fruits See Wagenseil upon Mischna Sota Cap. VII Sect. III. And shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall chuse to place his Name there The Man himself was to go as the Jews say with the Basket upon his shoulder and a great Company were wont to go together who met at the chief City of their Province The time of going was at the Feast of Pentecost XXIII Exod. 16. not before but at any time
at their number For if only the Ten Commandments fewer than Twelve would serve if the whole Book of Deuteronomy so many were not sufficient As for the Marginal Reference in our Bibles unto IV Josh 1. it can have no respect to this place for those Twelve Stones were ordered to be taken our of Jordan and left there where they lodged that Night which was at Gilgal See there v. 3 8 20. And plaister them with plaister That being plain and smooth they might write what is here commanded upon them which they could not do while they were rough and uneven Ver. 3. And thou shalt write upon them all the words Verse 3 of this Law Many think he means the whole Book of Deuteronomy which because it is long great stones are ordered to be provided for this purpose Others think only the Ten Commandments are here intended which were the principal words of the Covenant as Moses calls this Law XXIX 1. But Josephus L. IV. Archaeol Cap. ult is of opinion that he means the Cursings which here follow from v. 15. to the end of the Chapter Which is no improbable Opinion they containing several select Precepts and the last of them seems to respect the whole Law of Moses v. 26. But however we understand this it is certain that before the use of Paper was found out the Ancients particularly the Phoenicians and Egyptians were wont to write their minds upon Stones as a great many Authors testifie mentioned by Huetius Who observes that this Custom continued long after the Invention of Paper especially if they desired any thing should be vulgarly known and conveyed down to Posterity See Demonstr Evang. Propos IV. Cap. II. N. XV. where he observes that Moses ordered the Book of Deuteronomy to be inscribed upon Stones I suppose he means all the Laws contained in this Book not all the Exhortations and Historical passages which agrees very well with this Injunction that they should write on the stones all the words of this Law When thou art passed over that thou mayest go in unto the Land which the LORD thy God giveth thee c. When they were gone over Jordan to take possession of the Land of Canaan and were come to the place where he directed these Stones to be set up and this Inscription made upon them Which place is particularly named in the next Verse And from these words Fortunatus Scacchus thinks he hath reason to assert that none of the things forementioned are meant by the words of this Law here commanded to be written But that upon the very top of these Stones or the Altar made of them as he would have it understood were written only the words of this Covenant whereby the People of Israel confessed themselves to have received the Land of Canaan from God and to hold it on Condition of their Obedience unto him For so he interprets the words write upon them in summa superficie And to make us know what he means by the words of this Law he thinks the following words are added That thou mayest go in unto the Land which the LORD thy God giveth thee c. That is thou shalt declare who brought thee hither and gave thee possession of this Country and upon what Condition viz. that thou shouldst keep the Commands given to thee by God in Horeb. And therefore Moses doth not bid them write on the Stones the Law of the LORD nor the Law absolutely but the words of this Law Where the demonstrative Particle hazoth limits the sense to the present Matter of which he is speaking Thus he Myrothec 2. Sacror Elaeochrism Cap. LVII where he endeavours to strengthen this Interpretation by observing that after this Command for writing this Law upon the Stones Moses and the Priests and Levites spake unto all Israel saying Take heed and hearken O Israel this day thou art become the People of the LORD thy God c. v. 9 10. Ver. 4. Therefore it shall be when ye be gone over Verse 4 Jordan that ye shall set up these stones This Phrase set up seems to imply that they were a kind of Pillars erected for this purpose that the Inscription might appear more fairly upon them In Mount Ebal Here the Samaritan Pentateuch hath in Mount Gerizim which is a manifest corruption to justifie their building a Temple there which they pretend God commanded in these words Ver. 5. And there shalt thou build an Altar unto the Verse 5 LORD thy God That they might offer Sacrifice to God and renew their Covenant with him An Altar of Stones Upon which Josephus himself fancies the forenamed Inscription was to be made and so the Talmudists also in Mischna Sota Cap. VII But it is plain the Stones designed for that use were to be set up before the Altar was built the intention of it being as I shall show presently that they might promise to observe the words which were there written Thou shalt not lift up any iron tool upon them See XX Exod. 25. Verse 6 Ver. 6. Thou shalt build the Altar of the LORD thy God of whole stones Not hewn nor polished whereby all manner of imagery was avoided Such Rustick Altars of rough Stone piled one upon another were in use among the Heathen who seem to have imitated this Pattern The Form of one of them Fortunatus Scacchus hath given us out of some ancient Monuments at Brixia related by Octavius Roscius See his forenamed Book Cap. LIX p. 585. Such Altars the Israelites were permitted to build upon some special occasion as Gideon and Manoah did VI Judg. 24 26. XIII 19. and Samuel 1 Sam. VII 17. and Saul 1 Sam. XIV 35. and David 2 Sam. XXIV 25. And such an one Moses himself built XXIV Exod. 4. And as Moses there set up Twelve Pillars according to the number of the Tribes of Israel when they entred into Covenant with God at Horeb so the forementioned Author thinks at the Confirmation of it when they came into Canaan they built not Twelve Altars but heaped up Twelve Stones which made one Altar without any Cost at all bestowed upon it And thus Elijah took Twelve Stones and on a sudden built an Altar with them when he endeavoured to bring the Israelites back again into the Covenant of God 1 Kings XVIII 31 32. And thou shalt offer Burnt-offerings thereon As they did at Horeb XXIV Exod. 5. and as Joshua did when they came into Canaan and had built the Altar here commanded VIII Josh 31. which Burnt-offerings were an acknowledgment of God's Soveraign Dominion over them and that they held this Land of him as their Supream LORD from whom they had received it They kept the Passover as soon as they came into Canaan but we read of no Altar erected nor Burnt-Sacrifices offered till they came to Ebal Ver. 7. And thou shalt offer Peace-offerings So Verse 7 Moses also did at Horeb as we read in the forenamed place XXIV Exod. 5. and so Joshua did
Hierom's time to expound the words of this Law to signifie not meerly all that is contained in these Blessings and Curses but all things which are written in the Book of the Law So that whether this whole Book i. e. all the Laws contained in it written upon the Pillars or only these Blessings and Cursings the matter comes to the same Issue because all that is contained in this Book is comprehended in this last Curse yea all that is contained in the whole Law of Moses Therefore it is not very material neither whether only these Curses and Blessings were recited upon Mount Gerizim and Ebal or the whole Law of Moses from one end to the other about which the Jews themselves differ But they that are of the latter Opinion think it well grounded upon VIII Josh 33. where we read how Joshua carefully performed what Moses here enjoyned And that his words might not be forgotten Moses seems to have ordered the continuance of this Solemnity every seventh year in the Twenty ninth Chapter of this Book v. 10 11 c. The Misâ—hna in Sota which I have often mentioned concludes this matter with these words When the Blessings and the Cursings were ended they brought Stones and built an Altar which they plaistered over and wrote upon them all the words of this Law in Seventy Languages But I have shown before that the Stones on which the Law was written was different from the Altar and were erected before the building of the Altar The Gemara there adds Cap. VII Sect. XXIV That every one of the Israelites there present stood bound one for another that is for the whole Company that they would observe these Laws Which I know not how they extract out of Moses his words but their Doctors frequently mention it in their Books and make this pious use of it That by virtue of this Security which they gave for each other every Man was bound to reprove his Neighbour if he saw him offend unless he was content to undergo the Punishment which was threatned unto the Breach of God's Laws and come under the Curse XIX Levit. 17. And unto this they apply those words They shall fall one upon another as we truly translate XXVI Levit. 37. as if they signified every one shall fall by his Brother that is by his Brothers Crimes For we all promised say they in the Gemara Sanhedrim Cap. III. Sect. VI. and engaged one for another and so from that time were punished one for another CHAP. XXVIII Chapter XXVIII Verse 1. AND it shall come to pass In this Verse 1 Chapter he repeats with many Enlargements the Rewards and Penalties which he had promised and threatned in the Book of Leviticus unto the Observance or Breach of the Covenant they had made with God And here in this Verse he promises in general the Blessings which are more particularly enumerated in the following Verses If thou wilt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God to observe and do all his Commandments c. See VII 12. Where the same thing is said only here he adds the word diligently to make them attend with the greater seriousness to what he delivered See Chapt. XI 13 22. That the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all Nations of the earth By bestowing on them the following Blessings See VII 14. They were already endued with singular Priviledges above other Nations XIX Exod. 5 6. which by their Obedience would be confirmed continued and augmented in greater plenty of all things Ver. 2. And all these Blessings shall come upon thee Verse 2 and overtake thee Blessings that come unexpectedly and when we are not in pursuit of them are most welcome and highly delight us And such God here promises to bestow on them by his gracious Providence without their laborious and anxious seeking after them By which very thing he set them above all Nations for what they followed after eagerly and many times in vain he undertakes should come to them and prevent their desires If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God So as to observe and do all his Commandments as it is explained in the foregoing Verse Verse 3 Verse 3. Blessed shalt thou be in the City and blessed shalt thou be in the field That is in all their Affairs within doors or without Or whether they lived by Employments in the City or by Husbandry in Tilling the Ground It is not a natural Interpretation of these words which one of the Hebrew Doctors gives of them in Bava Metzia where he expounds blessed shalt thou be in the City thy House shall be so nigh unto the Synagogue that thou needest not be troubled by going a long way to it And blessed in the field thy Ground shall lye so near to the City that thou mayest quickly bring the Fruit it produces to be sold in the Market But if he could have gone on in this manner it had been something tolerable but he expounds what follows in a most undecent manner See Wagenseil upon the Gemara of Sota Cap. III. Sect. IX Annot. 5. Verse 4 Ver. 4. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body This seems to be a Promise of preventing Miscarriages when they were with Child for a numerous Progeny is promised afterwards v. 11. And the fruit of thy ground This signifies they should have seasonable Harvests and Vintages For fruit of the ground comprehends not only all sorts of Corn but Grapes Figs Pomegranates and such like Fruit which grow on Trees And the fruit of thy Cattle By the word Behemah is sometimes meant all sorts of brute Creatures in opposition to Men sometimes tame Creatures in opposition to wild Beasts But here all sorts of Domestick Creatures except Kine Sheep and Goats viz. Asses and Camels Which Jacob brought with him as well as Oxen and Sheep when he came from Laban into Canaan XXXII Gen. 5 7. And the increase of thy kine The breed of these was very profitable being a considerable part of the Riches not only of that but of other Countries as appears by what Pausanias saith of them See Bochartus P. I. Hierozoicon Lib. II. Cap. XL. in the beginning And the flocks of thy sheep Under the name of Sheep in the Hebrew are comprehended Goats also All which God promises to increase that is to make them very wealthy And here it may be observed that the Israelites were generally Husbandmen or Shepherds and did not commonly follow any other Trades and therefore no mention is made of them here unless it be in v. 6. where he seems to speak of all sort of Business Ver. 5. Blessed shall be thy basket The Hierusalem Verse 5 Targum refers this to the Basket wherein they carried up their First-fruits XXVI 2. But the Vulgar Latin translates it thy Barns and so do the LXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the places where they laid up their Corn and other Fruits of the Earth Which
till they had brought them to utter ruin Which is so evidently fulfilled that would but the Atheists consider it and lay it to heart it would wring from them a Confession of the truth of what these Divine Oracles have uttered That this was a People who had been appointed to destruction For though there be a great many of them remaining in several parts of the World yet they have never been suffered to grow into a Nation but in that sense are utterly destroyed as Moses here prophesied Because thou hearknedst not unto the voice of the LORD thy God to keep his Commandments and his Statutes which I commanded thee this day It hath manifestly appeared the hand of God is very heavy upon them for their Disobedience to him there being no other reason why they who were once so favoured by him should be so long as they have been more miserable than any other People Verse 46 Ver. 46. And they shall be upon thee That is the Curses before-mentioned should remain fixed upon them and continue unremoved from Age to Age. For a sign and for a wonder That all Men may take notice of them and look upon them as extraordinary Tokens of God's high displeasure and take warning thereby to beware of their Infidelity and Disobedience For as that great Man often saith No sign can be given equivalent to the desolatiqn of the Jewish Nation and their continuing still banished from their own Land and miserably treated in all other Countries And upon thy seed for ever All the World may clearly see to use his words again that the God of their Fathers hath cast them off they having no signs or badges of his ancient wonted favours whilst innumerable Marks and Scars of his fearful Indignation against their Fathers remain unhealed in their Children after more Generations than their Ancestors had of Prosperity in the promised Land Ver. 47. Because thou servedst not the LORD thy Verse 47 God with joyfulness and gladness of heart for the abundance of all things Or In the abundance of all things for this is opposed to the hunger and thirst in which he saith in the next Verse they should serve their Enemies as a punishment for their wanton abuse of God's Mercies Which being so exceeding great justly required not only their obedience but cheerfulness and delight therein Ver. 48. Therefore shalt thou serve thine Enemies Verse 48 which he shall send against thee He doth not call the LORD their God as he did before now they were abandon'd by him for their sins In hunger and thirst and nakedness and in want of all things This shows what he meant before by abundance of all things plentiful provision of Food and Raiment and all other things belonging to the Comfort of Life And he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck The loss of Liberty was as great a Misery as any other which ended also in hard Servitude And it was but just that they should be Slaves in the Land of their Enemies to cruel Masters who would not in their own Country serve so gracious and loving a Father as the LORD their God A yoke of iron Signifies an unsupportable Yoke which could not be broken See XXVIII Jerem. 13 14. Verse 49 Ver. 49. And the LORD shall bring a Nation against thee from far This evidently belongs to the Romans as Manasseh ben Israel acknowledges who thinks that at this Verse begins his Prophecy of their Calamities under the second Temple as in the foregoing he describes their Calamities under the first And in this I think he saith right That there is scarce any thing mentioned in the following part of this Chapter but what relates to what they suffered under the second Temple as he speaks and since its destruction though I cannot say as he doth of the foregoing part of it that it was fulfilled in the Calamities which befel them under the first Temple for many things were never so compleatly fulfilled as since they crucified our Saviour From the end of the earth This shows he speaks of the Romans rather then of the Chaldaeans who did not come from far much less from the end of the earth but out of the North Country which was not very far distant from Judaea Whereas the Romans by whom they were last destroyed came literally from far and from the end of the earth Particularly Julius Severus was called by the Emperour Adrian to their destruction out of this Island of Britain Wherein Vespasian also had given great proof of his Conduct And Adrian himself and Trajan by whom they were still more crushed after Vespasian had destroyed their City and Temple were both Spaniards by birth And therefore Manasseh ben Israel says peremptorily in his Book de Termino Vitae Lib. III. Sect. III. this is to be understood of the Souldiers in Vespasian's Army which he brought out of England France and Spain and other remote parts of the World As swift as the Eagles Which every one knows the Romans carried in their Ensigns And these Birds are observed to fly upon their Prey with great force and violence to whom therefore fierce Souldiers such as the Romans were are compared when they set upon their Enemies So Homer describes Achilles falling upon the Trojans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Iliad Φ. where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 furious assaults as the Scholiast interprets it And so he speaks concerning Hector Iliad X. As David also speaks of Saul and Jonathan 2 Sam. 1.23 and the Chaldaeans are so described coming against Jerusalem IV Jerem. 13. XLVIII 40. XLIX 22. I Lament 19 XVII Ezek. 3. and see VII Daniel 4. and Bochartus in his Hierozoicon Pars I. Lib. II. Cap. IX P. II. Lib. II. Cap. II. A Nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand The Roman Tongue was more strange to them than the Chaldaean especially the Language of many Nations of which the Roman Army was composed And being a People whom their Ancestors perhaps never heard of Dr. Jackson justly looks upon the Destruction and general Desolation of their Country made by the Romans and their Tributaries in these Western Parts of the World as an Everlasting Monument of the truth of Moses his Prophecy in this and in the following Verses Verse 50 Ver. 50. A Nation This word Nation being used thrice in this and the foregoing Verse Manasseh ben Israel in the place forenamed is so critical as to observe that this Repetition shows Jerusalem was to suffer thrice by the Roman power First In the time of Pompey and secondly when Sosius came to the assistance of Herod against Antigonus and thirdly when it was besieged and overturned by Vespasian and his Son Titus Of a fierce countenance So we translate this Phrase VIII Daniel 23. which in the Hebrew is a strong or hard face Accordingly we translate it impudent or in our language brazen-faced VII Prov. 13. and hard XXI Prov. 29. and bold of face
II Lament 20. IV. 10. But never so exactly fulfilled as in the last siege by the Romans when a noble Woman which fully answers to this Prophecy such Persons being very delicate did the very same as Josephus relates in his Book of the Jewish War Lib. VII Cap. VIII A most unnatural fact as he observes which was never committed either by Greek or Barbarian and which he would not have related because it might seem incredible if there had not been many Witnesses of it besides himself Verse 57 Ver. 57. And toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet Toward her new-born Babe which is wont to be welcomed into the World with great joy but in this siege dispatcht out of it to asswage the rage of their hunger In the Hebrew as we take notice in the Margin the word we translate young one properly signifies the after-birth And so the LXX translate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which makes this passage most plain that their hunger should make them so unnatural as first to eat the After-birth which came from them and then the Child which was wrapped in it And towards her children which she shall bear The rest of their Children whose cries for Food they had no way to stop but by killing them and making them their own Food So it follows in the next words For she shall eat them for want of all things Having nothing else left to eat For they had devoured not only the leather of their Girdles and their Shoes and which covered their Shields but the very stale Dung of Oxen and such things as the most sordid of all living Creatures would not eat See Josephus Lib. III. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cap. XVI Lib. VII Cap. VII Secretly It was not done secretly for any other reason but least any body should have a share with them and so make their hunger return the sooner And yet it was a hard matter to conceal what they had done of this kind for the seditious People presently smelling there had been something boild got into the House when she had eaten one half of her Child and found the other half which she had left till another time of which she invited them to eat In the siege and straitness These two words which are used here and v. 53. and 55. may both relate to the grievous Miseries they should endure when they were besieged v. 52. and may be translated in the pressure and straits wherewith thine Enemies c. Wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in thy gates We have not such an account of their distress in other Cities as we have of what they suffered in Jerusalem where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an innumerable multitude perished by Famine as Josephus tells us L. VII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cap. VII and ineffable Calamities thereupon hapned For in every House where the least shadow of Food appeared a War immediately began and the dearest Relations fell to blows snatching away from each other the miserable Supports of Life Nor would they let those that were dying expire quietly not believing what they affirmed when they told them they had no Food in their Houses but the Cut-throats came and searcht their very Bosoms as they lay drawing their last breath whether they had not there hid some Food Verse 58 Ver. 58. If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this Law which are written in this Book Among which those words are most remarkable XVIII 15 18 19. A Prophet shall the LORD thy God raise up unto thee like unto me unto him shall ye hearken c. Whosoever will not hearken unto the words which he shall speak in my Name I will require it of him That thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful Name the LORD THY GOD. That is fear the great LORD of Heaven and Earth and their special Benefactor who is most glorious in himself and to be most humbly reverenced by us For the Name of God is God himself from whence it is that he is sometimes called HASCHEM the Name XXIV Lev. 11. This shows the reason why Moses repeats this Name the LORD THY GOD so often as he doth in the Preface to this Book Chapt. VI VII VIII IX c. In some of which there is scarce a Verse wherein we do not meet with these words and it is sometimes repeated no less than three times in one and the same Verse XII 18. XVI 15. that God might be in all their Thoughts and the fear of him might possess their Hearts Ver. 59. Then the LORD If they still persisted Verse 59 in their Infidelity and Disobedience after Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed and such unheard of Calamities as they had suffered during the siege of that place he threatens to bring upon them more astonishing Judgments Will make thy plagues wonderful and the plagues of thy seed even great plagues and of long continuance Though their great Plagues under Vespasian by Famine Sword and Pestilence had lessened their numbers exceedingly yet by the time of Trajan and Adrian they had like Traitors taken for a while from the Rack to use Dr. Jackson's words recovered strength enough to be put to greater torture For then they were made a Spectacle to the World of the Divine Vengeance again which they brought upon themselves by their Rebellion and show'd therein their natural strength by their grievous lingring pains in dying For not only in Mesopotamia and in Cyprus but especially in Cyrene and throughout all Egypt they broke out into such outrages 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if they had been possessed with some fierce and seditious Spirit as Eusebius speaks Lib. IV. Eccles Hist Cap. II. whereupon Marcius Turbo was sent against them and setting upon them both by Sea and Land with Horse and Foot made a vast destruction of them See Dion Lib. LXVIII and Xiphilinus who describe their slaughter to have been so great that now was fulfilled as the forenamed Dr. Jackson thinks what Moses foretold in this place The LORD will make thy plagues wonderful great plagues and of long continuance And indeed Eusebius saith in the forenamed place that Turbo destroyed many thousands of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. in many battles and in no small time the War being protracted a great while to compleat their destruction And the application of this Prophecy to this Time may be confirmed by a strange Relation which we meet withal in their own Books For in the Hierusalem Talmud one of their Doctors tells us That when Trajan came upon them with his Army they were reading these very words of the Law v. 49. the LORD shall bring a Nation against thee from far from the ends of the earth c. which he understanding having askt them what they were doing he cried out Here is the man pointing to himself who am come five days sooner than I intended And immediately compassing them about with his Legions slew them
all Then he went to their Wives and offered them Mercy if they would submit themselves But they replyed What thou hast done to the ground do to the stubble So he dispatcht them also and shed so much Blood that it ran into the Sea as far as Cyprus At this time so he concludes his Story the Horn of Israel was cut off from Israel never to be restored into its place till the Son of David come This passage I find alledged by Joh. Benedictus Carpzovius out of Massec Sanhedr in explication of another matter in Schickard's Mischpat Hammelek Cap. III. Theor. X. p. 199. And sore sicknesses and of long continuance Such as Gonorhaea's Leprosies and burning Fevers as the Author of the old Nitzacon set forth by J. Wagenseil explains it p. 131. Ver. 60. Moreover he shall bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt which thou wast afraid of and they Verse 60 shall cleave unto thee The same Diseases he foretells should infest them in and after their destruction by the Romans which had done formerly under the Chaldaeans and other Oppressors v. 27. What these Diseases were Pet. Cunaeus Lib. II. de Republ. Jud. Cap. ult hath expressed in these words Vitiligines psorasque tetra ulcera c. Leprosies Itches Botches and foul stinking Ulcers the greatest Physicians have anciently ascribed to the Egyptians and Syrians as Plagues proper to those Nations unto which Diseases he observes the Jews were strangely obnoxious Ver. 61. Also every sickness and every plague which Verse 61 is not written in the Book of this Law them will the LORD bring upon thee until thou be destroyed It had been too long to have set down all the Diseases and Calamities that Mankind are subject to but he tells them they should not escape any one of them though very numerous and be afflicted with them till their destruction was compleated For they were of such long continuance as was said before and pursued them so closely whithersoever they went that they are no longer a Nation but a scattered forlorn People abandon'd and forsaken by him that formerly protected them Of this they themselves are so sensible that they have confessed the truth of this part of the Prophecy in these latter Ages For Solomon ben Virgoe having related in the fiftieth Section of his Book called Schebet Jehuda how they were transported out of Palestine into Spain and so miserably handled that not one of a thousand remained and then how they were destroyed in Germany and France where of innumerable Multitudes equal to the number which came out of Egypt scarce Five thousand survived that Calamity and what he himself saw in Castile and Portugal where they suffered such things as cannot be expressed nor conceived by Famine by Depredations by Transportations and by being sold for Slaves or drowned in the Sea he thus at last concludes his sad Story that they who fled to avoid that dreadful Tempest in Castile found the truth of this Oracle Every sickness and plague which is not written in the Book of this Law shall the LORD bring upon thee till thou be destroyed Verse 62 Ver. 62. And ye shall be left few in number whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude The multitude of the Jews killed in the Wars was equal to the number of living Men in Israel in the time of King David For Josephus saith That in the siege of Jerusalem there were destroyed by Pestilence Famine and other ways Eleven hundred thousand besides above Ninety thousand carried Captive For they being come from all Countries to keep the Passover the whole Nation as his words are Lib. VII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cap. XVII were shut up here by a fate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in a close Prison or rather driven thither as Dr. Jackson speaks into a Slaughter-house after they had been foild by the Romans in the Field And yet after this they recovered strength as I observed before meerly to be more tormented and miserably destroyed For in the reign of Adrian who succeeded the Emperour Trajan they shook the Roman Empire by their rebellious Commotions as Dion who lived not long after relates in his History Lib. LXIX which moved Adrian to exercise the greater Severity upon them in their punishment there being slain of them in Battles and Skirmishes Five hundred and eighty thousand besides a vast number consumed by Famine and Sicknesses and Fire during the time of this lingring War which Julius Severus a famous Commander sent for on purpose out of Britain designedly protracted to a great length not being willing to try it out in the Field in one Battle with a desperate Multitude And now as Moses foretold they were left few in number For Dion as if he had intended to expound these words saith that Severus so beset and attacked them separately in several Parties that very few of them escaped fifty of their strongest Fortresses being utterly razed and nine hundred eighty and five of their most noble and populous Towns sackt and consumed by fire with the slaughter of the forementioned number Insomuch that as his words are all Judaea was in a manner laid waste and left as a Desert This we may truly call the last Conflict of this Nation with Death and Destruction in their own Land out of which they were now almost totally expelled Because thou wouldst not obey the voice of the LORD thy God Who had spoken to them by that great Prophet his Eternal WORD promised in the eighteenth Chapter of this Book v. 15 c. but they would not hearken to him For which Cause he gave them up to listen unto false Christs whom they followed to their destruction Particularly Barchocheba who in the time of Adrian took upon him the Title of their King and set up his Throne at Bitter in the Tribe of Benjamin which the Jews had made their cheaf Seat after the Destruction of Jerusalem and had in it as they pretend four hundred Synagogues Here the Romans made such a slaughter of them when they took it that the Jews themselves cannot find Expressions tragical enough to represent it Twice as many they tell us perished now as came out of Egypt great Rivers ran with the Blood of the slain which say some of them carried great Rocks along with it in the stream With these and many other such like hyperbolical Speeches they themselves exaggerate their Calamities as many have observed out of Juchasin and Gittin particularly Const L'Empereur in his Annotations on Jacchiades XI Dan. 34. But though now they were left few in number in Judaea yet in other Countries where they were dispersed they multiplied again that God's Plagues might continue to be multiplied upon them and this Prophecy more perfectly fulfilled For some Ages after this An. 1009. they had so incensed Christian People against them by bringing the Persians upon them who destroyed the Churches dedicated to our Saviour at Jerusalem that it
thousand of which perished in this barbarous manner Parents durst not mourn for their Children nor Children sigh for their Parents when they saw them haled to the place of Torment so that their hearts no doubt were ready to break with Grief and Sorrow In short Sic eos metus exanimaverat ut vivi non multum à mortuorum similitudine distarent Fear had so dispirited them that the living in their Aspect did not much differ from the dead Which words of Osorius in his fourth Book de Rebus Emanuelis our Dr. Jackson who relates this sad Story out of him looks upon as a Paraphrase upon these words of Moses though Osorius did not think of them I will give thee a trembling heart and failing of the eyes and sorrow of mind There are those who by a trembling heart understand the Terrors of an Evil Conscience So D. Chytraeus p. 131. And by failing of the eyes may be understood the constant disappointment of their Hopes wherewith they were sometimes fed by false Messiahs in several Ages Which disappointment bred great sorrow of Mind when after earnest expectation of some Good the quite contrary came upon them Ver. 66. And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee Verse 66 That is it should be doubtful whether they should live or die the next moment As it manifestly happened in the forenamed Massacre when they durst not fetch a sigh and yet could hardly avoid it at the sight of their Parents or Childrens Tortures for fear they should suffer the same before the Breath was out of their tortured Bodies And thou shalt fear day and night and shalt have no assurance of life So it was then none of them knowing who would be next seized in those three days Butchery And so it was in some of their Banishments which they were told should be the best remedy for the evils impending over them as the Author of Schebet Juda speaks who tells us Sect. XXIII that the reason which some Princes gave for their Expulsion out of their Territories was to prevent their being torn in pieces by the People who were most furiously set against them Ver. 67. And in the morning thou shalt say would Verse 67 God it were even That they might not see those miserable Spectacles which they hoped would end in the night when Men went to rest And at even thou shalt say would God it were morning Being afraid of unseen Dangers to which the Night might give an opportunity or that they might not see their way when they fled by Sea and Land from one Country to another as they were forced to do very often For Abarbinel in his Commentary upon XL Isaiah 11. reckons up four universal Banishments out of the Countries where they lived The first out of England the next out of France the third out of Asia Germany Tuscany Lumbardy and Savoy and the last out of Spain when he himself was one of those who were constrained to leave that Country and knew not whither to go He hath given us a lively description of that Calamity like to which he saith none had ever befaln them since they were banished their own Country in his Preface to his Commentary upon the Book of the Kings which he wrote the very next Year after their Expulsion 1493. and the Author of Schebet Juda hath transcribed in his own words A Decree was made and proclaimed publickly that all the Jews should either change their Religion or quit the Country in three Months time Abarbinel had then a place in the Court where he petitioned the King and besought his Ministers and Counsellors to revoke the Edict and be content with their Estates which they offered to him but all in vain For Three hundred thousand old and young Men and Women and he among the rest went away on foot upon one day not knowing whither to go Some went into Portugal others into Navar where they conflicted with many Calamities For some became a Prey or perished by Famine and Pestilence And therefore others committed themselves to the Sea hoping to find a quiet Seat in some other Countries But on the Sea they met with new Disasters for many were sold as Slaves when they came on any Coast many were drowned many burnt in the Ships which were set on fire in short all suffered the just Punishment of God the Avenger as he speaks For after all this a Plague came and swept away the rest of these miserable Wretches who were hated by all Mankind so that all that vast number perished by one Calamity or other except a very few He that would see more of the woful Miseries of this People may look into Schebet Juda Sect. LIII where he shows what befel those who went to seek new Habitations in the Kingdom of Fess where they lived a long time upon Grass and eat its very Roots and then died and their Bodies lay exposed none being so charitable as to bury them For the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see The one of these seems to refer to their dreadful apprehensions in the Night and the other to the lamentable Spectacles they beheld in the day And the simple meaning of the former part of the Verse may be that they should be weary of Life having no Comfort either Day or Night Ver. 68. And the LORD shall bring thee into Egypt Verse 68 again The Hierusalem Targum translates it The WORD of the LORD shall bring thee back again He that is who conducted them out of Egypt in a glorious Cloud would punish them for their foul Offences against him by bringing them again into Bondage there This was first fulfilled after the Desolation made by Titus when there was as I observed before v. 62. above Ninety thousand carried Captive and many of them transported into Egypt as Josephus relates in the conclusion of the sixteenth Chapter of his Seventh Book concerning the War of the Jews And here Manasseh ben Israel hath a very pertinent observation that Vespasian transported them into many and various Regions but Egypt is only here named the more to reproach the Jews as if he had said Ye shall be carried into that Land as Captives out of which you came in a triumphant manner Lib. III. de Termino vitae Sect. 3. Which may incline one to think that he was of the same mind with our Dr. Jackson who observing how cruelly they were used here in England and many other Countries concludes that this Island and every place of Europe wherein their Condition of Life hath been more hard and burdensome than their Forefathers was in Egypt may be said to be that Egypt into which God threatens here to bring them in Ships And indeed we do not read of their being carried into Egypt after Vespasian's time though it is set down here as a Punishment to come upon them after a long train of other Miseries
make them sensible of the Condition of their Tenure by engaging them in a Solemn Covenant to observe the Laws of God faithfully which was but a renewal of what was made before at Horeb. That ye may prosper in all that you do See IV. 6. The Hebrew word which we translate prosper the LXX translate act prudently for they tanslate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Vulgar to the same purpose ut intelligatis that ye may understand to manage your selves wisely in all your Concerns by observing the Rules God hath given you Which was the way to prosper Ver. 10. Ye stand this day all of you before the LORD your God The Summons which he sent out v. 2. it seems by this was to appear at the Tabernacle Verse 10 where they now stood and from whence he delivered these words to them by the Priests and Levites XXVII 9 14. Your Captains of your Tribes In the Hebrew your heads of your Tribes who were the greatest Persons in the Nation called sometimes Princes Your Elders These were not only the LXX Elders mentioned XI Numb 16. but all the other Judges in their several Courts who are often called by the Name of Elders in this Book Particularly XIX 12 18. XXI 2 4 6. XXV 8. And the Officers Who attended upon the Judges to execute their Sentence See XVI 18. With all the men of Israel All the Men of their several Tribes Ver. 11. Your little ones your wives Who were Verse 11 all now present or else were represented by the Men of Israel And thy stranger that is in thy camp Whether Egyptians that followed them when they came out of Egypt XII Exod. 38. or other People who had embraced their Religion so far at least as to renounce all Idolatry From the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water The meanest Servant whom they had bought perhaps with their Money either in Egypt or since they came from thence Ver. 12. That thou shouldest enter into Covenant with Verse 12 the LORD thy God In the Hebrew the words are pass into Covenant For so Covenants were anciently made in the Eastern Countries by dividing the Sacrifice and passing between the parts of it as appears from the manner of God's making a Covenant with Abraham in XV Gen. 10 17. whence some derive the Hebrew word Berith which signifies a Covenant from Bara which signifies cutting off because something was always sacrificed at the making Covenants and anciently cut in pieces For the same reason the Romans called a Covenant foedus which they derive à feriendo from striking that is killing some Beast particularly a Swine which was done with many Ceremonies And into his oath The Hebrew word which we translate Oath rather imports a Curse which was annexed to an Oath And so the LXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For they entred into this Covenant with such Imprecations upon themselves as are mentioned XXVII 15 16 c. Wishing perhaps that they might be cut in pieces as the Sacrifice was between whose parts they passed if they did not faithfully perform their Engagement Which the LORD thy God maketh with thee this day For the Covenant was mutual as appears by the burning Lamp representing the Divine Majesty passing through the pieces of the Sacrifice when God entred into a Covenant with Abraham XV Gen. 17. Verse 13 Ver. 13. That he may establish thee to day a people unto himself Confirm them in all the Priviledges which they had often forfeited by breaking his Covenant of being his peculiarly above all People XIX Exod. 5. XIX Deut. 2. And that he may be unto thee a God as he hath said unto thee Bless them and do them good as he had solemnly promised And sworn unto thy Fathers to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob. XII Gen. 2 3. XVII 7 8. XXII 16 17. XXVI 3 4. XXVIII 13 14. Ver. 14. Neither with you only do I make this covenant Verse 14 and this oath He means those mentioned v. 10 11. Ver. 15. But with him that standeth here with us this Verse 15 day before the LORD our God and also with him that is not here c. I think the Particle ki which begins this Verse should not be translated but for this is the same with what was said before not distinct from it And therefore should be translated thus As with him that standeth here with us before the LORD our God so also with him that is not here with us this day i. e. with all that were absent from the present Assembly and with all future Posterity who were as yet unborn So the Hierusalem Targum understands the latter part of this Verse with all Generations which shall be after us as if they stood here with us to day And so Vzielides as they call him with all Generations to come unto the end of the World as if they stood here with us at this present For perpetual Leagues are sometimes made between whole Nations for whom some contract in the name and place of all the rest and bind not only themselves but their Successors And thus Kings give Feifs to their Subjects upon Conditions which their Families are bound to perform in after Ages or else lose the benefit of them Ver. 16. For ye know how we have dwelt in the Land of Verse 16 Egypt These words and those that follow in this and the next Verse come in as an Argument to move them to enter into this Covenant and to show them the necessity of renewing it For as God had wonderfully multiplied them in the Land of Egypt so he delivered them from thence no less wonderfully when they were miserably enslaved Which was such a Mercy as ought never to be forgotten and therefore frequently mentioned in this Book and laid an obligation upon them to be wholly devoted to him as his redeemed People IV. 20. And how we came through the Nations whom we passed by The Edomites Midianites Ammonites and Moabites through the Skirts of whose Countries they passed and were preserved from receiving any hurt by them Verse 17 Ver. 17. And ye have seen their abominations and their idols They had opportunity in Egypt of seeing too much of their vile Idolatries And so they had as they passed by the Country of Moab and Midian when some of them were seduced to the Worship of Baal-Peor though if they had not been blinded by their Lust they could not but have seen how contemptible an Idol that was and have abominated it All the Idols of the Heathen are frequently called Abominations and in XXVI Levit. 30. they are called as they are here gillulim which we translate in the Margin dunghil gods to express the utmost contempt of them And some think they are so called not only in regard of their matter sed ob formam scarabaei habitantis in stercore but for the form of the Beetle which lives in Dung. For so Isis the great Goddess of the Egyptians was
21. And the LORD shall separate him unto evil out of all the Tribes of Israel Though he offended Verse 21 never so secretly for he speaks of one that blessed himself in his heart c. v. 19. God threatens to make him a publick and notorious Example of his Vengeance to all the People of Israel According to all the Curses of the Covenant that are written in the Book of the Law It was a singular condescension in the Divine Majesty to enter into Covenant with them but it contained not only Blessings to the obedient but Curses upon the disobedient the latter of which were as certain as the former Ver. 22. So that the Generations to come of your Children Verse 22 that shall rise up after you and the stranger that shall come from a far Land shall say That which follows v. 24. When they see the Plagues of that Land This shows that these Threatnings are denounced not meerly against a simple Idolater but such an one as made it his endeavour to draw others from the Worship of God not being content to be drunk himself with Heathenish Superstition but zealous to intoxicate as many as he could with it and to root true Religion out of the Nation And the sicknesses which the LORD hath laid upon it In the Hebrew it is The sicknesses wherewith he hath made it sick i. e. the heavy Punishments which he hath inflicted upon it and thereby made it a miserable Nation Ver. 23. And that the whole Land is brimstone and salt and burning Or as it may be translated Is burnt up with brimstone and salt For these make Land Verse 23 barren and unfruitful as Pliny particularly observes of Salt Lib. XXX Cap. VII Omnis locus in quo reperitur Sal sterilis est nihilque gignit All ground in which Salt is found is barren and produceth nothing See IX Judges 45. CVII Psal 34. XVII Jerem 6. XLVII Ezek. 11. II Zephan 9. That it is not sown nor beareth nor any grass groweth therein That neither Nature nor Art will make it fruitful Like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah Admah and Zeboim And the Country about them which was the most beautiful of all other in that part of the World XIII Gen. 10. but on a sudden turned into a filthy stinking Lake where no Creature neither Fish nor Fowl can live Which the LORD overthrew in his anger and in his wrath Being highly incensed by their wickedness See Gen. XVIII 20. XIX 24 25. as he was by the wickedness of the Jews which was the more provoking because they had such an example of his Vengeance continually before their eyes and yet went on in their evil ways till they brought the like Judgment upon all Judoea This was more exactly fulfilled in the last destruction of the Jews by the Romans than in their first by the Babylonians For the whole Land was laid waste and deserted by its Inhabitants and made a Den of Thieves being brought to desolation by repeated returns of Wars More especially in the time of Adrian when Julius Severus as I observed upon the foregoing Chapter made such a devastation that the whole Country was turned in a manner into a Wilderness Ver. 24. Even all Nations shall say All that were near them or came that way from far Countries as it goes before v. 22. Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this Land Verse 24 Which he formerly made so populous and plenteous And what means the heat of this great anger These exceeding dreadful Calamities which evidently proceeded from a Divine Vengeance For the Jews fought so valiantly and defended Jerusalem so resolutely as appears by Josephus that the Author of Schebet Juda had reason to say that it was not want of Arms nor the unusual terrour of new Machines but the Anger of God provoked by their Wickedness which was the true and only Cause of their destruction And indeed Titus himself said as much that God fought for the Romans and drove the Jews from their Fortifications 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for what could the hands of Men or Machines have done against such strong Towers See Chap. XXXII v. 22. Ver. 25. Then shall men say because they have forsaken Verse 25 the Covenant of the LORD God of their Fathers which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the Land of Egypt This account must be supposed to be given by the pious Jews or by those who were made sensible when it was too late how stedfast God was in his Covenant which contained Curses as well as Blessings as was before observed v. 21. And see VII 9 10. XI 26 27 28. Ver. 26. For they went and served other gods and Verse 26 worshipped them whom they knew not This aggravated their sin that they sought for acquaintance with strange gods directly contrary to the Covenant of God XII 30 31. And whom he had not given unto them Or as it is in the Margin had not given or divided to them any portion that is never bestowed any benefit upon them as the LORD their God had done who brought them out of Egypt Or more simply as Bootius thinks the words will bear to whom no worship belonged Verse 27 Ver. 27. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against this Land to bring upon it all the Curses that are written in this Book So Moses foretold them VII 4. XI 16 17. Verse 28 Ver. 28. And the LORD rooted them out of their Land in anger and wrath and in great indignation Here is one word more to express his displeasure against them than was used before when he speaks of the destruction of Sodom c. v. 23. And they all denote the great Plagues threatned in XXVI Levit. and in the foregoing Chapter of this Book And cast them into another Land as it is this day This may seem to relate only to their Captivity in Babylon for after they were rooted out by the Romans they were scattered into all Lands XXVIII 63 64. But considering what goes before v. 23 24. and that they were not quite rooted out many of them remaining in the Land when Nebuchadnezzar conquered them till the desolation made by the Romans I think these words relate to them also and another Land is only the singular number as is usual for the plural And so the Author of Schebet Juda understood it who quoting these words cast them out into another land adds which experience now proves to be true Verse 29 Ver. 29. The secret things belong unto the LORD our God but those that are revealed belong unto us and to our Children for ever c. The Jews generally take these words to be meant of the punishment of secret sins particularly of Idolatry spoken of before v. 19. which belongeth unto God as the punishment of open sins belonged unto them in obedience to his Law who commanded them to put to death him that seduced any Person to Idolatry and to raze the
will deliver them but if they did repent he would shorten the days of their Banishment and immediately bring them to their own Land Thus the ancient Nitzacon set forth not long ago by Wagenseil p. 254. And R. Isaac since him and more lately often insists upon this in his Chissuk Emuna published by the same very learned Person Particularly Perck VII where he saith There can be no time prefixed for their Deliverance because it depends upon their Repentance whereby they may cut off the length of this Banishment provided they turn to God with their whole heart and a full repentance For which he alledges this place And he repeats it again Perck XXVII as the great comfort they have in this long Banishment that upon their perfect Repentance God will be merciful to them and overcome their Sins and perform this Promise Which I find still more lately mentioned in Manasseh ben Israel his Book de Termino Vitae L. III. Sect. III. where he saith Herein all the Prophets imitate Moses being wont after terrible Threatnings to conclude with some singular Consolation Which made R. Aquiba as the Talmudists report fall a laughing when all the wise Men who were with him wept and lamented at the sight of the ruins of Jerusalem and the Temple Which they wondering at he said After the Clouds the Sun will break out and after the end of the Evils which Moses threatned we may hope for good things for God is not more faithful in fulfilling the one than in performing the other But alas in all Ages hitherto there are no signs of Repentance much less of a perfect one but they have been strangely hardned in their unbelief and have bitterly reproached the LORD Jesus and his Religion Abarbinel himself though a Gentleman of a noble Family a well bred Person and of an excellent Understanding is extreamly guilty of this And since his time Solomon Virgae in the Age before us considering the astonishing Plagues that have befaln them and that never any People as he acknowledges conflicted with so many Miseries and for so many Ages as they have done enquires the Causes why the Divine Majesty should be so angry with them He reckons Seven among which he accounts the putting of Jesus of Nazareth to death as one yet not as a Crime but that which hath enraged Christians against them For he wickedly illustrates this by that Speech of Moses VIII Exod. 24. which he thus translates If we slay and sacrifice the abominable gods of the Egyptians in their sight will they not stone us Which is the highest Reproach he could vomit against our Saviour mingled with the most stupid folly in giving that as a Reason of the Divine Anger which at the most is only a Reason in their account of Mens indignation Schebet Jehuda Sect. LXIII The most cruel Usage which they have met with in all Christian Countries might thus exasperate and embitter their Spirits and I cannot excuse the violent hatred of Christians to them and their barbarous treatment of them though they therein fulfilled the Divine Threatnings as I have shewn upon the Twenty eighth Chapter which being ceased since the Reformation of Religion the Jews have not been so virulent against our blessed Saviour and it is to be hoped will be won to the Obedience of Faith by our Christian usage of them when those other stumbling Blocks which hinder their Conversion are removed out of the way Ver. 5. And the LORD thy God will bring thee into Verse 5 the Land which thy fathers possessed and thou shalt possess it Be again planted in it as they were at their return from the Captivity of Babylon especially after they had laid the foundation of the House of the LORD he blessed them exceedingly II Haggai 18 19. VIII Zachar. 7 8 9 10 11 12. And he will do thee good The Prophet Zachary hath given a full Explication of these words VIII 13 14 15. And the Prophet Jeremy before him XXXII 42 43 c. which was fulfilled in the building of the House of the LORD though great opposition was made to it and in the compassing Jerusalem with Walls and settling them in a state of liberty according to the Prophecy of Isaiah LII 1 2. And multiply thee above thy fathers The Hebrew words import that he would make them greater then their fathers Which he did by their vast increase after they returned from Babylon See VIII Zachar. 4 5. and before him I Hosea 10. Which is manifest from their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. spreading themselves in so many Colonies through all Asia both the great and the less with Egypt Greece Italy and Spain See Strabo Lib. XVI concerning Joppa By this means they were very much exalted as Zachariah prophecied after the Captivity XII 6. for as they had their liberty in their own Country God being a Wall of Fire to them while Jerusalem had no Walls so they spread themselves as I said and had their Synagogues in Babylon Arabia Syria and divers other Countries before-mentioned and a great many Proselytes also joyned themselves to them Yet one cannot well think that so magnificent a Prophecy as this is was intirely fulfilled after their return from Babylon when they were Tributaries to the Persians and afterwards fell under the power of the Graecians under whom they suffered very much especially in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes whose death did not conclude their Troubles as Hermannus Witsius hath shown at large in his Decaphylon Cap. X. N. 9 10 11 12 c. where he endeavours to prove that there was no moment of time after their return from Babylon wherein they could be said to be made greater than their fathers especially in the days of David and Solomon And therefore he concludes that this Promise is still to be compleatly fulfilled And thus R. Isaac in his Book before-named Chissuk Emuna argues Perck VI. that God did not bestow Benefits upon them equal to those which their Fathers enjoyed much less superiour while the second Temple stood but all that time was full of Straits and Calamities for which he alledges the Prophecy of Daniel IX 25. And therefore saith these words of Moses can by no means be thought to be fulfilled when the Tribes of Judah and Benjamin returned from Babylon and left a vast number behind them who would not come back with them but stay there to this day Ver. 6. And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart By such singular Benefits bestowed upon them in a miraculous manner God designed to take away the stubborn refractoriness of their Spirits called Verse 6 hardness of heart XXIX 19. and to cut off all their wicked Inclinations and Dispositions to Idolatry and Superstition which had been their ruin which is called humbling their uncircumcised heart XXVI Levit. 41. But though God circumcised them yet their hearts might remain uncircumcised as appears from XXIX 3 4. And therefore he calls upon them
for instance in III Galat. 21. asks this question Do you not hear the Law and then quotes what we read in XVI Gen. 21. And so Nehemiah saith X. 34 35. that they brought First-fruits unto God as it is written in the Law viz. XIII Exod. 12. XXIII 19. And Josiah put away the workers with familiar Spirits c. that he might perform the words of the Law 2 Kings XXIII 24. which we find XIX Levit. 30. XX. 6 27. And Ezekiah also 2 Chron. XXXI 3. appointed the daily Oblations and those required at stated times to be offered as it is written in the Law of the LORD which plainly refers to the XXVIIIth and XXIXth of Numbers And Joshua built an Altar on Mount Ebal VIII 30 31. as it is written in the Book of the Law of Moses which we find no where but in this Book of Deuteronomy XXVII 4. And delivered it unto the Priests the sons of Levi. Concerning this form of Speech the Priests the sons of Levi see XVII 9. It is probable Moses had wrote most of these Five Books some time ago and so the foregoing words may be translated Moses had wrote this Law but did not finish them till a little before his death and then delivered them to the Priests But there is no necessity thus to understand it for he might have had time enough between this and his death to write the whole Pentateuch It being only said v. 14. Thy days approach that thou must die which doth not imply he was to die in a day or two but there might be some weeks before his departure Which bare the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD It was most proper to deliver it unto them who alone might touch the Ark in which this Law was to be laid v 26. The Kohathites who were mere Levites and not Priests did carry the Ark in their Travels through the Wilderness after the Priests had covered it and put in the Staves thereof as I have shown IV Numb 5 6 c. but it is evident they served only as Ministers to the Priests who upon great occasions bare the Ark themselves As when they passed over Jordan III Josh 3 6. when they compassed Jericho VI Josh 6. and when the Temple of Solomon was dedicated and the Ark brought into it 1 Kings VIII 3 4 6. When David indeed brought the Ark to Jerusalem it is said the Levites bare it but at the same time the Priests also were summoned to take care of it which shows the Levites bare it as their Servants 1 Chron. XV. 2 11 13 14 15. And unto all the Elders of Israel As he delivered this Book of the Law that is the whole Pentateuch as Abarbinel and others of the Jews understand it unto the Priests commanding them to preserve it safe near the Ark v. 24. so he delivered another Copy of this Book to the Elders of every Tribe as the Jews affirm in Debarim Rabba Where they say and it is highly probable that Moses before his death wrote Thirteen Copies of the Law with his own hand as they add and having delivered one unto the Priests to be preserved in the holy Place gave one to each Tribe which he committed to the care of the Elders of it Thus Maimonides also in his Preface to Jad Chazakah as Buxtorf observes in his Histor Arcae Foederis Cap. 5. The intent of which was I suppose that all the People of each Tribe might resort to it as the whole Nation were to resort to that in the Sanctuary if they doubted of any thing which might be thought to be amiss by the errors of Transcribers Ver. 10. And Moses commanded them Both the Verse 10 Priests and the Elders to take care of what follows At the end of every seventh year in the solemnity of the year of release Mentioned XV. 1 c. In the Feast of Tabernacles When they had gathered in all the Fruits of the Earth and thereby had greater leisure to attend to the hearing of the Law read to them Which when Mens minds were also freed from Cares by the Release of their Debts was likely to make a greater impression upon them Ver. 11. When all Israel is come to appear before the Verse 11 LORD thy God in the place which he shall chuse As they were bound to do at this Feast and at Pentecost and the Passover XVI 16. Thou shalt read this Law before all Israel in their hearing This Order being directed not to all Israel but to a particular Person plainly imports that the Supream Governour whosoever he was had this charge laid upon him to take care these Laws should be read at this Solemn Time that all the People might hear them And therefore I think the Jews rightly say that their Kings when they had them were bound not only to look after this matter but to read the Law themselves to as many that is as could hear them appointing the Priests and the Levites to read it in as many other Assemblies of the People as were necessary for the fulfilling of this Precept In order to which a Pulpit was set up in the Court of the Men of Israel on the very first day of the Feast for they did not think fit to defer it till the last because it is here said when Israel is come to appear before the LORD not when they were ready to depart as the Jews observe the King going up into it the Minister took the Book of the Law and delivered it to the Ruler of the Synagogue who gave it to the Sagan or Vicar of the High Priest who delivered it to the High Priest and he to the King who stood up to receive it and then sâ—t down to read All this expresses the reverence with which this holy Book was delivered and likewise the reverence with which they approached to the King Who they say began to read at this Book of Deuteronomy which is a Compendium of the Law and proceeded before he stopt to those words VI. 4. Hear O Israel c. which having also read he omitted the rest till he came to Chap. XI 13. And it shall come to pass if thou wilt hearken diligently c. reading on to the 22d Verse And then skipt to XIV 22. And thou shalt truly tithe c. reading on to the Section concerning the King XVII 14. and then the Cursings and Blessings out of the XXVIIth and XXVIIIth Chapter till he had ended all that Section of the Law Thus the Mischna in the Title Sota Cap. VII Sect. VIII which Wagenseil hath lately illustrated with most Learned Annotations and our Dr. Lightfoot also hath given an account of it long ago in his Temple Service Chap. XVII Sect. I. where he saith the King might sit down if he pleased when he read but it was esteemed more honourable if he stood as King Agrippa did when he performed this Office And before he began to read he made a Prayer to God
Land Verse 20 which I sware unto their Fathers that floweth with milk and honey VI. 10 c. XV. 8 9. And they shall have eaten and filled themselves and waxen fat VIII 10 11 12 c. XXVII 15. Then they will turn unto other gods and serve them c. Against which he had most solemnly foremarned them in the places before-mentioned and XI 16. XII 29 30. Ver. 21. And it shall come to pass when many evils Verse 21 and troubles are befaln them that this Song shall testifie against them as a witness That they are most justly punished for their foul ingratitude and unbelief with which this Song upbraided them having told them plainly XXXII 18 19. what would be the effect of their forsaking him and at the delivery of it God having solemnly said here v. 17. that when they went a whoring from him he would forsake them and hide his face from them For it shall not be forgotten out of the mouth of their seed The Calamities which fell upon them according to what is predicted in this Song brought it to their remembrance when they had forgotten it or did not regard it For these words do not seem to be a Precept requiring them to remember this Song but a Prediction foretelling that their Miseries should not suffer them quite to forget it For I know their imagination which they go about even now before I have brought them into the Land which I sware He saw the secret Inclinations and Designs which were in their hearts and perceived that at that very present they hankered as we speak after Idols Verse 22 Ver. 22. Moses therefore wrote this Song the same day And so did Joshua as he was commanded v. 19. who spake the words of this Song unto the People as well as Moses XXXII 44. And taught it the Children of Israel Commanded them to learn it v. 19. In order to which the Jews say every Man was bound to write for himself a Copy of it and more than that they make it one of the affirmative Precepts as Maimonides tells us which obliged every Israelite to write out the whole Book of the Law with his own hand For so they interpret those words v. 19. Write ye this Song for you as if they were spoken to all the People and their meaning had been Write ye this Law for you wherein is this Song for they were not to write the Law by small parts and sections as his words are but all of it intirely And if a Man's Parents had left him a Copy yet he was bound to write one himself or if he could not write to procure one to be written for him by some other Person c. See Schickard's Mischpat Hameleck Cap. II. Theor. V. Verse 23 Ver. 23. And he gave Joshua the son of Nun a charge That is the LORD who had hitherto spoken to him by Moses now spake to him himself and gave him this charge to gain him the greater Authority For which end he had ordered Joshua to present himself before him together with Moses verse 14. Be strong and of a good courage Which he repeats to him after the death of Moses I Josh 6 7. For thou shalt bring the Children of Israel into the land which I sware unto them I have appointed thee to be the Captain of my People to lead them into the Land of Canaan And I will be with thee To give him success in all his Enterprises Which words being spoken in the audience of all the People as may be supposed from v. 14. made them readily submit to the Authority of Joshua and confide in his Conduct Ver. 24. And it came to pass when Moses had made Verse 24 an end of writing the words of this Law in a Book until they were finished The whole Book of his Laws which he put together before his death as I said on v. 9. Ver. 25. That Moses commanded the Levites c. Verse 25 The Priests who were of the Tribe of Levi. See v. 9. Ver. 26. Take this Book of the Law and put it in the Verse 26 side of the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD your God Not in the inside of it for he doth not say put it into the Ark but in the side of the Ark that is on the outside in a little Box as Jonathan and others expound it For it is the very same Phrase with that 1 Sam. VI. 8. where the Philistims are said to have put the Jewels of Gold which they returned for a Sin-offering in a Coffer by the side of the Ark. Where none could put it but the High Priest because no Body else might go into the Holy Place where the Ark was And therefore those Priests who received the Book of the Law from Moses delivered it to Eleazer to be there placed See Buxtorf Histor Arcae Cap. V. and Huetius more lately in his Demonstratio Evangelica Propos IV. Cap. de Can. Libr. Sacrorum Sect. VIII where he observes that R. Meir in both the Talmuds Abarbinel himself and many others have been of opinion from this very place that the Book of the Law was put into the Ark it self being no less precious than the Tables of Stone which were there But the Scripture tells us There was nothing in the Ark save the two Tables of Stone 1 Kings VIII 9. 2 Chron. V. 10. and their reason is good for nothing the two Tables far excelling this Book because written by the Finger of God And therefore other great Doctors among the Jews rightly place it without the Ark as the very words of Moses import That it may be there for a witness against thee It was deposited in that place as a publick Record that if any one should falsifie or deprave any thing in the Law as Abarbinel interprets it he might be convicted out of this Book which was sacredly preserved to be produced as a Witness against him Or as the Author of Tzeror Hammor expresses it that if they should be so wicked as to lose the Books of the Law this Copy kept under the care of the Priests might remain to testifie what was the Will of God As we see it did in the days of Josiah when it was casually found in the House of God as they were about the reparations of it Though I cannot say they found it in the side of the Ark but rather upon the Roof of the House or in the Rafters where the Priests had hid it as some of the Jews think when Manasseh endeavoured to destroy this Authentick Copy of the Law as he had done all other that he could find and when they came to uncover the House there it appeared Ver. 27. For I know thy rebellion and thy stiff-neck I have been sufficiently acquainted with your perverse disposition Behold while I am yet alive with you this day ye Verse 27 have been rebellious against the LORD and how much more after my death For it was not
likely they would have a greater regard to Joshua than they had to him who had such near familiarity with God as never any Man had Ver. 28. Gather unto me all the Elders of your Tribes Verse 28 I suppose after Moses had spoke to the People what God ordered v. 1 2 c. See there he dismissed them again that he might write the Book of the Law v. 9. and deliver it to the Priests c. and then write this Song which follows in the next Chapter v. 19 22 c. Which being done he is ordered here to summon all the Elders of the several Tribes and with them all the People came v. 30. that he might deliver to them by word of Mouth the Song which he had wrote And your Officers I have frequently observed that these Schoterim which we translate Officers were but Ministers to their Elders or Judges See V Exod. 14. I Deut. 15. XVI 18. Unto which I shall add here only the words of Abarbinel The Office of the Schoterim was to see that the Sentence which the Judges had given was observed and to compel Men to it They who would have more may find a long Roll of Authors who are of this mind both Jews and Christians in Jo. Benedic Carpzovius upon Schickard's Jus Regium who hath also said a great deal to the same purpose Cap. IV. Theorem XIV That I may speak these words in their ears The Song which God had suggested to him and commanded him to write v. 19 22. And call heaven and earth to record against them Call the whole World to witness how wicked they are if they fall from God after such care to preserve them in his Obedience Verse 29 Ver. 29. For I know that after my death you will utterly corrupt your selves Fall to the foulest Idolatry II Judges 19. And turn aside from the way which I have commanded you Departing from that way of God which I have delivered to you by his command It was a very melancholy thing for Moses to leave the World in this belief that all his pains would be lost upon them but he comforted himself in doing his Duty to the very last and omitting no means to secure them from Apostasy And evil will befal you in the latter days This seems to express a foresight that they would not immediately revolt but after the death of Joshua and of the Elders who survived him II Judges 7 11 12 c. Because ye will do evil in the sight of the LORD to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands By making Images after the manner of other Nations and bowing down to them and worshipping them II Judges 12 13. III. 7. where the Groves signifie the Images in the Groves Verse 30 Ver. 30. And Moses spake With the assistance of Joshua XXXII 44. In the ears of all the Congregation of Israel Whom the Elders and Officers v. 28. had assembled according to their Tribes and Families unto whom they went severally and spake these words in their hearing The words of this song Which follows in the next Chapter and much differs in the raised Expressions and loftiness of the Stile from the rest of this Book hitherto Vntil they were ended Omitted nothing but compleatly delivered this Song to them Or they spake all these words to them at the same time with one continued Speech I observed before that the most ancient way of Instruction was by Poetical Compositions which was more ancient than Rhetorical Discourses And as their chief Learning did consist of Poetry so the excellency of their Poetry was seen in the proper and native Subject of this Faculty that is in Matters of sacred use or observation From whence the Title of Vates descended unto Secular and Prophane Poets who detained the manner of Speech used by the former But as Conradus Pellicanus here truly observes and see my Notes on XV Exod. 1. the Scripture Poetry doth not consist in the cadency and number of Syllables contrived to please the ear but in brief and weighty Sentences simply and sincerely composed in a lively manner to enlighten the Understandings move the Affections and stick in the Memory And the Ancients as a great Man of our own observes had this advantage of later Poets That the Fashion of the World as he speaks in their times was more apt to ravish their thoughts with admiration wonderful Events being then more frequent and their frequency not abating but rather increasing their wonderment because their variety was very great and the apprehension of invisible or supernatural Powers in those Events was usual and undoubted So that admiration was then inforced upon Men and the Breasts of those who diligently observed those Events or were any way disposed by Nature to it were inspired with lively and sublime Affections apt to vent themselves in such Poetical Phrase and Resemblances as we cannot reach unless we raise our Invention by Imitation and stir up Admiration by Meditation and Study But now our Senses being neither moved with such extraordinary Effects of God's Power nor our Minds bent to observe the ways of his Wisdom so as to be stricken with true observation of them we have fewer good Sacred Poems than of any other kind Thus Dr. Jackson Book I. on the Creed Chap. XIV David Chytraeus also hath an excellent Discourse on this Subject to show that the ancient Poetry among the Heathen contained the Doctrine of God and of Celestial Things all the Offices and Rewards of Vertue with the Punishment of Vice the History of their Kings and the noble Acts of famous Men Tome I. of his Works p. 154 c. Where he confirms this out of the Verses of Orpheus who lived as he computes about an Hundred and fifty years before David and those of Pindar Simonides and the rest who lived in the time of the War with Xerxes But Moses led the way to them all whose Mind was raised to that Sublimity of Thoughts and Speech which we find in his Songs by admiration of those strange Events which he saw XV Exod. XXI Numb and here in the next Chapter wherein he was followed by Deborah Barak and Hannah c. in after times V Judges 1 Sam. II. CHAP. XXXII Chapter XXXII Verse 1. GIve ear O ye heavens and I will speak Verse 1 and hear O earth the words of my mouth He calls Angels and Men to bear witness XXX 19. that the Israelites had been admonished of their Duty and warned of their Danger and this not by words of his own invention but which were put into his mouth by the Spirit of God Or after an elegant form of Speech he calls upon all insensible Creatures every where to listen to him that he might awaken the Israelites out of their stupidity or upbraid them as a People that had ears to hear and would not hear him And as some of themselves have observed he may be thought to intimate hereby
observes they hurt themselves not God when leaving him the true God they turned to Idols For the word corrupt is commonly used in Scripture where it speaks of the sin of Idolatry The Hierusalem Paraphrast aims at the same sense They are a perverse and crooked Generation The whole Body of them are untoward and untractable walking contrary to God in all their ways For there being a gemination as they speak of a syllable in the latter of these words Pethalthol it increases the sense and makes it the same with the Superlative Degree among us importing the highest obliquity imaginable And these words were never more exactly fulfilled than in the days of our blessed Saviour who calls them a wicked and adulterous a faithless and perverse Generation XVI Matth. 4. XVII 17. And in the days of the Apostles who call them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an absurd kind of People 2 Thess III. 2. Who pleased not God and were contrary to all men 1 Thess II. 15. Verse 6 Ver. 6. Do ye thus requite the LORD O foolish people and unwise He upbraids them with their senseless folly and foul ingratitude which in the following words he demonstrates by representing the Obligations he had laid upon them Is not he thy father Having adopted them in a peculiar manner to be his Children above all other People Who hath taught thee When he rescued them from the slavery of Egypt Hath not he made thee Advanced them for so the word Asa is translated 1 Sam. XII 6. to be a great and mighty People See C Psal 3. And established thee By settling them in excellent order under the Government of most wise and righteous Laws See Chapter the fourth of this Book v. 7 8. Verse 7 Ver. 7. Remember the days of old Look back as far as you are able Consider the years of many generations Consult the most ancient Records which would inform them how God chose their Father Abraham long ago and promised to bless his Posterity as he did Isaac and Jacob in a most eminent manner and sent Joseph by a wonderful Providence into Egypt to preserve them from starving c. Ask thy Father and he will show thee thy Elders and they will tell thee All this is to express the same thing that they should advise with those that knew more than themselves and particularly with old Men as the word may be understood which we translate Elders who by the benefit of their great Age had heard and seen more than others and could tell them how God had dealt with them ever since he brought them by a wonderful Power out of the Land of Egypt Ver. 8. When the most High divided to the Nations Verse 8 their Inheritance He directs them still to look further back and they would find that long before Abraham's time God had them in his thoughts even when he divided the Earth among the Sons of Noah and their Posterity after the Flood X Gen. 5 25 32. When he separated the sons of Adam Or the sons of Men who were one People till he scattered them into several Parts of the Earth and separated them into divers Nations by confounding their Language XI Gen. 8 9. He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the Children of Israel He had then the Children of Israel in his mind before they were a Nation and made such a distribution to other People particularly to the Seven Nations of Canaan within such bounds and limits as that there might be sufficient room for so numerous a People as the Israelites when they came to take possession of that Country How the Seventy came to translate these words thus He appointed the bounds of the Nations according to the number of the Angels it is hard to say Bochartus hath made the best Conjecture about it which was hinted by de Muis before him Lib. I. Phaleg Cap. XV. that they had a bad Copy before them which left out the three first Letters of Israel and so they read baneel the Children of God meaning the Israelites Instead of which some Transcribers put the Angels of God because they are sometimes called his Sons Which led the ancient Greek Fathers who followed this Translation into great difficulties and it grew a common Opinion that every Nation was under the Government of an Angel which seems to be the meaning also of the Son of Sirach XVII Ecclus. 17. And many others fancying that God divided the Nations according to the number of the Children of Israel when they came into Egypt which was just Seventy they thence gather there were just so many distinct Nations and so many several Languages Which is a Conceit of some of the Jews as Mr. Selden observes Lib. II. de Synedr Cap. IX But Bochart in the place above-named hath given the plain and simple meaning of this place in these words God so distributed the Earth among the several People that were therein that he reserved or in his counsel designed such a part of the Earth for the Israelites who were then unborn as he knew would afford a commodious habitation to a most numerous Nation Verse 9 Ver. 9. For the LORD's portion is his people And not satisfied with this kindness he chose them alone out of all other Nations to be under his special Care and to enjoy singular Priviledges which none other had and therefore they are called his peculiar Treasure XIX Exod. 5. This Origen maintains to be true against all the Cavils of Celsus Lib. V. p. 250. Edit Cantabr where he shows how beneficial their Laws were and that they were taught so early to know God to believe the Immortality of the Soul and Rewards and Punishments in the Life to come as demonstrated they were distinguished from all other People whatsoever See p. 260. Jacob is the Lot of his Inheritance This is the same thing repeated in other words alluding to the manner of measuring and dividing Lands by Cords as the word in the Hebrew is which we translate lot See XVI Psal 6 and Chapt. IV. of this Book v. 20. Ver. 10. He found him in a desert Land There Verse 10 he first took the Israelites to be his peculiar People for so the word we translate found frequently signifies As in Psal CXVI 3. The pains of Hell gat hold upon me where in the Hebrew the words are found me And in the New Testament IV Rom. 1. What shall we say then that Abraham our Father hath found that is attained In the waste-howling wilderness Desolate and void of all Sustenance where nothing was to be heard but the howlings and yellings of wild Beasts VIII Deut. 15. He led him about Conducted the Israelites from place to place XXXIII Numb 1 2 c. He instructed him Gave them his Laws XX Exod. 1 2 c. XXXIV 1 10 c. He kept him as the apple of his eye Protected and defended them from all dangers with extraordinary care for there is
that they were the chief Support of the Kingdom of Israel Which began in Jeroboam who was King of ten Tribes after whom there followed a long Race of Kings till the Captivity There may be also some respect in these words unto Joshua the first Governour of all the People who was of the Tribe of Ephraim as of Manasseh were Jair Jephthah and Gideon who were famous Men among the Judges It is remarkable also here that Joseph is compared to the Firstling of a Bullock because Reuben being set aside for his Incest Joseph had the Right of Primogeniture in part translated unto him 1 Chron. V. 1 2. and in consequence of it had a double Portion in the Land of Canaan It is to be noted likewise that he is said to be like unto the Firstling of his Bullock because there were not more goodly Bullocks any where than in Bashan IV Amos 1. which fell to the share of some of the Children of Manasseh XVII Josh 5. There have been some great Men who from this place and other Conjectures have fancied that Joseph was worshipped in Egypt after his Death under the form of an Ox by the name of Serapis Which Bochartus hath confuted in the Book forenamed Cap. XXXIV And his horns are like the horns of an Vnicorn This is a further description of the power and strength of the House of Joseph for an Horn is every where an Emblem of mighty Power and Force and an Vnicorn as we translate the word Reem is a very strong as well as stately Creature But Bochartus hath alledged a great many things to prove that Reem is a sort of wild Goat in Arabia as big as a Deer and of the same colour which they now call Gazellus P. I. Hierozoicon Lib. III. Cap. XXVII There were some of them sent lately to the French King by the Divan of Tripoli which had black Horns in shape like those of a Goat only they were round and pointed But the tallness strength and swiftness of this Creature together with its fierce untameable Nature hath made Ludolphus who at first was of Bochart's opinion to conclude upon second thoughts that Reem in Scripture signifies the Rhinoceros as the Vulgar Latin here translates the word See Lib. I. Commentar in Histor Aethiop Cap. X. N. 74. Which seems not so well to agree with these words of Moses which suppose the Creature here spoken of to have two Horns he using the Plural Number with which the two Tribes descended from Joseph are very fitly compared And so David mentions the Horns of the Reem XXII Psal 22. But whatsoever Creature it was Princes and great Men were wont to be compared to it as appears from XXXIV Isa 7. where the Grandees as we now speak of Edom are called Vnicorns as in the following words they are compared to Bullocks and Bulls With them he shall push the people together Throw down all that oppose him particularly the Canaanites For these saith the Hierusalem Targum are the great Men of the Amorites whom Joshua the Son of Nun slew who was of the Tribe of Ephraim and the Captains which Gideon the Son of Joash slew who was of the Tribe of Manasseh To the ends of the Earth Of the Land of Canaan And they are the ten thousands of Ephraim and they are the thousands of Manasseh These things shall be performed by the numerous Armies of Ephraim and Manasseh Or these are the Benedictions of these two Tribes the younger of which he signifies should be more powerful than the elder according to the Prophecy of Jacob XLVIII Gen. 19. Verse 18 Ver. 18. And of Zebulun he said rejoyce Zebulun in thy going out About their business as the Hierusalem Targum expounds it that is their Merchandise which they exercised upon the Sea of Genesaret where they were situated and not far from the Mediterranean In which he prays they might have such good Success as to fill their hearts with joy There are those who understand this of their going out to War against their Enemies which is the Exposition of Onkelos And so this Phrase is often used particularly in XIV Gen. 8. and the Valour of this Tribe is upon one occasion celebrated in V Judges 18. But Jacob's Prophecy determines us rather to the other sense XLIX Gen. 13. where he represents this Tribe as Mariners rather than Soldiers Though it must be acknowledged that there were greater numbers among them in David's time who were expert Warriors 1 Chron. XII 33. and that the Israelites generally were not addicted to Traffick the Sea-coast being possessed by the Philistims and the Canaanites save only what belonged to this Tribe And Issachar in thy Tents The same Hierusalem Targum expounds it Rejoyce ye House of Issachar when ye come into your Schools for this was a Learned Tribe at least in some Ages as appears from 1 Chron. XII 32. But Jacob's Prophecy rather determines us to another sense which is that they should grow rich by feeding Cattle and by Husbandry for which their Country being very proper they chose rather that quiet kind of Life then Merchandise Though they were near Neighbours to Zebulun and for that reason as well as because they were Brethren by the same Mother are here put both together in one Benediction This seems also best to agree with the Phrase of rejoycing in their Tents in which they are said anciently to dwell who fed Cattle IV Gen. 10. And perhaps the Learning that the Children of Issachar are said to have had in 1 Chron. XII 32. which consisted in the understanding of the times was nothing else but their skill in the proper Seasons for Sowing and Planting and Pruning c. to know what Israel ought to do in the management and improvement of their Land which was of great use especially in that Country Ver. 19. They shall call the People unto the Mountain Here Moses predicts the House of God should be set upon a Mountain unto which he saith Zebulun for Verse 19 the latter end of the Verse shows he speaks particularly of them should invite the rest of their Tribes by their forwardness and zeal to go up to worship God at the three great Festivals So the Hierusalem Targum paraphrases Behold the People of the House of Zebulun shall be ready to go to the mount of the holy House of the LORD Or by the People perhaps he means the Gentiles their Neighbours whom they should endeavour to bring to the Service of the true God Which was especially fulfilled when Christ came IV Matth. 15 16. There they shall offer Sacrifices of Righteousness Liberal Sacrifices out of their honest gains by Merchandise For they shall suck of the abundance of the Seas Import abundance of various Commodities and grow rich by their Traffick And of Treasure hid in the Sand. This is a further amplification of the same thing relating particularly to their importation of Gold and Silver and precious Stones which are digged
knew face to face Or as de Dieu thinks it should be translated who knew the LORD face to face This was one Preheminence of Moses above all the Prophets that he conversed more familiarly with God than any of them did See XII Numb 8. which place explains this for to know him face to face was to speak familiarly to God and to hear God speaking in like manner unto him And so the Hierusalem Targum expounds these words only instead of the LORD he saith Who knew the WORD of the LORD talking with him and delivering to him most excellent Laws for the good government of his People In which Laws he still lives they all remaining upon Record to this day when the Laws of all the famous Lawgivers whom the Gentiles honoured as gods are obliterated But it must be observed that in this wherein Moses excelled all the Prophets our blessed Saviour far transcended him For he was in the bosom of the Father I Joh. 18. and spake what he saw and heard c. III Joh. 11 32. Verse 11 Ver. 11. In all the signs and the wonders which the LORD sent him to do The Hierusalem Targum hath it Which the WORD of the LORD sent him to do in the Land of Egypt to Pharaoh and to all his Servants and to all his Land See IV. 34. VI. 22. VII 19. In these signs and wonders Moses excelled all the Prophets doing more Miracles than all that succeeded him as Maimonides observes More Nevochim P. II. Cap. XXXV But our blessed Saviour excelled him in this as well as them doing more wonders than all the Prophets put together had done from the beginning of the World and far greater also than theirs XXI Joh. ult Ver. 12. And in all that mighty hand and in all that great terror which Moses showed As the former Verse relates to what he did in Egypt so this hath respect unto their passing through the Red Sea and to all that befel them in the Wilderness both at the giving of the Law and afterward till this time So the Hierusalem Targum expounds these words In all that strong hand and in all those great Visions which Moses managed And Onkelos to the same purpose In the sight of all Israel In the place forenamed Maimonides insists much upon this that Moses wrought all his Miracles publickly the whole Congregation being Witnesses of them And so our Saviour commonly wrought his till they sought to kill him in their Synagogues at their Publick Feasts when there was the greatest Concourse of the People of Israel So that in this he was a Prophet like unto Moses though infinitely superiour which some of the old Jews could not but discern as I observed upon Chap. XVIII when upon these words of Isaiah LII 13. He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high they thus gloss in Tanchuma which is an ancient Book among them This is the King MESSIAS who shall be exalted above Abraham extolled above Moses and be very high above the Angels of the Ministry Upon which Conradus Pellicanus thus glosses and concludes his Commentary as I shall do mine with these words What is it to be above the Angels let the Jews explain we can understand nothing by it but the very WORD of God which was in the beginning with God and was God by whom all things were made and without him nothing was made viz. the LORD God of Hosts to whom in perfect Vnity God the Father Son and Holy Spirit be all Honour and Glory for ever Amen Thus ends the Pentateuch which as our great Primate of Ireland computes contains the History of Two thousand five hundred and fifty two years and an half from the beginning of the World to the death of Moses FINIS By reason of the Distance of the Author this Omission hapned which the Reader is desired to insert in its proper place At the end of Page 511. Line ult after three hundred years add these words But if any one think good thus to apply the words of this Verse unto Vespasian they must not take this for the literal meaning of them because it is evident that by the Stranger is to be understood those of other Nations who lived among them Particularly those Gentiles who were brought into their Country by the Assyrians instead of the Ten Tribes as some of the best of the Jewish Writers expound it What the Doctor also saith concerning their advancing Vespasian to the Imperial Dignity cannot be maintain'd ERRATA Page 21. Line 24. read their Cities Page 30. Line 14. r. Elate Page 39. Line 18. r. faith Page 43. Line 17. r. Ammonites Page 67. Line 15. r. Atargatis Page 85. antepen r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Page 86. Line 11. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Page 90. Line 24. r. even before Page 116. Line 2. r. Melech Page 145. Line 13. r. until the other Page 174. Line 5. for notion r. reason Page 183. Line 10. for Geder r. Seder Page 194. Line 18. r. Author of Sepher Ikkarim Page 220. Line 20. r. Acra-batta Page 242. Line 20. r. Arcadica * Page 264. Line 24. blot out but as the persons concerned in the Controversie brought it and read But whoever brought the Controversie before this Court when the Inferiour could not determine it they gave the sentence Page 269. Line 10. r. Cunaeus Lib. II. Page 290. Line 29. r. had her first Page 323. Line 15. r. Chillel Page 332. Line 20. r. was so setled Page 348. Line 2. r. slake Page 358. Line 24. r. both Sexes Page 365. Line 6. r. whom all that Page 372. Line 1. r. make thee Page 382. Line 31 32. r. paid to her father Page 408. Line 20. for inherent r. indigent Page 420. Line 28. r. Chasidah Page 428. Line 2. r. remember it Page 438. Line 16. r. of no consequence Page 439. Line 26. r. as a reason Page 442. Line 28. r. Dr. Pocock Page 488. Line 19. r. would furnish Page  Line 20. r. that should further Page 507. Line 9. r. strangeness Page 599. Line 16. r. retained the manner Page 612. Line 1. r. Olive Tree thrives Page 617. Line 27. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a field Page 641. Line 12. r. Mountain Page 650. Line 22. r. he speaks of himself Page 652. Line penult r. staid behind them Page 663. Line 20. r. Gazellas Page 665. Line 5. r. great numbers Page  Line 25. r. IV Gen. 10. Page 668. Line 17 18. r. He came the Heads of the People Page 685. Line 12. r. he having BOOKS Printed for Richard Chiswell BIshop Patrick's Commentary on the First Book of Moses called Genesis The Second Edition 4 to 1698. His Commentary on the Second Book of Moses called Exodus 4 to 1697. His Commentary on the Third Book of Moses called Leviticus 4 to 1698. His Commentary on the Fourth Book of Moses called Numbers 4 to 1699. His Commentary on the Fifth Book of Moses called Deuteronomy 4 to 1700. His Hearts Ease or a Remedy against all Troubles A Consolatory Discourse directed to those who have lost their Friends and dear Relations To which is added Two Papers printed in the time of the late Plague The Seventh Edition 120. 1699. The Life of Henry Chichele Archbishop of Canterbury In which there is a particular Relation of many remarkable Passages in the Reigns of Henry the Fifth and Sixth Kings of England Written in Latin by Arthur Duck LLD. Chancellor of the Dioscess of London and Advocate of the Court of Honour Now made English And a Table of Contents annexed Archbishop Tollotson of Sincerity and Constancy in the Faith and Profession of the True Religion Being the First Volume Published from the Originals by Dr. Barker Chaplain to his Grace His Second Volume Containg Sixteen Sermons on several Occasions His Third Volume Containing Sixteen Sermons on several Subjects His Fourth Volume Containing several Discourses on Natural and Instituted Religion The Nature and Necessity of Regeneration the Danger of all known Sin c. His Fifth Volume Proving Jesus to be the Messiah the Son of God The Danger of Apostacy from Christianity c. His Sixth Volume Being the First part of his Discourses on the Divine Attributes 1699. His Seventh Volume Being the Second or Remaining Part of his Discourses on the Divine Attributes 1700. A Discourse of the Government of the Thoughts By George Tullie Sub-Dean of York The Third Edition Corrected 120. 1699. Preparation for Death Being a Letter sent to a young Gentlewoman in France in a dangerous Distemper of which she died By William Wake D.D. The Sixth Edition 120. Private Devotions digested into Six Litanies with Directions and Prayers By Hen. Valentine The Bishop of Sarum's Exposition of the 39 Articles of the Church of England in Folio 1700. The Life of John Whitgift Archbishop of Canterbury in the Times of Queen Elizabeth and King James the First Written by Sir George Paul Comptroller of his Graces Houshold To which is added a Treatise intituled Conspiracy for Pretended Reformation Written in the Year 1591. By Richard Cosin LLD. Dean of the Arches and Official Principal to Archbishop Whitgift 80. 1699.
represented as Plutarch tells us in his Book de Iside Osiride But whether in such ancient times as this of Moses it may be justly doubted Wood and Stone Silver and Gold Generally they were made of Wood or Stone which sometimes were silvered or gilded over And if any of them were made of massy Silver or Gold yet being liveless things they were no more able to afford them any help than the Dung on the Earth And it was an abominable thing to look upon dead matter as a god or to think he made his habitation there which was the opinion of the better sort of Heathen or would be represented by them they having no likeness at all unto him Ver. 18. Lest there should be among you man or woman Verse 18 or family or tribe These words are to be connected with v. 15. as the principal end why he engaged every Soul of them to renew their Covenant with God that none of them might revolt from him to serve any other god And the order wherein he places these words show that Idolatry is of a very infectious nature spreading it self strangely from single Men and Women unto Families and at last into whole Tribes Whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God Who had a hankering as we now speak after other gods which might afterwards break out into Idolatry To go and serve the gods of these Nations When the heart i. e. the Mind Will and Affections are depraved Men easily find occasions to follow whither they lead them And by this it appears that the principal part of the Covenant was to keep them close to the Worship of one God and no other as I have often observed VI. 4. VII 2 25. IX 1 c. Lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood Many take a root here to signifie an evil principle which the Apostle calls an evil heart of unbelief III Hebr. 12. But the words going before in this Verse and those that follow in the next plainly lead us to take it for any Person lurking secretly among them like a root under ground that was tainted with Idolatry who might poison others therewith and in time bring forth the fruits of their Impiety which he calls gall and wormwood Where it must be observed that the Hebrew word Rosch which we translate Gall properly signifies an Herb growing among Corn as bitter as Gall. Which in X Hosea 4. we translate Hemlock and commonly in Scripture is joyned with Wormwood as it is here IX Jerem. 15. III Lament 19. VI Amos 12. Unto which Idolatry is compared because it is most ungrateful and distastful if I may so speak unto God and produces bitter effects that is most grievous Punishments unto Men. Verse 19 Ver. 19. And it come to pass when he The Man spoken of before under the name of a root of bitterness Heareth the words of this Curse Against Idolatry which Moses engaged every one of them to renounce by making a Solemn Covenant with God to Worship him alone and dreadful Imprecations upon themselves if they did not make good this Covenant v. 12 14 15 16. XXVII 15. That he bless himself in his heart Secretly fancy none of these Curses shall fall upon him but quite contrary promise himself all manner of happiness Saying I shall have peace Prosper and be happy Though I walk in the imagination of mine heart Or in the stubborness of mine heart as it is in the Margin That is resolve to worship what God I best fancy To add drunkenness to thirst In the Hebrew the words are as the Margin of our Bibles observes the drunken to the thirsty for both words are Adjectives as Grammarians speak and supposing a Substantive to support them many think none so proper to be understood as the word Earth Which makes this a Proverbial Speech to add the wet ground to the dry and thirsty or rather the thirsty to the wet For the Particle beth which in the Hebrew is the Note of the Accusative Case is put before the word dry or thirsty and therefore that 's the thing which is to be added to the wet or drunken not the drunken to the dry And the sense is draw others into the same wickedness just as if a drunken Man should draw sober Persons to play the fool with him and do as bad as himself or after one piece of Land is overflowed the Water should be let into that which is dry and spoil that also For this seems to be the meaning of the whole Verse If a Man shall be so presumptuous as not only to cry peace to himself when he runs after his own Devices in serving other gods but endeavours to draw others into the same wicked practices There are a great many other Interpretations of these words seven or eight given by the Hebrew Doctors besides others in Christian Writers which may be seen in Coccejus in his Vltima Mosis Sect. 134. But this seems to me the most easie at which the Chaldee aims and the LXX if the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be omitted which is not in the Hebrew or the Chaldee nor the Vulgar Latin And if we take the words as we translate them only inverting them add thirst unto drunkenness the sense is as easie viz. add more sins to the foregoing XXX Isa 1. and to be still inflamed as the Scripture speaks with love to more Idols after the Service of many of them increasing their Altars as Hosea speaks like heaps in the furrows of the field X Hos 1. XII 11. Dr. Jackson in his first Book upon the Creed Chapt. XXX Paragr 4. thinks the meaning is that Posterity added to the wickedness of their Ancestors For they being cast out of their good Land for their Infidelity and Disobedience their Posterity saith he continue Exiles and Vagabonds for their stubborness in like Practices not being willing to this day to offer up the Sacrifice of a contrite heart for their disobedience past but rather adding thirst to drunkenness bless themselves when they hear the words of that Curse promising peace to themselves though they walk on according to the stubborness of their fore-fathers hearts Verse 20 Ver. 20. The LORD will not spare him That is not pardon or pass by his wickedness without punishment But then the anger of the LORD and his jealousie shall smoak against that man These words import the highest degree of Anger That is the severest Plagues which are the effects of the Anger of an incensed Majesty And all the Curses that are written in this Book Particularly in the foregoing Chapter Shall lye upon him Not only fall but remain upon him to his utter ruin as it follows in the next words And the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven By his name is meant himself so that this is a threatning of Destruction to him and his Posterity till there be no memory of him left Ver.