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
hearts might be possessed with a sence upon what terms they were to enjoy it And he describes the places so particularly that they might be sure to know them By the way where the Sun goeth down On that side which inclined to the West In the Land of the Canaanites The People particularly so called who were one of the Seven Nations Some of which lived here in the East and others near the Mid-land Sea As I have observed upon XV Gen. 21. Which dwell in the Champian over against Gilgal Some think these Mountains were at such a considerable distance from Gilgal that they cannot be said to be over against Gilgal because this Phrase signifies them not to be far off one from the other And therefore they translate these words looking towards Gilgal But it is not said that the Mountains were over against Gilgal but the dwelling of the Canaanites in whose Country these Mountains were was over against it Beside the Plain of Moreh Of which mention is made XII Gen. 6. Where the Canaanites are also mentioned as in that Land when Abraham came into it Which suggests to us that these Blessings were pronounced in that very place where Abraham anciently dwelt and where he worshipped God who there appeared to him Verse 31 Ver. 31. For ye shall pass over Jordan to go in to possess the Land which the LORD your God giveth you and ye shall possess it and dwell therein He would have them be as careful in this Matter as it was certain that they should shortly go over Jordan to take possession of the Country which God was about to bestow on them Which he assures them they should get possession of and settle themselves therein Ver. 32. Chapter XII And ye shall observe to do all the Statutes and Judgments which I set before you this day But then do not forget what I have so often said to you which he thought he could not inculcate enough See Verse 32 IV. 40. V. 32. VI. 1. VII 11. VIII 1 c. CHAP. XII Verse 1. THese are the Statutes and Judgments Verse 1 which ye shall observe to do in the Land which the LORD God of thy Fathers giveth thee to possess c. Now I suppose he begins a new Exhortation which he made to them at some small distance from the former And he enters upon it with the same words which he used before VI. 1. IX 1. which could not be too often repeated considering the great proneness of the People to neglect their Duty Ver. 2. Ye shall-utterly destroy all the places wherein Verse 2 the Nations which ye shall possess served their gods So that no Opinion should be left of their being Sacred Places by any Relick or Memorial of the old Idolatry remaining there It was not sufficient that the Gods which the Seven Nations worshipped were abolished but the very places also where they were worshipped were to be made common and employed to other uses Vpon the Mountains and upon the Hills and under every green Tree These were the places where the ancient Heathen chose to worship their Gods imagining their Sacrifices were more acceptable upon Mountains than in Valleys Lucian himself gives this Reason for it Because Men were then nearer to the Gods and so more easily obtained Audience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Tacitus saith the same in the last of his Annals Daemons also were wont to haunt Woods and shady places and there appear to Men And were thought also to be the Presidents of Mountains others of Woods and Forrests And accordingly the Heathen erected Altars to them in these and such like places particularly under great Oaks which were held Sacred Places where their gods were thought to have a peculiar power By this Law therefore God intended to root out this Superstition and commanded his Tabernacle to be built low and humble And though afterward the Temple was set upon an Hill there was only one and no more and therefore it could not be thought to be out of any Opinion that an Hill was more Sacred than another place And under every green Tree Nothing can illustrate these words more than what Pliny saith in the Twelfth Book of his Natural History concerning Trees which thus begins Haec fuere Numinum Templa c. These were the Temples of the gods and even now the simple People after the ancient Rites dedicate to god such Trees as excel the rest Nor do we more adore the Images glittering with Gold and Ivory quà m lucos in iis silentia ipsa than we do the Groves and the solemn Silence therein And then he reckons what Trees were peculiarly sacred to Jupiter Apollo Minerva c. concluding that several of their gods such as the Sylvani Fauni and some of their Nymphs had their Names from the Woods This was a thing so notorious that in their most Sacred Solemnities they were wont to present the gods whom they worshipped with a Crown or Garland made of the Boughs and Leaves of such Trees in which they were thought to delight As to Jupiter a Crown of Oak to Apollo of Laurel to Minerva of Olive to Venus of Myrtle to Bacchus of Ivy to Rhea Pan Neptune and Vulcan of Pine c. See Ezek. Spanhemius upon Callimachus his Hymn to Diana vers 200. Ver. 3. And ye shall overthrow their Altars and break Verse 3 their Pillars and burn their Groves with fire and you shall hew down the graven Images of their Gods See VII 5. and XXVI Lev. 1. He mentions all these so particularly because this is the very foundation and hinge of the Law as Maimonides speaks that all Opinion of the Sanctity of such things should be blotted out of Mens hearts and the memory of them extinguished More Nevochim P. III. Cap. XXIX where he reckons abundance of things of this kind which were among the old Idolaters called Zabij And destroy the Names of them out of that place From this and such like places the Jews have framed this Affirmative Precept That the Gentile Idolatry is by all means to be destroyed For these Nations having forfeited their Land by their abominable wickedness and God having bestowed it upon the Israelites whom he took for his peculiar People and among whom he dwelt and therefore calls this his Land See VII 6. He as the King of the Country might enjoyn what Orders he pleased to have observed And it was of the highest concernment that there should not be the least footstep of the old Idolatry left in the Country but that he who was the Lord of it and the LORD of Heaven and Earth should be alone acknowledged and worshipped And there was greater Reason for this than at first sight may be imagined For as the Host of Heaven was worshipped as the glorious Bodies wherein their gods inhabited which was the Notion of the best of the Heathen for this Worship so their Daemons were supposed to dwell in the Images and Pillars which for
from Kadesh-Barnea In all which time he gives us no account what passed either in the foregoing Book or in this but only sets down the places of their abode as I observed in the XXXIIIth of NVMBERS Ver. 3. Ye have compassed this Mountain long enough Verse 3 i. e. The mountainous Country of Edom mentioned v. 1. Turn ye northward From Ezion-gaber which was in the South towards the North that is directly towards the Land of Canaan Ver. 4. And command thou the People saying Ye Verse 4 are to pass through the Coast of your Brethren the Children of Esau which dwell in Seir. For they went from Ezion-gaber to Kadesh XX Numb 1. and from thence to Mount Hor v. 22. which was in the edge of the Land of Edom XXXIII Numb 37. and from thence they travelled to compass the Land of Edom XXI 4. i. e. the Eastern quarter of it So that though they did not pass through the Coast of Edom as we translate it yet they passed by it and very near unto it as the Particle beth frequently signifies XXXVII Gen. 13. V Josh 13. 1 Sam. XXIX 1. Though they may be truly said to pass through their Coast if thereby we understand their Border or the Confines of their Country And they shall be afraid of you Lest wanting a Settlement the Israelites should seize upon their Country Accordingly we find they raised all the force they could make to oppose them XX Numb 20. Take ye good heed to your selves therefore Let not that encourage you to assault them Verse 5 Ver. 5. Meddle not with them Make not the least attempt upon them For I will not give you of their Land no not so much as a foot breadth i. e. Not the smallest Portion Because I have given mount Seir unto Esau for a possession So Joshua saith expresly XXIV Josh 4. wherein he made good the Blessing of Isaac XXVII Gen. 39. Verse 6 Ver. 6. Ye shall buy meat of them for money that ye may eat c. If you have a mind to any Provision that their Country affords you shall not take it but purchase it as they did their very Water v. 29. which was a scarce thing in those dry Countries And so the Israelites offered to do when they treated with them about a passage through their Country XX Numb 19. Verse 7 Ver. 7. For the LORD thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand Or though the LORD hath blessed thee c. That is though there is no need of it God having abundantly provided you with all things necessary But if we follow our translation the sense is plain You have wherewith to buy of them what you need or desire therefore do not take it away by force He knoweth thy walking through this great Wilderness Hath directed and prospered thee as the word knoweth signifies in many places I Psal 6. XXXI 7. in thy Travels through a dangerous Wilderness These forty years the LORD thy God hath been with thee thou hast lacked nothing He had mercifully provided for them so constantly that he let them want nothing necessary for their support This was the Sum of the Argument why they should not molest the Edomites nor take any thing by stealth from them because they were in no need and God hath given that Country to the Children of Esau as he intended to give Canaan to the Israelites Their being in the Wilderness forty Years is mentioned also VIII 2. XXIX 5. besides other places of Scripture For from the fifteenth day of the first Month in which their Fathers came out of Egypt XXXIII Numb 5. to the tenth day of the same Month in which they went over Jordan into Canaan IV Josh 19. there were but five days wanting of compleat forty Years I cannot but here note also that this is one of those places wherein Onkelos mentions the MEMRA i. e. WORD of Jehovah which can signifie nothing but a Divine Person For thus he tranlates these words The WORD of the LORD thy God hath been thy helper thou hast not wanted any thing Ver. 8. And when we passed by from our Brethren the Verse 8 Children of Esau which dwelt in Seir through the way of the plain i. e. Through the Wilderness of Zin From Elath and from Ezion-gaber Two places upon the Red-Sea the last of which Ezion-gaber signifies as much as the Spine or Back-bone of a Man So called because there were great ragged Rocks in that Port as Bochart observes like those at Dyracchium in Macedonia which had its Name also from thence Lib. I. Canaan Cap. XLIV We turned After they were denied passage through their Country and had gone through those Stations mentioned XXXIII Numb 41 42 c. And passed by the Wilderness of Moab See XXI Numb 11. Going by the East side of their Country XI Judg. 18. Verse 9 Ver. 9. And the LORD said unto me Distress not the Moabites neither contend with them in battle He would not have them force their way through his Country because the King of Moab refused them a passage as the King of Edom had done XI Judg. 17. For their Country now was but small since Sihon King of the Amorites had taken from them all the best of it which lay between Arnon and Jabbok of which the Israelites had possessed themselves by the conquest of Sihon So that they had only that Portion remaining which lay upon the Dead-Sea which David in after times subdued For I will not give thee of their Land for a possession No more than of Edom v. 5. Because I have given Ar. It is likely the Capital City gave Name to the whole Country about it At least Ar which was the chief City of Moab XXI Numb 15 28. is put here for all the Land of Moab as Mount Seir for all the Land of Edom v. 1. Vnto the Children of Lot for a possession Though the Moabites were now a wicked People yet for their pious Ancestors sake from whom they were descended God would not have them dispossessed Verse 10 Ver. 10. And the Emims dwelt there in time past c. A terrible People as the very Name imports both for their number and for their strength being of a large size like Anakims See XIV Gen. 5. Verse 11 Ver. 11. Which also were accounted Giants as the Anakims c. Which seems to have been their name or else Rephaim but to distinguish them from others of that name in Canaan the Moabites called them Emims Ver. 12. The Horims also dwelt in Seir before-time They were the ancient Inhabitants of Mount Seir as the Emims were of the Country of Moab XIV Gen. 6. XXXVI 20. Verse 12 But the Children of Esau succeeded them Planted themselves in that Mountain When they had destroyed them from before them and dwelt in their Land When the Children of Esau expelled the Horites or the Children of Lot the Emmims is no where recorded nor who were their Leaders in
LORD our God commanded us i. e. not to meddle withal CHAP. III. Verse 1. THen we turned and went up by the way of Verse 1 Bashan and Og the King of Bashan came out against us c. See XXI Numb 33. where there are the very same words Ver. 2. And the LORD said unto me Fear him not Verse 2 for I will deliver c. The same words in XXI Numb 34. Only there he saith I have delivered him into thy hand that is resolved to do it Which may interpret what is said in the foregoing Chapter of this Book v. 31. concerning Sihon Verse 3 Ver. 3. So the LORD our God delivered into our hands Og also the King of Bashan c. See XXI Numb 35. Verse 4 Ver. 4. And we took all his Cities at that time all the Cities c. threescore Cities See upon XXXII Numb 41. All the Region of Argob A small Province lying between Jordan and the Mountains of Gilead a little above the Sea of Tiberias which Region was afterwards called Trachonitis from the asperity of the Mountains The Kingdom of Og in Bashan Belonging to his Kingdom in Bashan v. 13. and 1 Kings IV. 13. Verse 5 Ver. 5. All these Cities were fenced with high Walls Gates and Bars c. So they are described 1 Kings IV. 13. Verse 6 Ver. 6. And we utterly destroyed them c. For they were Amorites and therefore under the Curse of God being part of the seven Nations of Canaan devoted to destruction See II. 34. Verse 7 Ver. 7. But all the Cattle and the Spoil of the Cities we took for a prey to our selves As they had done before when they destroyed Sihon and his People II. 35. Verse 8 Ver. 8. And we took at that time out of the hand of the two Kings of the Amorites the Land which was on this side Jordan Which was given to the two Tribes of Reuben and Gad and half the Tribe of Manasseh v. 12 13. If Men were not blinded with prejudice they could not but see from hence that the word beeber in the first Verse of this Book is rightly translated on this side for beyond Jordan as they would have it signifie in the Land of Canaan these two Kings had no possessions nor did Moses make any Conquest there From the River of Arnon unto Hermon This River was the Bounds of their Country on the South and Hermon which was one of the Mountains of Gilead where it joyns to Libanus was their bound on the North. Ver. 9. Which Hermon the Sidonians call Sirion Verse 9 And so it is called in XXIX Psal 6. and joyned with Lebanon for it was as much a part of Libanus as of Gilead these two Mountains there meeting together Whence Jeremiah calls Gilead the Head of Lebanon XXII 6. because Libanus begins where Gilead ends And the Amorites call it Shenir And so it is called XXVII Ezek. 5. and had this Name as Bochart conjectures from the multitude of wild Cats which were in this Mountain For the Arabians called that Creature Sinaur or Sinar See Hierozoicon P. I. Lib. III. Cap. XIV Ver. 10. All the Cities of the Plain All the flat Verse 10 Country which the LXX thought was called Misor for they retain here that Hebrew word And all Gilead i. e. All that part of it which belonged to him which was but half as I observed before II. 36. And all Bashan That part of his Country which was properly and peculiarly called Basan which being the most rich and fertile as the word signifies gave denomination to his whole Kingdom Vnto Shalchah and Edrei Cities of the Kingdom of Og in Bashan The former of these is mentioned XIII Josh 11. just as it is here as the Bounds of Bashan towards Mount Hermon or Lebanon So Chytraeus A Town in Basan in the Mountains of Libanus near to Machati And Edrâ—i was the place where they fought with Og and overthrew him XXI Numb 33. Verse 11 Ver. 11. For only Og King of Bashan remained of the remnant of the Giants Or of the Rephaim a very ancient People in this Country XIV Gen. 5. who were either descended from the Amorites or mingled with them and Og was the very last of them so that he and his People being destroyed none of them remained Behold his Bedstead was a Bedstead of Iron Which was no unusual thing in ancient days though far later than this For Thucydides saith that when the Thebans took Plateae they made Beds of the Brass and Iron they found there which they dedicated to Juno And Beds of Silver and Gold are mentioned by divers Authors as Huetius observes in his Demonstr Evangel Propos IV. Cap. XIV N. VII Is it not in Rabbath of the Children of Ammon This is thought by some to be a considerable Objection against Moses being the Author of this Book For how should this Bedstead say they come to the Children of Ammon in his days No doubt they imagine it would have remained in Bashan whilst Og lived though in length of time it might be carried into the Country of the Ammonites As if Og fearing the worst might not send his Bed and his best Furniture unto the Ammonites knowing they would be safe among them because the Israelites were forbid to make War upon them Or Moses having conquered the Country and kept all the Spoil v. 7. might not sell this among other Goods to the Children of Ammon who preserved it in their capital City No body can see an unreasonableness in either of these Suppositions of the same Huetius Nor do I see how the Conjecture of another learned Person Andraeas Masius upon the XIIth of Joshua can be confuted which is That when the Ammonites drove out that monstrous sort of People mentioned II. 21. Og might possibly escape and so is said here to be left of the remnant of the Giants who flying hither to the Amorites was made their King because of his goodly Presence and great Valour But the Ammonites kept his Bedstead and showed it as a Monument of that illustrious Victory which they got over the Rephaim or as they called them the Zamzummims in that Country Nine cubits was the length thereof and four cubits was the breadth thereof This is mentioned to show of what a vast Stature Og was For Bedsteads being according to the common Custom made a third part longer than the Persons that lye in them he was six Cubits high as Maimonides computes that is as high again as any other Man More Nevochim P. II. Cap. XLVII Which is very sober Discourse in comparison with what other Jews say of him See Sâ—kikkard in his Bechinah Happeruschim p. 120. After the cubit of a Man According to the Cubit of ordinary Men saith the same Maimonides which is a little more than half a yard not of Og before mentioned But what need was there say the former Objectors to mention this since the Israelites saw Og lye dead before
the Jews did not differ in its form or substance from that which commonly fell in those Countries and doth so at this Day But herein consisted the Miracle that he gave it them in a prescribed Measure and so abundantly as to suffice such a vast Number and that every Morning in all Seasons of the Year This made it a Divine Manna for the common fell only in small Quantities and not always but at some times in the Year That he might humble thee This word is commonly understood of humbling by Affliction which may seem not to belong to Manna For that was a singular Benefit being an excellent Nourishment and of a delicious Taste But they having nothing else beside this to live upon were soon tired with it as we find XI Numb 6. and much more did it seem an Affliction to them to live upon one thing alone for forty Years together And God intended by it to humble them at the same time that he was extraordinary kind to them And that he might prove thee Whether they would be thankful that they were not starved and submit to his wise Providence and obey his Laws which they had the greater reason to observe because it was evident they owed their very Life and Being to him every Moment For without new Supplies every Day from Heaven they had been famished in that desolate Wilderness And do thee good at thy latter end That in Conclusion his kindness to them might be more thankfully received and more safely enjoyed So Maimonides expounds this Passage in his More Nevochim P. III. Cap. XXIV God was pleased to accustom them to labour in the Wilderness that he might increase their happiness when they came into the Land of Canaan For this is certain A transition from labour to rest is far sweeter than continual rest Nor could they so easily have subdued the Land and overcome the Inhabitants of it unless they had indured some hardship in the Wilderness For rest and idleness takes away Mens Courage but labour and hard fare augments it And this is the good saith he which was in the issue to redound to them by this wise dispensation of God's Providence Verse 17 Ver. 17. And thou shalt say in thine heart my power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth Such vain Conceits are apt to arise in Mens minds if they preserve not a sence of God and of all his Mercies to them Verse 18 Ver. 18. But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth Continually call to mind that they owed all they had and the increase of it to his Almighty Providence without whom they could never have gotten possession of this Land nor have prospered in it That he may establish his Covenant which he sware unto thy Fathers c. He would have them sensible of their own unworthiness also which would make them more grateful to him of all the Blessings God had bestowed on them and acknowledge them to his meer goodness and fidelity to his Promises for they had been a murmuring and rebellious People Ver. 19. And it shall be if thou do at all forget the Verse 19 LORD thy God Luxury and Pride the usual effects of Fulness naturally made them unthankful and unmindful of God And neglect of God's Service made them easily fall to Idolatry And walk after other Gods and worship and serve them The two last Expressions are the Explication of the first for then they walked after the Idols of the People as Onkelos paraphrases it when they worshipped and adored them It is evident by this that the drift of Moses in all this Discourse is as I observed before to press upon them the first and great Commandment I testifie against you this day that ye shall utterly perish See IV. 26. Ver. 20. As the Nations which the LORD destroyeth Verse 20 before your face He speaks in the Present Tense because he was about to destroy them and when he began he destroyed them by little and little VII 22. and there were still more to be destroyed So shall ye perish because ye would not be obedient to the voice of the LORD your God It was but just that they should perish as those Nations did because they fell into their Sins Chapter IX CHAP. IX Verse 1 Verse 1. HEar O Israel He begins a new Exhortation to them at some distance of time from the former but still aiming at the same thing to represent to them the danger of Idolatry Thou art to pass over Jordan this day That is shortly not long hence for it cannot be meant precisely all these things being spoken in the eleventh Month of the last Year of their Travels and they passed not over Jordan till the first Month of the next Year Between which and this time Moses died and they mourned a whole Month for him To go in to possess Nations A Country inhabited by Nations for the People themselves they were to destroy Greater and mightier than thy self Whom notwithstanding God would deliver up into their Hands Cities great and fenced up to Heaven As the Spies had represented them I. 28. and they were indeed very strong Cities whose Walls could not easily be scaled Verse 2 Ver. 2. A People great and tall XIV Numb 28 32. The Children of the Anakims whom thou knowest Who seem to have been the chief of those Nephilim or Rephaim which we sometimes translate Giants in those parts XIII Numb 22 28 33. Of whom thou hast heard say who can stand before the Children of Anak A common Proverb in those days The Children of Anak being so famous that the whole Nation as Bochartus thinks took it's Name from them For Bene-Anak i. e. Children of Anak or Pheneanak is easily changed into Phaenicia These Anakims were vanquished by Joshua who drove them out of the Cities where they dwelt and made them flee to the Philistims Where a Remnant of them seem'd to have liv'd till the days of David For Goliah and his Brethren Lahmi Sippai and Ishbibanob 1 Chron. XX. 4 c. were Anakims and so was that Man with six Toes on each Foot and six Fingers on each Hand 2 Sam. XXI 16. for they were all born at Gath which was one of the Cities to which the Anakims fled XI Josh 22. Some think that from hence Kings among the Greeks were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because commonly they chose those to rule over them who were Persons of a great Stature and carried Majesty in their Faces But it is not improbable as I observed before that some of the Anakims fled into Greece and settled there when they were driven out of Canaan Ver. 3. Vnderstand therefore this day Settle this Verse 3 therefore in your Minds before you go over Jordan as undoubted truth That the LORD thy God is he that goeth before thee Over Jordan III Josh 3 4 c. As a consuming fire Before
so much of our Religion when they are Men and Women as the Jews do of theirs when they are meer Children From the Hebrew word limmathtem in this Verse ye shall teach them the Jews have framed a Conceit that their Talmud hath its Name signifying teaching and instruction as R. Jechiel saith in his Disputation with Nicolaus pag. 9. Speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way c. Taking all occasions to inculcate these Precepts upon them See VI. 7. and upon their Daughters as well as their Sons though the Jewish Doctors commonly fancy there is no command to instruct their Daughters in the Law See Mischna Sota Cap. III. Sect. IV. with Wagenseil's Annotations and the Gamara there p. 471 501. Verse 20 Ver. 20. And thou shalt write them upon the Door-posts of thy House and upon thy Gates See VI. 9. By this means God's Word being so rooted in the hearts of the Parents to use the words of Dr. Jackson as to bring forth this good Fruit in their Practice the Seed of it might be sown in the tender Hearts of their Children and be propagated from one Generation to another Verse 21 Ver. 21. That your days may be multiplied and the days of your Children in the Land which the LORD sware unto your Fathers to give them Nothing is wont to move Men more than Love to themselves and Love to their Children whom they Love next to themselves As the days of Heaven upon the Earth As long as this World shall last Which the Psalmist speaking of David expresses in this manner His Seed shall endure for ever and his Throne as the days of Heaven LXXXIX Psal 29. Which doth not signifie absolutely for ever but a long time For thus Baruch says the Jews in Babylon were commanded to pray for the Life of Nebuchadnezzar and the Life of Baltasar his Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that their days might be as the days of Heaven upon Earth Which is the very Phrase of Moses here in this place importing a very long Life And such Hyperbolical Expressions every one knows are used by the Heathen particularly by Virgil. Aeneid 1. Convexa polus dum sidera pascet Ver. 22. For if ye shall diligently keep all these Commandments Verse 22 c. To love the LORD your God This is still made the Condition of all their Happiness See v. 13. X. 20. To walk in all his ways In observance of his Laws which was the Fruit of true love to him And to cleave unto him So as to serve no other God but to persevere in the Worship of the LORD their God alone The Jews make this one of the DCXIII Precepts of the Law as they count them distinct by it self but they interpret it foolishly of sticking to the CABALA of their wise Men whereby they fancy themselves united unto God Ver. 23. Then will the LORD drive out all these Verse 23 Nations from before you As he had often promised VII 23. XXIII Exod. 27. And ye shall possess Nations greater and mightier than your selves VII 1. Ver. 24. Every place wherein the soles of your feet Verse 24 shall tread shall be yours That is every place of the promised Land as it is explained in the next words From the Wilderness Viz. of Sin which was on the South of Canaan And Lebanon Which was its Bounds on the North. From the River the River Euphrates Which was the Eastern Limits when in the days of Solomon their Empire reached hither according to the Promise unto Abraham in XV Gen. 18. Even unto the uttermost Sea shall your Coast be Which is now called the Mediterranean or the Midland Sea which bounded it on the West See XXXIV Numb 6. where it is called the Great Sea and in that Chapter the Bounds of their Country round about are described Verse 25 Ver. 25. There shall no Man be able to stand before you See VII 24. For the LORD your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon all the Land that ye shall tread upon as he hath said unto you For God had promised to terrifie the Inhabitants of Canaan and take away their Courage XXIII Exod. 27. And accordingly the Spies whom Joshua sent brought him an account of the great Consternation wherein the whole Country was when they were about to enter into it II Josh 9 24. Verse 26 Ver. 26. Behold I set before you this day a Blessing and a Curse That is he proposed them to their choice Verse 27 Ver. 27. A Blessing if you obey the Commandments of the LORD your God which I command you this day Which he more largely explains XXVIII 2 3 4 c. Verse 28 Ver. 28. And a Curse if ye will not obey the Commandment of the LORD your God Which is also more particularly laid before them XXVIII 15 16 17 c. The whole Historical Part of the Old Testament witnesses the Truth of this that God blessed or cursed them according as they observed or broke his Laws And if the People of Israel had diligently marked considered and laid to heart that their Happiness or Misery were always correspondent to their good and bad Behaviour towards God it would have confirmed their Belief of their Law as much as if they had seen all the Miracles done before their Fore-fathers and supplied the want or the rarity of them in after Ages Nay this would have done more than all the Miracles did which were forgotten in a short time whereas their own daily Experience of the happy Fruits of Obedience and the Mischief of Disobedience would have sealed these Truths unto their Conscience But turn aside out of the way which I command you this day to go after other gods which ye have not known It was not every sin that turned God's favour from them but their Idolatry and Apostacy from him against which he principally warns them throughout all these Chapters IV. 3 4 15 16 23. V. 32. VI. 4 14. VII 4 5 25. VIII 19. IX 12. X. 20. Ver. 29. And it shall come to pass when the Lord thy Verse 26 God hath brought thee into the Land whither thou goest to possess it that thou shalt put the blessing upon Mount Gerizim and the curse upon Mount Ebal To quicken them unto a strict care in their Obedience Blessings and Cursings were to be pronounced with great Solemnity at their first entrance into the Land of Canaan as is more fully ordered XXVII 11 12 c. and performed by Joshua VIII 33 34 35. And Moses seems to enjoyn them the like Solemnity every Seventh Year XXXI 10 11 12 13. Ver. 30. Are they not on the other side Jordan Verse 30 With respect to the place where Moses now was the Mountains he mentions were on the other side of Jordan in the Land of Canaan In which they had no sooner got footing but Joshua took care to execute this Command that their
foot in Oil. Be planted in a rich Soil full of Olive Trees which should make Oil so plentiful that they might not only wash their Faces but their Feet in it Onkelos translates He shall be nourished with the delights of Kings Ver. 25. Thy shoes shall be iron and brass Or as in the Margin Vnder thy feet shall be iron Which hath made some think these Minerals were digged out of Libanus near to which lay the Tribe of Asher Verse 25 Who according to this Exposition trod upon a Soil full of Iron and Brass But no Author Bochartus saith mentions any such thing as the Brass of Libanus and therefore some understand by these Expressions the barbarous People that dwelt in Galilee of the Gentiles who pressed the Asserites as an Iron Shoe or Fetters do the Feet But the Arabick here by Minal which we translate Shoe understands a Bolt or Bar and renders this passage Thy Bolts shall be Iron and Brass That is as Onkelos expresses it They should be as strong as Iron and Brass And so Kimchi expounding the words of Jonathan who interpret it Thy habitation shall be as strong c. saith the meaning is Their Country should be as well fenced as if it had been shut up in brasen or iron walls And R. Solomon to the same purpose See Hierozoicon P. II. Lib. VI. Cap. XVI But I have observed that the same Bochartus acknowledges in his Phaleg that Sarepta which the Hebrews call Zarephath 1 Kings XVII 9. a City of Sidon had its Name from the Brass and Iron which was here melted being in great plenty in that Country as the Hebrews gather from this Blessing of the Tribe of Asher who were the Inhabitants of those places Iron and Brass are under thy Shoe as he there interprets it Lib. IV. Cap. XXXIV And so a very Learned Man long before him David Chytraeus expounds these words and adds this observation Nam Sidon Sarepta quae à Metallis excoquendis nomen habet in Tribu Asser fuerunt For Sidon and Sarepta which had its Name from the Melting of Metals there were in the Tribe of Asher And as thy days so shall thy strength be The same Chytraeus expounds it All the time of their life they should retain the same vigour of Body and Mind Which seems to be the sense of Onkelos As the days of thy youth so shall thy strength be And the Hierusalem Targum more expresly Such as they were in the days of their youth such they should be in their old age Or simply these words signifie That this Tribe should grow stronger and stronger Which Hottinger seems to have aimed at when he propounded this Exposition in his Smegma Orientale Cap. VII As are thy days so are thy riches and wealth Masius quite contrary upon XIX Josh 31. interprets these words to signifie that they should have perpetual Conflicts with the old Inhabitants of the Country All which various Interpretations proceed from the uncertain signification of the Hebrew word Daba which we render strength Verse 26 Ver. 26. There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun And now having blessed every particular Tribe he concludes with this general demonstration of their happiness That their God was not like the gods of other Nations but supereminent in all Perfections And therefore they must needs be blessed as the same Chytraeus explains it who had him propitious to them as their Father their Keeper their Defender Avenger and Saviour from all their Enemies Who rideth upon the Heavens in thy help Who commandeth in the Heavens as well as in the Earth and sends help and succour to thee from thence by Thunder Lightning and Hailstones as we read he did in many places XVIII Psalm 8 9 c. LXVIII 33 34 35. And as he that rides upon an Horse turns him this way and that way as he pleaseth they are the words of Maimonides in his More Nevochim P. I. Cap. LXX so God by his Power and Pleasure Commands the Heavens and is not fixed to them as the Soul of them which was the foolish Opinion of the Zabij but as the Rider is far more honourable and excellent than the Beast on which he sits and of a quite different Species from it So God is represented by this Metaphor though but in a weak manner as separate from the Heavens and of a more Excellent Nature far transcending them which are but the Instruments he uses to fulfil his Will and Pleasure And in his Excellency on the Sky Or as it may be translated word for word And in his magnificence the Clouds From whence he sends such Storms and Tempests as demonstrate his Power Ver. 27. The eternal God is thy refuge Or dwelling Verse 27 place to whom they might alway betake themselves for safety and never fail of it XC Psalm 1. In the Hebrew the words are The eternal God is the habitation or dwelling place From whence the Jews have framed this Maxim to preserve all Men from having low thoughts of God as if he was contained in any thing God is the place wherein the world dwells and not the World the place where God dwells So Maimonides observes in the place above-named out of Bereschit Rabba And underneath are the everlasting arms To support all those with an unwearied Power and Care who commit themselves unto him And he shall thrust out the Enemy from before thee As he had carried them through the Wilderness with an unwearied Care so he promises God would expel the Canaanites and make room for them in their Country And shall say Destroy them Give the Israelites Power as well as Authority to root them out For to say here is as much as to do and therefore signifies executing their destruction Verse 28 Ver. 28. Israel thou shalt dwell in safety alone Live in quiet and peace separate from all other People Or the Divine Protection shall be sufficient for their Security This Rasi thinks was fulfilled in the days of Solomon 1 Kings IV. 25. But others of them think it is still to be fulfilled The fountain of Jacob. That is his Posterity who flowed from him as a River from a Fountain XLVIII Isaiah 1. LI. 1. Cocceius thinks these words should be joyned to the foregoing in this manner Israel shall dwell in safety alone by the Fountain of Jacob that is by God But though this may have some countenance from the ancient Interpreters as I shall observe presently yet most go the other way there being the like Expression in LXVIII Psal 26. Bless the LORD in the Congregation from the Fountain of Israel or as it is in the Margin Ye that be of the Fountain of Israel i. e. are derived from him as your Father Shall be upon a Land of Corn and Wine also his Heavens shall drop down dew In a fruitful Country upon which the Heavens shall drop down refreshing Dews Onkelos paraphrases the whole thus Israel shall dwell securely alone according to
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
the Verse 43 plain Country of the Reubenites and Ramoth in Gilead of the Gadites and Goshen in Bashan of the Manassites Thus they are set down also in the Book of Joshua XX. 8. XXI 27 36 38. Ver. 44. And this is the Law which Moses set before Verse 44 the Children of Israel Now follows the Law which after the forementioned assignation of the Cities of Refuge Moses set before all the People and pressed them to the observance of it Ver. 45. These are the Testimonies and the Statutes Verse 45 and the Judgments As the next Chapter contains the Law that is the Ten Commandments which Moses set before them So in several following Chapters after new earnest Exhortations to Obedience he represents to them the rest of God's Will comprehended under these three words Testimonies Statutes and Judgments Some of which belong to the Divine Service others to their Civil Government and the rest to Ceremonial Observations for the better security and preservation of both the former Which Moses spake unto the Children of Israel after they came forth out of Egypt Which he had formerly delivered to them after they were come out of the Egyptian Bondage in the XXI XXII XXIII Chapters of Exodus and in the following Books Verse 46 Ver. 46. On this side Jordan c. In this and the two following Verses he again mentions the place and the time when and where he set before them the Law and the Testimonies Statutes and Judgments recorded in the following part of this Book Which he repeats that all Posterity might observe these Discourses were made a little before he died In the Valley over against Beth-peor III. Vlt. In the Land of Sihon King of the Amorites who dwelt at Heshbon II. 24 31 c. Whom Moses and the Children of Israel smote after they were come forth out of Egypt In the fortieth Year after their departure thence As appears from XXI Numb 24. XXXIII 38. Verse 47 Ver. 47. And they possessed his Land and the Land of Og King of Bashan c. See XXI Numb 33 c. Verse 48 Ver. 48. From Aroer which is by the Bank of the River Arnon even unto Mount Sion which is Hermon The Mount here called Sion is not that which was so famous in After-times when David made it the Royal Seat for that was on the other side Jordan and is written with different Letters in the Hebrew But in all probability is a Contraction of Sirion which is the Name by which the Sidonians called Hermon For the Bounds of this Country are so described III. 8 9 12. to extend from the River Arnon to Mount Hermon which is called Sirion Chapter V. Ver. 49. And all the Plain on this side Jordan Eastward even unto the Sea of the Plain See III. 17. Verse 49 Vnder the Springs of Pisgah The same place there called Ashdod-Pisgah Which is exactly described after the same manner by Benjamin Tudelensis in his Itinerary set forth by L'Empereur p. 51. Where he saith that Jordan is called at Tiberias the Sea of Genesareth and coming from thence with a great force falls at the foot of this Hill into the Sea of Sodom which is called the Salt Sea CHAP. V. Verse 1. AND Moses called all Israel and said unto Verse 1 them That is summoned all the Elders and Heads of their Tribes who were to communicate what he said to the rest Thus it is commonly expounded But that which he saith XXIX 10 11. seems to direct us to another Interpretation that he himself went from Tribe to Tribe and repeated these Ten Words as they are called placing himself in several parts of their Camp that every one might hear what he said And this was sometime after he had in like manner exhorted them to Obedience in the foregoing Preface See IV. 41. Hear O Israel the Statutes and Judgments which I speak in your Ears this day Mind what I now say unto you That ye may learn them and keep and do them That ye may not be ignorant of such important Truths nor negligent in the Practice of them which is the End of Knowledge Verse 2 Ver. 2. The LORD our God made a Covenant with us in Horeb. See XXIV Exod. 3 5 6 7 8. Verse 3 Ver. 3. The LORD made not this Covenant with our Fathers Viz. Abraham Isaac and Jacob With whom he covenanted to give their Posterity the Land of Canaan but did not make to them this discovery of his Will which was the matter of the Covenant at Horeb. But with us even us who are all here alive this day A great part of those who were then at Horeb were now alive viz. all under twenty Years old And if they had been all dead Moses might have said He made it with us because they were still the same People tho' the particular Persons were dead with whom the Covenant was made not only for themselves but for their Posterity Verse 4 Ver. 4. The LORD talked with you Face to Face in the Mount c. Openly clearly and distinctly or by himself without the Mediation of Moses but in no visible shape for that is expresly denied in the foregoing Chapter IV. 12 15. Verse 5 Ver. 5. I stood between the LORD and you at that time to shew you the Word of the LORD As a Mediator whom God employed to prepare them to meet him XIX Exod. 10 11 c. and to prescribe them the Bounds at what distance they should keep v. 12. and to bring them forth to meet with him v. 17. and to charge them to keep within their Bounds v. 21. And on the other side to represent their Desires unto God after he had spoken to them XX Exod. 19. So that he was truly a Mediator between God and them and stood also in a middle place at the foot of the Mount while they stood further off For ye were afraid by reason of the Fire XX Exod 18. And went not up into the Mount XIX Exod. 17. XX. 21. Ver. 6. I am the LORD thy God which brought Verse 6 thee out of the Land of Egypt from the House of Bondage This Preface to the Ten Commandments is explained XX Exod. 2. Ver. 7. Thou shalt have none other Gods before me Verse 7 See XX Exod. 3. It is wisely observed by Grotius Lib. 2. de Jure Belli Pacis Cap. XX. Sect. XLV That true Religion was ever built upon these Four Principles First That there is a God and that he is but One. Secondly That God is nothing of those things that we see with our Eyes but something more sublime than them all Thirdly That he takes Care of Humane Affairs and judges them most justly Fourthly That he is the Maker of all things whatsoever Which Principles are explained in these first four Precepts of the Decalogue the Unity of the Godhead being delivered in the first place Ver. 8 9 10. Thou shalt not make thee any graven Verse 8 9 10. Image
13. And cut down their Groves There is the same mention of Asherim which we translate Groves in the place last named only another word for cut down See there But Mr. Selden both there and here understands by Asherim wooden Images of Astarte a great Goddess worshipped in that Country For which among other Reasons he gives this that Gideon is said to have thrown down the Altar of Baal and cut down the Grove that was by it So we translate it VI Judg. 25 28. where in the Hebrew the last word is Alau which signifies upon it and not by it And so the LXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And therefore the Asherah which is said to be upon the Altar must not signifie a Grove but an Image and none more likely than that of Astarte See De Diis Syris Syntagm 2 Cap. 2. and 2 Kings XXIII 6 7. And burn their graven Images with Fire As he was commanded to destroy their molten Images XXXIII Numb 52. that so no sort of Image nor any Monument of their Worship might be left in the Country but all so entirely abolished that they might have no Incentive to Idolatry This was the work of the Supreme Governour as Grotius prudently observes For tho' out of private places it belonged to the Lord of the place or if he were negligent to the King to remove Idols yet none but the Supreme Power might remove them out of publick places or such Persons who were delegated thereby to that Office See L. de Imper. Sum. Potest circa Sacra Cap. VIII Sect. 3. Ver. 6. For thou art an holy People unto the LORD Verse 6 thy God This is an Argument frequently used particularly in the Book of Leviticus why they should cleave to God alone because he had separated them to himself by many peculiar Laws which no other People had but they XI Levit. 44 45. XIX 2. XX. 7 26. The LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all People that are upon the face of the Earth As he had distinguished them from all other People by peculiar Laws so by special Favours and singular Priviledges which no other Nation whatsoever enjoyed See XIX Exod. 5 6. Some interpret the Words special People to signify that they belong'd to none but him and he had no other People but they whom he had espoused to himself From whence it is that as the Israelites are called God's People so that Country is called his Land LXXXV Psal 1. for there he dwelt by his special Presence And the King of that Country is called God's King XVIII Psal 50. and he is said to sit on God's Throne and to be Nelech le Jehovah King for the LORD 2 Chron. IX 8. and the Kingdom is called the Kingdom of the LORD XIII 8. and therefore with this Argument Asa addresses himself to God in the next Chapter XIV 11. for Help in time of Distress because he was their God and would not he hoped let their Enemies prevail against himself And accordingly these Enemies are said to be destroyed before the LORD and before his Host v. 13. Jehoshaphat also exhorts the Judges in that Book to great Caution 2 Chron. XIX 6. because they judged not for Man but for the LORD And the Prophet exhorts in the following Chapter XX. 15. not to be afraid of a mighty Host which came against him because the Battle is not yours but Gods the Cause in which they fought being his more than their own Verse 7 Ver. 7. The LORD did not set his Love upon you nor choose you To be his special People as he calls them in the foregoing Verse Because ye were more in Number than any People for ye were the fewest of all People When God declared his Love first to Abraham and his Posterity he had no Child XII Gen. 1 2 3. XV. 1 2. And when he had his Family continued so small after there were XII Heirs of the Promise that in the space of Two Hundred Years they were but LXX Persons XLVI Gen. 27. Nor do we read of any great increase of them till after the Death of Joseph which was near Fourscore Years more I Exod. 7 8 c. So St. Steven observes VII Acts 17. When the time of the Promise drew nigh which God had sworn to Abraham the People grew and multiplied in Aegypt Ver. 8. But because the LORD loved you Because it was his good Pleasure to single them out from all other People to receive special Tokens of his Favour to them Verse 8 And because he would keep the Oath which he had sworn unto your Fathers hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand c. Not for any desert of theirs but to make good his Promise confirmed with an Oath did he work their wonderful Deliverance out of Egypt XV Gen. 13 14. XXII 16 c. Ver. 9. Know therefore that the LORD thy God he Verse 9 is God He exhorts them therefore to preserve this Sense in their Mind that their God is the only God The faithful God which keepeth Covenant and Mercy with them that love him and keep his Commandments c. Who will not only faithfully keep his Word and make good his Promises but do abundantly more than he hath promised to those that cleave unto him alone and serve no other God For it appears by the Second Commandment that is peculiarly meant by loving him To a thousand Generations See XX Exod. 6. Ver. 10. And repay them that hate him Punish all Verse 10 Idolaters who are peculiarly called haters of God as I have often observed See XX Exod. 5. To their Face They themselves should live to see and feel the Punishment of their Idolatry So the Chaldee Paraphrases it Becajehon in their Life He will not be slack to him that hateth him he will repay him to his Face Though he do not punish him immediately yet he will not defer it long but be avenged of him before he die Therefore when he threatens to punish them to the Third and Fourth Generation the meaning is not that he will only punish their Posterity but them with their Posterity whom they shall see destroyed before their Face For the Fourth Generation as Maimonides observes is as much as the oldest Men commonly live to see Verse 11 Ver. 11. Thou shalt therefore keep the Commandments and the Statutes and the Judgments which I command thee this day to do them All the Laws of God see VI. 1. especially this great Commandment to have no other God but him Verse 12 Ver. 12. Wherefore it shall come to pass if ye hearken to these Judgments and keep and do them that the LORD thy God shall keep unto thee the Covenant and Mercy which he sware unto thy Fathers As faithfully fulfil his Promises to them as he did to their Fathers Verse 13 Ver. 13. And he will love thee Continue his Love to them And bless thee and multiply thee
VII 6. as a Reason why they should destroy the Images of the Heathen c. Which shows he is still speaking of the Idolatrous Customs which they should eschew because they were separated to God as a peculiar People by Laws different from all other Nations The Author of Sepher Cosri speaks not amiss That the People of Israel were call'd God's Segullah because they were elected by him to enjoy special Priviledges above other People and brought by him for that end out of the Land of Egypt in a wonderful manner and then had his Glory dwelling among them From whence it is that he doth not say in the Preface to the Ten Commandments I am the LORD of Heaven and Earth or thy Creator and therefore thou shalt have no other gods but me but I am the LORD thy God that brought thee out of the Land of Egypt c. To shew that this Law was given peculiarly to them and that they were tied to it by virtue of their Deliverance out of Egypt and God's placing his Glory among them Whereas if they had been bound to it by virtue of their Creation it would have belonged to other Nations as well as to them Pars I. Sect. 27. Verse 3 Ver. 3. Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing All the Meats forbidden by God to be eaten are called abominable not meerly because his Prohibition made them so but because the Gentile Superstition had consecrated most of them to their gods See upon XI Levit. 2. However after this Law was given the Jews were to look upon them as abominable by which means they were kept from having such free Conversation as otherwise they would have had with their Idolatrous Neighbours So that this Law also was intended to preserve them in the true Religion Verse 4 Ver. 4. These are the Beasts which ye shall eat The original of the difference of Meats see in the Learned J. Wagenseil in his Tela Ignea p. 553 c. where he shows it was not to continue for ever And it is a rational account of this which I just now gave That hereby they were preserved from common Conversation with other Nations and consequently from their Idolatries But it is a meer fancy and indeed a proud Imagination which some of the Jews have particularly the Author of Schebet Judah that as Men are more excellent than Beasts because they have better Food so Jews are more excellent than all other Men because they do not feed upon all sorts of Animals but only of some certain kinds and that after much preparation by rejecting the Blood and the Fat c. whereby they fancy the Flesh is so much alter'd that it is not so much flesh as some other food The Ox the Sheep and the Goat These were the only Beasts that were offered in Sacrifice to God and therefore are the first that are mentioned as clean for their use Ver. 5. The Hart and the Roe-buck These and Verse 5 the rest that follow in this Verse though they might not be offered in Sacrifice were allowed to be eaten and seem to be mentioned as the principal Food in the Land of Canaan XII 15 22. And the Fallow-deer It is not very material what the word Jachmur signifies because we are not now concerned in this Law about difference of Meats therefore we may follow our Translation as well as any other and the famous Bochartus hath made it probable that it signifies either a kind of Deer or of Goat P. I. Hierozoic Lib. III. Cap. XXII And the wild Goat So the Hebrew word Akko signifies which is no where else to be found the same Author proves in the same Book Cap. XIX And the Pygarg This is also a kind of Doe or Goat as he shows Cap. XX. which the Hebrews call Dison We find mention of Pygargus in Juvenal's Eleventh Satyr where the old Scholiast gives this account of it that it is a kind of Deer quoe retriores partes albas habet whose hinder parts are white From whence it had its Name among the Greeks who call the Buttocks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the wild Ox. So we translate the Hebrew word Theo or Tho. But herein Bochartus dissents because there were no such Creatures in Judaea as he observes there Cap. XXVI which are bred in colder Countries And therefore he reckons this also among the Deer or Goats Cap. XXVIII And the Chamois The Hebrew word Zemer he also thinks signifies as the former a kind of Goat or Hart of which there were great variety in those Countries And this he thinks of all other was maximè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 remarkable for jumping which is the signification of the word Zemara in the Arabick Language See Cap. XXI Verse 6 Ver. 6. And every Beast that parteth the hoof and cleaveth the cleft into two Claws and cheweth the Cud that shall ye eat He forbears to reckon up any more Particulars and only sets down the general Marks whereby they might be known which he had delivered in XI Levit. 3. See there Verse 7 Ver. 7. Nevertheless these shall ye not eat of those that chew the cud or of them that divide the cloven hoof c. These Exceptions from the general Rule have been explained XI Levit. 4 5 6. Verse 8 Ver. 8. And the Swine because it divideth the hoof yet cheweth not the cud it is unclean to you See upon XI Levit. 7. Ye shall not eat of their flesh nor touch their dead carcase See XI Levit. 8. Verse 9 Ver. 9. These ye shall eat of all that are in the waters all that have fins and scales shall ye eat See XI Lev. 9. Verse 10 Ver. 10. And whatsoever hath not fins and scales c. See XI Levit. 10 11 12. Verse 11 Ver. 11. Of all clean Birds ye shall eat He doth not name any as he did of Beasts but by enumerating those of which they might not eat all the rest were left free to be used for Food Verse 12 Ver. 12. But these are they of which ye shalt not eat the Eagle the Ossifrage and the Ospray All these are mentioned just as they are here in XI Levit. 13. Verse 13 Ver. 13. And the Glead and the Kite and the Vulture after his kind There are only two of these mentioned in XI Levit. 14. the last of them Hadajah being there omitted for it is so near to Haajah which goes before that the Transcriber as Bochart imagines might there leave it out But rather Moses now adds this sort of Bird which was not so like in Nature as in Name otherwise he would not have distinctly forbidden it Ver. 14. And every Raven after his kind The same Verse 14 words with those XI Levit. 15. Ver. 15. And the Owl and the Night-hawk and the Verse 15 Cuckow c. All the Birds mentioned in this and the three next Verses 16 17 18. are the very same which are forbidden in XI Levit. 16 17
18 19. And therefore I refer the Reader to what I have noted there only adding that from hence it appears how false their Opinion is who think the Hebrew word Tzippor is a general Name only for small Birds such as Sparrows for it is evident from this place that it is a Name for all Birds whatsoever even the greatest such as are here mentioned Ver. 19. And every creeping thing that flieth is unclean Verse 19 to you they shall not be eaten See XI Lev. 20. Ver. 20. But of all clean fowls ye may eat This is Verse 20 not the same Precept with that v. 11. for there he speaks of Birds but here of other winged Creatures which are not Birds but Insects as we call them And in XI Levit. he describes the flying creeping things which they might eat and particularly mentions several sorts of them v. 22. Ver. 21. Ye shall not eat of any thing that dieth of it Verse 21 self Unto this Discourse about Food it was very proper to add a Caution which he had given before XI Levit. 39 40. that though they might kill and eat any clean Creature yet if it died of it self it was unlawful to eat it because the Blood was in it Some Verses ascribed to Phocylides contain this sence so fully that one would think he had read Moses See Jos Scaliger in Eusebium p. 88. Thou shalt give it unto the Stranger that is within thy Gates The Proselytes of the Gates as they called them who had not embraced their Religion but were not Idolaters and therefore suffered to dwell among them might eat such Meat having no obligation upon them to observe these Laws for they were not Circumcised Or thou mayest sell it unto an Alien To a meer Gentile who might happen then to be in their Country For there were three sorts of People called by the name of Strangers being not of the Jewish Nation First Such as had received Circumcision and consequently embraced the Jewish Religion who were called Gere-tzedek strangers or Proselytes of Justice Others were not Circumcised but yet worshipped the God of Israel who were called Strangers of the Gate or Gere-toshab Strangers dwelling among them because they were to abide in their Country constantly But there were a third sort called Nocherim which we here translate Aliens who were meer Gentiles and not suffered to have an habitation among them but only to come and go in their Traffick with them For thou art an holy People unto the LORD thy God This Reason was given in the beginning of this Discourse v. 2. and so it is in Leviticus in the Conclusion of it See XI 44 45. Thou shalt not seeth a Kid in its Mothers milk Now he plainly returns to caution them against Idolatrous Customs For this was practised among the Heathens in the end of Harvest when they sprinkled their Fields and their Gardens with this Broth to make them fruitful It is mentioned twice before See XXIII Exod. 19. and XXXIV 26. Ver. 22. Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy Verse 22 Seed which the field bringeth forth year by year This doth not seem to reach unto Herbs as the Pharisees interpreted it of which see Grotius on XXIII Matth. 4. But though Causabon and Drusius and other great Men are of this Opinion yet the contrary is maintained by Persons of no small note because our Saviour when he determines this Case saith These things ye ought to have done and not left the other undone As for the Tithe here mentioned I have shown elsewhere that it was the manner of the Eastern Princes to receive the Tenth of the Fruits of their Country for the Maintenance of their Ministers and Officers as we read 1 Sam. VIII 15. In like manner God the great King of all the Earth and the peculiar Soveraign of this Country required a Tenth of all their Increase for the Maintenance of his Priests and Levites in his Service After which he ordered also a further Tithe to be taken out of the Nine Parts remaining which was called the Second Tithe to be spent in Feasts at his Tabernacle And this is with great reason thought to be particularly enjoyned in these words for of such Tithes he speaks in the next Verse It might seem indeed a little hard to give another Tenth Part after they had paid one already which they might be tempted not to perform exactly and therefore he saith Thou shalt truly that is faithfully without any deceit or fraud Tithe all the Increase of thy Seed And when this was done he required also once in three years a third Tithe for the use of the Poor See v. 28. that they might also be entertained at his Cost though not at that time at his House For it was sutable to his Royal Greatness that all his Subjects should be feasted by his order at his Palace and that the poorest of them should not be neglected but some time or other partake of his Bounty as they did at those Feasts I mentioned where their Men-servants and Maid-servants were to be entertained as well as the Levites XII 12 18. Verse 23 Ver. 23. And thou shalt eat before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall chuse to place his Name there See XII 5 6. The Tithe of thy Corn and of thy Wine and of thine Oil. This cannot be meant of the Tithe paid to the Levites of which the People were not to partake but only the Priests to whom the Levites were to give a Tithe Therefore it must be understood of the second Tithe separated after the other was paid for this holy use The design of which was that they might be secured in his Religion by eating and drinking in his Presence and thereby professing that they belong'd to him and were his thankful Servants The observation of R. Bechai upon these words thy Corn thy Wine and thine Oil is something curious but it hath a great deal of Truth in it If thou pay the Tithe saith he then it is thy Corn if thou do not it is my Corn and not thine in like manner if they paid the Tithe of Wine and Oil for it is said in II Hosea 9. Therefore I will return and take away my Corn in the time thereof and my Wine in the season thereof For they forfeited the whole who did not pay the Tenth which was the Rent God reserved to himself And the same R. Bechai represents this as a very merciful Law For it is the fashion of the World saith he if a Man have Ground of his own to let it out to Tenants at what rate he pleases for an half or third part to be paid to him But it is not so with the Almighty whose the Earth is and who raises Clouds and Waters it with Rain and sends down drops of Dew and makes fat the Fruits of the Earth and yet requires but one part of Ten for his own uses This made it highly reasonable
to see that no King but one thus qualified was set over the People Which when there was such a Court may be allowed to be true though all the Power which they ascribe to their Sanhedrim over their Kings is by no means to be admitted but is an apparent figment For it is manifest out of the Bible that their Kings had that very Power which they ascribe to the Sanhedrim Particularly it is notorious that Solomon by his own Power put Abiather out of the Office of High-Priest 1. Kings II. 6 26. which Judgment the Talmudists say belonged only to the great Sanhedrim In like manner other Kings judged Prophets which they appropriate to the same Court Ver. 16. But he shall not multiply Horses to himself Verse 16 There is no certain number determined but the Jews well resolve that he was not to keep them for meer pomp and state but only so many as were for use and service To draw his Chariot for instance and for the guard of his Person But he was to take care that he did not burden his People by too many under this or any other pretence And therefore not to keep up a Body of Horse for War For among the Jews their Armies consisted altogether of Footmen there being no breed of Horses in that Country and their People who were all Husbandmen and Shepherds being accustomed to labour and to run as swiftly as a Horse 2 Sam. II. 18. XVIII 19 22 c. Certain it is that in the days of David they had no Horse-men in their Army for when Absolom lost the Battle and fled it was upon a Mule that he indeavoured to make his Escape And though Solomon was so prodigiously rich that he was able to maintain Forty thousand Stalls of Horses for his Chariots and Twelve thousand Horse-men 1 Kings IV. 26. yet succeeding Kings could not keep up such an Expence but when they had occasion sent for Succours from Egypt which commonly consisted of Horse-men Now one of the Reasons the Jews give why their King was not to multiply Horses is lest he should be puffed up with pride for an Horse being a stately Creature his Rider is often swoln with an high conceit of himself as more than one of the Heathen have observed See Bochart in his Hierozoicon Lib. II. Cap. IX Nachmanides gives another good Reason Lest he should confide and trust in the power of his Horse-men more than in God See Schikard in his Mischpat Hammelech Cap. III. Theorem X. But the chief Reason is given by Moses himself in the next words Lest they should be tempted to go to Egypt with which Country it was dangerous to have familiarity Nor cause the People to return to Egypt to the end that he should multiply Horses Send his People thither to buy Horses for him it being a Country which abounded with them as Judaea did with Asses For when Sheshak King of Egypt whom the Greek Writers call Sesostris came against Jerusalem there were Threescore thousand Horse-men in his Army 2 Chron. XII 3. Which shows how they abounded with Horses in that Country in those days though in after times they did not care to breed them They might indeed have had Horses out of other Countries as well as Egypt but not so easily nor so good Which made Solomon send thither and Pharaoh set a great price upon them because he knew their value and that they could not furnish themselves so easily with them elsewhere 1 Kings X. 28 29. Forasmuch as the LORD hath said unto you ye shall henceforth return no more that way Or the first words may be rendred Forasmuch as the LORD saith unto you c. as he did now by him that they should not maintain Traffick with the Egyptians at lest while they continued Idolaters We read indeed that many Jews went thither and Vrijah the Prophet fled thither XXVI Jerem. 21. of which the Jews give this account First Some say this was but a temporary Constitution which was not to last always Secondly They distinguish about the way of returning thither conceiving that they might not go thither out of the Land of Israel but they might out of another Country whither they were driven Maimonides thinks they might go thither as Merchants but not fix their dwelling there But the true meaning is that they might not voluntarily go thither upon any account at least while they remained as I said so corrupted in their Religion and Manners as they were at this present For there is an express Law XVIII Levit. 3. According to the works of the Egyptians ye shall not do See Schickardus in the forenamed place p. 78. Whence those words of the Prophet Isaiah where when he saith the Land of Israel was full of Horses he adds their Land also is full of Idols II Isaiah 7 8. For by multiplying the one they multiplied the other And therefore though David did reserve some Chariots and Horse-men which he took in his Conquests for his own use yet no great number 2 Sam. VIII 4. But still great Men rode upon Mules 2 Sam. XVIII 9. 1 Kings I. 33 38 41. as they had done in the days of the Judges V. 10. X. 4. XII 14. Verse 17 Ver. 17. Neither shall he multiply Wives to himself This is not a Prohibition to take more Wives than one but not to have an excessive number after the manner of the Eastern Kings whom Solomon seems to have imitated I see no ground for what the Jews say that he might have Eighteen See Schickard in the Book above-named Cap. III. Theor. IX Selden's Vxor Hebr. Lib. I. Cap. VIII Buxtorf de Sponsal Pars I. Sect. 40. For the proof which R. Solomon and Bechin give of it is very weak which is that David having already six Wives 2 Sam. V. 13. the Prophet tells him if he had not offended God he would moreover have given him such and such things i. e. say they twice as many Wives 2 Sam. XII 8. Much less is there any ground for what they say that if he took more than this number he was to be scourged by the Authority of the Sanhedrim as he was they pretend for the breach of any of these Precepts here mentioned See Selden Lib. II. de Synedr Cap. IX N. V. Which Grotius indeed endeavours to soften by affirming that these Lashes were no disgrace to him because he received them voluntarily in Token of his Repentance and therefore was not scourged by the common Executioner but by such a Person as he himself chose to give this Correction and he received also such a number of Stripes as he himself pleased and no more Lib. I. de Jure Belli Pacis Cap. III. Sect. XX. But this is directly against Maimonides who saith in downright words that the Sanhedrim appointed this Chastisement as Selden observes in another place Lib. III. de Synedr Cap. IX N. V. And there is no Example in the whole Book of God of
his People by a gentle Government which is far better than to rule Tyrannically by Force and Violence For to what purpose is it to have possession of their Bodies when the true possession is to be Master of their Hearts Get possession of their Hearts by Clemency and that will draw their Bodies along with them CHAP. XVIII Verse 1. THE Priests the Levites and all the Verse 1 Tribe of Levi. Or even the whole Tribe of Levi. See XVII 9. They shall have no inheritance with Israel As had been said XVIII Numb 20. and here in this Book X. 7. Which made it the more necessary Moses should remind the People of that maintenance God had appointed for them Which unless it was duly given them Religion could not be supported and consequently the Government of which he had been speaking would be quite confounded They shall eat the Offerings of the LORD made by fire Not the Burnt-offerings which were wholly Gods but all other Offerings of which a share was appointed for the Priests the Sons of Aaron XVIII Numb 9 10 11 18 19. And his inheritance That is the Inheritance of the LORD of whom he spoke before who had reserved certain Oblations to himself and bestowed them upon the Priests They are mentioned XVIII Numb 8 9. and v. 12 13 14 15. where he first speaks of the First-fruits and the First-born which were all brought unto the LORD and by him given to them In like manner all the Tithes of the Land are said to be an Heave-offering unto the LORD v. 24. where he saith I have given them to the Levites to inherit So these two The Offerings of the LORD made by fire and his Inheritance comprehend all that belonged to his Ministers whether Priests or Levites Verse 2 Ver. 2. Therefore shall they have no inheritance among their brethren the LORD is their inheritance as he hath said unto them The LORD had given them that part and portion of the Offerings which were peculiarly his own And therefore is said to be their Inheritance because they enjoyed his inheritance as these holy things are called in the foregoing words See XVIII Numb 20 24. and XIII Josh 14 33. Verse 3 Ver. 3. And this shall be the Priests due from the people Besides those things that God gave them which peculiarly belonged to him From them that offer a Sacrifice Of Peace-offerings which are sometimes called simply a Sacrifice XVII Levit. 5 8. XV Numb 3. in which the People had a considerable Interest Whether it be Ox or Sheep Under Sheep are comprehended Goats also as I have observed See III Levit. And they shall give unto the Priest the shoulder Together with the Breast as we read VII Lev. 32 33 34. And the two cheeks and the maw These were not given to the Priests before but were now added to their Portion being accounted the best part of the Beasts For as the Cheeks were the best part of the Head and the Shoulder and Breast the best of the other Members of the Body so the Maw was the principal part of the Entrails as Maimonides observes P. III. More Nevochim Cap. XXXIX By the Maw is meant the Stomach and in Beasts that chew the Cud who have four Stomachs that which is called by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. the lowest of them Which had this name because the digestion which is begun in the other is here perfected and compleated And it appears that this part of the Entrails was accounted by the Ancients a great dainty as Bochartus proves out of Aristophanes in his Hierozoicon P. I. Lib. II. Cap. 45. p. 505. Ver. 4. The first-fruits also of thy Corn of thy Wine Verse 4 and of thy Oyl See XVIII Numb 12. To which it may be useful to add this out of Maimonides who hath distinctly represented the order wherein all Oblations were made that after the Fruits of the Earth were gathered every Man was bound to bring a fiftieth part of them as a First-fruits to the Priests which was called Trumah gedolah the great Oblation of which Moses speaks in this place And next of all he separated a tenth part of the whole from the rest which was Maaser Rishon the first Tithe and given to the Levites XVIII Numb 24. Then out of what remained another tenth part was taken called Maaser Sheni the second Tithe which was every third year given to the Poor and in the two intermediate years spent in Feasting at the House of God XIV Deut. 28. So that for instance if a Man had pressed out an Hundred and two Logs of Oyl he sent two of them as First-fruits to the Priest and then ten more as Tythe to the Levites and deducted nine parts more out of the residue for the Poor by which it appears that One and twenty parts of an Hundred and two that is a fifth part of the whole was separated for pious and charitable uses See Schickard in his Jus Regium Cap. IV. Theorem XV. And the first of the fleece of thy Sheep shalt thou give him This is comprehended under First-fruits but never particularly mentioned before now And tho' the quantity is not mentioned yet the Jews have adventured to determine that less than one Fleece in sixty was not accepted For so they say of all other First-fruits that a sixtieth part of the whole was the least that any Man gave and he was accounted a covetous Man if he gave no more they that were indifferently good giving a fiftieth part and liberal Persons the fortieth By this means the Priests were provided with Clothes as by other Offerings with Food And the Wooll also as they call it of Goats which were shorn in these Countries is comprehended under the Fleece of Sheep Verse 5 Ver. 5. For the LORD thy God hath chosen him out of all thy Tribes to stand to minister in the name of the LORD This was the Office of a Priest to offer Sacrifices unto God and to bless the People in his Name Him and his sons for ever The Family of Aaron of which he is principally speaking Who when they were few in number all ministred unto God but afterward they took their Courses of Attendance And as the Jews say there were eight Courses before Moses died four of the Family of Eleazar and as many of Ithamar's which in David's time were enlarged into Four and twenty Courses See Selden Lib. I. de Succession in Pontificat Cap. I. Ver. 6. And if a Levite By a Levite he seems here to mean a Priest See v. 1. For they only could minister Verse 6 unto God and the Levites ministred unto them Come from any of thy Gates out of all Israel From any City in any Tribe of Israel Where he sojourned i. e. Leave the Country where he hath been wont to live And come with all the desire of his mind unto the place which the LORD shall choose With a sincere Affection to devote himself to
it seems to have indemnified him if he killed him before he got thither Whereas he was not worthy of death inasmuch as he hated him not in time past Which in his rage the Avenger of Blood did not consider and therefore was guilty before God of shedding innocent Blood tho' the Law did not punish him for it Ver. 7. Wherefore I command thee saying Thou shalt Verse 7 separate three Cities for thee To prevent which Mischief God commanded not meerly one but three Cities and those in several places of the Country where Men might find Safety if they made haste to flee to them Ver. 8. And if the LORD thy God enlarge thy Coast Verse 8 as he hath sworn unto thy Fathers and give thee all the Land which he promised to give unto thy Fathers As far as unto the River Euphrates XV Gen. 18. XXIII Exod. 31. I Deut. 7. Ver. 9. If thou shalt keep all these Commandments to Verse 9 do them which I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God and to walk ever in his ways This seems to have been the Condition upon the performance of which depended the enlargement of their Border Which is more fully expressed XI 22 23 24. And so the Covenant made with Abraham in XV Gen. 18. is to be understood as including in it this Condition Thou shalt then add three Cities more for thee besides these three We do not read of any more added to these though their Border was enlarged in David's and Solomon's time and that as far as Euphrates But those Nations which they subdued were only made Tributaries to the Kings of Israel who did not people and possess those Countries and consequently there was no occasion for such Cities there unless the Israelites had been the Inhabitants of those Countries as they were of the Land of Canaan v. 1. Verse 10 Ver. 10. That innocent blood be not shed in thy Land which the LORD thy God giveth thee As there would if upon supposition of such an enlargement of their Borders there had been no Cities nearer to flee unto than these six which were sufficient only for the Land of Canaan and the Land they possessed on this side Jordan where they now were And so blood be upon thee The Guilt and Punishment of Blood in not taking care of the Safety of innocent Persons Verse 11 Ver. 11. But if any man hate his brother and lye in wait for him and rise up against him and smite him mortally that he die and fleeth unto one of these Cities When there was a manifest design of killing another and known hatred he that committed the Murder was to receive no benefit by his fleeing to a City of Refuge And then a Man was judged to hate his Brother when for three days together he had never spoken to him though they had kept one another company as I observed before out of Mr. Selden Lib. IV. de Jure Nat. Gent. Cap. II. p. 473. Verse 12 Ver. 12. Then the Elders of this City shall send and fetch him thence Demand him of the Elders of the City to which he fled that he might be sent to them and tried by them whether he was guilty of wilful Murder or ought to have the benefit of their protection being innocent of that Crime XXXV Numb 12 24. It is likely there were probable Reasons given why he was suspected to be guilty of Murder and therefore they desired the Matter might be examined otherwise if the Case was known to be like that in v. 5. they did not make this demand And deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood that he may die That is if they found him guilty of wilful Murder otherwise they were to deliver him out of the hand of the Avenger of Blood and restore him to the City of Refuge that he might not die XXXV Numb 25. Ver. 13. Thine eye shall not pity him Nor take any Verse 13 Satisfaction for the Life of a Murderer as the Law is XXXV Numb 31. But thou shalt put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel By putting him to death That it may go well with thee By having no guilt upon them as they had when they let this Crime go unpunished Ver. 14. Thou shalt not remove thy neighbours land-mark Verse 14 which they of old time have set in thine inheritance c. The Jewish Doctors think that this hath respect to the Holy Land as they call it and to the terms or bounds which were set by Joshua in the division of the Country which no Man might take away For that made him both guilty of Theft and also of the breach of this Precept and consequently he incurred a double Punishment and was whipt twice as much as another Offender See Selden Lib. VI. de Jure Nat. Gent. Cap. III. in the latter end This was a Law among the Greeks as appears by Plato Lib. VIII de Legibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let no Man presume to remove the bounds of Land looking upon this as being truly to remove things immoveable i. e. To unsettle and overturn all things Numa-Pompilius therefore made this Crime capital Which makes Josephus his Explication of these words seem more reasonable than that of the Talmudists who extends this Precept to the Grounds of all their neighbour Nations who were at peace with them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being the occasion of Wars and Insurrections which arise from the Covetousness of Men who would thus enlarge their Territories Lib. IV. Archaeol Cap. 8. Which may be thought a reason why Moses joyns this to the foregoing Precept about punishing Murder and made this one of the Curses they were bound to pronounce and consent to it at their entrance into the Land of Canaan XXVII Deut. 17. Which they of old time have set in thine inheritance which thou shalt inherit in the Land which the LORD thy God giveth thee to possess it This may seem to determine this Precept peculiarly to the preserving the Bounds in the Land of Canaan and by those of old time they understand Joshua and the Elders who divided the Land and fixed every ones Lot But it was as necessary to be observed in all other Countries as that which was their proper Inheritance For as Josephus truly observes They that remove the Bounds of Lands are not very far from subverting all Laws Verse 15 Ver. 15. One witness shall not rise up They that gave their Testimony in any Cause always stood up Against a man for any iniquity or for any sin A single Witness was not to be admitted as sufficient to convict a Man of any Offence whatsoever whether in Civil or in Criminal Matters For an inquisition into the Fact one was enough but not for the Condemnation of him that was accused Yet in Pecuniary Matters one Witness was sufficient to bring a Man to purge himself by an Oath See
after till the Feast of Dedication which was in our November after which they were not accepted Of the manner of going up with a Bullock before them whose Horns were gilt and Head crown'd with an Olive Garland with Musick and singing in the way the first Verse of the CXXII Psalm c. See Wagenseil in the place above-mentioned and Selden Lib. III. de Synedriis Cap. XIII N. III. with Dr. Light-foot in his Temple-Service And here I cannot but think fit to note that the Heathen in all probability from hence derived the Custom of carrying their First-fruits as a Tithe every year unto the Island Delos where Apollo was supposed to have his special Residence And this not only from the Islands thereabouts and the neighbouring Countries but from all parts of the World as the Jews we find every where sent from the Countries where they dwelt a Sum of Money every year instead of First-fruits and Tithes unto Jerusalem which Priviledge the Romans allowed them after they had conquered them as Josephus tells us Lib. VII de Bello Jud. Cap. XIII That Heathen Custom now mentioned is expressed by Callimachus in his Hymn upon Delos in those remarkable words v. 278 279 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sense of which is this That First-fruits were sent for Tithes every year from all Countries not only from the East and West and South but from the North also And they were sent with such Joy as the Jews expressed on this occasion for all Cities he saith did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And so we read in several Authors that there were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they called them Solemn Embassies sent from several People by chosen Persons unto Delos to celebrate there the Feast of Apollo with Musick and Dancing c. Particularly the Athenians Peloponesians and Messenians c. of whom see Ezek. Spanhemius in his Observations on Callimachus p. 487. And which is most strange the Hyperboreans a very northerly People sent frugum primitias to this Island as Pliny and I know not how many other Authors testifie Only what he calls the First-fruits of their Corn and such like things they call the First-fruits of their holy things as the same excellent Person observes there p. 490 492 c. Which was done to testifie their honour to this god and for the maintenance of his Priests and other Ministers who attended upon him there For Delos of it self was but a barren Isle the Soil being dry and stony and called therefore by Callimachus v. 208. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There are other footsteps of this among the Heathen the Mystica vannus Jacchi mentioned by Virgil in his Georgicks being nothing else according to Servius but vas vimineum a wicker Basket in which their First-fruits were carried See the same Spanheim p. 495. Verse 3 Ver. 3. And thou shalt go unto the Priest that shall be in those days Who was then in attendance at the Sanctuary and particularly appointed to wait for their coming When they entred the Gates of the City they sung the second Verse of Psalm CXXII Our feet shall stand in thy gates O Jerusalem And then they went to the Mountain of the Temple and sung the whole Hundred and fiftieth Psalm And as soon as they entred the Court of Israel the Levites began to sing XXX Psal 1. I will extoll thee O LORD my God c. And say unto him The following Confession in this Verse was made by them with the Baskets on their shoulders to stir them up to Humility as Maimonides interprets it His words are these While they were compelled to carry their Baskets on their shoulders and in that manner to proclaim the Divine Benefits it signified that it was a considerable part of God's Worship and Service for a Man to be mindful of his Afflictions and Tribulations when God had given him ease and rest from them This the Law takes care of in several places as when it saith Thou shalt remember that thou wast a servant c. With this intention that he who lived in Riches and Pleasure might be secured from the Vices which spring from thence such as Pride Haughtiness Apostasy and the like According to what is said in this Book VIII 12. Lest thou eat and art full and XXXII 15. Jesurun waxed fat and kicked c. To prevent which God commanded the First-fruits to be thus offered every year to his Divine Majesty More Nevochim P. III. Cap. XXXIX I profess this day unto the LORD thy God that I am come into the Country which the LORD sware unto our fathers for to give us This is a thankful acknowledgment of God's faithfulness to his promise whereby they were put in mind to be faithful unto him of whom they held this good Land by his gracious and free Gift and held it by this Tenure of paying to him this yearly Rent Ver. 4. And the Priest shall take the basket out of thy Verse 4 hand and set it before the Altar of the LORD thy God After the foregoing words were said the Basket was taken down from their shoulders and every one holding his Basket by the handle or the rim of it the Priest put his hands under it and waved it about according to the Prescription in the Law while the Men recited the following words v. 5 6 c. This waving was a manifest token that it was offered to the LORD of the World as an acknowledgment that he was in a peculiar manner their LORD and Soveraign of whom they held this Land Ver. 5. And thou shalt speak and say before the LORD Verse 5 thy God Audibly pronounce in the presence of God A Syrian ready to perish was my father Their Father Jacob was not a Syrian by birth for he was born in the Land of Canaan But one and the same Person may be said to be of divers Countries as Bochartus hath observed with regard either to the Place of his Nativity or of his Education or of his Life and Conversation which occasioned three Countries to be ascribed to our blessed Saviour viz. Bethlehem Nazareth and Capernaum See his Phaleg Lib. II. Cap. V Thus Jacob who was born and bred in Canaan is notwithstanding called a Syrian because he lived Twenty years with his Uncle Laban who was a Syrian XXV Gen. 20. and consequently Jacob's Mother was so as were both his Wives and all his Children who were born there except Benjamin But he is more particularly here called a Syrian to put them in mind of his Poverty when he went first into that Country and there lived as a Servant under an hard Master which is expressed in these words ready to perish that is very poor and reduced to great straits being forced to flee from the fury of his Brother Esau and to travel on foot to Padan-Aram which was comprehended anciently under the name
of Moab Where he declared to them the Law which he had formerly delivered to their Fathers I Deut. 5. Beside the Covenant which he made with them in Horeb This doth not signifie that he made a Covenant with them different from the former made at Horeb Exod. XXIV but only now renewed the same Covenant after they had shamefully violated it more more than once Which was the more necessary because they were ready to enter into the Land of Canaan and he was just upon his departure from them into another World and therefore did all he could to engage them in a more firm obedience to God And for that end both more fully explain'd several Laws and added others and at large laid before them the Happiness or the Misery that would ensue upon their fidelity or falsness in this Covenant Ver. 2. And Moses called unto all Israel This Verse 2 seems to import a new Summons which he sent out to them to attend him now he was about to conclude what he had to say to them before he left them Which he did not as I have often observed See V. 1. all at once in one continued Speech but at several times and now was about to wind up all in this and in the next Chapter And said unto them He argued with them from the Knowledge and Experience which they had of the Power of God in his wonderful Works particularly three which were very memorable Those in Egypt which he mentions here and in the two next Verses and those in the Wilderness v. 5 6. and lately in the great Victory he had given them over two potent Kings v. 7 8. Ye have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the Land of Egypt unto Pharaoh and unto all his servants and unto all his Land Some of them had seen when they were young and others had understood from them which is here called seeing all the Plagues which God brought upon Pharaoh and upon his Court and upon his whole Country This he had often called to their mind in his Preface to the Repetition of his Laws VI. 12. VII 18 19. XI 3 4. and makes it a great aggravation of their guilt if they should forsake him who had done such wonderful things for them XIII 5 10. And now he concludes with the same Argument as most powerful to move them if they had any sense of their Obligations to the greatest Benefactor Verse 3 Ver. 3. The great temptations which thine eyes have seen the signs and those great miracles Of these he had put them in mind before See IV. 34. VII 19. Verse 4 Ver. 4. Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear unto this day They had not so considered and laid to heart God's wonderful Works as to have a lasting sense of them bestowed upon them by God He gives us an understanding heart but we must first consider what he hath done for us as the Apostle instructs us 2 Tim. II. 7. And he gives us what we do not receive and so in effect it is not given Thus he saith himself that he purged Israel but they would not be purged XXIV Ezek. 13. What the difference is between an heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear need not be curiously enquired They are perhaps but three various expressions of their gross stupidity or three degrees of it which was so great that they had no continued sense of the wonderful Works God had done for them nor did so much as regard and observe them no nor hearken to those who put them in mind of them Which must not be imputed to any want of power in these things to move them much less of the Divine Grace to work upon their hearts by them but was wholly to be ascribed to their own negligence and perversness Of which God here complains and with which he severely upbraids them that he had not given them this Grace Which is a clear demonstration the fault was in themselves and therefore Maimonides rightly and judiciously explains these words when he saith the meaning is they had not disposed themselves to receive this Grace from God Ver. 5. And I have led you forty years in the wilderness Verse 5 By a glorious Cloud which both conducted and protected them VIII 2. XI 5. Concerning these forty years see Chapt. II. 7. Your clothes are not waxen old upon you and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot See VIII 4. The Jews used no shoes in Egypt as Bochartus probably conjectures but being to take a long Journey through a rough way in the Wilderness he commanded them to eat the Passover with shoes on their feet XII Exod 11. And these very shoes which they put on at that Festival when they were ready to march God suffered not to decay in all their Travels for forty years following See Hierozoicon P. I. Lib. II. Cap. L. Ver. 6. Ye have not eaten bread neither have ye drunk Verse 6 wine or strong drink Not commonly though when they passed by some neighbouring Country they might possibly sometimes purchase both Bread and Wine or other strong Liquors But their ordinary Food was the heavenly Manna and their Drink was the Water that followed them out of the Rock So that the meaning is they were constantly supported by a miraculous supply from God who took care of them and thereby laid a greater Obligation upon them to serve him who graciously fed them without any labour of their own For they neither ploughed nor sowed nor reaped nor took any other pains for this Provision as they must have done for Bread and Wine or other Liquors pressed out of Dates or Figs c. That ye may know that I am the LORD your God This he did for them that he might breed and maintain in them a sense of his Omnipotent Power and of his All-sufficient Goodness and Faithfulness to his Promises Which he intended to demonstrate at his first giving of Manna to them XVI Exod. 12. Verse 7 Ver. 7. And when ye came into this place For they were now in a part of the Country which they conquered IV. 45 46 c. Sihon King of Heshbon and Og King of Bashan came out against us to battle and we smote them XXI Numb 24 34 35. II Deut. 30 c III. 2 3 c. Verse 8 Ver. 8. And we took their Land from them and gave it for an inheritance unto the Reubenites c. See XXXII Numb 33. and IV Deut. 12 c. Verse 9 Ver. 9. Keep therefore the words of this Covenant and do them Preserve them in memory so as to make good your Ingagements which you passed to God in Horeb which Moses was now about to renew and lay a fresh obligation on them For most of them being a new Generation and now going to enter upon the possession of the Land of Promise it was necessary to
nothing of which we are more tender than the sight of our Eyes Which God hath guarded by several coats and humours and Eye-lids fenced with hairs to preserve it from hurt unto which R. Levi ben Gersom thinks these words allude Ver. 11. As an Eagle stirreth up her nest c. Eagles Verse 11 are observed to have a most tender affection to their young ones who are here meant by her nest as Bochartus observes it being a common Figure used by other Authors to put continens pro contento whom she provokes to fly which is meant by stirring up her Nest by fluttering over them with her wings stretched out Upon which she takes them while they are so weak and feeble that they fail in their attempt to fly and supporteth them till they recover strength to commit themselves unto the Air. See Hierozoicon P. II. Lib. II. Cap. III. and J. G. Vossius de Orig. Progr Idolol Lib. III. Cap. LXXVII where he observes that this kindness to her young ones is chiefly found in the black Eagle though something of it be seen in others which may be the reason they lay but a few Eggs because they are not able to educate many young ones with such tender care Verse 12 Ver. 12. So the LORD alone did lead him XIV Numb 14. This is an exact Resemblance of God's tender care of his People Israel Whom he solicited by Moses and Aaron to aspire after their Liberty when they were oppressed in Egypt just as an Eagle excites her young ones when they lye drowsie in the filth of their Nest to fly away And as the Eagle flutters over them with her wings spread abroad so God by his Spirit moved the Israelites to be obedient to their Deliverers out of Egypt For Moses uses the very same word when he speaks of the Spirit of God moving upon the waters I Gen. 2. And as the Eagle carries her fainting young ones on her Wings so God supported them when they were weary and upheld them in dangerous ways Insomuch that he is said to carry them in his Arms as a Father doth his Child I Deut. 31. I Hosea 1 3. See Bochartus in the place above-named Cap. IV. And there was no strange god with him To help or assist him but by his Almighty Power alone they were protected and preserved Which made their sin the more heinous in sacrificing to other gods v. 17. as if they had been their Benefactors Ver. 13. He made him ride on the high places of the earth Brought the Israelites in a triumphant manner to possess a noble Country full of lofty and very Verse 13 fruitful Mountains which were in Canaan where they lived deliciously So to ride signifies as Bochartus thinks lautè opiparè vivere Which he justifies by that place in Hosea X. 11. I will make Ephraim to ride Judah shall plow and Jacob shall break his clods That is saith he the People of Israel lived in pleasure when Judah lived laboriously P. I. Hierozoic Lib. II. Cap. XLI But to ride signifies also to subdue and conquer which may be the meaning here XLV Psal 4. LXVI 12. and to have dominion and rule as Maimonides interprets it in his More Nevochim P. I. Cap. LXX In which sense it is said of God himself in the next Chapter of this Book He rideth upon the heavens for thy help v. 26. And he rideth upon Araboth the highest Heavens LXVIII Psal 4. That he might eat the increase of the field Abundance of Corn and Fruit. And he made him to suck honey out of the Rock Wild Honey which was esteemed an excellent Food in that Country and was sometimes found upon the ground sometimes in the hollow part of Trees and sometimes in the Clefts of Rocks as Bochartus observes out of good Authors Hierozoicon P. II. L. IV. Cap. XV. This Rock-honey seems to be spoken of as the best of this kind being joyned with the finest Wheat LXXXI Psal ult And Oil out of the flinty Rock No part of this Country being barren but affording something or other for their Sustenance Though some say that the Olive Trees thrive best in rocky places Columella himself observes that it doth not delight either in low places or in high but magis modicos clivos amat but rather loves the sides of moderately rising Hills Lib. VI. Cap. VI. And D. Chytraeus notes that as the most generous Wine is produced upon the Rhine below Mentz out of the hardest Flints sic oleae locis petrosis sterilibus non infeliciter proveniunt so Olive Trees grow prosperously in stony and barren places Tom. I. p. 173. Verse 14 Ver. 14. Butter of kine The use of Butter was very ancient among the Hebrews though lately known to the Greeks as I observed upon XVIII Gen. 8. and it was accounted an excellent Food And milk of sheep Which the Scripture often mentions VII Isa 21 22. 1 Corinth IX 1 7. And under the word tzon as hath been often observed Goats also are comprehended whose Milk likewise is mentioned XXVII Prov. 27. Aristotle mentions both and so doth Columella and a great many others in Bochart's Hierozoicon P. I. Lib. II. Cap. XLV where he proves that they made Butter of these Milks as well as of Cows With the fat of Lambs Well fed For Carim properly signifies Pasture Sheep as the same Bochart there observes Cap. XLIII And Rams of the breed of Bashan A Country famous for excellent Pasture being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as St. Cyril calls it See XXXII Numb 1 4. And Goats Of the Breed of that Country With the fat of kidneys of wheat The Hebrews call the best of every kind of thing by the name of the Fat. And the Kidneys of Wheat signifies large and plump Corn affording great plenty of Flour Cajetan thinks it signifies Wheat as Big as a Kidney or rather having that shape as our Kidney Beans have And thou shalt drink the pure blood of the Grapes Most generous red Wine very clear and bright So Achil. Tatius Lib. II. calls Wine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Maimonides in his More Nevochim P. II. Cap. XLVII takes all the Expressions in this Verse to be metaphorical signifying as Onkelos allegorizes them the possession of all their Enemies Cities and Goods after they had poured out their Blood like Water on the Ground Ver. 15. Jeshurun waxed fat Grew rich saith Verse 15 Onkelos and the Hierusalem Targum And kicked Against him who fed him so plentifully and deliciously It seems to be a Metaphor taken from Oxen who being stirred up with a Goad to labour lift up their Heels and kick against him who pricks them forward So did the Israelites when they were urged and pressed to their Duty by the Prophets not only despised but evil intreated them Why Israel is called Jeshurun is not easie to resolve Jo. Cocceius in his Vltima Mosis Sect. 973. derives it from Shur which signifies to see behold or descry From
these munitions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for what could Mens Hands or Machines do against such Towers Which calls to mind what is related not only by S. Chrysostom Sozomen Socrates but by Ammianus Marcellinus himself an Heathen Historian Lib. XXIII beginning how that when Julian the Apostate ordered the Temple at Jerusalem to be rebuilt terrible Globes of Fire burst out prope fundamenta from the very Foundations which overturned all burnt the Workmen and made the place so inaccessible that they desisted from the Attempt The certainty of this hath extorted the same Confession from the Jews themselves David Ganz in his Tzemach David and R. Gedaliah in Schal Hakkabala though they pretend the Building went on and was finished but after many years overthrown by an Earthquake Verse 23 Ver. 23. I will heap mischiefs upon them Which shall miserably oppress and crush them And spend all my Arrows upon them His Judgments and Plagues are oft compared to Arrows shot at them VII Psal 12 13. XXXVIII 2. XCI 5. And he speaks in the Language of an Archer who shoots till he hath emptied his Quiver and hath not one Arrow left Verse 24 Ver. 24. They shall be burnt with hunger This Verse and the next explains what he means by Arrows which are here enumerated And first he threatens a Famine with which he saith they should be burnt either because these Judgments are compared to fire v. 22. or because extream Hunger parches the inward parts and makes the Visage as black as a Coal as Jeremiah speaks IV Lament 8. And devoured with burning heat With Fevers and Calentures as they are called in hot Countries And with bitter destruction With the Pestilence which he calls bitter because it was incurable And I will send the teeth of wild beasts upon thee This was another of the sore Judgments which God threatned to their Disobedience See XXVI Levit. 22. Upon which Maimonides observed that Magicians were wont to promise them by their Arts to free their Cities Fields and Plantations from Lions and Serpents and such like hurtful Creatures unto whose power God delivered them because they forsook him and followed Idolaters and Magicians More Nevoch P. III. Cap. XXXVII With the poison of Serpents of the dust Whose bitings were deadly And they were exposed to them as well as to wild Beasts when they were forced to fly into Wildernesses and hide themselves in Dens and Caves where some of them could not avoid being devoured by wild Beasts and bitten by Serpents which lay lurking in those holes So Cooceius in his Vltima Mosis Sect. 1271. where he notes also that this was fulfilled in part when they were thrown by the Romans to wild Beasts in the Theatres as Josephus relates Lib. VI. de Bello Judaico Cap. XVI XX. Ver. 25. The sword without and terror within shall Verse 25 destroy They could no where be safe for in the Field the Sword of their Enemies cut them off and at home they did not think themselves secure in their closest Chamber but died with fear or made away themselves lest they should fall into the hands of those that sought to destroy them See I Lament 20. Or perhaps by the terror within may be meant Famine and Pestilence VII Ezek. 15. Both the young man and the virgin the suckling with the man of grey hairs He threatens to deliver them into such merciless Hands as would spare none nor make any difference of Sex or of Age. This Huetius refers to the last destruction of Jerusalem in his Demonstr Evang. Propos IX Cap. CLXXIII And Abarbinel also confesses it was then fulfilled Verse 26 Ver. 26. I said i. e. Resolved I would scatter them into corners I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men Utterly destroy them so that not one of them should be found and if any remained they should sculk and not dare to appear among Men. Verse 27 Ver. 27. Were it not that I feared the wrath of the Enemy He that is Omnipotent is not capable of fearing any thing but he speaks in our Language and gives this reason why he did not make them cease to be a Nation because he would not have their Enemies insult and grow outragious in their insolent Language even against himself Of which we find an instance XXXVII Isa 28 29. Lest their Adversaries should behave themselves strangely Ascribe all this to their false gods as Cocceius understands it which are called strange gods v. 16. And lest they should say our hand is high Imagine their own Power and Valour had destroyed the Jews as both the Assyrians and Chaldaeans boasted X Isa 7 8 c. I Habak 15 16. And the LORD hath not done all this And attribute nothing to the most High in all the business Certain it is the Wickedness of the Jews was so exceeding great that their final Extirpation had been accomplished many Generations before it came to pass had the LORD been only just and respected nothing but their deserts whom he very often preserved when they might have been justly destroyed for such reasons as he himself here gives That his Glory might not be impeached among the Nations but they might see by the strange Deliverances and Restaurations of the Jews that their God was a God of gods most worthy to be honoured by all the World as he himself speaks below v. 36. So Dr. Jackson well observes B. I. on the Creed Chap. XXII Sect. IV. The Marginal Translation of this last Clause is also agreeable to the Hebrew Our high hand and not the LORD hath done all this To prevent which wrong Construction of God's Judgments upon them he took such a time for the Execution of them as Conradus Pellicanus well observes when the World began to be better instructed by the Coming of Christ So that Titus himself said as I noted before that it was God and not the Hands of the Romans that destroyed them See XXIX 24. and this Chapter v. 22. Ver. 28. For they are a Nation void of counsel The Verse 28 Hebrew word abad which is commonly translated perish and here we translate void signifies in the Ethiopick Language is foolish or mad as Job Ludolphus observes in his excellent History of that Country Which makes it probable this was the ancient sense of the word among the Hebrews and gives the best account of this place which may be thus translated They are a Nation foolish in their counsel Whose Counsels led them to such Courses as utterly undid them and when they seemed most wise they madly ruined themselves And thus those words of Jeremiah may be best translated The heart of the King is foolish IV. 9. Neither is there any understanding in them They did not understand what was good for themselves but imprudently chose that which did them mischief Some refer this to the Enemies of the Jews before spoken of but that seems not so agreeable to what
Sea which is hereby meant Ver. 3. And the South And after he had seen Verse 3 the South which the Tribes of Judah and Simeon inhabited he bad him take a view of the Eastern Parts of the Country as it here follows And the plain of the Valley of Jericho All the Region about Jordan especially the lovely Plain of Jericho which is very much celebrated by other Authors and lay in the Tribe of Benjamin The City of Palm-trees Which is often mentioned in Scripture sometime without and sometime with the name of Jericho I Judges 16. III. 13. 2 Chron. XXVIII 15. which was so called because a multitude of Palm-trees grew about it as Strabo as well as Josephus testifies in his Geograph Lib. XVI p. 763. where he describes this plain as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as incompassed about with Mountains after the manner of a Theatre abounding with Palm-trees and other Garden-trees mixed with them for the space of an hundred Stadia And there was also he observes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Paradise of Balsam Which is a rare Aromatick Plant like to the Turpentine-tree whose Juice is of great virtue and value c. From which odoriferous Plant growing here some think this City had the Name of Jericho signifying sweet smelling So R. Judas in the Gemara of Beracoth where he mentions this Tree as growing about Jericho and thence derives its name from the Hebrew word reach which signifies a sweet smell This is more probable than the Conjecture of D. Chytraeus who imagines Jericho to come from jerec which signifies the Moon and in their German Language he thinks might be called Luneburgh Vnto Zoar. Which lay in the entrance of the Salt Sea Verse 4 Ver. 4. And the LORD said unto him After he had showed him the Land the WORD of the LORD as the Hierusalem Targum hath it spake these words to him which follow And God having been wont to speak to Moses out of the Cloud of Glory Josephus conceives that now he was incompassed with it and from thence heard this voice Which the Jews fancy was so loud that the People heard it into the Camp Thus at our Saviour's Transfiguration upon the holy Mount a glorious Cloud over-shadowed him and his three Apostles who heard the voice say to them This is my beloved Son c. The Samaritans as Hottinger relates in his Smegma Orientale Cap. VIII p. 456. tell the story thus That Joshua Eleazar the Priest and all the Elders accompanying him to the Mount fell into such a Passion when they were to take their leave that they could not be parted from him Whereupon the Pillar of Fire came down which separated them from Moses so that they saw him no more This is the Land which I sware unto Abraham unto Isaac and unto Jacob saying I will give it unto thy seed XII Gen. 7. XIII 15. XV. 18 c. I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes Which the LORD strengthned it is likely with a greater vigour than usual that he might take a larger prospect than other wise he could have done of this Country Or as some of the Jews understand it he laid a Map of it before his eyes wherein every part of it was exactly described But that might have been done in the Plains of Moab without going up into a Mountain therefore the other is more reasonable that he strengthned his visive Faculty with a greater Power to see the whole Country in its length and breadth c. And therefore some of the Rabbins have been so wise as to put both together as J. Bened. Carpzovius observes out of several of them upon Schickard's Jus Regium Cap. V. Theorem XVI p. 285. who thus speak God shewed him the whole Land as in a Garden Plot forty Miles in breadth and as many in length and gave his Eyes such a power of Contemplating the whole Land from the beginning to the end that he saw Hills and Dales what was open and what was inclosed remote or nigh at one view But thou shalt not go over thither This he had often said to him and now mentions it that he might die in a comfortable sense that he had been as good as his word to him and consequently carry this Belief along with him into the other World that he would make good the Oath which he sware to their Fathers of bringing them into Canaan and there fulfil all that he had foretold Verse 5 Ver. 5. So Moses the servant of the LORD So God himself calls him after his death in the next Book I Josh 2 7. as the most eminent Minister of his that he had hitherto employed in Israel But the observation of R. Bechai is not well founded that he is not called the Servant of the LORD till after he was dead and then admitted unto the nearest familiarity with the Divine Majesty For though these very words are not used yet the LORD calls him My Servant Moses which is the same thing XII Numb 7. Died in the Land of Moab For this Country was so still called because it anciently belonged to the Moabites See XXI Numb 26. from whom Sihon had taken it as Israel now had taken it from him So that he really died in the Land of Israel According to the Word of the LORD The Hierusalem Targum expounds this very soberly According to the Sentence of the Decree of the LORD That is as the LORD had determined and declared he should XXXII 49 50. And so this Phrase is commonly used in this very Book XVII 6 10 11. as well as in other places of the Pentateuch IX Numb 20. XIII 3 c. which will warrant this Interpretation that Moses did not die of any Disease nor was worn out with Age but meerly because God the Supream Governour of all things so ordered it But some of the Jews not satisfied with this have far-fetch'd Conceits concerning the Death of Moses from these words For because it is said he died al pi at the mouth as the words are literally in the Hebrew of the LORD Maimonides himself saith that their wise Men think and he seems of their Opinion that it signifies the LORD drew his Soul out of his Body with a kiss And thus died Aaron and Miriam but none besides them Of Aaron indeed it is expresly said he died al pi of the LORD but it is not said of Miriam and yet they will have her to have had the same favour That is they died saith he of too much love from the pleasure they had in the thoughts of God which apprehension of God conjunct with the highest love to him he thinks is called kissing I Cant. 2. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth More Nevochim P. III. Cap. LI. But this is not the meaning of the Phrase though no doubt Moses departed this Life in a most delectable sense and taste of the Divine Love having no unwillingness to