for Sin offered v. 14. before they could be worthy to have any Gift or Present which they made to God received by him But upon their Expiation an whole Burnt-offering was accepted v. 18. and after that followed this Sacrifice which was a Peace-offering as appears from v. 31. part of which was burnt upon the Altar part given to the Priest and the rest they themselves ate for whom it was offered that it might appear they were so far in the favour of God as to eat with him of his Meat from his Table Abarbanel hath the same observation Ver. 25. Verse 25 And he took the fat and the rump c. All this Verse likewise is there explained XXIX Exod. 22. Ver. 26 27 28. Verse 26 27 28. And out of the basket of unleavened bread c. These three Verses show that Moses exactly followed the Orders he had received XXIX Exod 23 24 25. where they have been explained Ver. 28. Verse 28 Burnt them upon the burnt-offering This shows that they were not a burnt-offering properly as I there observed but an Appendix to it They were consecrations for a sweet savour Because they were offered to consecrate and sanctifie them as this is explained XXIX Exod. 33. See there Ver. 29. Verse 29 And Moses took the breast and waved it c. According to the direction given XXIX Exod. 26. where it is also ordered that this should be Moses his part Ver. 30. Verse 30 And he took of the anointing oil and of the blood that was upon the Altar and sprinkled it on Aaron c. See XXIX Exod. 21. where it appears plainly this blood that was mixed with the Oil was the Blood of the Ram of Consecration Ver. 31. Verse 31 And Moses said unto Aaron and his sons Boil the flesh at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation and there eat it c. God having had his part v. 28. and Moses who performed the Office of a Priest at this time having had that which belonged to him on that account v. 29. the rest was given as the manner was in Peace-offerings to those for whom the Sacrifice was offered that is all but the right shoulder which was burnt upon the Altar and the Wave-breast which was given to Moses as Priest See XXIX Exod. 31 32. Ver. 32. Verse 32 That which remains of the flesh and the blood shall ye burn with fire See XXIX Exod. 34. This shows it was of the nature of a Peace-offering VII 15 17. Ver. 33. Verse 33 And ye shall not go out of the door of the Tabernacle in seven days c. For till then their Consecration was not perfected as the following words signifie no more than the Consecration of the Altar was till a Bullock had been offered to cleanse it and make an atonement for it seven days together See XXIX Exod. 35 36 37. This was to make them more sensible of the great weight as well as dignity of their Office Ver. 34. Verse 34 As he hath done this day so the LORD hath commanded to do to make an atonement for you Every day of these seven those Sacrifices were to be repeated the Sin-offering the Burnt-offering and the Peace-offering and their Garments were to be sprinkled with the Blood and the Anointing Oil as the LORD required when Moses was with him in the Mount XXIX Exod. 35. This shows the imperfection of all the Legal Sacrifices which would not have been so often repeated if they had been of greater efficacy Yet the continuance of them seven days doth signifie the compleat Consecration of these Priests according to the Rites of those times In conformity to which our great High-Priest the LORD Christ who was perfected by one Sacrifice of himself spent seven days in his Consecration to his Office For as Aaron is commanded to attend at the Tabernacle so many days together in like manner our LORD Christ as Dr. Jackson observes in the forenamed Book Chapt. XXV did attend the Temple five days one after another before his death See XII John 1 12 c. XXI Matth. 8 9 c. and having purged it on the first or second of those days from the prophaneness that was exercised in it by Merchandizing and afterward hallowed it by his Doctrine and by his Divine Presence which appeared in several miraculous Cures he went the sixth day into his heavenly Sanctuary into Paradise it self to puririsie and sanctifie it with his own Blood as Moses at Aaron's Consecration did the material Sanctuary and Altar with the Blood of Beasts And having rested the seventh day finished all by his Resurrection early the next day in the morning Ver. 35. Verse 35 Therefore shall ye abide at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation Where all things mentioned in this Chapter had been done and were still to be repeated v. 3 4. for they could not go into the Sanctuary till they were compleated Day and night This was to make their Consecration more solemn and taken notice of by all the People Seven days By which means a Sabbath as the Jews observe passed over their heads without which they conceive Aaron and his Sons could not have been compleated But the Sabbath of the LORD did never so exactly pass over any High-Priest in his Consecration as it did over the High-Priest of the New Testament For however it were of Aaron's it was to our blessed Saviour as the fore-named Dr. Jackson notes a Day of Rest indeed after six days of Labour Watching Praying and Fasting which concluded in his bloody Death and Passion And keep the charge of the LORD That which he had now enjoyned Or rather watch the Tabernacle and his Vessels c. as they were to do in time to come The Hebrew Doctors have here raised a difficulty about the necessary Easements of Nature for which they had no convenience if they might not stir for seven days from the door of the Tabernacle and therefore they fancy there was a hole digged in the Ground for such occasions But it is more likely they were not so confined as not to be allowed this liberty and one cannot well doubt of it who considers the word Mismoroth here used which we translate keep the charge of the LORD which is a military phrase signifying the Stations and Watches kept in their turns for certain hours after which they were at liberty to attend their own Affairs Such was the charge here one may reasonably think of not departing from the door of the Tabernacle while they were upon the guard as we speak which some or other of them kept night and day in such order that while some watched others might sleep or step out about the necessary occasions of Nature That ye die not It may seem hard that they should be in peril of their Life if they omitted any of these Rites But this was necessary to make those serious and intent upon their business who were to save the Lives of
polluted to come unto his Sanctuary For there were so many sorts of Pollutions made by the Law that it was very hard to avoid falling under some of them and consequently a business of great care circumspection and labour to approach as they ought into the Divine Presence For if a Man escaped defilement by a dead body yet he could not easily avoid being defiled by some of the eight creeping things which he might chance to tread upon or might fall on his Meat or his Drink And if he escaped these yet he might be defiled involuntarily by the means mentioned here v. 16. or by touching a menstruous Woman or one that had a Flux of Blood or at least by touching their Bed their Seats or something belonging to them c. All which kept a Man from the Sanctuary which he could not enter therefore when he pleased but was to stay a certain time before he could be admitted to worship God there and not then neither till he had washed himself By all which actions reverence affection and devotion was preserved to the Sanctuary and Men were excited to great humility which in this was principally regarded Ver. 32. Verse 32 This is the law of him that hath an issue c. In this and the next Verse he recapitulates the Matter of this Chapter as he did in the latter end of the foregoing sum up the Contents of that Ver. 33. Verse 33 And of him that hath an issue of the man and of the woman Even of the Person that hath an issue whether it be Man or Woman c. CHAP. XVI Ver. 1. Verse 1 AND the LORD spake unto Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron This Chapter would have naturally followed the Tenth Chapter where the death of those two Persons is related if that had not occasioned the inserting some other Laws about Uncleanness See Preface to Chapter XI which being delivered Moses now goes on to give direction about the great Sacrifice in which the whole Nation was concerned as he treated of lesser and common Sacrifices in the beginning of the Book When they offered before the LORD and died See X. 1. This is mentioned again to make the Priests careful not only to Sacrifice unto the LORD alone but after such a manner as he ordered Ver. 2. Verse 2 Speak unto thy brother Aaron that he come not at all times into the holy place within the vail Into the holy place without the Vail he or some of the other Priests were bound to go every day Morning and Even when they offered Incense But into this as none of them might go at all so he not at all times when he went into the other but only upon one particular occasion which is mentioned here in this Chapter Before the Mercy-seat which is upon the Ark. This being the place of God's special Presence none might enter into it but his principal Minister and he no oftner than the Divine Majesty allowed which was only once a year it appears from v. 29. when he offered the great Sacrifice here prescribed And so much was intimated to Moses before XXX Exod. 10. And the Jews add That on this day of the year he might go in but four times once to burn Incense a second time to sprinkle the Blood of the Bullock then to sprinkle the Blood of the Goat and lastly to fetch out the Censer wherein he burnt Incense If he went in a fifth time he died for his presumption as they say particularly R. Levi Barcel Praecept CCLXXXVI Such sacred places the Gentiles had in some Countries which according to this pattern were opened only once a year Particularly Pausanias mentions in his Book Boeotica the Temple of Dindymene which they thought it was not lawful to open more than one day in the year 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the same he saith of another in the same Book and in his Eliaca of the Temple of Orcus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It is opened once every year See Dr. Owtram's excellent Book De Sacrificiis Lib. I. cap. 3. Lest he die As his Sons had done for their Presumption in offering with other fire than God allowed In the like danger Aaron himself had been if he had come into the Divine Presence without his leave and without such caution as is given v. 13. which is the reason of this order here delivered to Moses and by him to Aaron for the prevention of any such dangerous mistake For I will appear in the Cloud upon the Mercy-seat That was God's own Dwelling-place where his GLORY appeared into which therefore none might enter but when he appointed and as he directed The only difficulty is what is meant by the Cloud wherein he saith he will appear on the Mercy-seat One would think he meant as usually the Cloud wherein the Divine Glory resided XL Exod. 34 35. 1 Kings VIII 10 11. But the Cloud seems to have been on the out-side of the Tabernacle and within a Glory or great Splendor only unclouded And therefore most I think understand this of the Smoak of the Incense that the High-Priest burnt when he entred into the most holy place which was the Cloud wherewith the Mercy-seat was then covered v. 13. And there is great reason for this Opinion for if there had been a Cloud in the most holy place over the Mercy-seat before the High-Priest entred what need had there been to make a new Cloud of Smoak as he is ordered v. 13. when the Divine Glory was sufficiently obscured already Besides in the place before-mentioned XL Exod. the Cloud as I now observed is said to be without the Tabernacle and to cover it the Glory only being within and in the other place of the Book of Kings and 2 Chron. V. 13 14. it is said only to fill the House of the LORD i.e. the Body of the Temple but not to be settled upon the Mercy-seat Where we may very well doubt whether there was any Cloud or no but only the Divine GLORY The only ground that I can see for it is that God is said there to dwell in thick darkness which seems to import that the Divine GLORY was wrapt up in a Cloud But however that be expounded these words which we here translate I will appear in the Cloud upon the Mercy-seat may very well be rendred I will be approached in a Cloud i. e. of Incense For so this word we translate appear is used XXIII Exod. 15. not for God's appearing to them but for the Peoples appearing before him and this sense the 13th Verse seems to inforce as Campegius Vitringa hath observed Lib. I. Observ Sacr. cap. 11. Ver. 3. Verse 3 Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place As he might come into it only once a year so then with such preparation and in such a manner as is here prescribed And the Jews say that he was separated from his own House and Family seven days before and
to be burnt XXI 9. and the Adulterer to be strangled as the Jews understand it If a man lay with a Virgin espoused to another man but not yet married they were both to be stoned by the express words of the Law XXII Deut. 23. But Adultery with a married Woman if we may credit the Jewish Doctors was punished with strangling See Selden Lib. III. Vxor Hebr. cap. 2. For when we meet with this phrase they shall surely die it is always meant of Death by the Sentence of the House of Judgment as they speak and if the Law add no more they resolve it to be by strangling If these words be added their blood shall be upon them then they say they were to be stoned This I observed before and shall add now that strangling as they describe it was not such a punishment as our hanging men by the neck but the Criminal being stuck up to the knees in dung they tied a Napkin about his Neck and drawing it hard at both ends choaked him There was such a thing as hanging men on a Gallows as we speak but it was after they were dead and only such as had been stoned and not all them neither but such alone as had been stoned for Blasphemy or Adultery See Joh. Carpzovius upon Schickard's Jus Regium cap. 4. Theorem XIV The greatest thing that can be objected against this account of the punishment of Adultery is that which St. John tells us the Jews said concerning the Woman taken in the very act of it Moses in the Law commanded us that such should be stoned VIII Joh. 5. But it may be answered that this Woman was espoused only and not yet married and so by the Law as I observed before was to be stoned XXII Deut. 23 24. If this seem absurd that the Adultery of one espoused should be accounted a greater Crime than of one married for stoning was an heavier punishment than strangling it ought to be considered that the love of those who were newly espoused was commonly more fervent than theirs who were married especially among the Jews who for light causes were wont to be divorced from their Wives And therefore no wonder if the Adultery of the former was judged a greater Crime than of the latter Ver. 11. Verse 11 And the man that lieth with his fathers wife c. This was condemned before as an heinous sin XVIII 8. and now the penalty of Death is inflicted upon the Offenders Their blood shall be upon them All the Hebrew Doctors agree that wheresoever we meet with this phrase it is meant of stoning as I before observed Ver. 12. Verse 12 If a man lie with his daughter-in-law both of them shall surely be put to death This was forbidden XVIII 15. and the same penalty is here enacted as against the former Crime They have wrought confusion By perverting the order which God hath appointed and making great disturbance in the Family c. It is the same word that is used for a more foul sin XVIII 23. and therefore shows this to be an abominable mixture Ver. 13. Verse 13 If a man also lie with mankind c. This also was condemned before XVIII 22. but the penalty not declared till now They shall surely be put to death c. By stoning unless one of them was under a force and then that Law took place which we find XXII Deut. 25 26. Ver. 14. Verse 14 And if a man take a wife and her mother it is wickedness See XVIII 17. They shall be burnt with fire Which was an higher punishment than stoning as that was higher than strangling R. Levi Barcelonita Praecept CCXXIV. describes the manner of it to have been thus They set the Malefactor in dung up to the knees and then tied a Cloath about his Neck which was drawn by the two Witnesses till they made his Mouth gape into which they poured hot melted Lead down his Throat which burnt his bowels And thus the rest of the Talmudists expound it But I see no good Authority they have for it the word for burning being the same that is used when mention is made of burning with Fire and Faggots as we speak And R. Elieser ben Zadock saith he saw a Priest's Daughter thus burnt for Fornication But the Doctors commonly say the Judges were ignorant of the Law or that they were Sadducees who then had got into the Seat of Judgment who followed the very Letter of the Scripture Both he and they That is both the Mother and Daughter if the Mother were consenting to it Otherwise only the Woman that offended From whence the Karaites formed this Rule after the same manner that men were obliged by a Precept in Scripture the Women were obliged also Selden Lib. Uxor Hebr. cap. 5. That there be no wickedness among you That others may be deterred from the commission of such enormous Crimes For the Hebrew word imports more than ordinary wickedness See XVIII 17. Ver. 15. Verse 15 And if a man lie with a beast he shall surely be put to death See XVIII 23. This Death was by stoning as appears from the next Verse And ye shall slay the beast Just as they were to destroy not only the Inhabitants of an Apostate City but their Cattel also c. XIII Deut. 15 16. to terrifie others from committing the like sin And as the Talmudists observe that there might be no Memorial left of so foul a Crime by Mens pointing at the Beast and saying There goes the Beast that such a Man lay with They might have added to prevent monstrous Births See Selden Lib. I. de Jure Nat. Gent. cap. 4. Maimonides gives a good reason why a Beast that killed a Man should be slain as a punishment to the Owner for looking no better after it but his application of it to this matter seems impertinent More Nevoch P. III. cap. 40. Bochartus his Gloss is far better The Beast was killed as an Instrument in the Crime just as a Forger of Deeds is hanged with his Pen and Counterfeit Seals and a Conjurer with his Magical Books and Characters And this also is useful for an Example though not to other Beasts yet to Men whose concern it is to consider that if Beasts were not spared who were not capable of sinning what would become of them who committed such Crimes against the known Law of God and the impressions of Nature it self Hierozoicon P. I. Lib. 2. cap. 16. Ver. 16. Verse 16 Their blood shall be upon them This relates to the Man and the Woman mentioned in these two Verses who committed this foul Crime for a Beast is not capable of punishment But as the Canon Law speaks Pecora inde credendum est jussa interfici quia tali flagitio contaminata refricant facti memoriam it is to be believed that the Beasts which were polluted with such a flagitious wickedness were therefore commanded to be slain because they rub'd up the memory of
others by making Expiation for them when they deserved to perish For so I am commanded These Orders as hath been already observed he received in the holy Mount So Aaron and his sons did all things which the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses This was necessary to be added that all Generations might be assured whatsoever was performed by their Ministry would be effectual to the end for which it was appointed they being exactly Consecrated to God's Service without the least omission of any thing that he had required In like manner our great High-Priest was Consecrated to his Eternal Priesthood by fulfilling all the Will of God and that in a far more Solemn and Publick way than Aaron's was it being performed by Suffering such things as nothing but a perfect Filial Obedience to his heavenly Father could have moved him to admit because it was accomplished by shedding his own Blood in a lingring Death CHAP. IX Ver. 1. Verse 1 AND it came to pass on the eighth day He doth not mean on the eighth day of the Month but on the next day after their Consecration which was seven days in doing VIII 33 35. Then it was that the Fire fell down from Heaven and consumed the Sacrifice which Aaron offered and this seems also to have been the first day of unleavened Bread which fell upon the fifteenth day of this Month for on the fourteenth in the Even which was the last day of the Consecration of the Priests the Passover was kept IX Numb 2 5. That Moses called Aaron and his sons and the Elders of Israel Just as he had done before VIII 2 3. that the Rulers and as many of the People as could meet together to behold what was done might see the Glory of the LORD which appeared at this time v. 6. Ver. 2. Verse 2 And he said unto Aaron take thee a young Calf This is the first Sacrifice that was offered to God by the Priests of the Order of Aaron It differed from that which was offered by Moses for Aaron and his Sons as Egel a young Calf doth from Par a young Bullock by which his Sin was expiated at his Consecration And Maimonides saith that the former signifies a Calf of one year old the latter one of two Others say a Calf was called Egel till his Horns budded and then it was called Par. For a sin-offering For his sins in general not for any determinate Offence like that IV. 3. which therefore was something different from this The Jews fancy that a young Calf was appointed for the first Sin-offering to put Aaron and the People in mind of the Golden Calf which they worshipped So Maimonides reports the Opinion of their Wise men in his More Nevoch P. III. cap. 46. Where he also hath this conceit that it was to expiate that Sin And a Ram for a burnt-offering For none but Males were accepted for Burnt-offerings I. 10. There is no Peace-offering ordered for him as there is afterward for the People v. 4. because it was not fit he should have all the Sacrifice as he must have had according to the Law of such Sacrifices being both the Priest and the Offerer between whom and the Priest after the Fat was burnt all was to be shared Ver. 3. Verse 3 And unto the Children of Israel thou shalt speak saying Unto all the Elders v. 1. who were to bring the following Offerings in the Name of all the People of Israel and that by Aaron's direction who was now to act as God's High-Priest and gave out this Order Take ye a Kid of the Goats for a sin-offering The Hebrew word Seir signifies a He-goat Concerning which Maimonides in his Book concerning Sacrifices delivers this opinion That all Sacrifices for sin whether of private Persons or the whole Congregation at their three principal Feasts New Moons and the Day of Expiation were He-goats For this reason because the greatest Sin and Rebellion of those times was that they sacrificed to Daemons who were wont to appear in that form For which he quotes XVII 7. They shall no more offer their Sacrifices lasseirim which we translate unto Devils but the word Seirim is but the Plural Number of the word Seir which signifies a Goat And further he adds That their Wise men think the Sin of the whole Congregation was therefore expiated by this Kid of a Goat because all the Family of Israel sinned about a Goat when they fold Joseph into Egypt XXXVII Gen. 31. And such reasons saith he as these should not seem trifles for the end and scope of all these Actions was to imprint and ingrave on the Mind of Sinners the Offences they had committed that they might never forget them According to that of David LI Psal 5. My sin is ever before me This Sin-offering was different from that IV. 14. being not for any particular Sin as that was but in general for all the Offences that the High-Priest might have committed A Calf and a Lamb both of the first year c. When they were in their prime Ver. 4. Verse 4 Also a Bullock and a Ram. These also were no doubt to be without blemish as is prescribed in the two foregoing Offerings And the Hebrew word Sor which we translate a Bullock often signifies a well grown Ox as in XXI Exod. 28. XXV Deut. 8. As Ajil a Ram the Hebrews say signifies a Sheep of above a year old These made very large Peace-offerings and consequently a liberal Feast upon them For peace-offerings The very same order is here observed that was at Aaron's Consecration First Sin-offerings then a Burnt-offering and then a Peace-offering was offered to the LORD VIII 14 18 22. And a meat-offering mingled with oil Which was to compleat the Peace-offerings on which they were to feast that Meat might not be without Bread to it For to day the LORD will appear to you Give you an illustrious Token of his Presence by sending Fire from Heaven or from the Brightness of his GLORY to consume the Sacrifice v. 23 24. Whereby they were all assured that both the Institution of this Priesthood and the Sacrifices offered by it were acceptable to the Divine Majesty Ver. 5. Verse 5 And they brought that which Moses commanded Both Aaron v. 2. and all the Congregation v. 3. brought all the Offerings which Moses required Before the Tabernacle of the Congregation Where these Sacrifices were to be offered And all the Congregation drew near and stood before the LORD Approached to the door of the Tabernacle and stood there by their Sacrifices looking towards the Holy Place and worshipped the LORD Ver. 6. Verse 6 And Moses said Unto the Congregation This is the thing which the LORD commanded that ye should do I require this of you by the commandment of God who will demonstrate by a visible Token his Presence among you And the glory of the LORD shall appear unto you That Glory which filled the Tabernacle when it was erected
Erpenius and many of the Jewish Commentators such as R. Solomon and Aben-Ezra who give the same account of XXI Lev. 10. where the same thing is required of the High-Priest And the time of their letting their Hair grow on such occasions they determine by the Law of the Nazarites who were not to cut their Hair all the time of their Vow of Separation which the Jews say was at least XXX days VI Numb 5. Therefore the Priests were not to let their Hair grow so long if they did they were uncapable of officiating Only they make this difference between the common Priests and the High-Priest that this Law did not bind the Priests at all times but only in their Course of Ministration but the High-Priest whose Presence was always necessary in the Sanctuary might never let his Hair grow but was bound every Week to have it cut even on the Eve of the Sabbath See Selden L. II. de Success in Pontiff cap. 6. But the foundation of all this is not very strong for it relies chiefly on the use of the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that place of Numbers VI. 5. where it signifies Hair from whence they conclude the Verb here may have the same Notion and signifie the growth of Hair But this is not the usual signification of it in Scripture where it commonly imports the rejection of something as of good Counsel I Prov. 25. of Reproof or Instruction XIII Prov. 18. XV. 32. And being joyned with the Head plainly signifies the uncovering it See V Numb 18. And therefore so the LXX understand it here as if they were forbidden to put off their Bonnets But that they always did as soon as they had performed their Sacred Office in the Sanctuary and therefore it may be meant of making their Heads bare by shaving them or bald by pulling off the Hair as the manner was in Mourning XV Isa 2. XLI Jer. 5. XLVIII 37. and many other places And in this the Priests among the Jews directly opposed those among the Egyptians who shaved their Heads as appears by what Minutius Faelix and Lampridius in the Life of Commodus say concerning the Priests of Isis And Herodotus also in his Euterpe whose words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In other places the Priests of the Gods nourish their hair but in Egypt they are shaved Neither rend your Clothes Which was another Rite of Mourning not only among the Jews but among all People in ancient Times especially in the Eastern Countries as every one knows that hath read any of their Authors See I Job 20. And it was used on many other occasions among the Jews as well as in their Funerals particularly when any Man blasphemed XIV Numb 6. 2 Kings XIX 1. when any ill Tidings came which put them into a Passion 2 Kings V. 7. or any Misfortune befel them XLIV Gen. 13. XI Judg. 35. But was thought so unseemly in a Priest especially when he ministred that the Jews say they whose Garments were rent by accident were as uncapable of ministring as they who rent them themselves in Mourning The reason of this Precept was as R. Levi of Barcelona well observes Praecept CLV that it being not allowed in those Countries for Mourners to come into the Presence of their Kings as appears by the History of Esther much less was it seemly for any that attended upon the Divine Majesty to come into his House in such a Habit. Lest ye die As Nadab and Abihu did For after such a Monition as this they had highly dishonoured God if they had appeared in his Sanctuary in such an indecent manner And wrath come upon the people For want of Priests to make atonement for them when they offended But let your brethren the whole house of Israel bewail the burning which the LORD hath kindled He doth not prohibit the rest of the People who were not Priests to mourn for them but rather requires it of them all that they might be sensible of their loss and of the the sin which was the cause of it And it is likely the People bewailed them by rending their Clothes and baring their Heads and putting Ashes upon them or some such Rites then in use among them Ver. 7. Verse 7 And ye shall not go out from the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation For it is supposed the seven days of their Consecration were not yet quite ended VIII 35. or they had begun some other Ministration in the Sanctuary and therefore were not to stir out of the Court of it till it was sanctified And the Hebrews think this Law did not only bind Aaron and his Sons at this time but their Posterity for ever that if they heard of the death of any of their Kindred when they were ministring in the Sanctuary they should not stir from their Duty For that would have been to show a greater affection to a dead Friend than to the living God This appears to be true by the like command to this and in the same words laid particularly upon the High-Priests XXI 12. For the anointing of the LORD is upon you You are devoted and consecrated by a Solemn Unction VIII 10 c. to the Service of God which must not be omitted out of respect to any Person whatsoever For in this Precept as R. Levi Barcelonita observes Praecept CLVII the Dignity and Majesty of the Divine Worship was consulted which if his Ministers had deserted on such occasions for a moment would have been brought into contempt For it would have been a declaration that there was something in the World more to be regarded than God's Service And therefore the punishment of Death is threatned in the foregoing words to those who were guilty of such an offence And they did according to the word of Moses Staid in the Tabernacle without any of the usual Tokens of Mourning Wherein they performed an eminent piece of Obedience to God whose commandment suppressed those natural Affections which are very hard to be kept in subjection Ver. 8. Verse 8 And the LORD spake unto Aaron saying It may be thought that the LORD was so pleased with his Obedience that he himself now spake unto Aaron whereas hitherto he had spoken to him by Moses Ver. 9. Verse 9 Do not drink wine nor strong drink thou nor thy sons with thee By Wine every one knows is meant that Liquor which is pressed out of Grapes And by Schechar which we translate strong Drink is meant such Liquors as were made in imitation of Wine of Dates or Figs and many other sorts of Fruits also that which was made of Honey which we call Mede and Metheglin There are many sorts of such Liquors mentioned by Pliny in his Natural History Lib. XIV cap. 16. which he calls Vina factitia When ye go into the Tabernacle of the Congregation To perform your Ministry At other times they might drink Wine and if we may believe the Jews they did not
offend against this Precept if before they went into the Sanctuary they drank no more than the fourth part of a Log which contained an Egg-shell and an half If they exceeded this measure then their Ministry they say was profaned and they were liable to death by the hand of Heaven See R. Levi of Barcelona Praecept CLVIII who hath many Niceties about this matter as hath also Maimonides mentioned by the learned Dr. Outram in his Book de Sacrificiis Lib. I. cap. 6. n. 9. Lest ye die As their Brethren did See upon v. 1. where I observed it to be very probable that they were burnt with Fire from the LORD upon this account They that think it worth their while may see after what manner the Cabbalists make out this and what Reflections they make upon it in Theod. Hackspan's Cabala Judaica n. 144 145. It shall be a statute for ever throughout your Generations And such a Law there was in some Heathen Countries that no Magistrate all the year he was in Office nor any Judge while he was in Action and Employment should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so much as taste a drop of Wine So Plato tells us with which Eusebius compares this Law of Moses Lib. XII Praepar Evang. cap. 25. And Chaeremon the Stoick describing in Porphery's Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L. IV. the Diet of the Egyptian Priests tells us that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some of them drunk no Wine at all and others very little Ver. 10. Verse 10 That ye may put a difference between holy and unholy between clean and unclean Here is the ground and reason of this Precept that they might have their Wits about them as we speak and preserve their Minds from being clouded as Nabad's and Abihu's were who put no difference between holy Fire and common and so be able both to put a difference as the first words may be translated between holy and unholy c. and also to teach the People all the Statutes which God had delivered to them as it follows in the next Verse And here it must be observed that as some days and places were more holy than others so were some parts of the Sacrifices also which they might not eat themselves but were reserved for the Altar Some Beasts also were clean and others so unclean that they might neither be offered in Sacrifice nor eaten at their common Tables XI 47. Some Men and Women also were so unclean that they were not to be admitted into their ordinary Conversation much less into the Sanctuary Chap. XII XIII Of all which the Priests were the Judges and therefore had need to be perfectly sober that they might make an accurate difference between one thing and another And for such a like reason it was the Egyptian Priests were so abstemious in drinking Wine because they looked upon it as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an impediment to the finding out of Truth So Chaeremon speaks in the forementioned Book Ver. 11. Verse 11 And that ye may teach the Children of Israel all the Statutes c. Which concern the Rites and Ceremonies of God's Worship Ver. 12. Verse 12 And Moses spake unto Aaron and unto Eleazar and unto Ithamar his sons that were left This was still spoken on the same day a little after what he had said to them v. 6 7. Take the meat-offering that remaineth of the offerings of the LORD made by fire c. He seems to have been afraid that Aaron's grief for the loss of his Sons might have so disturbed his Mind as to have made him negligent in some part of his duty or that Eleazar and Ithamar through mistake or forgetfulness might have offended against some of the Laws lately delivered about Sacrifices which therefore he here repeats that they might be exactly observed And in the first place that they should eat what remained of the meat-offering as was commanded VI. 16. Where it is required also as it is here to be eaten without leaven and beside the Altar in the Court of the Tabernacle of the Congregation as it is there expressed For it is most holy See there VI. 17. Ver. 13. Verse 13 And ye shall eat it in the holy place This he repeats because they might possibly have forgotten it or not sufficiently attended to the difference between things most holy and things only holy The former of which the Priests alone might eat and that only in the holy place the other all their Family might eat as he saith in the next Verse in any place that was clean Because it is thy due and thy sons due c. No body might eat it but holy Persons for so God directed Chapt. II. 3. VI. 16 17 18. VII 9 10. Ver. 14. Verse 14 The wave-breast and the heave-shoulder shall ye eat in a clean place They were not bound to eat these in the Court of the Tabernacle as in the former case v. 13. but in any part of the Camp that was not defiled Thou and thy sons and thy daughters with thee These being those which the Jews call lighter holy things might be eaten by the whole Family as was before observed For they be thy due and thy sons due which are given you out of the sacrifice of peace-offerings of the Children of Israel They were bestowed upon them by an express Grant VII 34. where though only his Sons be mentioned as they are here yet it is plain all of their Family who were clean might eat of these things See upon VII 19. Ver. 15. Verse 15 The heave-shoulder and the wave-breast shall they bring with the offerings made by fire of the fat to wave it for a wave-offering before the LORD This also he inculcates again which had been said before VII 29 30. that they must take care first to wave these things before the LORD and to burn the Fat upon the Altar for till this was done they had no right to eat these things And it shall be thine and thy sons with thee When they had been presented to the LORD of the whole Earth and he had received his part these became theirs by an express Grant from him VII 32 33 34. By a statute for ever As long as such kind of Sacrifices should last Ver. 16. Verse 16 And Moses diligently sought the Goat of the sin-offering Which had been offered for the People IX 15. And behold it was burnt This justified Moses his suspicion and fear that some mistake might have been committed in other matters because he found upon a diligent inquisition that they had burnt upon the Altar those parts of the sin-offering which they ought to have eaten themselves VI. 26 29. In which it was the easier for them to mistake without diligent observation of Moses his directions because the sin-offering which had been offered for Aaron himself was just before wholly burnt without the Camp IX 11. and so were all the Sin-offerings for the High-Priest and for the whole Congregation
29 If a man or woman hath a plague upon the head or the beard Such a kind of Disease Pliny saith came into Italy in the middle of the Reign of Tiberius Caesar which they called Mentagra because it commonly began in the Chin and was so filthy ut quaecunque Mors praeferenda esset that any death was preferrable to it Lib. XXVI Nat. Hist. cap. 1. Ver. 30. Verse 30 Then the Priest shall see the plague and behold if it be in the sight deeper than the skin c. There are the same marks of this sort with those of the former only instead of a white Hair which there was in other kinds of Leprosies there was a yellow Hair in this and not so thick as the white Ver. 31. Verse 31 If it be not in sight deeper than the skin c. This was some indication that it was not a Leprosie yet if there were no black Hair in it as it here follows which was a sign of Soundness and Health v. 37. the case was not certain but doubtful and therefore he was to be shut up seven days to see what it would prove Ver. 32. Verse 32 And in the seventh day the Priest shall look on the plague So he calls it because it had a resemblance of the Leprosie And behold if the scall spread not For this was the nature of the Disease which Pliny describes in the place above-mentioned that it spread it self in many Persons from the Chin all over the Face except the Eyes and went down to the Neck the Breast and the Hands foeda cutis furfure with a filthy Scurf of the Skin which is here called a Scall And there be no yellow hair in it This with the foregoing and the following sign that it was not in sight deeper than the Skin made it probable it was not the Leprosie Yet he was not upon this immediately discharged but a further trial as the next Verse tells us was to be made before he was set at liberty Ver. 33. Verse 33 He shall be shaven but the scall shall he not shave c. For sureness sake the Head and Beard were to be shaven which might be performed by any Body that the Priest might the better discern whether the Scall spread or no. Only the place where the Scall appeared was not shaven because the Priest was to observe of what colour the Hair in it was So R. Levi Barcelonita Praecept CLXXII They shave round about the Scall leaving only the two next hairs that they may know the decrease or increase of the Disease And the Priest shall shut him up that hath the scall seven days more In which time some considerable alteration would be made one way or other Ver. 34. Verse 34 And in the seventh day Before it was compleated The Priest shall look on the scall and behold if it be not spread c. Here are the same marks which were mentioned before that if the Scall did not spread in the Skin nor eat into the Flesh he was not to be shut up any longer but pronounced clean and after he had washed his Clothes be admitted into the Society of God's People again See v. 6. Ver. 35. Verse 35 But if the scall spread much in the skin after his cleansing It fell out sometime that the Scall which had stood at a stay for a Fortnight and seemed neither to spread nor corrode at all began to go on to the neighbouring parts Ver. 36. Verse 36 Then the Priest shall look on him and behold if the scall be spread in the skin c. If he found this single mark that after the Scall had been at a stand a good while it began to spread much he was not to trouble himself for any further token by seeking for the yellow hair v. 30. but immediately declare him to be a Leper Ver. 37. Verse 37 But if the scall be in his sight at a stay c. If after this the Scall stopt again and made no further progress and withal there was a black hair appeared in it which the Priest could not find before but now was grown up in it he was to take it for an evident sign that the Man was cured of his Leprosie For the Hair being restored to its natural colour was a certain indication that the Blood was cleansed from its impurity Ver. 38. Verse 38 If a man or woman have in the skin of their flesh bright spots even white bright spots i.e. No other sign of the Leprosie but only this Ver. 39. Verse 39 Then the Priest shall look and behold if the bright spots in the skin of their flesh is darkish white c. In this case the Priest was to observe whether the Spots had any thing of a cloudiness in them for if they had it was not a Leprosie if they were perfectly clear and bright then it was Ver. 40. Verse 40 And the man whose hair is fallen off his head i. e. From the hinder part of it Ver. 41. Verse 41 And he that hath his hair fallen off from the part of his head towards his face c. The design of these two Verses is to instruct the Priest that the meer falling off of the hair from his head which made him bald either behind or before should not be taken to be a sign of the Leprosie Ver. 42 43. Verse 42 43. And if there be in the bald head or bald forehead a white reddish sore c. If either in the hinder or forepart of a bald head there appeared a white sore exceeding bright as it should be translated like that which appeared sometimes in the Skin v. 24. then as it here follows he was to be looked on as a leprous Man Ver. 44. Verse 44 The Priest shall pronounce him utterly unclean As unclean as any of the fore-named Persons His plague is in his head The Leprosie appears in his head as in other Persons it appears in the skin of their Bodies Ver. 45. Verse 45 And the leper in whom the plague is Any of the fore-named sort of Leprosies His clothes shall be rent After the manner of Mourners as some take it that he might sensibly declare his afflicted Condition For upon any sad occasion they were wont in those Countries to rend their Clothes IX Ezra 3 5. II Job 12. Others indeed think this was intended only for a mark of his uncleanness but I do not see why it might not serve to both ends And his head bare This was another token of mourning But the Hebrew Writers unanimously translate these words quite contrary the Phrase in the original being his head shall be free i. e. say they from cutting or shaving which was as much as to say he should let his hair grow long This also was a sign of sadness and sorrow See X. 6. And shall put a covering upon his upper lip Either he was to cover it with his hand or with the skirt of his Garment which they threw
those to whom they were given such as those about Meats and Garments and Leprosie c. Against which lest any one should object it is here added I am the LORD your God I am the LORD your God I who am your Soveraign LORD and by redeeming you from the Egyptian Bondage am become in a special manner your God have ordained these things Therefore let no Man dispute them or make a question of them as the forenamed Gemara expounds these words See Selden Lib. I. de Jure N. G. cap. 10. p. 122. where he observes that the Laws called Statutes are in their Language such as depend only on the Royal Authority Ver. 5. Verse 5 Ye shall therefore keep my Statutes and my Judgments Observe the Laws before-mentioned For the word we here translate Statutes is the same with that translated Ordinances in the foregoing Verse Which if a man do he shall live in them Not be cut off but live long and happily in the enjoyment of all the Blessings which God promised in his Covenant with them I am the LORD Who will faithfully keep my Covenant and fulfil my Promises VI Exod. 3. Ver. 6. Verse 6 None of you In the Hebrew the words being isch isch as much as to say Man Man that is no Man the Talmudists take it as if he had said neither Jew nor Gentile For all Mankind they say are comprehended under these Laws about Incest Nay the very Karaites or those who adhere only to the Scripture and reject all Talmudical Expositions are of this mind as Mr. Selden observes Lib. I. de Vxore Hebr. cap. 5. But the Talmudists themselves do not all understand this matter alike For some of them think all the Gentiles at lest those who were under the Dominion of the Israelites were bound to refrain from all incestuous Marriages to which Death is threatned by the Law But others of them think they were concerned only in those six things which were unlawful before the Law of Moses was given See Selden Lib. V. de Jure Nat. Gent. cap. 1. and cap. 11. p. 596 c. But the ancient Hebrews give a good reason for all these Laws as Grotius observes Lib. II. de Jure Belli Pacis cap. 5. sect 13. n. 2. Shall approach Some of the Jews have been so rigorous as to expound this word as if it bound them not to have any familiarity with the Persons after named R. Levi Barcelonita Praecept CLXXXVIII which is against all Reason and natural Affection The plain sense is they should not approach or come near to them for the end afterward mentioned viz. to uncover their Nakedness Nay this very phrase is used for the same thing XX Gen. 4. without the addition of uncovering their Nakedness Any that is near of kin to him It must be confessed that these words near of kin do not sufficiently express the full sense of the Hebrew phrase nor are they of a determinate signification for a Man maybe near of kin to a Woman who is not the remainder of his flesh as the Hebrew phrase is that is so near of kin to him that nothing comes between them This is properly the nearness of flesh here spoken of she that is immediately born of the same Flesh that a Man is or she out of whose Flesh he is born or she that is born out of his Flesh that is in plainer words a Man's Sister Mother or Daughter These are a Man 's own immediate Relations which the Karaites call the Foundation and Root of all that is here forbidden as Selden notes Lib. I. Vx Hebr. cap. 2. For the sake of whom the rest here mentioned are prohibited having a nearness of flesh to them viz. his Father or Mother's Sister his Grand-daughter and his Niece For the best Explication of this Phrase is the express Particulars mentioned by God himself in this place To uncover their nakedness To have Carnal knowledge of her as the Scripture modestly speaks in other places For nakedness in the holy Language signifies the Secret Parts which natural Modesty teaches all civilized People to cover and not to reveal them to any but those whom they marry Therefore not to uncover the nakedness of the Persons here named is properly not to take them in Marriage and much less to have Knowledge of them without Marriage Answerable to this is the Name of a Virgin whom the Hebrews call Alma which is as much as covered clothed or veiled because those parts were never exposed to any one but those to whom they were espoused and joyned in Marriage I am the LORD By my Authority who am your Soveraign and the Soveraign of the World these Laws are enacted and I will punish those that break them Ver. 7. Verse 7 The nakedness of thy father or the nakedness of thy mother thou shalt not discover It is commonly thought by Interpreters that the Particle we translate or is here as much as that is for so it signifies in some places particularly 1 Sam. XXVIII 3. So that the latter part of the Verse is only an Explication of the former and makes them but one Prohibition against a Man's marrying his Mother And this indeed the next words seem to imply she is thy Mother who bare thee and therefore not to be taken to be thy Wife much less to be otherwise known by thee But we may as well think that the nakedness of the Father and of the Mother are both here mentioned to show neither the Daughter might marry her Father nor the Son his Mother and consequently that in all the following Particulars Women were concerned just as Men were though the Men be only mentioned And under the Name of Father and Mother are comprehended Grandfather or Grandmother or other Progenitors before them She is thy mother thou shalt not uncover her nakedness This is the very first Prohibition it being a going back in Nature for a Man to marry his Mother Which though it was practised in those days by the Canaanites and Egyptians and by the Persians also in after times and some other Eastern Countries yet in the Western part of the World as Mr. Selden observes such Marriages were nunquam non execranda execrable in all Ages Lib. V. de Jure Nat. Gent. cap. 11. p. 601 c. Such were the Marriages of Oedipus with Jocasta of Nero with Agrippina Pelopeja and Thyestes her Father of whom Aegistus was born which every Body detested See Grotius de Jure Belli Pacis Lib. II. cap. 5. sect 2. For the Law of Nature was against such Marriages notwithstanding the practice of Persons nay whole Nations whom God gave up to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Paul shows dishonourable affections for their other sins especially for their forsaking him and falling to Idolatry Maimonides gives this as the general reason of prohibiting this and all the following Marriages because the Persons here forbidden to be so joyned together are all in
freedom given her Not intirely but in part redeemed and consequently her Freedom not absolutely granted to her She shall be scourged If she had been perfectly free both he that lay with her and she her self should have been put to death XXII Deut. 23 24. But being not fully free and consequently not fully his Wife who had espoused her it was not reckoned Adultery and therefore punished only with scourging See Selden Lib. V. de Jure N. G. cap. 12. p. 613. And Maimonides I observe thus expounds it of a Woman that was not a meer Servant and yet not compleatly free but between both More Nevoch P. III. cap. 41. But whereas we mention here in the Text the Scourging only of the Woman in the Margin it is rightly noted that the Hebrew words are There shall be scourging viz. of them both as the Vulgar Latine with great reason understands it And the Hebrew word Bikkoreth properly signifies scourging with Thongs made of a Bulls or Oxes Hide as Bochartus observes in his Hierozoicon P. I. Lib. II. cap. 28. cap. 33. n. 8. They shall not be put to death because she was not free Her Master not having set her quite at Liberty her Marriage was not compleat which freed her from suffering Death though some Punishment she deserved because it was begun Ver. 21. Verse 21 And he shall bring his Trespass-offering unto the LORD unto the door c. Which was not enjoyned her because she had not wherewithal to offer for her Expiation all she had being her Masters and not her own A Ram for a Trespass-offering Which was the proper Sacrifice in such a case V. 17 18. Ver. 22. Verse 22 And the Priest shall make an atonement for him with the Ram of the trespass-offering She needed an Atonement as well as he being equally guilty in consenting to the Fact and being espoused to another seems to have had a greater guilt upon her and therefore was left in a lamentable condition without any publick assurance of God's pardon For his sin which he hath done Which had so much guilt in it that besides the punishment he suffered in being Scourged this Satisfaction was to be made to God And the sin which he hath done shall be forgiven him By virtue of the Sacrifice which would not have been accepted if she had been perfectly a Free-woman but the sin would have cost his own life and hers also XXII Deut. 23 24. Ver. 23. Verse 23 And when ye shall come into the Land and shall have planted all manner of Trees for food The Precept is so general that the boldness of R. Zerika is unaccountable who would have it understood only of the Vine which if it be not cut its Grapes are not so large nor the Wine so good nor fit to be offered at the Altar c. as his opinion is represented in Pirke Elieser cap. 29. But Moses expresly mentioning all manner of Trees for food there is no colour for this limitation and a very good account may be given of this Prohibition if we have respect only to natural reason For young Trees grow better if they be stript of their Fruit the Juice of which is waterish and unconcocted having neither pleasant smell nor taste as Nachmonides observes and therefore not fit for Food and upon that score not fit to be offered as the First-fruits to God But besides all this Maimonides affirms there was an Idolatrous custom among the Zabij to which this Law of Moses may reasonably be thought to be opposed For they imagined all Trees would be blasted or their Fruit fall off whose First-fruit was not part of it offered in their Idol Temples and the other part eaten there as their Children they thought would not thrive unless some of them passed through the fire And therefore God commanded his People to forbear to eat the Fruit of any Tree till the fourth year and not doubt of the fruitfulness of their Plantations though they did not Consecrate the Fruit of the years foregoing after the manner that the Gentiles did More Nevoch P. III. cap. 37. where he observes some Trees brought forth Fruit in one year some not till the second and others not till the third according to the different ways wherein they were planted Ye shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised That is as unclean and therefore to be cast away as the Foreskin was Three years it shall be as uncircumcised to you it shall not be eaten of And therefore they pluckt off the Buds when they put forth that they might not grow into Fruit or if any by chance did they threw it away as unfit for food But this is meant only of such Fruit-trees as they planted after they came to Canaan not of such as they found already planted there And it was the same thing whether he planted them himself or bought an Orchard or Vineyard c. of another Israelite or had it left him as an Inheritance or bestowed on him as a Gift the three first years the Fruit was not to be used Ver. 24. Verse 24 But in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be holy to praise the LORD withal It was to be offered as the First-fruit to God and eaten by the Priests which as Maimonides saith in the Book forenamed cap. 49. was to excite them to Liberality and give a check to their Appetites as well as to Covetousness Yet there are those who say this Fruit of the fourth year was to be eaten by the Owners before the LORD at Jerusalem when his dwelling was settled there as they eat the second Tythe So R. Levi Barcelonita Praecept CCXX shows at large And they observe many Benefits which the Israelites received by this means not only in exciting their Thankfulness to God but their Love to that Holy Place unto which some of their Family might conceive such an affection as to settle there and learn the Law Ver. 25. Verse 25 In the fifth year shall ye eat of the fruit thereof that it may yield unto you the increase thereof He would not have them think that they should lose any thing by staying till the fifth year for the Fruit of their Trees but promises them here that by forbearing so long their Trees should be the more exceeding fruitful I am the LORD Who bestowed this Land upon them to hold of him by what Tenure he pleased by whose Blessing they might expect to receive the Increase thereof abundantly without the help of such wicked Arts as Maimonides says the Zabij used Who letting certain things lie till they were putrified and when the Sun was in such or such a degree sprinkling them about the Trees which they had planted with certain Magical Ceremonies they fancied Flowers and Fruits would be produced sooner than they could have been without these practises Ver. 26. Verse 26 Ye shall not eat any thing with the blood This is an admonition as R. Levi Barcelonita fancies Praecept
a plain Contempt of God and of his Sanctuary which they forsook as if it had not been an holy but a defiled place Otherwise they would have kept to it and offered no where else nor after any other manner than according to the Rites thereof And to profane my holy Name By giving the Name of God and his Honour to such an abominable Idol Ver. 4. Verse 4 If the People of the Land In that part of the Country where this Crime was committed Do any way hide their eyes from the man when he giveth of his seed unto Molech and kill him not If they connived at what he did and dissembled their knowledge of it or would not speak the whole Truth and endeavour to convict him of this foul Crime that he might be stoned Ver. 5. Verse 5 Then will I set my face against that man and against his family As the Idolater was liable to this punishment from the hand of Heaven See v. 3. so they that favoured him and would not testifie against him when they knew him guilty fell under God's high displeasure which is meant by setting his face against them and so did all their Children whom God threatens to destroy He speaks indeed in the singular number because commonly in such cases there was some one Person by whose Authority others were perswaded to wink at such Offences and not to discover what they knew of them But all such Men are threatned with the Divine Vengeance in the next words And will cut him off and all that go a whoring after him c. That is all others who following his Example favour such Idolaters and protect them from punishment For every one knows that Idolatry is called by the name of Whoredom in Scripture because God having espoused the Israelites to himself as his peculiar People their forsaking him to serve other Gods was a Spiritual Adultery To commit whoredom with Molech i. e. To worship him as their God Ver. 6. Verse 6 And the soul i. e. The Person That turneth after such as hath familiar spirits and after wizards Who they were that pretended to have familiar Spirits or were Wizards see XIX 31. where they are commanded not to regard them and here if any did consult them which is called turning after them cutting off is threatned to them that is shortning their days for such Persons are reckoned by the Jews as the chief of those six sorts of sinners who were liable to the first kind of Excision which I mentioned v. 3. As for the Man himself who had a familiar Spirit or was a Wizard he was to be stoned if he was discovered and convicted v. 27. And so they observe in Sanhedrim cap. 7. n. 7. To go a whoring after them It was a kind of Idolatry to seek to such People for advice or relief being a forsaking of God and putting confidence in them Though sometimes to go a whoring signifies the commission of any grievous sin which Idolatry usually led men unto as Mr. Selden hath noted Lib. III. de Vxore Hebr. cap. 23. There is some reason to think there was something magical in the Oblation of their Children to Molech and that thereby they consulted with Daemons about things future or secret because such Superstitions are here immediately forbidden after the Prohibition of giving their Children to Molech and because they are frequently joyned together in other places as in XVIII Deut. 10 11. 2 Kings XVII 17. XXI 6. Certain it is that in after times they did Sacrifice Children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they might Divine by looking into their Bowels as Joh. â—â—â—sius hath shown out of Porphyrius Philostratus Herodotus and others Lib. de Victimis Humanis Pars I. cap. 17. I will even set my face against that soul c. See v. 3 5. Ver. 7. Verse 7 Sanctifie your selves therefore Worship therefore God alone to whose Service you are set apart And be ye holy Keep your selves free from all Idolatry See 11.44 I am the LORD your God See XIX 2 3 10 c. Ver. 8. Verse 8 And ye shall keep my Statutes and do them Be governed by these Laws and not by the Customs of other People I am the LORD which sanctifie you Separated you to my self from all other People by peculiar Laws which I have given you Ver. 9. For every one Or If any one the Particle we translate for signifying frequently with or if That curseth his Father or Mother Reproacheth them with Imprecations Shall surely be put to death i. e. Be stoned And it made no difference whether he cursed them when they were alive or after their death as R. Levi Barcelonita says the Rule of their Doctors was yet they resolve that unless he cursed them by some proper name of God he was not liable to be put to death but was only scourged Praecept CCLXI See XXI Exod. 17. His blood shall be upon him When the Law only saith a man shall die the death the Jews understand it of strangling which was the easiest punishment among them For where there was not an express mention of the kind of death they thought the most favourable was to be inflicted But when the Law adds his blood shall be upon him they say it is meant of stoning And the meaning of this phrase is he shall perish by his own fault and therefore his blood that is his death shall not be vindicated The blood of one that was slain being innocent was upon the Murderer and therefore avenged But he that was put to death for his Crimes had his Blood upon himself and no body was to bear it the Executioner himself being not guilty of Blood Ver. 10. Verse 10 And the man that committeth adultery with another mans wife c. By the ancient Law of Draco and Solon the Husband of the Adulteress if he found them in the fact might kill them both or put out their Eyes or stigmatize them or make the Adulterer pay a Fine if he had a mind to spare his Life See Meursius in his Themis Attica Lib. I. cap. 4 5. and the Leges Atticae set forth by Petitus Lib. VI. Tit. 4. where it appears that it was infamous for the Husband to live with his Wife after she had committed Adultery And that it was unlawful for her to enter into the publick Temples or go dressed in the Streets If she did any body might tear off her Clothes and beat her only not kill her See S. Petiti Comment p. 460. c. The adulterer and adulteress shall surely be put to death It is not left to the Husband's liberty by this Law whether he would spare their Lives or no but the Fact being proved they were both to die for it Only it is not said here what kind of Death they should suffer nor was the same kind of Death inflicted upon all that were guilty of this Crime For if the Daughter of a Priest play'd the Adulteress she was
the Fact Which is the very reason given of it in the Mischna Tit. Sanhedrim cap. 7. n. 4. And so R. Solomon The Beast was killed lest it should be said there is the Beast for which such a Woman was put to death Ver. 17. Verse 17 If a man shall take his sister c. Whether she was his Sister by the whole Blood as we speak or by half Blood only by the Fathers side or Mothers he was not permitted to marry her by the Law mentioned XVIII 9. And see her nakedness It is the same with uncovering her nakedness to lie with her as it is there expressed and here in the end of the Verse he hath uncovered his sisters nakedness the sense of seeing being put for that of touching or any other in this Language It is a wicked thing A flagitious or nefarious wickedness as the Vulgar expresses it But the Hebrew word Chesed signifying sometimes in the Prophetical Language Mercy and Indulgence the Talmudists take these words as if they came in by a Parenthesis to obviate an Objection which might be made that Cain and Abel married their Sisters True saith Moses that was by an indulgence in the beginning arising from the necessity of things when there were none but Brothers and Sisters in the World But now they shall be cut off in the sight of their People who marry such near Relations So the Gemara Hierosol ad Tit. Sanhedrim See Selden Lib. V. de Jure Nat. Gent. cap. 8. p. 581. And so the Chaldee Paraphrase ascribed to Jonathan whose words are these It is a filthy thing but I used an indulgence to the first Men by whom the World was to be propagated until Mankind was sufficiently multiplied after that whosoever doth any such thing let him be cut off c. And they shall be cut off in the sight of their people Publickly put to death See v. 10. He shall bear his iniquity i. e. The punishment of it Chap. V. 1. Ver. 18. Verse 18 And if a man shall lie with a Woman having her sickness c. Here the Sentance of Death is pronounced upon them whereas in XV. 24. it is only said the Man should be unclean seven days Therefore many think in that place he speaks of doing this ignorantly and here of doing it knowingly But if the Man might be ignorant of the condition she was in the Woman her self could scarce be so and therefore others think when the fact was altogether private they only incurred a Legal Impurity for a certain season but when it was publickly known and proof made of it before a Judge it was a capital Crime Because it was done in contempt and despite of the Law otherwise it could not have been so publickly known as to be legally proved Whether this Law oblige in the state of Christianity is at large discussed by Bishop Taylor not to mention other Writers abroad in his Doctor Dubitantium Book II. Chap. 2. Rule 3. n. 8. and Book III. Chap. 2. Rule 2. n. 3. c. Ver. 19. Verse 19 And thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mothers sister c. See XVIII 12 13. They shall bear their iniquity It not being said they shall die or be cut off as in the former cases it hath made some conclude this Sin being not of so high a nature as the foregoing was punished only as those that follow v. 20 21. where they that committed them are threatned to die childless Ver. 20. Verse 20 If a man shall lie with his uncles wife c. See XVIII 14. They shall die childless This is understood by some as if Moses meant they should be put to death before they could have any fruit of such a Conjunction But most think he only means that either they should have no Children or that their Children should not live but die before their Parents or be lookt upon as a spurious Issue and not inherit their Estate which is the sense St. Austin puts upon these words And Procopius Gazaeus also mentions it and says this was the Roman Law about all incestuous Marriages Semen eorum non recensebitur inter liberos Such Issue shall not be reckoned among their Children Ver. 21. Verse 21 And if a man shall take his brothers wife c. See XVIII 16. They shall be childless See v. 20. Ver. 22. Verse 22 Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my judgments c. Particularly these concerning the foregoing matters See XVIII 4 5. That the Land whether I bring you to dwell therein spue you not out As it did the former Inhabitants See XVIII 25 28. Ver. 23. Verse 23 And ye shall not walk in the manners of the Nation which I cast out before you Viz. of the Amorites as the Hebrews rightly expound it for they were the principal Nation in Canaan and extreamly given to Idolatry R. Levi Barcelonita extends this to all their Customs in cutting their hair and such like Praecept CCLXII but it seems here particularly to relate to their Marriages and Idolatry See XVIII 3. For they committed all these things These words shew that the foregoing have particular respect to their abominable Marriages and Idolatry Therefore I abhorred them So as to cast them out of their Country XVIII 25. Onkelos translates it My word MEMRI abominated them Which is a plain intimation of a Notion they had in ancient times of more Persons than one in the Deity and particularly here denotes him whom St. John calls the WORD For Memra Word plainly signifies a Person in this place and a Person of the same Essence with Jehovah Ver. 24. Verse 24 But I have said unto you Made you a promise Ye shall inherit their Land and I will give it unto you to possess it c. For he promised to expel the former Inhabitants of that Country to make room for them See III Exod. 8 17. XXIII 27 28. XXXIII 3. I am the LORD your God which have separated you from other people This may refer either to what goes before that they should not live like other Nations because he had by peculiar Laws as well as by signal Deliverances distinguished them from all the People of the Earth or to what follows that he had made such a difference between them and other People that in their very Diet they should not agree with them much less in the fore-named Impurities For that the difference of Meats was instituted to keep them from familiar conversation with their idolatrous Neighbours is very evident as I before observed and the Gentiles themselves took notice of it and looked upon them as unsociable People upon this very account Josephus often mentions this Objection against them And Euphrates complains in Philostratus de vita Apolon Lib. cap. 2. That of old they separated not only from the Romans but from all Mankind for they had invented 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a manner of living that would not let them mix with other
a Woman that is put away by her Husband lies under a suspicion of something that is bad For which reason as Mr. Selden observes in the place above-named a Priest might not marry her whom her Husband's Brother refused to marry after his death For he is holy unto his God Consecrated after a special manner to the Service of the Divine Majesty and therefore was not to dishonour his Priesthood by such Marriages as were not of good reputation If he did he was not to be suffered to Minister until he had given such a Wife a Bill of Divorce as Maimonides saith in Biath Hamikdasch cap. 6. An example of which there was in Manasseh the Brother of Jaddua the High-Priest who marrying contrary to the Law the Daughter of Sanballat the Samaritan was commanded either to put her away or not to come to the Altar See Selden Lib. II. de Successione in Pontificatum cap. 6. p. 238. Ver. 8. Verse 8 Thou shalt sanctifie him therefore This seems to be spoken to Moses and to all that should succeed him in the Supream Authority that they should take care the Priests should not marry with such Persons or if they did not be suffered to Minister in the Priests Office till they had put them away Accordingly we find that to keep the Priesthood pure and to avoid all suspicion of any such pollution the Names of the Priests Parents were carefully preserved in the Genealogical Tables as we learn from II Ezra 62. VII Nehemiah 64. See Selden de Succession in Pontif. Lib. II. cap. 3. Vxor Hebr. Lib. I. cap. 7. For he offereth the bread of thy God Ministreth at the Altar See v. 6. He shall be holy unto thee Keep himself pure that he may not be unfit to offer Sacrifice for the People as need shall require For I the LORD which sanctifie you am holy I who have taken you to be my peculiar People excel in all Perfections and therefore require Persons of extraordinary Sanctity to minister unto me Ver. 9. Verse 9 And the daughter of any Priest if she profane her self by playing the whore The Hebrew Doctors understand this of one married at least espoused So Aben-Ezra and R. Sol. Jarchi say expresly Our Rabbins confess with one mouth that one not espoused is not concerned in this Law See Selden Lib. I. Vxor Hebr. cap. 6. and Lib. III. cap. 23. p. 488. She profaneth her father She was doubly guilty First in profaning i. e. dishonouring her self who being the Daughter of such an eminent Person committed such an heinous Crime And secondly in dishonouring her Father whose Reputation hereby suffered She shall be burnt with fire Which was the sorest Punishment among the Jews See XX. 14. and was not inflicted upon other Persons in this Case who were barely stoned XXII Deut. 24. but only upon the Daughter of a Priest from whom greater Vertue was expected But if the Witnesses of this Fact were convicted of Perjury by other credible Witnesses produced by the Woman or her Father then both her Husband who accused her and those false Witnesses suffered the same Punishment that she should have done See Selden Lib. III. Vxor Hebr. cap. 1. p. 321. Ver. 10. Verse 10 He that is the High-Priest among his brethren Hitherto the Laws given in this Case concern the common Priests now follow those by which the High-Priest was to govern himself who was under peculiar Laws more strict than the rest Vpon whose head the anointing Oil was poured c. He having a peculiar Consecration different from the rest by pouring the holy Oil upon his Head and clothing him with the most glorious Robes See VIII 7 8 c. was in all reason to distinguish himself more than the rest of the Priests from common Men. And that is consecrated In the Hebrew the words are whose hand is filled as it was with the fat and the right shoulder of the Ram of Consecration c. by which he was hallowed to minister in the Priests Office XXIX Exod. 22 23 24. To put on the Garments To be High-Priest Shall not uncover his head Rather Shall not let his hair grow neglected without trimming as the manner was in token of mourning So Onkelos and Jonathan and a great many more See Selden Lib. II. de Successione in Pontificatum cap. 5. p. 235. and what I have noted upon the tenth Chapter of this Book v. 6. Nor rent his Clothes Another token of mourning which he was to forbear Though the Talmudists will have it that he might rent his Garments at the bottom about his feet but not at the top down to his breast as P. Cunaeus observes out of Mass Horajoth Lib. II. de Rep. Hebr. cap. 3. Before his Anointing and Consecration and putting on the holy Garments it was not unlawful for him to attend the Funeral of his Father And therefore Eleazar was present when Aaron died XX Numb being as yet in a lower Ministry and not compleatly advanced to the Office of High-Priest but only declared Aaron's Successor by putting on him his Garments See X. 6. Ver. 11. Verse 11 Neither shall he go in to any dead body nor defile himself for his father or for his mother He might not go into the House where the Body of his Father or Mother lay dead which was permitted to the inferiour Priests v. 2 3. and consequently he was not to make any external signs of mourning for Son or Daughter Brother or Sister Ver. 12. Verse 12 Neither shall he go out of the Sanctuary If he was there when he heard of the death of his Father or Mother he was not to stir out from thence till he had sinished his Ministry See X. 7. For he had a little House after the Temple was built within the Precincts of it where he commonly remained all the day time which was called Lischcath cohen gadol the Parlour of the High-Priest as Cunaeus observes out of Mass Midoth Lib. II. de Republ. Hebr. cap. 3. At night he went to his own dwelling House which was in Jerusalem and no where else There he might perform all the Offices of a Mourner except those which are here forbidden and the People came to comfort him as Maimonides relates in his Treatise on this Subject and sitting upon the ground while he sat in his Chair at the Funeral Feast they said let us be thy Expiation i. e. let all the Grief that is on thee fall upon us unto which he answered Blessed be ye from Heaven as their words are reported in Sanhedrim cap. 2. n. 1. Nor profane the Sanctuary of his God By preferring his Affection to the Dead before the Service of God in the Sanctuary or by returning thither to his Ministry when he had been defiled by the dead which had been a great profanation For he that touched a dead Body was unclean seven days XIX Numb 11 12. For the crown of the anointing Oil of his God is upon him Some supply the word and
and become more one with them than they were with the Egyptians but was of great force to procure kindness to those who did not live by their Laws I am the LORD your God Who have done so much for you when you were meer Strangers that you should not stick to be kind to those who are in the like Condition Ver. 35. Verse 35 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment The Hebrews refer this word judgment to all the following particulars and think that Moses uses it here to show of what moment this Law is which he calls doing judgment So that he who measures or weighs hath the Office of a Judge and if he commit any fraud in his Measures or Weights he is a corrupter of Judgment and is called wicked abominable accursed They are the words of R. Levi Barcelonita Praecept CCLX where he adds that such Men are the cause of five Mischiefs which are imputed to unjust Judges who defile the Land prophane the Name of God remove the Presence of the Divine Majesty bring a Sword upon the People and at last carry them captive out of their own Country And therefore great Punishments have been enacted in all Countries against this Crime as destructive to Human Society Particularly Justinian ordained that such Offenders should be beaten 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sorely as impious People In mete-yard By which they measured Lands Cloath and such like things for Middah as Fosterus observes is the Measure of continued quantity viz. in things dry In weight By which they paid and received Money in those days and sold Brass and Iron and things of like nature Or in measure The Hebrew word Mesurah from whence seems to come the Latin Mensura and our English word Measure denotes the Measure of Discrete Quantity as we speak as of Corn and of all continued Fluid Quantity as of Wine and Oil. And the forenamed R. Levi will have it to signifie the very least of such Measures about which saith he the Law concerns it self that Men should be exact in them as well as in the greatest And so Hesychius here notes that Moses provides against all Injustice in small things as well as in great for what the possession of a Field or a House is to a wealthy Man that the measure of Wine or Corn or the weight of Bread is to the Poor who have daily need of such things for the support of their Life Ver. 36. Verse 36 Just balances just weights This Verse only positively requires strict justice in those things wherein the former Verse forbad all deceit And these two words refer to things sold by weight A just Ephah and a just Hin shall ye have These two words Ephah and Hin comprehend all sorts of Measures of things whether wet or dry And that they might have such just Weights and Measures among them the Standard of them was kept in the Sanctuary by which all were to be governed as appears from 1 Chron. XXIII 29. See XXX Exod. 13. The Jewish Doctors also say that it was a Constitution of their wise Men for the preventing all Fraud in these matters that no Weights Balances or Measures should be made of any Metal as of Iron Lead Tin c. which were obnoxious to rust or might be bent or easily impaired but of Marble Stone or Glass which were less liable to be abused For these Constitutions Moses was so famous that his Name was celebrated on the account of them in other Nations Nay Lucius Ampelius a rude kind of Writer but who had collected much out of better Authors saith that Mochus was the Inventer of Scales and Weights and that his memory is preserved in the Constellation called Libra Now if for Mochus we read Moschos it is the very name of Moses in Hebrew viz. Moscheh who is called so by other Authors as the learned Huetius observes in his Demonstr Evang. Propos IV. cap. 7. n. 16. I am the LORD your God which brought you out of the Land of Egypt This is the general reason for their Obedience which is repeated in this Chapter above a dozen times Sometimes more briefly I am the LORD and sometimes a little larger I am the LORD your God and here with this addition which brought you out of the Land of Egypt Whereby he in a special manner demonstrates himself both to be their LORD faithful to his promise VI Exod. 3. and their God who obliged them to his Service by the most singular benefit Ver. 37. Verse 37 Therefore shall ye observe all my statutes and all my judgments and do them These words Statutes and Judgments comprehend all the Laws of God some of which were Prohibitions which they were to mark and observe diligently so as to abstain from such things and others Precepts or Commands which they were to practise and do according to them I am the LORD No more need be said to engage your Obedience in every thing than this that I am your Soveraign and the Soveraign of the whole World CHAP. XX. Ver. 1. Verse 1 AND the LORD spake unto Moses saying Sometime after the delivery of the Laws mentioned in the two foregoing Chapters the chief of them were inforced with the addition of Penalties which are set down in this Chapter Ver. 2. Verse 2 Again thou shalt say to the Children of Israel Repeat what I said before XVIII 21. and add this which follows unto it Whosoever he be of the Children of Israel or of the stranger that sojourneth among you The Proselytes who had embraced their Religion were no less concerned in this Law than the Native Israelites See XVII 8 10 c. That giveth any of his seed unto Molech This looks like the Prohibition before given XVIII 21. and R. Levi gives this reason of its repitition because it was a piece of Idolatrous Worship so usual in those days when the Law was delivered that there needed great indeavours to preserve them from it Praecept CCVIII And Maimonides also observes as I noted upon XVIII 21. that Idolaters used to fright People into this Worship by telling them their Children would dye if they did not make them pass through the fire and thereby devote them to their Gods But upon due consideration of these words it may appear probable that there is something more in them than in the former importing a higher degree of this sin For to give their Children to Molech seems to be no less than to offer them in Sacrifices So Christ giving himself for us constantly signifies in the New Testament which was a more horrid thing than meerly making them pass through the fire which did them no hurt And therefore this Crime is here forbidden under the Penalty of Death whereas in the XVIIIth Chapter no punishment is threatned Certain it is Children were really burnt upon the Altars of the ancient Pagans especially in times of great Distress when they hoped to pacisie the Anger of their Gods by offering to
them the dearest thing they had See our great Selden Lib. de Diis Syris Syntagm I. cap. 6. where he shows the Phaenicians offered their Children to Saturn so Porphyrius expresly says Lib. II. de Abstin who is said by the Poets to have devoured his own Children and by many is thought to be the same with Molech Though others take it for the Sun to whom it is certain Human Sacrifices were offered Many Authors make mention of it and Eben Batrich thinks such Sacrifices began in the days of Serug and were first used among the Syrians Which is a very probable Opinion as Johan Geusius hath demonstrated Lib. de Victimis Humanis Pars I. cap. 4 5. And it is easie to conceive how from the Syrians this abominable practice was derived to the Phaenicians who worshipped the Sun under the name of Baal or Bel as Herodian Lib. VIII testifies Which doth not contradict what others say that they were devoted to the Worship of Hercules for by him is meant the Sun also as his very name imports viz. Or-Col which in that Language signifies as much as him that illuminates all things From the Phaenicians this Worship of offering Human Sacrifices was propagated to the Carthaginians and other People of Africa among whom this impious Idolatry continued till the time of Hannibal as Bochartus gathers out of Silius Italicus Lib. IV. Mos fuit in populis quos condidit advena Dido Poscere caede Deos veniam ac flagrantibus aris Infandum dictu parvos imponere natos Who says the Carthaginians were wont to appease their Gods by burning their Children on their Altars and then follows after the words now mentioned the Lamentation of Imilce the Wife of Annibal whose Son was by lot to be sacrificed Lib. I. Canaan cap. 28. And this wicked Custom continues still to this day among some of the People in the Southern Parts of Africa as good Authors affirm it having spread it self all over the World as appears by the Discoveries that have been made in America even into the Northern Countries of Scythia But I shall content my self with observing only what the Scripture saith concerning a People in the East called Sepharvites who burnt their Children in the fire to Adramelech 2 Kings XVII 31. which God seems to have been the same with Molech here mentioned by Moses only with the addition of an Epithete signifying their high opinion of him For Adra is as much as potent or mighty and therefore Melech signifying a King Adramelech is in our Language mighty King Now that the Children of Israel notwithstanding this severe Prohibition against it imitated this barbarous Worship is evident from 2 Kings XXIII 10. VII Jer. 31. XIX 5. CVI Psal 37 38. and we may very well think the Prophet Micah also alludes to it VI. 7. as Isaiah LVII 5 6. and Ezekiel XVI 20 21 36. XXIII 37 39. likewise do The manner of Sacrificing their Children and the figure of the Idol to which they offered is described by many according to the Jewish Notion particularly by Paulus Fagius out of Jalkut who makes it an hallow Image having seven Apartments in it according to the number I suppose of the seven Planets into one of which viz. the lowest the Infant was thrown when it was red hot as Flour a Turtle Dove a Sheep c. were into the rest We can have no certainty of this but such kind of Statues were found in the West-Indies when they were discovered as Ludovicus Vives observes in Lib. VI. cap. 19. de Civitate Dei And Diodorus Siculus in his Bibliotheca Lib. XX. describes the Statue of Saturn among the Carthaginians as stretching forth its hands down toward the Earth so that the Child which was put into them might roll and fall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into a gulph full of fire Benjamin Tudelensis in his Travels about 500. years ago affirms that in some Islands in the East the Worshippers of Fire were wont to leap into it in performance of some Solemn Vow and were counted by all to be happy Men. Which I mention here because he says these Fires were kindled in a Valley as those among the Jews were in the Valley of Hinnom p. 108 109. He shall surely be put to death Sufficient proof being made of the Fact XVII Deut. 6. The people of the Land shall stone him with stones Which was the proper Punishment in this and in some other Cases particularly Adultery v. 10. and Blasphemy XXIV 14 c. The manner of it is described out of an Hebrew MS. Ez Hechajim by J. Wagenseil upon Sota cap. 3. to have been thus He that was to be punished with stoning was stript naked having only a covering before and set upon an high place attended by the Witnesses against him his hands being bound one of the Witnesses giving him a strong push threw him down head-long from thence If this fall kill'd him there was an end But if Life remained in him the Witnesses took up a Stone which was laid there on purpose as big as two Men could lift and threw it upon him and before he quite expired all the People that stood by threw stones at him according to the Law XVII Deut. 7. A Woman was only stript to her shift Ver. 3. Verse 3 And I will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people In case that is there was not sufficient proof against him God threatens that he himself would take care to punish him by cutting him off from the Land of the Living R. Bechai and others observe that this cutting off is threefold in the Law one is the cutting off the Body i. e. shortning Mens lives which is threatned to six sins in Scripture The second is the excision of the Soul only which is threatned by Moses six and twenty times and particularly to incestuous Marriages The third is excision both of Soul and Body which is threatned to fifteen sins among which they reckon this of giving their Children to Molech See Selden Lib. VII de Jure N. G. sec Hebr. cap. 9. p. 828 829 c. To defile my Sanctuary By this Sin God's Sanctuary was defiled as well as his holy Name prophaned because they sacrificed to Molech in other places despising the Tabernacle which was the only place appointed by God where Divine Service was to be performed And therein consisted part of the Honour and Reverence which God required to his Sanctuary XIX 30. that it should be lookt upon as the only place where acceptable Sacrifices could be offered to him And therefore then it was dishonoured and defiled when they offered Sacrifice in any other place as they did in after times to Molech in the Valley of Hinnom as I observed before 2 Kings XXIII 10. Where they built High Places to Baal which is another name for the Sun on purpose that they might offer their Children upon them XX Jer. 5 6. XXXII 35. This was
See Selden Lib. VII de Jure Nat. Gent. cap. 3. p. 799. Ver. 25. Verse 25 Neither from a strangers hand By bennechar the Son of a Stranger as it is in the Hebrew who is called XXV 47. a Stranger and Sojourner viz. a Gentile that dwelt among them is meant a pious Man of another Nation who had renounced Idolatry and abstained from Blood and observed the rest of the Precepts of the Sons of Noah as they called them but was not Circumcised which would have obliged him to the whole Law of Moses Such Persons being worshippers of the true God were permitted to bring him Sacrifices to be offered at his Altar See Grotius Lib. I. de Jure Belli Pacis cap. 1. sect 16. n. 3. Shall ye offer the bread of your God from any of these Some have taken these words as if no Sacrifice was to be accepted from a Gentile but only Money with which the Priest might buy a Sacrifice and offer it for him But this is confuted by v. 18. and here it is evident he only forbids them to accept of any Sacrifice which had the fore-named blemishes from a Gentile Who might think them not unacceptable because the Gentiles made no scruple to offer such as these last mentioned to their Gods though their Laws in some places were against it The Bread of your God The Hebrews understand hereby to be meant only Burnt-offerings which Maimonides saith were accepted from a Gentile even Burnt-offerings of Birds though he had not yet renounced Idolatry But they were not to accept from him Peace-offerings or Meat-offerings or Sacrifices for Sins of Ignorance IV. 27. or Trespass-offerings mentioned VI. 6. nor was a Burnt-offering to be accepted unless it was a Free-will-offering or a Vow as Mr Selden observes Lib. III. de Jure Nat. Gent. cap. 4. But if he brought such spontaneous Offerings as had the fore mentioned blemishes the Priest was to reject them though the Gentiles might say they were such as had been accepted by his Gods or else he was to be scourged So this Law is briefly expounded by the Jews when they reckon it up among their Precepts that a defective Sacrifice is not to be accepted no not from the hand of a Gentile as he observes in the same Book cap. 7. where he discourses at large on this Subject And it need not seem strange a Gentile should bring any such Sacrifices when their Laws as I observed before required a choice to be made for they were not so curious in their choice as the Hebrews but as Tertullian upbraids them sacrificed enecta tabidosa scabiosa Apolog. adv Gentes cap. 13. Which the better sort of People perhaps did not offer but the Vulgar did and the Priests made no scruple to accept them Because their corruption is in them and blemishes be in them The word corruption seems particularly to relate unto the fore-mentioned castration for it signifies such a Corruption as is the destruction of any Member See Bochart in his Hierozoicon p. 2. Lib. V. cap. 4. And blemishes relate to other defects which made them unacceptable Twelve of which as I said are here mentioned but the Hebrews look upon them only as Examples and Specimens of other the like defects which they make in all to be fifty as I observed before out of Selden Lib. II. de Success ad Pontific cap. 5. Maimonides gives us a Catalogue of them in his Treatise of Entrance into the Sanctuary cap. 7. but to make up that full number he is constrained to add these three which have no example among the XII here mentioned viz. such as tremble by age or by some disease or are torn by wild Beasts Ver. 26. Verse 26 And the LORD spake unto Moses saying These Laws following being of the same nature were in all likelyhood delivered at the same time with the foregoing Ver. 27. Verse 27 And when a Bullock or Sheep or Goat is brought forth These were the only Beasts that were allowed to be sacrificed v. 19. Then it shall be seven days under the dam and from the eighth day and thenceforth it shall be accepted for an offering c. They were not fit for Food when they were not seven days old and therefore not for Sacrifice which was the Bread or Food of God as it is called v. 25. But this hath been sufficiently explained before XXII Exod. 30. I shall only add that I have since observed that P. Cunaeus hath briefly expressed the sense of Maimonides which I there represented Lib. III. de Republ. Hebraeor cap. 5. and that the Gentiles were so far from offering Creatures so young that they thought them fittest for Sacrifice when they were two years old as appears from the words of Virgil before-mentioned Mactant lactas de more bidentes where Servius saith that bidentes were so called because they were biennes two years of age for it was not lawful to Sacrifice those that were younger nor those that were older Ver. 28. Verse 28 And whether it be Cow or Ewe ye shall not kill it and her young both in one day Lest the young one saith Maimonides should happen to be killed before the Dam which would have given the greatest grief to her More Nevoch P. III. cap. 48. Any thing that lookt like Cruelty therefore was by this Law banished from among them for they might not so much as kill both the Young and the Dam on the same day to offer them to God himself of which he is here speaking Ver. 29. Verse 29 And when ye will offer a Sacrifice of Thanksgiving unto the LORD He had mentioned Free-will-offerings and Vows before v. 21. and now briefly touches upon the third sort of Peace-offerings See VII 15 16. Offer it at your own will Male or Female of the Herd or of the Flock III. 1 7 12. Or the meaning may be as hath been often said He shall offer it in such a manner as that it be accepted See I. 3. Ver. 30. Verse 30 On the same day it shall be eaten c. See VII 15. Ver. 31. Verse 31 Therefore shall ye keep my Commandments and do them c. Because he had said before v. 30. and now repeats it again in the conclusion of this Verse I am the LORD To whom they owed obedience especially when he required they should reverently use all holy things Ver. 32. Verse 32 Neither shall ye profane my holy Name This may refer either to what goes before that they should not make him and his Service contemptible by offering such things as were defective c. or be taken as a Precept by it self And then the Name of God was profaned three ways as Mr. Selden observes besides the most grievous of all by Blasphemy Either when a Man for fear of death violated the Divine Law or when he contemptuously and wantonly broke any Precept or when a Man of great note for Knowledge and Piety gave a Scandal to others
by doing such things as were not perhaps directly against the Law yet made him lose all his Authority See Lib. II. de Jure Nat. Gent. juxta Disc Hebr. cap. 10. But I will be hallowed among the Children of Israel Either by the observation of his Laws or by punishing those who transgressed them For so this phrase is used X. 3. I am the LORD which hallow you Have separated you to my self as a special People from all others by Laws different from theirs and more excellent Ver. 33. Verse 33 That brought you out of the Land of Egypt to be your God And moreover distinguished you from all others by singular Benefits particularly by delivering you from the most grievous Slavery that I might make you a happy People I am the LORD When you remember my benefits remember I am your Soveraign who expect your Obedience CHAP. XXIII Ver. 1. Verse 1 AND the LORD spake unto Moses saying All the Laws in this Chapter were delivered at one time not long after the former Ver. 2. Verse 2 Speak unto the Children of Israel Who were highly concerned to observe all the Solemnities enjoyned in this Chapter in such a manner as God required And say unto them concerning the Feasts of the LORD It hath been anciently observed that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Syrians were great lovers of Feasts Which made it the more reasonable if they were so in Moses his days that the Israelites who were to be their Neighbours in the Land of Canaan should have so many Feasts appointed them weekly monthly and yearly all in honour of their God From whence they are called Feasts of the LORD But this word MOED which we translate a Feast properly signifies an Assembly And so Mr. Thorndike would have it here translated because the name of Feasts is proper to those Solemnities which are to be celebrated with joy and chearfulness whereas under this general word Moed is comprehended the Day of Atonement which is one of the Assemblies here named v. 27. but was no Feast being to be observed with the greatest Humiliation and Affliction that could be expressed He therefore exactly translates these words in this manner The Assemblies of the LORD for the word concerning is not in the Hebrew which ye shall proclaim for holy Convocations these are my Assemblies See Religious Assemblies Chap. II. All that can be said for our Translation is That the Day of Atonement being a Day of Rest from all Labour it may go under the Name of a Feast in opposition to working days Which ye shall proclaim Or call by the sound of the Trumpet which the Priests were to blow upon these days X Numb 10. To be holy Convocations The same Hebrew Mikra which here signifies a Convocation signifies also reading VIII Nehem. 8. For on these days they were called to Assemble together to hear the Law read to them as well as to offer Sacrifice and make their Prayers to God with Thanksgivings for his Benefits Even these are my Feasts Or my Assemblies as I said before the first of which was the Sabbath then the Passover Pentecost the beginning of the New Year the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles which are all contained under the general word Moed and none besides Ver. 3. Verse 3 Six days shall work be done They were allowed all these for any sort of business wherein they pleased to employ themselves But the seventh day is the sabbath of rest See XX Exod. 9 10. XXXI 15. This was the greatest of all Solemnities appointed for Assemblies returning once every week and therefore is set in the head of all the rest from which it seems to be distinguished v. 37 38. And accordingly in the next Verse having here mentioned this as a day by it self he begins to reckon the Feasts or Assemblies of the LORD And the reason why this day was made a Sabbath of Rest was because God himself then rested from his Works In memory of which they were to keep this Day free from all Labour that the belief of the Creation of the World might be fixed in their Minds or as Maimonides phrases it More Nevoch P. II. cap. 113. A belief that nothing is coevous with God Whence that saying of theirs mentioned by Aben-Ezra whosoever doth any work upon the Sabbath-day denies the work of the Creation Ye shall do no work therein They were commanded so to rest on this day from all bodily labour as not to kindle a fire to dress the meat they eat upon it which is not required upon any other day but only this and the great Day of Expiation v. 28 30. Concerning these two days alone it is said Thou shalt do no work upon it but of the days of other Assemblies no more is said but this Thou shalt do no servile work therein v. 7 8 c. that is only such work as they were wont to put their Slaves to do was prohibited For though they might not bake nor boil their Meat on the Sabbath-day XVI Exod. 23. nor on the day of Expiation v. 28. of this Chapter yet on other Solemn days they might make provision for their Tables XII Exod. 16. where Aben-Ezra notes of none of the solemn Assemblies besides the Sabbath and the day of Atonement it is said NO MANNER OF WORK only of the Passover he saith it and addeth an exception of the Meat of the Soul that is what was requisite for the Sustenance of Nature As our Mr. Thorndike observes in the place before quoted It is the Sabbath of the LORD in all your dwelings To be kept holy in honour of the LORD by every man wheresoever he dwelt For they had Synagogues for Worship in all their Towns though most of the other Assemblies could be held only in the place where the Sanctuary and afterwards the Temple was whither all their Males went up thrice a year at the great Festivals Aben-Ezra therefore thus glosses upon these words IN ALL YOUR DWELLINGS in your Land and out of your Land at home and upon the way To show that the Command XXXV Exod. 3. You shall kindle no fire throughout your habitation upon the Sabbath-day was to be observed not only whilst they lived upon Manna in the Wilderness when God gave them a double portion on the sixth day that they might prepare it against the Sabbath XVI Exod. 5.29 but in all places wheresoever they dwelt afterwards Ver. 4. Verse 4 These are Feasts of the LORD Now follow the Solemn Assemblies which are to be kept by this Ordinance of mine besides that of the Seventh day which was celebrated from the beginning This looks like a Title to all that insues Even for holy Convocations Solemn Mettings of the People who were called together to celebrate the Mercies of God with Sacrifices of Thanksgiving and Publick Rejoycings Such there were in all Nations who had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greeks called them general Assemblies of all