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
flee when there were none as it goes before they could not stand before them when they appeared Ver. 38. Verse 38 And ye shall perish among the Heathen Die with Grief or by Diseases Poverty Oppression and hard Usage And the Land of your Enemies shall eat you up Insomuch that the ten Tribes never returned to their own Land but either perished by Hunger and bad Accommodations or were swallowed up as we say into the Body of another Nation Ver. 39. Verse 39 And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquities in their enemies Land With grief and sorrow and sad reflections upon the Miseries into which their sins and the sins of their Fathers had thrown them Insomuch that Death was more acceptable to them than Life VIII Jerem. 3. And also in the iniquities of their Fathers shall they pine away with them Especially those of Manasseh King of Judah whose wickedness was so great that the zealous Reformation which his Grandchild made could not turn away the fierceness of God's great wrath against them 2 Kings XXIII 26 27. Ver. 40. Verse 40 If they shall confess their iniquity c. Though Moses had been above three times as long in recounting the Plagues which he either foresaw or feared would come upon them for their sins than in the Blessings which he promised should follow their Obedience yet he plainly shows that the Blessings would have far excelled the Curses had not their Disobedience hindered For after all these dreadful Calamities were come upon them he concludes with a most gracious promise that God would restore them to their own Land from whence they were expelled if they truly repented of those sins which were the cause of it That he means by confessing their iniquities and the iniquities of their Fathers c. acknowledging them with such unfeigned sorrow as wrought Repentance without which he gave them no hope of Deliverance And it is well observed by a great Divine of our own That if without confession of their fathers iniquities they could not be absolved from their own their fathers iniquity not repented of was their own and so was the punishment due unto it And that they have walked contrary to me Both they and their fore-fathers whose ways had been so contrary to God's Laws that if they sincerely confessed it God expected they should take the quite contrary course and observe those Precepts carefully which their Fathers had violated Ver. 41. Verse 41 And that I also have walked contrary unto them and have brought them into the Land of their Enemies Be sensible that all the Miseries they have endured came not by chance but the just Punishment I sent upon them for their sins particularly that it was by my order that they were carried captive into a strange Land If then their uncircumcised heart be humbled By an uncircumcised heart seems to be meant an heathenish temper of mind insensible of God which made them stubborn and refractory and therefore this Phrase is the same with an hard heart For which there was no cure but such remarkable Judgments as evidently carried in them the marks of a Divine Hand Which when they saw and submitted to it he gives them hope of deliverance And they accept of the punishment of their iniquity Patiently bear it as their just desert and acknowledge they do not deserve to be delivered from it Ver. 42. Verse 42 Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob and also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham See III Exod. 6. He promises to restore them to their own Land according to the Covenant made with their Fore-fathers that he would give it them for an everlasting Possession For to remember a Covenant or Promise in Scripture Language is to perform it and make it good Accordingly we find the forenamed Confession made by Daniel Chap. IX and he makes it in the name of all the People among whom no doubt there were many that heartily joyned with him and then followed their wonderful Restoration in the Reign of Cyrus of which we read I Esra c. And I will remember the Land Re-people it with its former Inhabitants c. See 2 Chron. 36. v. 22 23. where this immediately follows the Relation he had made of the Land being laid desolate Ver. 43. Verse 43 The Land also shall be left of them and shall enjoy her Sabbaths c. This Verse is very obscure unless we take it to speak of a new Expulsion out of their Land after their Reduction to it And then the next words And they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity Must be interpreted after they had accepted or though they had accepted c. This made their sin the more provoking that they offended God again when he had so graciously forgiven them and delivered them from a dismal Captivity Because even because they despised my Judgments and because their soul abhorred my Statutes Returned to the very same wicked disposition for which they had been formerly expelled v. 15. This was fulfilled by degrees by the Successors of Alexander and at last by the Romans Ver. 44. Verse 44 And yet for all that when they be in the Land of their Enemies He would not have them utterly despair of Mercy even after a new Banishment which hath now continued many Ages For this Promise is not yet fulfilled as Dr. Jackson observes Book I. on the Creed Chap. 31. sect 9. I will not cast them away neither will I abhor them to destroy them utterly As we see at this very day they are not destroyed utterly but remain a great Body in several Countries after above six hundred years Expulsion from their own Land And to break my covenant with them Never more to own them for my People For I am the LORD their God I still continue to have a peculiar right to their Obedience as they have to my kindness if they will return to their duty Ver. 45. Verse 45 And I will for their sakes remember the Covenant of their Ancestors c. The meaning cannot be that God would be so gracious for their sakes who were so very wicked but as the words in the Hebrew are he would for them i. e. for their good and advantage remember the Covenant of their Ancestors whom he had brought forth out of the Land of Egypt That is once more deliver them from their miserable Condition and restore them to his Favour that he may be their God And that great Man now mentioned on the foregoing Verse observes That the continuation of their Plagues seems so much interrupted and the Plagues themselves so much mitigated in the last Age since the Gospel hath been again revealed as if their Misery were almost expired and the Day of their Redemption drawing nigh But then they must first confess their Iniquity and the Iniquity of their Fathers as Moses speaks before v. 40. with their Trespass which they trespassed in
the punishment of every one who killed another Man IX Gen. 6. so here he is condemned to die who sacrificed any where but at the Tabernacle And that man shall be cut off from among his people This not another punishment unless we suppose it relates to his Posterity and therefore the first word should be translated not and but for And the meaning either is that the Magistrate should pass the Sentance of Death upon him or God would destroy him himself The latter sense is most probable because he threatens v. 10. to execute Vengeance with his own hand upon him that was guilty of eating Blood It is thought indeed by some that cutting off doth not signifie death but as in other places of this Book cutting off is so evidently joyned with death that so little cannot be meant by it as depriving such Persons of the priviledges of God's People for instance when any offered his Children to Moloch XX. 2 3 4 5. or did not afflict his Soul on the Day of Atonement XXIII 29 30. so here in this place it most certainly signifies the putting him that was guilty of this Crime to death because he was to be punished as a Murderer Which severe Penalty was enacted in this case to preserve the Israelites from Idolatry For if they had been permitted to offer Sacrifice where they pleased they might easily have forsaken God by altering the Rites which he had ordained nay by offering to strange Gods particularly to the Daemons which in those days frequented the Fields and indeavoured to perswade the ignorant that they were Gods as seems to be intimated in the next Verse and v. 7. Ver. 5. Verse 5 To the end Or For this cause i. e. to avoid that heavy punishment before-mentioned That the Children of Israel may bring their Sacrifices Or Shall bring as the Vulgar Latin translates it regarding the sense more than the words Ideo Sacerdoti offerre debent c. Therefore they ought to bring to the Priest their Sacrifices c. Which they offer in the open field Where the Pagans erected their Altars to procure fruitfulness to their Fields Insomuch that Libanius saith in his Oration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Temples or Holy Places were the very Soul or Life of the Fields 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that in them lay the hope of the Husbandmen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How old this Idolatry was we cannot certainly tell but it continued a long time among the Israelites as we learn from the Prophet Jeremiah XIII 27. and Hosea XV. 11. where he saith Their Altars were as heaps in the furrows of the field that is there were abundance of them notwithstanding this early prohibition given by Moses And among the Gentiles Festus tells us they offered Sacrifices to the terrestrial Gods in terra upon the very ground according to the Hebrew phrase here on the face of the field but to the infernal Gods in terra effossa in holes or pits digged in the Earth and to the caelestial in aedificiis à terra exaltatis in Buildings exalted above the Earth i. e. upon Altars which had their name from hence ab altitudine from their height as both he and Servius also tell us And every one knows that they delighted to set them in high places on the tops of Mountains and Hills especially where there were Groves and shady Trees under which they set them even in Valleys and in the High-ways Fields and Meadows For they were so fond of them that those who were against erecting of Temples to their Gods as Zeno was yet never sacrificed without Altars which they set in the open Air to signifie they believed he whom they worshipped could not be circumscribed Even that they may bring them unto the LORD Or They shall bring them even unto the LORD who had settled his Habitation at the Tabernacle and would be worshipped no where else with Sacrifices Vnto the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation unto the Priest Here seems to be another reason why they were not permitted to offer in the Field because God would have none but the Priests Men appointed by himself to attend for this purpose at his House to offer Sacrifices to him according to the Rites he had prescribed And offer them for peace-offerings unto the LORD Upon these words Nachmanides grounds the forenamed opinion That whilst the Jews continued in the Wilderness they ate no Meat at their own private Tables but what had been first offered to God at the Tabernacle Behold saith he God commanded that all which the Israelites did eat should be Peace-offerings Which was afterwards altered when they came to Canaan and lived remote from the House of God And such a Custom prevailed among the Gentiles who would not sit down to eat at their Tables till they had offered Bread and Wine unto their Gods Thus it was among the Chaldees as appears from I Daniel 8. But then they had many Altars every where even in their own private Houses Whereas here in the Wilderness there was but one Altar which could not contain all the Fat that was to be burnt on it every day if we suppose the Israelites to have commonly killed Beasts for their own eating It seems to be the truer opinion that they seldom or never did that while they were in the Wilderness but all the Beasts they killed were for Sacrifice of which Moses here speaks So R. Levi Barcelonita Praecept CLXXXVII and other Jewish Doctors they are here forbidden to offer a Sacrifice to God any where without the Tabernacle He mentions indeed only Peace-offerings but the reason is because they were most common being offered not only for all the Mercies they had received but for all they desired to obtain from God as Abarbanel observes upon the VIIth Chapter of this Book where the several sorts of them are mentioned Men were more forward also to bring these Offerings than any other because they were to have their share of them and feast upon them Ver. 6. Verse 6 And the Priest shall sprinkle the blood upon the Altar of the LORD at the door of the Tabernacle This depends upon the foregoing command of offering all their Sacrifices at the Tabernacle that so the Blood might be sprinkled upon the Altar and poured out at the bottom of it as is required in other places of this Book and not kept together in a Vessel or a hole in the Ground As the manner of the ancient Idolatry was when they offered their Sacrifices in the Field and sate about this Blood and feasted upon the Flesh of their Sacrifice So Maimonides saith the Custom of the Zabij was More Nevoch P. III. cap. 46. And burn the fat So the manner was in all Sacrifices which is said also to be for a sweet savour unto the LORD See I. 8 9. III. 3 5. IV. 35 c. Ver. 7. Verse 7 And they shall no more It seems by this they had been guilty
are threatned to be cut off if they did not observe this Law Ver. 10. Verse 10 And what man soever he be of the house of Israel or of the strangers that sojourn among you See v. 8. That eateth any manner of blood This is forbidden before III. 17. and repeated again VII 26. See both those places where it is explained what Blood he means either of Birds or Beasts Nothing is said of Fishes because they were not offered at the Altar and have little Blood in them nor is there any direction given any where how they should be killed It is said indeed in this place that they should not eat any manner of Blood but the meaning seems to be neither of Blood offered at the Altar nor of Beasts killed for their own use Or else it is to be limited as before to the Blood of Beasts and Birds v. 13. for Fishes were not at all considered And here the reason is added why they should not eat Blood which was not mentioned in the fore-named places because it was the Life of the Beast and was therefore reserved to make Atonement for their Souls I will even set my face against that soul c. That is be extreamly angry with him and severely punish him by cutting him off as it here follows from the Body of the Nation Maimonides observes in the fore-named place More Nevoch P. III. cap. 46. that this is the same Expression which is used against him that offered his Children to Moloch XX. 3. and that this phrase is never used in Scripture concerning any other sin but only these two Idolatry and eating Blood For the eating of Blood gave occasion he shows to one kind of Idolatry in the worshipping of Daemons whose Food the ancient Idolaters imagined the Blood was by eating of which their Worshippers had Communion with them See XVI Psal 4. and Grotius there Ver. 11. Verse 11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood and I have given it to you upon the Altar to make an atonement for your souls c. Some think here are two distinct Reasons against eating of Blood but the words as they lie in the Hebrew may well be translated Because the life of the flesh of any Beast that is is in the blood therefore I have given it to you or appointed it for you upon the Altar to make an atonement c. Which is as much as to say The Life of the Beast lying in the Blood I have ordained it to expiate your sins that by its death in your stead your life may be preserved and therefore I require you not to eat that which is appointed for so holy an end For it would have been very unseemly if they had vulgarly used that to which they owed the favour of God and their very Lives Nothing could be more rational than this Precept viz. That a thing so sacred as to be peculiarly appointed for them upon the Altar should not lose that honour and esteem that was due to it As the Blood would have done if it had been allowed to be commonly eaten for that is very contemptible which goes into the Draught as our Saviour speaks and at last becomes Ordure For it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul The Blood that is of the Sacrifices which by God's appointment are offered to expiate your sins that is to preserve you from perishing For to make an Atonement and to be a Ransom are the very same thing as appears from XXX Exod. 12. compared with v. 15 16. And to be a Ransom is to deliver from Death as appears from the words in that place they shall every Man give a Ransom for his Soul unto the LORD that there be no Plague among them For the sins of the Sacrificer being laid upon the Beast which he offered by imposition of his hand on its Head and confessing them there they were taken away by the Blood of that Beast unto which they were translated And that not meerly by the Obedience of him that offered the Sacrifice which the followers of Socinus say God accepted but by the Blood of the Sacrifice it self as these words expresly declare which was offered in his stead Thus Theodoret upon these words God commanded the Soul of the Irrational Creature with its Blood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. to be offered instead of thy Rational and Immortal Soul And thus the Jews themselves understand it particularly Aben-Ezra upon these words saith the Soul instead of the Soul i.e. the Soul of the Beast was offered instead of the Soul of the Man And R. Solomon Jarchi to the same purpose One Soul comes and makes Expiation for another Soul And Maimonides more largely I have spared the Soul of the Man and given this Blood upon the Altar that the Soul of the Beast may make Expiation for the Soul of the Man And so Abarbanel and many more which may be seen in Dr. Owtram's most learned Book De Sacrificiis Lib. I. cap. 22. n. 11. Ver. 12. Verse 12 Therefore I said unto the Children of Israel No soul of you shall eat blood neither shall any stranger that sojourneth among you eat blood What other reason soever there was before for not eating Blood See IX Gen. 4. this is the reason why God forbad it to the children of Israel and to all that joyned themselves unto their Religion Ver. 13. Verse 13 And whatsoever man there be of the Children of Israel or of the strangers that sojourn among you which hunteth and catcheth any Beast or Fowl that may be eaten Though no other Beasts or Fowls be mentioned but those that were taken in Hunting that being a very common thing in those days yet the Precept extends to all those that were bred at home and were allowed by the Law for their Food So a MS. Author mentioned by J. Wagenseil in his Annotations upon Sota cap. 2. excerpt Gemarae n. 6. where he puts abundance of Cases upon this Subject He shall even pour out the blood thereof and cover it with dust Though it was not the Blood of a Sacrifice offered at the Altar but of a Beast or Bird killed for their own use they might not eat it but bury it in the Ground lest any Beast should lick it up as it is commonly interpreted Maimonides hath found a deeper reason for this which is That no Body might meet and feast about it By which means Moses broke their Society and Fellowship with Daemons who in those times were thought to feed upon the Blood in a Bowl or Hole whilst their Worshippers sate about it eating of the Flesh So he writes in the place often before-mentioned More Nevoch P. III. cap. 46. And this was the more necessary while they remained in the Wilderness because Daemons were wont to haunt such places and there appear but not in Cities or habitable Places See Mr. Selden Lib. II. de Synedr cap. 4. p. 201. If a Man
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