and all this he adds was done in the Court of the Women which well agrees with what is said in the next Verse Gather the people men and women c. But it doth not contradict what I said before of his reading it in the Court of the Men of Israel For if the King were of the Family of David it was always done there if he were not then in the Court of the Women as Wagenseil observes out of Maimonides Ver. 12. Gather the people together All that came Verse 12 to this Feast could not meet in one place but were divided into several Assemblies probably in their Synagogues For as many as the Courts of Israel would hold meeting there it is reasonable to think that the rest assembled in some other holy Place Such were their Synagogues which Philo in his Book of the Embassy to Caius calls Places of Secondary Holiness And Maimonides discourses at large of the Holiness of Synagogues and Schools in his Book of Prayer and the Priests Blessing Cap. XI See upon XIX Levit. 30. Men Women and Children Though the Males only were bound to go up to the great Feasts yet many devout Women went also voluntarily as appears by Hannah 1 Sam. I. 3 4. And all the Women in Jerusalem were likewise bound to attend at these Solemnities with the Children who were capable of Instruction See VIII Nehem. 2 3. To whom some Person of Authority read the Law in their Court while the King of the House of David was reading it in the Court of the Men of Israel And the stranger that is within thy gates Such as were Proselytes to the Jewish Religion not excluding those who were only Proselytes of the Gate if they would come to their Assemblies That they may hear and that they may learn and fear the LORD your God and observe to do all the words of this Law That by this means they might be instructed in the true way of worshipping God which is here called his fear and to his Worship and Service add a careful Obedience to all that he commanded in this Book which they might read and were bound to do so in their own private Houses and which they heard read every Sabbath-day in their publick Synagogues For which indeed there is no particular Command in the Law but they being commanded to teach their Children every day at home the things contained in the Law and consequently to read it VI. 7 8. XI 16. they thought it most reasonable to have it read on the Sabbath in their Publick Assemblies where some portion of the Law was read But now the whole Volume as an Authentick Testimony of the whole Nation to the truth of what is contained in these Books Verse 13 Ver. 13. That their Children which have not known any thing For the early Instruction of Posterity in the Sacred Authority of this Law May hear and learn to fear the LORD your God as long as ye live in the land c. Be preserved in the true Religion by so solemn an Acknowledgment made by the King himself that God delivered all these Laws to Moses Accordingly we find that Joshua their Supream Governour after the death of Moses did read all the Words of the Law not omitting a word that Moses commanded before all the Congregation with Women and the little ones and the Strangers that were conversant among them VIII Josh 34 35. But from that time to the Reign of Jehosaphat 2 Chron. XVII 7 8 c. which is commonly computed to be Five hundred and thirty years we find no mention of a Publick Reading of it Nor from that time to the eighteenth year of King Josiah 2 Chron. XXXIV 30 31. which was the space of two hundred eighty and two years nor from that time till after the Captivity of Babylon VIII Nehem. 2 3 c. By which neglect they more easily fell into Idolatry and continued in it more or less till that Captivity for a forgetfulness of the Law ensued upon this neglect Ver. 14. And the LORD said unto Moses behold Verse 14 thy days approach that thou must die He admonishes him that the end of his days upon Earth was near when he must resign up his Office into the hands of Joshua who had been before appointed his Successor XXVII Numb Call Joshua and present your selves in the Tabernacle of the Congregation that I may give you a charge This was done I suppose in the Face of all the People to whom Moses had been speaking v. 1 2. to give Joshua the greater Authority and to make him reverenced by them when they saw he was appointed by God himself to be their Governour as he had been before ordained publickly by God's Order XXVII Numb 18 19 c. And Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the Tabernacle of the Congregation In the Court of the Sanctuary with their Faces towards it for it was not lawful for any but the Priests to go into the Sanctuary it self Some indeed have thought that by a special Order from God Joshua was now admitted into it but this seems to me to be contradicted by the next Verse which saith God appeared in a Cloud over the door of the Tabernacle Verse 15 Ver. 15. And the LORD appeared in the Tabernacle in a pillar of a Cloud This signifies that the Glory of the LORD as other places speak appeared unto them and unto the People as it had done upon many occasions XXXIII Exod. 9 10. IX Numb 15. XVI Numb 42 43. And the pillar of the cloud stood over the door of the Tabernacle Being a Symbol of the Divine Presence whose Glory appeared out of the Cloud as it did XVI Numb 42. For the Cloud was always upon the Tabernacle XL Exod. 35 38. IX Numb 18. but when the LORD would strike an awe into the People and move them to regard what he said or did then the Cloud stood at the door of the Tabernacle and the Glory of the LORD came out of the most Holy Place and appeared in it Verse 16 Ver. 16. And the LORD said unto Moses Out of the Cloud I suppose as he did XVI Numb 44. Behold thou shalt sleep with thy Fathers He first admonished Moses again of his departure in the audience I suppose of Joshua who heard all the following Admonition to make him more carefully observe the end and design of it Sleep is a common word for Death either of good Men or bad which was not used meerly as a soft expression of that which the Heathen dreaded as the most terrible of all things but â—o put them in mind perhaps that death should not last always but they should as certainly rise again as they lay down so the word is in the Hebrew to sleep with their Fathers And this people will rise In Rebellion And go a whoring God who searches all Mens hearts discerned such bad inclinations in this People that he knew they would fall into Idolatry
Sea which is hereby meant Ver. 3. And the South And after he had seen Verse 3 the South which the Tribes of Judah and Simeon inhabited he bad him take a view of the Eastern Parts of the Country as it here follows And the plain of the Valley of Jericho All the Region about Jordan especially the lovely Plain of Jericho which is very much celebrated by other Authors and lay in the Tribe of Benjamin The City of Palm-trees Which is often mentioned in Scripture sometime without and sometime with the name of Jericho I Judges 16. III. 13. 2 Chron. XXVIII 15. which was so called because a multitude of Palm-trees grew about it as Strabo as well as Josephus testifies in his Geograph Lib. XVI p. 763. where he describes this plain as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as incompassed about with Mountains after the manner of a Theatre abounding with Palm-trees and other Garden-trees mixed with them for the space of an hundred Stadia And there was also he observes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Paradise of Balsam Which is a rare Aromatick Plant like to the Turpentine-tree whose Juice is of great virtue and value c. From which odoriferous Plant growing here some think this City had the Name of Jericho signifying sweet smelling So R. Judas in the Gemara of Beracoth where he mentions this Tree as growing about Jericho and thence derives its name from the Hebrew word reach which signifies a sweet smell This is more probable than the Conjecture of D. Chytraeus who imagines Jericho to come from jerec which signifies the Moon and in their German Language he thinks might be called Luneburgh Vnto Zoar. Which lay in the entrance of the Salt Sea Verse 4 Ver. 4. And the LORD said unto him After he had showed him the Land the WORD of the LORD as the Hierusalem Targum hath it spake these words to him which follow And God having been wont to speak to Moses out of the Cloud of Glory Josephus conceives that now he was incompassed with it and from thence heard this voice Which the Jews fancy was so loud that the People heard it into the Camp Thus at our Saviour's Transfiguration upon the holy Mount a glorious Cloud over-shadowed him and his three Apostles who heard the voice say to them This is my beloved Son c. The Samaritans as Hottinger relates in his Smegma Orientale Cap. VIII p. 456. tell the story thus That Joshua Eleazar the Priest and all the Elders accompanying him to the Mount fell into such a Passion when they were to take their leave that they could not be parted from him Whereupon the Pillar of Fire came down which separated them from Moses so that they saw him no more This is the Land which I sware unto Abraham unto Isaac and unto Jacob saying I will give it unto thy seed XII Gen. 7. XIII 15. XV. 18 c. I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes Which the LORD strengthned it is likely with a greater vigour than usual that he might take a larger prospect than other wise he could have done of this Country Or as some of the Jews understand it he laid a Map of it before his eyes wherein every part of it was exactly described But that might have been done in the Plains of Moab without going up into a Mountain therefore the other is more reasonable that he strengthned his visive Faculty with a greater Power to see the whole Country in its length and breadth c. And therefore some of the Rabbins have been so wise as to put both together as J. Bened. Carpzovius observes out of several of them upon Schickard's Jus Regium Cap. V. Theorem XVI p. 285. who thus speak God shewed him the whole Land as in a Garden Plot forty Miles in breadth and as many in length and gave his Eyes such a power of Contemplating the whole Land from the beginning to the end that he saw Hills and Dales what was open and what was inclosed remote or nigh at one view But thou shalt not go over thither This he had often said to him and now mentions it that he might die in a comfortable sense that he had been as good as his word to him and consequently carry this Belief along with him into the other World that he would make good the Oath which he sware to their Fathers of bringing them into Canaan and there fulfil all that he had foretold Verse 5 Ver. 5. So Moses the servant of the LORD So God himself calls him after his death in the next Book I Josh 2 7. as the most eminent Minister of his that he had hitherto employed in Israel But the observation of R. Bechai is not well founded that he is not called the Servant of the LORD till after he was dead and then admitted unto the nearest familiarity with the Divine Majesty For though these very words are not used yet the LORD calls him My Servant Moses which is the same thing XII Numb 7. Died in the Land of Moab For this Country was so still called because it anciently belonged to the Moabites See XXI Numb 26. from whom Sihon had taken it as Israel now had taken it from him So that he really died in the Land of Israel According to the Word of the LORD The Hierusalem Targum expounds this very soberly According to the Sentence of the Decree of the LORD That is as the LORD had determined and declared he should XXXII 49 50. And so this Phrase is commonly used in this very Book XVII 6 10 11. as well as in other places of the Pentateuch IX Numb 20. XIII 3 c. which will warrant this Interpretation that Moses did not die of any Disease nor was worn out with Age but meerly because God the Supream Governour of all things so ordered it But some of the Jews not satisfied with this have far-fetch'd Conceits concerning the Death of Moses from these words For because it is said he died al pi at the mouth as the words are literally in the Hebrew of the LORD Maimonides himself saith that their wise Men think and he seems of their Opinion that it signifies the LORD drew his Soul out of his Body with a kiss And thus died Aaron and Miriam but none besides them Of Aaron indeed it is expresly said he died al pi of the LORD but it is not said of Miriam and yet they will have her to have had the same favour That is they died saith he of too much love from the pleasure they had in the thoughts of God which apprehension of God conjunct with the highest love to him he thinks is called kissing I Cant. 2. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth More Nevochim P. III. Cap. LI. But this is not the meaning of the Phrase though no doubt Moses departed this Life in a most delectable sense and taste of the Divine Love having no unwillingness to
that end were erected to them The Soveraign Caelestial Gods being worshipped in the Sun Moon and Stars wherein they were thought to dwell and these petty Deities the Daemons were worshipped in Images and Columns which were made for them and for no other Deities as our Mr. Mede observes P. I. pag. 778. Verse 4 Ver. 4. Ye shall not do so unto the LORD your God That is not serve him upon the Mountains nor in Groves nor under green Trees Which appears to be the sence both from the foregoing words v. 2 3. and from the following opposition in the next Verse And it is very probable that during their continuance in the Wilderness none Sacrificed in High Places but offered all at the Door of the Tabernacle which was not far from them When they came into Canaan and were many of them at a distance from the Tabernacle they did Sacrifice in High Places and we do not find them reproved for it while they worshipped the LORD alone and had Priests who officiated there and in other places according to the Precepts of the Law But when the Temple was built and the Ark of God's Presence no longer removed from place to place the Prophets required them not to Sacrifice any longer in High Places nor any where else but only at the Temple And they blamed even good Kings for not taking away the High Places though no Sacrifices were offered upon them to any strange god but to the true God alone Which Connivance proved in time a great Mischief for here they first began to worship strange gods the Israelites being very prone to chuse Mountains and such shady places as the rest of the World did wherein to set up their Images 2 Kings XVII 10 11. XX Ezek. 28. IV Hosea 13. Ver. 5. But unto the place which the LORD your Verse 5 God shall chuse out of all your Tribes Unto one certain place which God intended to set apart unto which all the Tribes should resort as the only place where they might Sacrifice By which means the Notion of the Unity of God was preserved and his Worship kept pure and sincere as long as they kept to this one place where the Priests of God constantly attended to see his Service rightly performed To put his Name there By the Name of God is meant God himself as to call upon his Name is to call upon him and therefore the Sence is where he would make his dwelling place by settling the Ark and the Cloud of Glory there which was the Token of his Presence This place at first seems to have been Mizpeh and afterward Shiloh And when that was destroyed the Ark removed to several places Kirjath-jearim Mizpeh Gilgal Nob Gibeon the House of Obed-Edom till at last it settled at Jerusalem Where when the Temple was built God saith to Solomon I have chosen this place to my self for an House of Sacrifice 2 Chron. VII 12. Which is the plain sence of these words Chuse a place to put his Name there Even unto his Habitation shall ye seek and thither thou shalt come This explains what he means by the place where he would put his Name viz. the place where his Sanctuary was settled which was his Habitation where he placed his Majesty as Onkelos paraphrases that all might repair thither to seek his Grace and Favour Verse 6 Ver. 6. And thither ye shall bring your Burnt-offerings and your Sacrifices By Sacrifices as distinct from Burnt-offerings must be meant their Sin-offerings and Peace-offerings And the latter of these were sometimes for Mercies received and sometimes Free-will-offerings or Vows as we read in VII Lev. 12 16. Which if they had been bound as oft as there was occasion to bring to one certain place Jerusalem suppose though they were at never so great a distance from it it would have been an intolerable expense to devout People And therefore the Jews think the meaning is that they were bound to these Sacrifices either for Offences committed or for Mercies received c. at the next Feast at the farthest and not to defer them beyond that time See Dr. Lightfoot in his Temple Service p. 99 100. of the first Edition And your Tithes Not those which were to be paid to the Levites or by them to the Priests but another Tythe which was to be set aside after that to the Levites was paid and employed as is directed XIV 22 23 c. See here below v. 17. And Heave-offerings of your hand The First-fruits as the LXX and Vulgar Latine rightly translate it viz. of Corn and Wine and Oil and other Fruits of the Earth Which are called the Heave-offerings of their hand because they brought them in their own hand and having heaved them up to the LORD they gave them to the Priests See XVIII Numb 11 12. and XVIII Deut. 4. XXVI 4 10. And your Vows and your Free-will-offerings Which were comprehended before under the Name of Sacrifices but here more particularly expressed to signifie That though they might chuse whether they would offer them or no or whether they would vow them yet they could not chuse the place where they should be offered if they vowed or were disposed to it but must be determined by this Law And the Firstlings of your Herds and of your Flocks This shows that the Heave-offerings of their hand comprehend only the First-fruits of the Earth besides which these Firstlings also belonged to the Priests XVIII Numb 15 16 17. Ver. 7. And there ye shall eat Their part of the Verse 7 things before-mentioned the People being wont in ancient time before the Law of Moses to feast upon part of the Sacrifices of Peace-offerings as appears from XVIII Exod. 12. XXXIV 13 14. Before the LORD your God Not in the Tabernacle or Temple where only the Priests might eat the most holy things which were peculiarly theirs XVIII Numb 10. but in some place very near to the Sanctuary It being the custom of other People and perhaps before the time of Moses to feast with their gods in their very Temples or near their Altars according to that of the Apostle 1 Corinth VIII 10. Therefore God entertained his People also at his own House commanding them here and in other places to eat their Sacrifices before him at his Sanctuary and no where else that is in some place adjacent to the Sanctuary Whereby they declared that they had communion with him and not with Idols by partaking with him at his Table that is his Altar For there could be no need of their eating there but only to signifie this and to secure them in his Religion by feasting in his Presence and thereby owning themselves to belong to him This is repeated very often in this Book v. 18. of this Chapter XIV 23 26. XV. 20. XVI 5. but especially XXVII 6 7. where they are required before the Temple was built to eat their Sacrifices near the Altar which was erected after they came over
therefore by Maimonides particularly applied to such Uncleanness yet Mr. Selden hath well observed that it signifies all manner of Filthiness and therefore is well so translated by us both here and in the next Chapter where he speaks of the Matter of Divorce And so it is used by the Prophet Nahum III. 5. to name no more where the nakedness of Niniveh which God saith he would shew to all Nations signifies all the Murders Robberies Deceit and other great Wickednesses which abounded in that City See Vxor Hebr. Lib. III. Cap. XXIII And thus Abarbinel here extends it to all the horrid Sins which were usually committed in the Camps of Idolaters And turn away from thee As Princes are wont to do when they see any thing offensive to them And the meaning is he would not deliver them from their Enemies as he promised before but give them up into their hands I conclude all this matter with the words of R. Zacharias in Pirke Eliezer Cap. XLIV The Pillar of the Cloud in which the Glory of the LORD dwelt incompassed the Camps of Israel round about and made them like a City girt about with a wall that no Enemy might assault them But this Cloud threw all Vncleanness out of the Camps of Israel for they were holy and he quotes this place for it Ver. 15. Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the Verse 15 servant which is escaped from his master unto thee The Hebrew Doctors understand this of a Servant of another Nation who was become a Jew Whom his Master if he went to dwell out of Judaea might not carry along with him against his will and if he fled from him when he had carried him he might not be delivered to him but suffered to dwell in the Land of Israel Which they understand also of a Servant that fled from his Master out of any of the Countries of the Gentiles into the Land of Israel which was to be a safe Refuge to him See Selden Lib. VI. de Jure Nat. Gent. juxta Discipl Hebr. Cap. VIII p. 711. Ver. 16. He shall dwell with thee even among you Verse 16 Having embraced the Jewish Religion In the place which he shall chuse in one of thy Gates where it liketh him best He was not to be abridged of his Liberty but permitted to settle himself where he pleased in any part of their Country Thou shalt not oppress him For there was an express Law against all manner of Injuries or Hardships put upon Strangers XIX Levit. 33 34. Ver. 17. There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel nor a Sodomite of the Sons of Israel Or a Whremonger of the Sons of Israel as the last part Verse 17 of the Verse may be translated with the same reason that the foregoing words are translated no Whore of the Daughters of Israel So Bonsrerius truly observes and so the Vulgar Latin and the Seventy translate it and several other Versions mentioned by Mr. Selden Lib. III. Vxor Hebr. Cap. XXIII p. 487. Which sort of Persons Moses would not have to be tolerated among the Israelites as they were among the Egyptians many of which if we may believe Sextus Empiricus were so far from thinking it a Reproach for Women to prostitute themselves that they lookt upon it as honourable and gloried in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Lib. III. Pyr. Hypot Cap. XXIV p. 152. And great reason there was for this Prohibition because by Whoredom Families are confounded and destroyed as Maimonides observes and their Issue are lookt upon by all Men as Aliens so that none will own them as their kindred and their Neighbours become Strangers to them than which nothing can be worse for them and for their Parents For which cause saith he all publick Stews were disallowed among the Israelites who had this benefit by it among others that many brawls and quarrels fightings and bloodshed were prevented which frequently happened when several Men were assembled at the same time contending for the same Woman For so the Scripture saith V Jeremiah 7. They assemble by troops in the harlots houses For the preventing of these and such like Mischiefs and that the distinction of Families might be preserved both Whores and Whoremongers are here condemned and no other Conjunction permitted but with a Man 's own Wife publickly married For if a private Marriage had been sufficient many would have kept Women in their Houses as their Whores and pretended they were their Wives Therefore after a Man had privately espoused a Woman he was bound publickly to keep his Wedding Thus that great Man More Nevochim P. III. Cap. XLIX and see Selden Lib. V. de Jure Nat. Gent. juxta Disc Hebr. Cap. IV. p. 554. How much more abominable then were such Persons as prostituted their Bodies in honour of Venus and of Priapus and such like filthy Deities Of which sort there were both Males and Females consecrated to such impure Services And this was practised even in the days of Moses as appears from the History of those who committed Fornication with the Daughters of Moab who exposed themselves in honour of Baal-Peor for their lying with them was accounted Idolatry And such there were at last among the Israelites as appears from 1 Kings XIV 24. 2 Kings XXIII where we read that the Houses of the Sodomites as we translate it were by the House of the LORD Which shows they were not vulgar but consecrated Sodomites or Whoremongers I need not mention the Heathen Writers who tell us this was a piece of Religion among them See our Learned Dr. Spencer Lib. II. de Leg. Hebr. Ritual Cap. XXII and Heideggerus in his Histor Patriarch Exercit. I. Sect. XI where he observes a great many very learned Men understand this very place not meerly of Vulgar Whores but of such as I have mentioned Which were famous in ancient times among the Phaenicians Babylonians and other Nations whom Strabo calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. VIII Geograph where he saith pag. 378. that at Corinth there was a Temple so richly endowed that it maintained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above a thousand of these consecrated Whores whom both Men and Women had dedicated to the goddess 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Sea-faring Men who arrived in great numbers at this Port parted with their Money easily And Lib. XII speaking of Comana he saith There were a multitude of Women there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who maintained themselves by prostituting their Bodies and most of them were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sacred Persons this City being a little Corinth to which great numbers of People resorted at their Festivals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of the multitude of Harlots which were here sacred to Venus p. 559. And the like account we find in Athenaeus Lib. XIII Deipnos Cap. VI. where he saith They that went to pray there were wont for the obtaining their Petitions to