Priests and Sacred Uses See Selden in that Book cap. 9. p. 518 c. But though they might not devote their Servants to death yet they might their Enemies before they went out to war with them and such of their own People also as did not observe the Military Laws An Example of which we have XXI Numb 2. Upon which account also the Inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead were slain XXI Judg. 9 10. for violating the solemn publick Cherem pronounced against those that came not up to Mizpeh v. 5. And this is the Cherem spoken of in this Verse See Selden cap. 10. For as for the Cherem whereby a Man was Excommunicated it only loaded him with many Curses and made him execrable so that no Man might come near him but did not touch his Life as he there shows p. 520. Ver. 30. Verse 30 All the tithe of the Land c. is the LORD's By an ancient right before the Law of Moses was delivered For this is the first time we find any mention of a Law about Tithes for which he giving no reason it is a sign this was a pious Usage all the World over and therefore being no new thing but what all Nations practised the Jews could not think it burdensome to them unless they would be wholly irreligious and not acknowledge God to be the Author and Fountain of all the plenty and happiness they enjoyed Which was the intention of paying Tithes as the Gentiles anciently did and the Jews themselves after Victory over their Enemies For which there being no Precept that appears what can we think but that natural Reason and the common Custom of Mankind founded perhaps upon some direction given to our first Parents from above taught them to make this Acknowledgment to God as the Author of their Successes and Safety as well as of all Plenty and Prosperity See XIV Gen. 19. and XXVIII 22. Whether of the seed of the Land or of the fruit of the Trees By the seed of the Land is meant Corn as Rasi expounds it and by the fruit of the Trees Wine and Oil. For thus they are reckoned up in other places XVIII Numb 12. where he gives the Priests the First-fruits of the Wine and Oil and Wheat And the like we read in XVIII Deut. 3 4. and in XIV Deut. 23. they are commanded to eat before God the tithe of their Corn of their Wine and their Oil. Under which last is comprehended the Fruit of all other Trees as under the word Seed in this place seems to be comprehended all manner of Herbs as well as Corn. For so the Pharisees understood it and our Saviour doth not disallow it It is holy unto the LORD God having declared his right in the Tithe in the beginning of the Verse here commands that it be reserved to him as his portion Which he afterward conferred and settled upon the Levites by a special Donation XVIII Numb 21. Ver. 31. Verse 31 And if a man will at all redeem ought of his tithes he shall add thereto the fifth part thereof Mr. Selden in his History of Tithes Chap. 2. speaking of the second Tithe mentioned XIV Deut. 23. which was to be spent at Jerusalem either in kind or else if it were too far thither by turning it into Money and therewith to buy Provision to make Feasts saith that to this Tithe do the Jews apply that of XXVII Lev. 30 31. But for this he quotes only R. S. Jarchi who though he were a great Talmudist yet must not be thought to understand the sense of all their Doctors Aben-Ezra it is plain to name no more takes it otherwise making Moses to speak of such a Tithe as Abraham gave Melchisedeck and Jacob vowed to God Lyra I might add a converted Jew agrees with him And there is great reason for it no such thing as a second Tithe being as yet ordained and when they were commanded and the changing of them into Money allowed there is not a word said of adding a fifth part See XIV Deut. 24 25. which is sufficient to show that Moses in these two Verses speaks of the first Tithe which was paid to the Levites by a Law made some time after this which transferred the right that God had in the Tithe of the Land unto them Which if any Man had a mind to redeem and not pay it in kind God allows him so to do because the Tithe was not more holy than things vowed to God spoken of before but then he was to do as in the case of such things v. 13. add a fifth part over and above to what such a portion of Tithe was esteemed to be worth The reason of which was as Mr. Calvin well observes not that the Priest should get more than his due by the Man who desired to redeem his Tithe but that the Man might not make a gain of the Priest For it is seldom seen that a Husbandman desires to pay Money rather than his Tithe unless he propound some considerable advantage to himself Ver. 32. Verse 32 And concerning the tithe of the Herd and of the Flock Every one knows that by the Tithe of the Herd here is meant Calves and by the Flock is to be understood Lambs and Kids I Lev. 2. For this was the Tithe of those young ones that were brought forth that year the same Cattle not being again tithed every year And he speaks of clean Beasts which were allowed in Sacrifice for Tithe was not paid of other Beasts but their first-born only was the LORD's This Tithe was paid to God every year as an Eucharistical Sacrifice for all the Benefits they received from God by their Cattle Even of whatsoever passeth under the rod. This expresses the manner of this Tithing which if we will believe the Jews was thus They were all brought into a Sheep-cote saith Maimonides in his Treatise of Firstborn cap. 7. in the beginning in which there was but one Gate or Door and that so narrow as to suffer no more than one to come out at once Their Dams being placed without and the Gate opened the young ones were invited by their Bleatings to press to get out to them and as they passed by one by one a Man who stood at the Gate with a Rod coloured with Oker told them in order and when the Tenth came out whether it was Male or Female sound or not he markt it with his Rod and said Let this be holy in the name of the Tenth And this account R. Solomon and others give of this matter of which Notion they are so fond that R. Bechai upon XVII Numb makes Jacob who vowed Tithe of all that God should give him to have decimated his Children on this manner beginning at Benjamin and stopping at Levi who was the Tenth according to that reckoning and hath some pretty conceits about it But Bochartus thinks Moses doth not speak here of the Rod of the Tithes but of the Shepherd's Crook and
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
a plain Law that whosoever cursed his Father or Mother should die XXI Exod. 17. from whence they might justly infer he was to be so punished who cursed his heavenly Father there being also another Law against those that reviled the Judges and Rulers XXII Exod. 28. And therefore I take it they only doubted what kind of death he should die about which Moses consulted the Divine Majesty Ver. 13. Verse 13 And the LORD spake unto Moses saying It 's likely Moses went into the Sanctuary to enquire of God who from the Mercy-seat pronounced the following Sentence against him and also made a perpetual Law about this Case with some others Ver. 14. Verse 14 Bring forth him that cursed without the Camp This is the Sentence pronounced by the mouth of God from whom they expected it And first he orders the Criminal to be carried forth out of the Camp as an unclean V Numb 2 3. nay an accursed thing VII Josh 24. And let all that heard him Next he orders the Witnesses to be produced who heard him speak the blasphemous words Lay their hands upon his head This was a peculiar thing in this Case Hands being laid upon no Man's head condemned by the Sanhedrim but only upon a Blasphemer By which Ceremony they solemnly declared that they had given a true testimony against him and thought him worthy of the Death he was condemned to suffer And perhaps prayed God that all the punishment of this Sin might fall upon this Man and not upon them nor the rest of the People And so the Jews tell us their manner was to say Let thy blood be upon thy own head which thou hast brought on thy self by thy own guilt And let all the Congregation stone him This was the last part of the Sentence that when they that heard him Curse had taken off their hands all the Congregation should stone him Which is the same Punishment the Law inflicted on him that cursed his Father or his Mother XX. 9. See there Ver. 15. Verse 15 And thou shalt speak unto the Children of Israel saying Upon this occasion a new Law is made in express terms against Blasphemy Whosoever curseth his God Some of the Hebrews understand this of a Gentile who lived among them and was not yet solemnly made a Proselyte of the Gate that if he cursed the God which was worshipped in his Country he should die for it See Selden Lib. II. de Jure Nat. Gent. cap. ult And Procopius Gazaeus extends the words to such Persons as cursed the God they worshipped though he were a false God Which is according to the common Rule of the Talmudists that where we find these words isch isch man man which we well translate whosoever they comprehend Gentiles as well as Jews But no doubt this Law particularly concerned the People of Israel whom God intended by this Law to preserve from such horrid impiety as is here mentioned Shall bear his sin Be stoned See XX. 9. If the word curseth be understood in the proper sense Procopius well observes that nothing could be more sensless than this Sin and upon that account deserved stoning for he that curseth his God upon what God will he call to confirm his curse But the Hebrew words seems to import only speaking contemptuously of God Ver. 16. Verse 16 And he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD shall surely be put to death c. It is uncertain whether this be an higher degree of the Sin mentioned in the foregoing Verse or only a repetition of the same Law with a more express declaration of the punishment he should bear for his sin The Jews unreasonably understand it of him alone that expressed the Name i. e. the most holy Name of God as they say in Sanhedrim cap. 7. num 5. where Joh. Ã Coch observes out of the Hierusalem Targum on XXXII Deut. that it is thus explained Wo unto those that in their Execrations use the holy Name which is not lawful for the highest Angel to express But this is a piece of their Superstition the meaning undoubtedly is That if any Man reproached the most High he should die for it but the meer pronouncing his holy Name could be no Crime when Men might swear by it though not take it in vain VI Deut. 13. XX Exod. 7. All the Congregation shall certainly stone him As they were ordered to do with the present Offender v. 14. As well the stranger as he that is born in the Land c. By Stranger may be meant a Proselyte like the Egyptian whose Offence was the occasion of this Law But the Jews extend it to Samaritans and Gentiles only they say such were to be punished by the Sword and not by Stoning Ver. 17. Verse 17 And he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death This Law was given before XXI Exod 12. And it is not easie to give an account why it is here repeated after the Case of a Blasphemer Perhaps it was upon the occasion of the last words in the foregoing Verse As well the stranger as he that is born in the land when he blasphemeth the name of the LORD shall be put to death For after the following Laws they are repeated again as a general Rule v. 22. that no Man might think it hard a Stranger should be punished for Blasphemy as much as an Israelite when in other Cases the same Judgment passed upon them both Procopius Gazaeus thinks a Murderer is joyned with a Blasphemer because they have the same mind and intention the one desiring to destroy God if it were possible as the other doth his Neighbour Therefore the Law puts them together just as on the contrary when it commands the love of God it couples with it the love of our Neighbour So he Ver. 18. Verse 18 And he that killeth a beast shall make it good beast for beast It was not incongruous as the same Procopius speaks to annex unto the Law against Murder a Law against other Injuries And concerning this see XXI Exod. 33 34. For the Hebrew word Behemah here used signifies such domesticktame Beasts as are there mentioned Ver. 19 20. Verse 19 20. If a man cause a blemish in his neighbour as he hath done so shall it be done to him c. This Law concerns only free Persons not their Slaves and hath been explained XXI Exod. 24 25. Ver. 21. Verse 21 And he that killeth a beast he shall restore it and he that killeth a man he shall be put to death This is a short repetition of the two first Laws here mentioned v. 17 18. to make them the more regarded Ver. 22. Verse 22 Ye shall have one manner of law as well for the stranger as for one of your own Country In these and in all other Cases as well as Blasphemy v. 16. you and the Stranger shall be judged by one and the same Law For I am the LORD your God Who will neither favour