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
there But the Expiation of the High-Priest himself who was to make the Expiation of the Sanctuary preceded all the rest as is apparent from v. 11. Ver. 34. Verse 34 And this shall be an everlasting statute The repetition of this the third time See v. 29 31. shows of how great importance it was that this annual Solemnity should be observed Vnto you The High-Priests before-mentioned of whom he speaks in the Plural Number because none of them could continue always as I observed v. 32. but enjoyed the Office successively upon the death of their Predecessors To make an atonement for the Children of Israel for all their sins once a year This is only a repetition of what was said v. 30. that it should be incumbent on the High-Priest by a perpetual Obligation to make an Atonement for the Peoples sins on this day as it was incumbent on the People v. 29. to afflict their Souls upon this day And he did as the LORD commanded Moses The Service of this day was immediately performed by Aaron according to the fore-named order CHAP. XVII Ver. 1. Verse 1 AND the LORD spake unto Moses saying After he had ordered the great Anniversary Sacrifice in the foregoing Chapter he gives some Directions about other Sacrifices for which there would be occasion every day Ver. 2. Verse 2 Speak unto Aaron and his Sons and all the Children of Israel Who were all concerned in what follows and therefore this Command is directed to the whole house of Israel v. 3. to whom this was delivered it is likely by their Elders or else Moses himself went from Tribe to Tribe and spake to their several Families And say unto them This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded Enjoyned by a Special Law Ver. 3. Verse 3 Whatsoever man there be of the House of Israel that killeth an Ox or Lamb or Goat viz. For a Sacrifice or Offering as it follows v. 4. these being the only Creatures of the Herd and the Flock that were permitted to be brought to God's Altar There are those indeed who think Moses speaks of killing these Creatures for common use which it was lawful for them to do any where after they came to the Land of Canaan XII Deut. 15. but now they were not to kill them for their food unless they brought them to the door of the Tabernacle and there first sacrificed some part of them to the LORD before they tasted of them themselves By which their sacrificing to Daemons was prevented to which they were prone v. 7. and they also constantly feasted with God while they dwelt in the Wilderness But this is better founded upon XII Deut. 20 21. where it is supposed that they had thus done while they remained in the Wilderness and were so near to the House of God that they might easily bring thither every Beast they killed for ordinary use But they were dispensed withal as to this when they came into Canaan and could not possibly when they had a mind to eat Flesh go so far as to the Tabernacle or Temple which was many Miles from some of them Instead whereof they were bound to come at the three great Festivals and appear before God at his House wheresoever they dwelt In the Camp or that killeth it out of the Camp This seems to show that he doth not speak of killing these Beasts ad usum vescendi as St. Austin's words are for the use of eating for that they did not do out of the Camp but in their Tents but de Sacrificiis he speaks concerning Sacrifices For he prohibits as he goes on private Sacrifices lest every Man should take upon him to be a Priest c. Ver. 4. Verse 4 And bringeth it not unto the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation to offer an offering unto the LORD In ancient time every Man had performed the Office of a Priest in his own Family But now that liberty is taken away because they had abused it to Idolatry and every Man was bound to bring his Sacrifice to the House of God where none but the Sons of Aaron could officiate and had the most sacred Obligations on them to offer only to the LORD The very Heathens themselves in future times found it necessary to enact the very same as appears by Plato in the latter end of his Tenth Book of Laws where he hath these memorable words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let this be a Law imposed absolutely upon all that no Man whatsoever have a sacred place in private Houses but when he hath a mind to offer Sacrifice let him go to the publick Temples and deliver his Sacrifice to the Priests whether Men or Women 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose business it is to take care that these things be performed in an holy manner By which it appears that these were two established Principles of Religion in wise Mens minds to Sacrifice publickly and to bring their Sacrifices to the Priests who were to take care to offer them purely Unto which Moses adds one thing more that their publick Sacrifices should be offered only at one place which was a most efficacious preservative from all strange Worship nothing being done but under the Eye of the Ministers of Religion and the Governours of the People Insomuch that St. Chrysostom as our learned Dr. Spencer observes Lib. I. de Rit Leg. Hebr. L. I. cap. 4. sect 1. calls Jerusalem which was afterwards established to be this place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kind of bond or knot whereby the whole Nation were tied fast to the Judaical Religion Before the Tabernacle of the LORD Before the Divine Majesty which dwelt in the Tabernacle round about which they all inhabited and were so near it while they travelled in the Wilderness that as there was no trouble in bringing all their Sacrifices thither so they knew certainly whether to go And thus the Hebrew Doctors observe it was when they came into Canaan where while the Tabernacle was fixed in Shilo none might Sacrifice any where else But when it wandred uncertainly after Shilo was destroyed being sometimes in Mispeh sometimes at Gilgal and at Nob and Gibeon and the House of Obed-Edom they fancy it was lawful to Sacrifice in other places For so we find Samuel did 1. Sam. VII 9. IX 13. where he sacrificed in an high place XI 15. XVI 2. and David 2 Sam. XXIV 18. and Elias 1 Kings XVIII 23. But these may be thought extraordinary acts done by an immediate warrant from God for none of these Persons were Priests but Prophets guided by Divine Inspirations See Dr. Owtram Lib. I. de Sacrific cap. 2. Blood shall be imputed unto that man he hath shed blood He was to be punished as a Murderer that is die for it For to have Blood imputed to a Man in the Hebrew phrase or to be guilty of Blood is to be liable to have his Blood shed or to lose his Life Which as of old it was
was gathered together The word we translate Assembly is the same with that in the foregoing Verse which we translate Congregation that is as I said the Assembly of the Elders Vnto the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation That they might be Witnesses of what was done and satisfie all the People that Aaron and his Sons did not intrude themselves into this Office but were solemnly called and consecrated to it by Moses the Servant of the LORD It is likely also that as many of the People as the place would conveniently hold met together to be Spectators of this Solemnity Ver. 5. Verse 5 And Moses said unto the Congregation this is the thing which the LORD commanded to be done I am now about to execute what God hath formerly commanded when I was with him in the holy Mount XXIX Exod. 4. At what time this was executed is a question among learned Men. And our great Primate of Ireland places this Consecration of Aaron and his Sons together with the Tabernacle and all things belonging to it in the second Month of the second Year after they came out of Egypt moved thereunto I suppose by what is said in VII Numb 1 2. So that according to his Opinion the numbring of the People and the separation of the Levites to God's Service preceded this Action But I do not see any reason why we should not think all things were done in the order wherein they are here related And then this Consecration was performed in the first month of that year after the Tabernacle had been erected and set apart for the Habitation of the Divine Majesty See XL Exod. 17 18. Ver. 6. Verse 6 And Moses brought Aaron and his sons To the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation as he had been directed XXIX Exod. 4. And washed them with water As is there also directed having first likewise washed himself XL. 31. Ver. 7. Verse 7 And he put upon him the Coat and girded him with the girdle c. Moses by an extraordinary Commission from God performed the Office of an High-Priest on this day and the six days following And put Aaron in possession of this Office by cloathing him with the Garments here mentioned according to the orders which had been given XXIX Exod. 5 c. which was thought sufficient for the Consecration of an High-Priest after the Captivity of Babylon when they wanted the holy Oil as hath been before observed Whence Philo often calls Moses by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. High-Priest And in Schemoth Rabba the Tradition is that he continued High-Priest all the time they continued in the Wilderness though others they confess are of opinion which is the truth that he officiated only the seven days of the Consecration after which this Office was settled in Aaron See Selden L. I. de Succession in Pontificatum cap. 1. Ver. 8. Verse 8 And he put the breast-plate upon him also he put in the breast-plate the Vrim and the Thummim See XXVIII Exod. 30. It is observable that he saith nothing here in this place of the precious Stones but only mentions Vrim and Thummim as in XXXIX Exod. 10. where he describes the same thing he makes mention only of the four rows of Stones but saith not one word of Vrim and Thummim which I look upon as a proof that they were all one Ver. 9. Verse 9 And he put the Mitre upon his head and upon the Mitre the golden Plate the holy Crown c. According as God commanded him in XXVIII Exod. 36 37 c. XXIX 6. Ver. 10. Verse 10 And Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the Tabernacle and all that was therein See XXIX Exod. 26 c. and XL Exod. 9 10 11. There being several ways of anointing a Thing or Person either by pouring Oil upon them or by putting it upon them with the finger or by sprinkling it is not an improbable Conjecture of Fortunatus Scacchus that Moses anointed the Tabernacle and its Utensils by dipping his finger in the Oil and putting it upon them For though the word Maschah which he useth for anointing be general yet the Vulgar expressing it by linivit and the LXX by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which import this particular sort of anointing and there being different words used to express the anointing of the Altar and of Aaron it may well incline one to his Opinion Myrothec 2. Sacr. Elaeochrism cap. 70. And sanctified them Set them apart by this unction for the holy use for which they were designed Ver. 11. Verse 11 And he sprinkled thereof upon the Altar seven times and anointed the Altar and all its vessels c. We do not find this expresly before directed but the intention of anointing the Altar being to make it most holy because it was to sanctifie all that was laid upon it XXX Exod. 29. XL. 10. it was very fit it should be both sprinkled seven times with Oil and also anointed in token of its extraordinary Sanctity which was put upon it by this very solemn Rite For here are two distinct words about this anointing the first is jaz he sprinkled of the Oil upon it and then jimshach he anointed it by putting some of the Oil on it whereas it is said of the Tabernacle and of the things there only jimshach he anointed them without any sprinkling Some think that the Altar being mentioned twice in this Verse he speaks of the Altar of Incense as well as of the Altar of Burnt-offerings But it is plain by those places in Exodus it was the Altar of Burnt-offerings which was thus sanctified and here the Laver and its foot which stood in the same Court is said to be sanctified with it As for the Altar of Incense it is included in what is said in the foregoing Verse that he anointed the Tabernacle and all therein Both the laver and his foot to sanctifie them It may be thought that he sprinkled with Oil the Laver and its Foot as well as anointed them which is the opinion of the fore-named Fort. Scacchus But the Hebrew words will not warrant it for they only signifie that they were anointed as the Altar was after its aspersion Ver. 12. Verse 12 And he poured of the anointing oil upon Aarons head Here now is a third word distinct from the two former viz. jitzok which signifies there was more done to Aaron than to any of the holy things to sanctifie him to his office For the holy Oil was poured on his Head And anointed him Perhaps he drew the Oil with his finger upon his Forehead after it was poured on his Head as the Jews think he did See XXIX Exod 7 8. XXX 30. XL. 13. To sanctifie him i. e. Set him apart to this Sacred Office Now this Consecration of Aaron and his Sons being mentioned here together with the Consecration of the Tabernacle and all belonging to it it hath made some conclude that both were done at
here by devoured them took away their Breath in a moment From which Expression the Hebrew Doctors conclude that when any body was condemned to be burnt it was not to be consumed to Ashes but only exanimated by the Fire because this is called devouring or burning here in this place See Gamera Sanhedrim cap. 7. n. 1. And they died before the LORD Fell down dead in the House of God Which may seem too great a Severity till it be considered how reasonable and necessary it was to inflict a heavy Punishment upon the first Transgressors of a Law concerning a Matter of great moment to deter others from the like Offence Many instances of which there are in Scripture Some observed by St. Chrysostom upon VI Psal 2. where he gives this account why the Man who gathered a few sticks upon the Sabbath-day was adjudged to be stoned as Blasphemers were because it was a very heinous thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as soon as a Law was enacted immediately to break it which made it necessary it should be thus severely punished to strike such a Terror into others that they might not dare to do the like Which was the reason he observes of the sudden Death of Ananias and Sapphira mentioned Acts V. Isidore of Peleusium hath made the same observation Lib. I. Epist. 181 and goes so far back as to our first Parents who were dreadfully punished for a seemingly small Offence because they were the first Transgressors The same others have observed of the punishment of Cain who committed the first Murder of the filthiness of Sodom of the Idolatry of the Golden Calf the Covetousness and Sacriledge of Achan the Disobedience of Saul the first King of Israel the sudden Death of Vzzah who was the first that presumed to touch the Ark of God Ver. 3. Verse 3 And Moses said unto Aaron To satisfie him in the Justice and Wisdom of this dreadful stroke at which he could not but be extreamly afflicted This is that the LORD spake saying I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me To come nigh unto God is in the holy Language to perform the Office of a Priest XIX Exod. 22. XVI Numb 5. who having the honour of attending upon the Service of the Divine Majesty were bound to approach into his Presence with the greatest Reverence We do not read indeed those very words which Moses here recites in the foregoing Books But as many things were spoken to them which are not recorded so the sense of these words are in the place forenamed XIX Exod. 22. and the reason of them in XXIX Exod. 43 44. where the Tabernacle being said to be sanctified by the Divine Glory and the Priests being sanctified to minister unto him therein which was seven days a doing as we read here VIII 35. they were plainly taught to draw nigh to God with a holy Fear and to do nothing rashly nor without order from him For God being peculiarly known by the Name of the Holy One i. e. who hath incomparable Perfections such as no other Being hath he justly required to be accordingly worshipped sutable to his most surpassing Greatness by peculiar Rites of his own prescribing in a different manner from all other Beings It was for instance below his Emenency or rather Supereminent Majesty to have common Fire such as they imployed in their Kitchins used for the burning Sacrifice upon his Altar And in like manner all other parts of his Service were in reason to be performed after such a fashion as might signifie their sense of the peculiar Excellencies of the Divine Nature who therefore sent Fire from Heaven as only fit to burn perpetually upon his Altar And before all the people will I be glorified This may be thought to be but a solemn Repetition of what was spoken before as the manner is in these Books to deliver the same thing twice in different words Or the meaning is if they who draw nigh to me will not sanctifie me I will vindicate my own honour by such Punishments as shall openly declare to all that I am the Holy One. Thus God is said to be honoured upon Pharaoh by drowning him in the Red-sea XIV Exod. 4. And Aaron held his peace Silently adored the Justice of the Holy One and did not complain of his Severity For this doth not seem to be the effect meerly of great Grief but of great Reverence to the Divine Majesty Ver. 4. Verse 4 And Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan the sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aaron It appears from VI Exod. 18. that Vzziel the Father of Mishael and Elzaphan v. 22. was the younger Brother of Amram the Father of Aaron and consequently Aaron's Uncle And said unto them Come near and carry your brethren All near Kindred are called Brethren in Scripture And these Cosin Germans of theirs are appointed to carry them out because Aaron's other Sons were now attending upon God in their Ministration upon the Day of their Consecration But without this special order these two Persons could not have been admitted to come near into the very Sanctuary being not of the Family of Priests though of Kin to him From before the Sanctuary See v. 2. Out of the Camp For anciently they buried not in their Cities but in the Fields adjacent to them XXIII Gen. 9 17. and so they did in after times XXVII Matth. 7. and VIII Luke 27. where the Tombs are plainly intimated to be without the City Ver. 5. Verse 5 So they went near There being two Accents upon the Hebrew word for draw near the Cabbalists from thence observe I know not upon what grounds that these Men did not come into the very Sanctuary where the dead Bodies lay but drew them out with long Poles and those of Iron being afraid of the Fire wherewith Nadab and Abihu had been killed or rather fearing to go into the Sanctuary or too near it See Hackspan's Cabala Judaica n. 58. And carried them out in their Coats c. Their Linen Vestments wherein they ministred which having touched dead Bodies were no more fit to be used in the Divine Service As Moses had said As he had directed in his order which he gave them Ver. 6. Verse 6 And Moses said unto Aaron and unto Eleazar and unto Ithamar his sons These two were all the Sons that Aaron had now remaining from whom came two great Families of the Priests which in the days of David we find very numerous though more of the House of Eleazar than of the other when they were by him divided into XXIV Classes and had their Courses of waiting appointed them 1 Chron. XXIV 4 c. Vncover not your heads The Hebrew Doctors interpret it quite contrary Let not the head of your hair grow so long that is as to cover their Faces which was the custom of Mourners 2 Sam. XV. 30. XIX 4. and many other places And thus Onkelos and the Arabick Version set forth by
together the other And ye shall rejoyce before the LORD your God seven days These were the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles as I noted before which were spent in Feasting and other tokens of Joy with Thanks to God for his great Goodness who had brought them out of the Wilderness where they had no Fig-trees Vines or Pomegranates into a Country which abounded with fruitful Trees of all sorts Which was the reason Maimonides thinks that Moses bids them take the Boughs of the most goodly Trees wherewith to build their Booths More Nevoch P. III. cap. 43. But of all the Joys at this Festival none was comparable to that of drawing and pouring out water concerning which the Talmudists have this noted saying He that never saw the rejoycing of drawing Water never saw rejoycing in all his life The manner of which is described out of the Jewish Writers by Dr. Lightfoot in his Temple Service Chap. 16. sect 4. And our blessed Saviour is thought to allude to it when in the last the great day of this Feast he cryed saying If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink c. out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water VII John 37 38. But I have not met with any one that gives a tollerable reason of this Custom at the Feast of Tabernacles Which I take to have been in memory of that Water which followed them all the time they were in the Wilderness without which they had perished and in thankfulness to God that he had brought them into a Land of Brooks of Water of Fountains and Depths that spring out of Valleys and Hills as well as into a Land of Vines and Fig-trees and Pomegranates c. as Moses speaks VIII Deut. 7 8. Ver. 41. Verse 41 And ye shall keep it a feast unto the LORD seven days in the year He repeats it again because it was of very great importance that they should keep in mind such a singular Benefit as this of their Preservation in the Wilderness It shall be a statute for ever in your generations For the end mentioned v. 43. Ye shall celebrate it in the seventh month They came out of Egypt in the first Month and then began to dwell in Tabernacles at Succoth XII Exod. 37. and from that place were conducted ever after under the Cloud XIII Exod. 20 21. Which being in that Month we call March some may think it had been most proper to have kept this Feast at that time of the year 〈◊〉 not in September To which the Jews answer That in March Summer began when it was usual for People to dwell in Booths as more refreshing than Houses So that if they had kept this Feast then it would not have been known that they dwelt in Booths by a singular Command of God and in memory of a Divine Benefit but Men would have thought the season of the year led them to it Therefore God appointed it in the seventh Month which is a time of Cold and Rain when Men commonly left their Tabernacles and betook themselves to their Houses that it might appear they did not go out of their Houses into Booths for their own pleasure or from common Custom but by the Divine Precept in memory of a marvellous Benefit Yet the fifteenth day of this Month was appointed for the beginning of this Feast because it was upon the fifteenth day of the first Month that they marcht out of Egypt to Succoth Ver. 42. Ye shall dwell in Booths seven days They left their Houses for seven days and went into the Fields and pitcht their Tents there or on their House tops or in their Court-yards as we read in VIII Nehem. 17. All that are Israelites born shall dwell in Booths Sick People were excepted and the Rabbins also freed Women and little Children from this Obligation If the Rain likewise proved so great that they could not live there dry and the Cold so intense that it endangered their Healths they might all return to their Houses Ver. 43. Verse 43 That your generations may know that I made the Children of Israel to dwell in booths This expresses the end and intention of this Feast which was to preserve a memory in future Ages of the Goodness of God to their Fore-fathers in affording them his Divine Protection which overshadowed them â—â—d was a covering to them when they had no Houses by that glorious Cloud which went before them to conduct them For all the forty years they were in the Wilderness it overspread them like a Tabernacle and defended them from the Injury of the Weather and wild Beasts and all their Enemies they having no other shelter in that desolate place but only this And consequently this Feast was instituted to make them sensible how very happy they were in goodly Cities and fine painted Houses as Maimonides speaks in the place above-mentioned when they came to the good Land promised to their Fathers who wandered in an howling Wilderness without any certain dwelling place And another Feast was tack't to this on the eighth day on purpose to make them more sensible of the happy exchange of their Condition from a Wilderness into a Land of Corn and Wine and Oil which they had plentifully gathered Dr. Lightfoot in his Harmony of the Evangelists upon III Luke 21. hath another reason for the Observation of this Festival For which I can see no ground and therefore do not mention it but refer the Reader to the first Volume of his Works p. 477. When I brought them out of the Land of Egypt For the very first place where they rested after their first days march out of Egypt was called Succoth as I observed before that is Tabernacles because here they began to spread their Tents in which they lived ever after for forty years Nay in the very Land of Canaan there were some who preferred Tents before Houses as appears by that phrase we meet with so often when any Assembly or Army was dissolved They went every man to his Tent. And indeed it was the most ancient way of Living for Shepherds and such as fed Cattle as Moses observes IV Gen. 20. and therefore no wonder it lasted so long among the Israelites who originally were such People I am the LORD your God Whose Commands ought to be observed and whose Benefits ought to be remembred Ver. 44. Verse 44 And Moses declared unto the Children of Israel the Feasts of the LORD So he was commanded to do v. 2. they being concerned as much as Aaron and the Priests in keeping these holy Solemnities in honour of the LORD CHAP. XXIV Ver. 1. Verse 1 AND the LORD spake unto Moses saying Directions having been given after the setting up of the Tabernacle for the several sorts of Sacrifices that were to be offered there particularly upon the great Day of Atonement and Aaron and his Sons having been consecrated and care taken that none of their Posterity should Minister before God
A COMMENTARY UPON THE Third Book of MOSES CALLED LEVITICUS BY The Right Reverend Father in GOD SYMON Lord Bishop of ELY LONDON Printed for Ri. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCXCVIII A COMMENTARY UPON LEVITICUS THE Third Book of MOSES CALLED LEVITICUS CHAP. I. THE Greeks and Latins give it this Name of LEVITICUS not because it Treats of the Ministry of the Levites properly so called of which the Book of NUMBERS gives a fuller account than this Book doth but because it contains the Laws about the Religion of the Jews consisting principally in various Sacrifices the charge of which was committed to Aaron the LEVITE as he is called IV Exod. 14. and to his Sons who alone had the Office of Priesthood in the Tribe of Levi Which the Apostle therefore calls a Levitical Priesthood VII Hebr. 11. Verse 1. Verse 1 And the LORD called unto Moses That is bad him draw near and not be afraid because of the Glory of that Light which was in the Tabernacle XL Exod. 35. For this is a word of love as the Hebrew Doctors speak who observe that God is not said to call the Prophets of the Gentiles but we only read that God jikar met Balaam not jikra called to him as he did here to Moses Who as Procopius Gazaeus hath well observed upon this word appointed no Service of God in his House which he had lately erected without his order whereas the Worship performed in the honour of Daemons was without any Authority from him Nay there were Magical Operations in it and Invocation of Daemons and certain tacit Obligations which their Priests contracted with them For which he produces Porphyry as a Witness And spake unto him but of the Tabernacle Hitherto he had spoken to him out of Heaven or out of the Cloud but now out of his own House Into which it is not here said he bad him come as he did afterwards when the Glory of the LORD dwelt only in the inner part of the House over the Ark but he stood it is likely without the Door of the Tabernacle till the Sacrifices were appointed as it here follows and the High Priest entred into it with the Blood of Expiation I can find no time in which this can so probably be supposed to have been done as immediately after the Consecration of the Tabernacle as soon as the Glory of the LORD entred into it And so I find Hesychius understood it who observing this Book to begin with the word And which is a Conjunction used to joyn what follows with that which goes before thence concludes that the beginning of this Book is knit to the conclusion of the last and consequently what is here related was spoken to Moses on the same day he had set up the Tabernacle and the Glory of the LORD filled it When Moses might well think as the Hierusalem Targum explains it that if Mount Sinai was so exalted by the Divine Presence there for a short space that it was not safe for him to approach it much less come up into it till God commanded him he had much more reason not to go into the Tabernacle which was sanctified to be God's dwelling place for ever till God called to him by a Voice from his Presence nay he durst not so much as come near the Door where I suppose he now stood without a particular Direction from the Divine Majesty Ver. 2. Verse 2 Speak unto the Children of Israel and say unto them The Tabernacle being erected it was fit in the next place to appoint the Service that should be performed in it which consisted in such Sacrifices as are here mentioned in the beginning of this Book There could not be a more Natural order in setting down the Laws delivered by Moses than this which is here observed If any man of you bring It is the Observation of Kimchi that in the very beginning of the Laws about Sacrifices God doth not require them to offer any but only supposes they would having been long accustomed to it as all the World then was To this he applys the words of Jeremiah VII 21. and takes it for an Indication that otherwise God would not have given so many Laws concerning Sacrifices but only in compliance with the usage of the World which could not then have been quite broken without the hazard of a Revolt from him And therefore they are directed to the right Object the Eternal God and limited to such things as were most agreeable to Humane Nature An offering unto the LORD The Hebrew word Korban which we translate an Offering and the Greeks translate a Gift is larger than Zebach which we translate a Sacrifice For as Abarbinel observes in his Preface to this Book though every Sacrifice was an Offering yet every Offering was not a Sacrifice A Sacrifice being an Offering that was slain but there were several Offerings of inanimate things as those mentioned in the beginning of the second Chapter of this Book which therefore were not properly Sacrifices but were accepted of God as much as the Offering of Beasts when they had nothing better to give And therefore the same Abarbinel will have the Name of Korban to be given to these Offerings because thereby Men approached to God For it is derived from a word which signifies to draw near from whence he thinks those words in Deuteronomy IV. 7. What Nation is there that hath God so nigh unto them c. Ye shall bring He speaks in the Plural Number say some of the Hebrew Doctors who have accurately considered these things to show that two Men might joyn together to offer one thing Your offering of the Cattle I do not know what ground Maimonides had to assert in his More Nevochim Pars III. cap. 46. that the Heathen in those days had brute Beasts in great veneration and would not kill them for it is no Argument there was such a Superstition in Moses his time because there were People in the days of Maimonides as there are now who were possessed with such Opinions But he thinks God intended to destroy this false Perswasion by requiring the Jews to offer such Beasts as are here mentioned that what the Heathen thought it a great sin to kill might be offered to God and thereby Mens sins be expiated By this means saith he Mens evil Opinions which are the Diseases and Ulcers of the Mind were cured as Bodily Diseases are by their contraries Yet in the XXXII Chapter of that Book he saith God ordered Sacrifices to be offered that he might not wholly alter the Customs of Mankind who built Temples and offered Sacrifices every where taking care it may be added at the same time that they should be offered only to himself at one certain place and after such a manner as to preserve his People from all Idolatrous Rites Which if they had considered who contemned this Book of LEVITICUS as Procopius Gazaeus tells us some did
northward The greater Sacrifices which the Jews call the most holy things had this peculiar place assigned them where they were to be killed viz. all the Burnt-offerings whether of Bullocks Sheep or Goats and all Offerings for sin VI. 25. and all Trespass-offerings VII 2. But all the other Sacrifices which they call the lesser holy things such as the Peace-offerings of particular Men the Paschal Lamb the First-born and that which was tithed might be killed in any part of the Court where the Altar stood there being no peculiar place appointed by the Law for that purpose but only at the Entrance of the Tabernacle Yet a Peace-offering for the whole Congregation was lookt upon as belonging to the things most holy and so was slain as Maimonides tells us at the North-side of the Altar where there were certain Rings fixed to which the Head or as some say the Feet of the Beast was tied in order to its being killed But they were not perfect Rings as L'Empereur observes being rather half-segments of Rings one part of which was fastned to the Pavement and by the other the Neck of the Beast was tied to it See Codex Middoth cap. 3. sect 5. The reason of this difference seems to be only to make a distinction between these and other Sacrifices And all this is to be understood of the four-footed Beasts before-mentioned not of Birds which were sacrificed after another manner as appears from v. 15. And the Priests shall sprinkle his blood round about upon the Altar See v. 5. and VII 2. Ver. 12. Verse 12 And he shall cut it into his pieces with his head and his fat c. This Verse hath been sufficiently explained v. 5 6 8. Ver. 13. Verse 13 And he shall wash the inwards and the legs c. See v. 9. where this also is explained It is a burnt-sacrifice an offering made by fire of a sweet savour unto the LORD As much as to say this is as acceptable to the LORD as the Sacrifice of a Bullock when offered with a pious Mind Ver. 14. Verse 14 And if the burnt-sacrifice for his offering to the LORD be of fowls It is well observed by Maimonides in his More Nevochim P. III. cap. 46. that when a Man was not able to go to the charge of a Sheep or a Goat much less of a Bullock God was so merciful as to accept of a Bird only he prescribes of what sort they should be Nay he that was not able to be at this expence was accepted if he offered Bread however prepared whether in an Oven or a Pan according to the custom of those Times And he to whom this was too great a Burden might worship God by bringing only fine Flour as will appear in the next Chapter Then he shall bring his offering of Turtle-doves or of young Pigeons The same Author observes that there was a vast plenty of these Birds in the Land of Canaan and consequently they were so cheap that it would put the poorer sort to no great charge to bring this Oblation They were also very anciently sacrificed XV Gen. 9. and of a gentle nature as Procopius and others observe And Pigeons being best when they are young and Turtles when full grown accordingly they are appointed to bring them when they were most esteemed These are but seldom mentioned in the Sacrifices among the Gentiles who offered Cocks to Aesculapius and Geese to Isis as we read in several of their Authors Ver. 15. Verse 15 And the Priest shall bring it unto the Altar and wring off his head Pinch it off with his Nail as the Jews say at one of the Corners or Horns of the Altar viz. the whole Burnt-offering at the Southeast Corner and the Sin-offering at the North-west as Maimonides saith in his Treatise called Korbanoth cap. 5. But their Heads were so to be wrung or pinched as not to be separated quite from the Body but to be left still hanging to it For so it is ordered in that Sacrifice mentioned V. 8. and therefore they suppose it was so in all And the blood thereof shall be wrung out at the sides of the Altar This is the reason that the Priest alone might kill the Bird though others might kill the Beasts See v. 5. because the sprinkling of the Blood which none might do but the Priest was immediately conjunct with the wringing off its Head Ver. 16. Verse 16 And he shall pluck away his Crop Or the Stomach that the Sacrifice might be clean and free from all filth With his feathers Which were no more to be offered than the Skin of the Beasts v. 6. And cast it besides the Altar on the east part As far as might be from the most Holy Place which was in the West By the place of the ashes See IV. 12. Ver. 17. Verse 17 And he shall cleave it with the wings thereof but shall not divide it asunder The Wings were to be so cloven as not to be quite separated from the Body but still to remain hanging to it and so Salt being sprinkled upon the whole Body it was thrown into the fire So Maimonides observes in the forenamed Treatise where he takes notice also that it was otherwise in Fowls offered for sin of which nothing but the Blood belonged to the Altar the Flesh of them being eaten by the Priests and their Sons Whence it was that no Sin-offering of Birds was accepted unless it were accompanied with an whole Burnt-offering that the Altar might not be without a Feast when they that ministred there were entertained Thus it is required in several Cases mentioned V. 7. XII 6 8. XIV 22. XV. 15 30. and VI Numb 11. The same Maimonides likewise observes that this Sacrifice of Birds was one of the most difficult Works in the Sanctuary whereby the Mind of the Priest was kept as intent upon the poorest Sacrifice as upon the most splendid And the Priest shall burn it upon the Altar upon the wood that is upon the fire This was in part said before but here repeated more distinctly to show there was no difference to be made between the Sacrifices of the meanest and of the greatest It is a burnt-sacrifice an offering made by fire of a sweet savour unto the LORD The same is said of this as of all other Holocausts v. 9 15. to show that whether the Oblation was of the greater Animals or the less or only of Birds it made no difference in its acceptance with God Who graciously ordered these various sorts of Offerings that the Poor as well as the Rich might be capable to express their Devotion to him and be confident to find favour with him CHAP. II. Ver. 1. Verse 1 AND when any will offer a Meat-offering unto the LORD Here is a merciful provision for those who were neither able to offer Beasts of any sort nor Birds whom God ordered to bring Meal as was observed before on the first Chapter v. 14. which was called
in the Hebrew Language Minchah and by us translated a Meat-offering For it was a Korban or Gift as well as the foregoing though of a lower sort And R. Levi Barcelonita thinks this sort of mean Present as we may call it had the name of Mincah because such Offerings were very often meerly voluntary from whence whatsoever is not due among Men from another is called Mincah a Gift Some of which were constant and stated and also of a determinate quantity being an Appendix to the daily Burnt-sacrifice Morning and Evening as we read XXIX Exod. 38 39 c. But these here spoken of were voluntary when any Man's Devotion inclined him to acknowledge God and implore his Divine Blessing And no certain quantity was prescribed only the Jews say not less than an Ephah was accepted but as much more as they pleased See Dr. Outram in his excellent Book De Sacrificiis p. 90. His offering shall be of fine flour Viz. Of Wheat-flour For all the Offerings of this kind whether for the whole Congregation or particular Men were of pure Wheat-flour sifted from the Bran except only the Omer of First-fruits of their Harvest XXIII 13 14. and that which was called the Mincha of Jealousie V Numb 15. which were of Barley Of these voluntary Offerings there were five sorts as appears by this Chapter for they were either of raw Meal mentioned in this Verse or Meal made into Cakes baked in an Oven which was of two sorts v. 4. or baked in a Pan v. 5. or in a Frying-pan v. 7. The first of which was the most ancient as appears from IV Gen. 3. and from what the Heathen say of it particularly Plato L. VI. de Legibus and Pliny L. XXX Nat. Hist cap. 5. where he saith Numa ordered the Romans Deos fruge colere c. And Pausanias in his Attica tells us in the Porch of the most high Jupiter there was an Altar where they did not offer the Sacrifice of Beasts but only of fine Flour The same he repeats in his Arcadia and says this was ordained by Cecrops that they should Sacrifice only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Athenians in his time called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And accordingly Triptolemus another of their most ancient Lawgivers enacted this as one of his principal Laws that they should worship their Gods with the Fruits of the Earth For these three Laws of his Porphyry saith were preserved to his days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. IV. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to honour their Parents Worship their gods with the Fruits of the Earth and hurt no living Creature Which last St. Hierom L. II. contra Jovin translates not to eat flesh And he shall pour oil upon it Which was done to give this sort of Offering a grateful relish as Maimonides observes P. III. More Nevochim cap. 46. The Heathen used Oil in their Sacrifices but not mixed with Flour but poured upon the Flesh of the Beast that was sacrificed to make it burn the better upon the Altar So that of Virgil shows Aeneid VI. Pingue superque Oleum fundens ardentibus extis And put frankincense thereon To make a sweet Odour in the Court of the Tabernacle which otherwise would have been offensive by reason of the Flesh that was burnt there daily as the same Maimonides speaks in the place before-named When they came into the Land of Canaan where they were required XV Numb 2 3 c. to take care that this Mincha or Meat-offering should attend all the Freewil-offerings of Beasts as well as the daily Morning and Evening Sacrifice there is no Frankincense appointed but a certain quantity of Wine which perhaps was instead of it having a fragrant smell and was not required in the Offering here mentioned Both these were common in the Sacrifices of the Gentiles as appears by this single passage in Ovid L. V. de Tristibus Eleg. 5. Da mihi thura puer pingues facientia flammas Quodque pio fusum stridat in igne merum Ver. 2. Verse 2 And he shall bring it In a silver Dish or of some other Metal as R. Levi of Barcelona expounds it Praecept CXVI wherein he delivered it to the Priest who carried it to the Altar and presented it to God by lifting it up over his Head and as the Jews generally say turning it about to all the four quarters of the World in token that it was offered to the Possessor of Heaven and of Earth To Aarons sons the Priests To one of them that ministred at the Altar that day this Offering was brought as appears by the next words And he shall take thereout his handful of the flour thereof As much as he could take up between his fingers saith the fore-mentioned R. Levi. And of the oil thereof Which was mingled as I said before with the Flour With all the frankincense thereof None of which was to be reserved for the Priests own use but intirely burnt upon the Altar Which was contrary to the way of the Gentiles who called Frankincense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Diodorus Siculus speaks L. II. a thing most beloved of the Gods but yet offered only so much as they could take up with two fingers or as others say three See Cuperus his Apotheosis Homeri p. 74 c. And the Priest shall burn the memorial thereof upon the Altar As a grateful Acknowledgment unto God that they held all they possessed of him their Sovereign LORD whom they supplicated also hereby that he would still be mindful of them that is be gracious to them For this Offering seems to have something of the nature of an Holocaust or whole Burnt-offering though others will have it to be an Expiatory Sacrifice because part of it was eaten by the Priests But it being said in the next words to be an Offering made by fire which is the phrase for a whole Burnt-offering in the foregoing Chapter v. 9 13 17. I take the other to be the truer Of a sweet savour unto the LORD The very same being said of this sort of Offering which is of the foregoing that were more chargeable I. 9 13 17. Procopius Gazaeus had great reason here to observe which cannot be too oft repeated that true Piety is not demonstrated by the greatness of its presents The way of Piety is open and easie unto all For God's Commandment is exceeding broad And he that maketh the smallest signification of it if it be sincere differs nothing from him who shows it by the largest Gifts c. So vain were the reasonings of the Heathen who disputed which were the most acceptable Sacrifices to their Gods those of living Creatures or of Things inanimate Julian contended that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the Sacrifices of living Creatures were more esteemed than of those without life because they were nearer of kin to the living God and the Author of Life But his great Doctors Pythagoras and Porphyrius as St. Cyril observes L. X.
contra Julianum condemned these Sacrifices of Beasts as hateful to their Gods who they fancied were pleased only with those that were made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Fruits of the Earth and of Frankincense But they might have learnt from Moses if they had pleased Julian and Porphyry being acquainted with his Books that these things were alike acceptable God having respect to the Mind of him that offered not to his Gifts Ver. 3. Verse 3 And the remnant of the meat-offering shall be Aarons and his sons To be eaten by them But that Meat-offering which was offered for the Priests themselves was to be wholly burnt and no part eaten VI. 22 23. It is a thing most holy of the offerings of the LORD made by fire Nothing is more known then the distinction which the Jews make between things most holy and the lighter holy things as their phrase is which I took notice of before The most holy were such as none whatsoever might eat of or none but the Priests and the Sons of Priests and that only in the Sanctuary and no where else See VI. 16 26. Such were all whole Burnt-offerings all the Sin-offerings and all the Peace-offerings for the whole Congregation The lighter holy things were such as might be eaten by those who were not Priests in any place within the City of Jerusalem to which their Camp now answered and such were all the Peace-offerings of particular Persons the Paschal Lamb the Tenth and the Firstlings of Cattle Ver. 4. Verse 4 And if thou bring an oblation of a meat-offering baken in the oven This is the first sort of baked Mincha's for the preparing of which there was an Oven in the Court of the Tabernacle as afterward there was in the Court of the Temple 1 Chron. XXIII 28 29. XLVI Ezek. 20. It shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mingled with oil or unleavened wafers anointed with oil If the Cakes were thick then the Oil was kneaded together with them But if they were thin like a Wafer then it was only spread upon it before it was baked See XXIX Exod. 2. or as some will have it after it came out of the Oven Concerning its being unleavened see below v. 11. Ver. 5. Verse 5 And if thy oblation be a meat-offering baken in a pan Or in a flat Plate as we translate it in the Margin For Maimonides says this was the difference between Macabath which is the Hebrew word in this place and Marchesheth that the former was a Pan or Plate without any Rim about it and the other had one as our Frying-pans have And so Abarbinel in his Preface to this Book observes out of Jarchi that there was a Vessel in the Temple which was only flat and broad but had no rising on the sides of it So that the Oil being poured upon it when it was set on the fire ran down and increased the Flame and made the Cake hard It shall be of fine flour unleavened mingled with oil This sort of Cake seems to have been both kneaded with Oil and to have had Oil also poured upon it after it was laid upon the Plate Ver. 6. Verse 6 Thou shalt part it in pieces c. This according to Abarbinel was done as it lay baking upon the Plate Or if this Division was made after it was taken off the reason was the same because part of it was to be given to God and the rest to the Priests And pour oil thereon Upon the pieces that they might by this new Addition of fresh Oil be made more savoury It is a meat-offering And therefore to be eaten with Oil v. 1. Ver. 7. Verse 7 And if thy oblation be a meat-offering baken in the frying-pan This Vessel was not flat but deep as Abarbinel observes See v. 5. because that which was baked in it was moist and fluid It shall be made of fine flour with oil The Oil was not kneaded with this sort of Mincha but put into the Pan so that it mixed with the Flour which might be shaken and moved up and down as things are which are baken in Liquors So Abarbinels words are in his Preface to this Book Ver. 8. Verse 8 And thou shalt bring the meat-offering that is made of these things unto the LORD c. This relates to all the bake Meat-offerings before-mentioned which were to be brought to the LORD at his House and there presented to the Priest who was to bring them to the Altar when they were prepared as before directed See v. 1 2. And this variety of Mincha's was allowed that the Table of the LORD i. e. the Altar might be furnished and his Ministers that waited on him entertained with all sorts of Provisions Ver. 9. Verse 9 And the Priest shall take from the meat-offering a memorial thereof A part of the Cake of whatsoever sort it was was separated from the rest for the LORD's portion to whom it was offered as an acknowledgment of his Supream Dominion over them and in commemoration of his goodness to them And shall burn it upon the Altar Before the other parts were eaten by the Priests as was directed before about the fine Flour v. 2. It is an offering made by fire of a sweet savour unto the LORD See v. 2. Ver. 10. Verse 10 And that which is left of the meat-offering shall be Aarons and his sons c. All this Verse hath been explained v. 3. Ver. 11. Verse 11 No meat-offering which ye shall bring unto the LORD shall be made with leaven These words which ye shall bring unto the LORD seem to have a peculiar emphasis in this place importing that no Meat-offering part of which was offered upon God's Altar should be leavened For no part of that leavened Bread which was offered in Eucharistical Sacrifices VII 13. nor the two Loaves offered in the Feast of Pentecost which some mistake for an Exception to this Precept were offered upon the Altar but given intirely to the Priests as their portion Made with leaven There are many Moral Reasons given both by Jewish and Christian Writers why none of the Cakes before-mentioned should have any Leaven in them which I shall not here set down There is some probability in their Opinion who think this was ordered to refresh their Memory by putting them in mind of their Deliverance out of Egypt But Maimonides seems to me to have given the best account of this in his More Nevochim P. III. cap. 46. where he saith God prohibited this to root out the Idolatrous Customs in those days as he found in the Books of the Zabij who offered to their Gods no Bread but leavened Next to this the Account which Abarbanel gives of it is not to be disregarded who thinks it was forbidden because it would have made delay if they had waited at the Tabernacle till the fermentation was perfected For ye shall burn no leaven nor any honey in any offering of the LORD made by fire
as much as if he had continued in it So Mr. Selden observes out of the Misna L. II. de Synedr cap. 15. n. 14. According to the sin of the people In the manner before-mentioned Or as R. Solomon interprets it if he hide any thing from the People whereby they err For so the words run in the Hebrew if he sin to the guilt of the people or to the making them guilty either by misinforming them or drawing them into Error by his Example so that they take a thing to be clean which is indeed unclean or the like Then let him bring for his sin which he hath sinned a young bullock without blemish It is observed by some that in great Offences the Sacrifices were small lest they should imagine their Pardon was procured by their great expence For here the word is Par ben bachur a young Bullock that was but a little bigger than a Calf And so this Sacrifice is called Par in the following Verses Whereas that of the Peace-offering is called v. 10. Shor an Ox though we translate it also Bullock one that was grown to its full bigness and consequently of greater value For a sin-offering How Chattah which we translate Sin-offering differs from ascham which we translate Trespass-offering I shall examine afterward when Moses comes to speak of the latter And now only observe that Chattah is the name both for Sin and for the Sin-offering as the word piaculum was among the Heathen which signified both a great Crime and the Expiatory Sacrifice for it By which those words in the New Testament may be explained Christ was made sin for us that is a Sacrifice to expiate our sins And so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sin certainly signifies VIII Rom. 3. Ver. 4. Verse 4 And he shall bring the bullock unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD This as I take it was to be done by himself who was to present the Sacrifice to the Divine Majesty and desire it might be accepted for the purpose to which it was to be offered And shall lay his hand upon the bullocks head As every one that brought other Offerings were bound to do See ch I. 4. III. 2 c. but here for another purpose viz. to confess their sins unto the LORD and beseech him to forgive them See V. 5. There is a good Gloss upon this in a very bad Book called Nitzachon not long ago published by the Learned Wagenseil where that Author saith p. 11. When a Man sacrificed a Beast he was to think in his mind I am more a Beast than this here present For I have sinned and for the sins I have committed I offer this but it were more just that he who hath sinned should suffer death than this Beast which hath not offended Therefore thus a Man by the help of this Sacrifice began to repent And kill the bullock before the LORD This seems to have been done by him that laid his hand on the head of the Bullock that is by the High-Priest himself For the greatest Men in old time did not think such work below them but rather esteemed every thing that served to the Worship of God to be noble and honourable So Homer represents King Agamemnon as killing the Lambs himself by the Blood of which he was to Seal the Treaty he made with the Trojans Iliad 3. yet in this case it is likely the High-Priest himself did not kill the Sacrifice but some of the other Priests that then ministred For he that did this seems to be distinguished by the next words v. 5. from the Priest that is anointed i. e. the High-Priest Nor was this Sacrifice killed in the ordinary place where Sin-offerings were killed See 24. being an extraordinary sort of Offering as that which follows also was Ver. 5. Verse 5 And the Priest that is anointed Whosoever killed the Sacrifice the High-Priest himself for whom it was offered did what follows Shall take of the bullocks blood In a Basin And bring it to the Tabernacle of the Congregation Into the very Sanctuary where as it follows he was to dip his finger in the Blood and sprinkle it seven times before the LORD Ver. 6. Verse 6 And the Priest shall dip his finger in the blood Or rather dip it into the blood And sprinkle of the blood seven times before the LORD This was peculiar to his Sacrifice for Sin and done in no other but that for the whole Congregation To signifie perhaps that their Offences were more heinous and could not be so easily expiated as those of other Men. The number seven every one knows was of great account and thought most powerful in Religious Actions even among the Heathen For as Elisha bad Naaman go and wash seven times in Jordan to cure him of his Leprosy so Apuleius in the beginning of the XIth Book of his Metamorphosis speaks of dipping the head seven times in the Sea for Purification and gives the reason for it Quod eum numerum praecipuè religioni aptissimum divinus ille Pythagoras prodidit because the Divine Pythagoras as he calls him taught this number to be above all other most proper in Religion Which in all probability Pythagoras learnt from the truly Divine Moses to whom God revealed the Creation of the World in six days and his Consecrating the seventh day on which he rested which made the number seven so much used in Sacred Matters For not only in this Sacrifice but in making the Water of Separation by burning a red Heifer this Rite was used XIX Numb 4. and in purging a Leper XIV Lev. 7. in dedicating the Altar XXIX Exod. 37. when the Oil was sprinkled on it seven times VIII Lev. 11. and at the Consecration of the Priests XXIX Exod. 35. and to say no more as every seventh day of the Week was holy so every seventh year the Land rested and after Seven times seven there was a Jubilee XXV Levit. They that would see more of this number and of its Sacramenta as St. Hierom speaks may read him upon V Amos 3. and Drusius on this place and on VI Josh 4. And Wolfius upon Nehemiah VIII Before the vail of the Sanctuary Which parted the holy place from the most holy For that is peculiarly called by the name of Parocheth which is the word here used XXVI Exod. 31 33 35. XVI Lev. 2 c. as the other Vail which was before the Door of the Tabernacle is constantly called Masach XXVI Exod 36 37. Ver. 7. Verse 7 And the Priest shall put some of the Blood upon the horns of the Altar of sweet incense c. This also was peculiar to his Sacrifice and to that for the whole Congregation v. 17. And shall pour out all the blood of the bullock That is all the rest of the Blood which remained after the sprinkling before the Mercy-seat and the tipping of the Horns of the Altar with it At the bottom of
that none might presume to take the liberty to burn the Bullock in any other place Ver. 13. Verse 13 And if the whole Congregation of Israel sin through ignorance The Jews generally understood by the whole Congregation the great Sanhedrim who represented the whole People of Israel So Maimonides in his More Nevochim P. III. cap. 41. and in his Treatise of Sacrifices and R. Levi of Barcelona Praecept CXVIII For they sometimes erred in Judgment and thereby misleading the People they were bound when they found their Error to offer this Sacrifice Yet the Talmudists have raised many Disputes upon this Point and made various Cases in some of which the House of Judgment was bound to offer the Sacrifice here appointed and not they who followed their Sentence and others there were in which they who followed their Sentence were bound and not the Judges themselves But if Moses his words be well considered it will appear that he speaks of a Sin committed by all the People in doing something which God had forbidden by making wrong Constructions of the Law or by common false Opinions or popular Customs For the whole Congregation is here plainly distinguished from the Elders of the People v. 15. which is certainly the name for their Judges and Governours It was Mr. Selden's intention to have treated largely of the Sense and Notion of this Law as appears by what he saith of it L. II. de Synedriis cap. 14. n. 4. where he refers his Reader to the third Book on that Subject for an account of this place In the beginning of which cap. 1. n. 1. he signifies his intention to explain what the Office of the Sanhedrim was in offering Expiatory Sacrifices for the whole Congregation Which he repeats again cap. 10. n. 1. with this addition that they made this Sacrifice in the name of all the People when they offended as a Community But he did not live to pursue his intentions being diverted by long Digressions about other Matters yet he shows sufficiently his Opinion was that this Sacrifice was not offered for the Sanhedrim but by them for the People And the thing be hid from the eyes of the Assembly They are not sensible of their mistake for the present but afterward discover it either by themselves or by their Rulers And they have done somewhat against any of the Commandments of the LORD concerning things which ought not be done Have offended against some of the negative Precepts as the Jews speak which forbid such things to be done See v. 2. And are guilty Are sensible of their guilt Ver. 14. Verse 14 When the sin which they have sinned against it is known When they have discovered what Precept they have violated Then shall the Congregation offer a young bullock for the sin Without blemish as was required for the Sin of the High-Priest v. 3. And bring him before the Tabernacle of the Congregation i. e. Cause the Bullock to be brought thither by some of his People in the name of all the rest Ver. 15. Verse 15 And the Elders of the Congregation shall lay their hands upon the head of the bullock c. They were to do this as Representatives of the People See v. 13. and the end of laying on their hands v. 4. And the bullock shall be killed before the LORD Either by some of them or some of the People whom they appointed See v. 4. Ver. 16. Verse 16 And the Priest that is anointed That is the High-Priest See v. 5. All the rest that follows to v. 22. is exactly the same that is prescribed in the foregoing Offering for the High-Priest himself Only R. Solomon Jarchi hath a nice observation on the next Verse that it is not said in this case as it is in the former he shall sprinkle of the Blood seven times before the vail of the Sanctuary but only before the vail without the addition of hakkodesh of the Sanctuary as it is v. 6. Because saith he if the High-Priest only sin the Holiness doth not depart but if all the Congregation sin then it doth depart As if a Province rebel against a Prince his Family stands but if there be a general defection he must fall He hath the like observation upon v. 22 23. but it seems too subtil For in the 18th Verse Moses only saith he shall put some of the Blood upon the horns of the Altar without adding of sweet incense as before v. 7. and yet it is manifest he means the same Altar and what was done in this Sacrifice was as acceptable as what was done in the other Ver. 22. Verse 22 When a Ruler hath sinned and done somewhat through ignorance against c. The word Nasi which we translate Ruler signifies the Head of a Tribe in I Numb 4.16 VII 2. But the Jews commonly understand it peculiarly of the Head or Prince of the great Sanhedrim who when they were under the Government of Kings was the King himself Thus the Misna gathers from these words in the Text when he sinneth against any of the Commandments of the LORD his God which signifie him say the Doctors that hath no Superior but the LORD And so the Gemarists understand it also as Mr. Selden shows L. II. de Synedriis cap. 16. p. 666. But I think it is most reasonable to extend this to all great Officers and Judges who had a peculiar relation to God and therefore were called by his Name Concerning things which should not be done See v. 2. And is guilty Acknowledges that he hath offended God by the Sin which he hath committed Ver. 23. Verse 23 Or if his sin wherein he hath sinned come to his knowledge If we retain this Translation and do not render the first word and but or then the foregoing words in the latter end of v. 22. veashem must be translated not is guilty but and acknowledges his guilt Which seems to be the true sense for when Men sin they are guilty though the sin was committed ignorantly but they do not acknowledge their guilt till they see it as Moses here supposes they might when they considered better or some Body informed them aright So these words signifie or his sin is made known unto him Thus L'Empereur very judiciously translates this whole passage And he acknowledges himself guilty or his sin be shown to him Otherwise there is no room for this disjunctive Particle See his Annot. upon Bava kama cap. 7. sect 1. and cap. 9. sect 4 5. And thus we our selves translate the first part of this disjunction in the latter end of the foregoing Verse V Hosea 15. acknowledge their offences He shall bring his offering a Kid of the Goats His Sacrifice was of less value than the two former From which Mr. Selden concludes that the High-Priest was not always the Head of the Sanhedrim L. II. de Synedr cap. 16. p. 653. For their Sacrifices were very different which argues a difference in their Persons And the Misna says
any Oil to it which was more costly and also had something of Magnificence in it Kings and Priests being anointed and therefore not becoming the meanness or the grief and humility of the Person that brought this Offering For which reason Frankincense was also omitted being a pleasant thing and not fit to be added to an Offering for sin which was offensive to God To this purpose the same R. Levi in the same place And we find this imitated also by the Heathen for Pliny saith in his Preface to Vespasian before his Natural History Mola tantum salsa litant qui non habent thura Ver. 12. Verse 12 Then shall he bring it to the Priest Confessing his Sin to him as is ordered v. 5. for which he desired this Offering might be accepted And the Priest shall take his handful of it even a memorial thereof For an Acknowledgment of his Fault and as a Caution to him hereafter Ver. 13. Verse 13 And the Priest shall make an atonement for him as touching the sin that he hath sinned in one of these With one of these three fore-mentioned Sacrifices either with a Lamb or with two Turtles or young Pigeons or with fine Flour For as Rasi hath observed there are three sorts of Men Rich Poor and very Poor and so three sort of Offerings are prescribed in this Chapter sutable to each of their Abilities And the remnant shall be the Priests as a meat-offering See Chapter the second v. 2 3. where the whole Meat-offering except one handful is given to the Priest who had nothing at all of some of the Sin-offerings mentioned in the foregoing Chapter v. 12 21. which were intirely consumed Ver. 14. Verse 14 And the LORD spake unto Moses saying Here begin the Orders which were given to Moses about another sort of Sacrifice near of kin to the former but delivered it is likely at some other time after he had written down the foregoing Laws about Sin-offerings See IV. 1. Ver. 15. Verse 15 If a soul commit a trespass In the Hebrew this is a different phrase from what hath been hitherto used signifying another sort of Guilt And sin through ignorance in the holy things of the LORD By applying to his own private use any thing that was dedicated to God as Maimonides expounds it in his More Nevochim P. III. cap. 46. which might be committed in the payment of Tithes and in First-fruits and the First-born of Cattle or medling with that part of the Sacrifice which belonged to the Priest alone Which things he that committed presumptuously was to be cut off XV Numb 30. but if ignorantly he was to do as here is directed in this Verse But these words seem to be particularly restrained to the last of those things now mentioned eating any part of the Sacrifice which belonged to the Priest alone XXII 14. and the end of this Law as R. Levi Barcelonita speaks Praecept CXXII was to excite fear and reverence in all those who approached unto holy things Then he shall bring for his trespass unto the LORD a Ram without blemish out of the flocks As a Sheep was a more noble Species among Creatures than a Goat so a Ram was of a greater value among Sheep than a Female and therefore this Sacrifice was more costly than the Sin-offering mentioned v. 6. With thy estimation Besides his Sacrifice he was to make Satisfaction in Money according as the Priest should esteem the damage For that 's the meaning of with thy estimation according to the value thou shalt set upon the thing which he applied to his own use By shekels of silver At least two Shekels as the Jewish Doctors resolve After the shekel of the Sanctuary See XXX Exod. 13. The Jews were thus confined to these Rites and such as are mentioned v. 8 9. in the rest of these Prescriptions that there might be no room for Idolatrous Ceremonies nor might Men among themselves be left at liberty to invent impious or frivolous ways of Worship and that the Obedience of good Men might be also exercised in these minute matters and the contempt of wicked People be the more apparent in refusing to comply with these known Laws of God For a trespass-offering The Hebrew word Ascham which we translate Trespass-offering is so near of kin to Chattah which we translate Sin-offering that one of them is sometimes used for the other as I observed upon v. 6. yet there is a real difference between them though it be not easie to determine wherein it consists For the greatest Men differ in their opinion about the quality of the Offences for which these two kinds of Sacrifices were to be offered Some saying that the Offences for which Ascham was offered were inferior to those for which Chattah was offered which is the Opinion of Maimonides in his More Nevochim P. III. cap. 46. Others on the contrary think that the Offences which were expiated by Ascham were more grievous than those expiated by Chattah which is the Opinion of no less Man than the deservedly admired Bochartus in his Hierozoicon P. I. Lib. II. cap. 33. Where he adds that the former sort of sins were committed knowingly the other only ignorantly For so the LXX translate Chattah by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which seems to denote a Fault committed by Error and Mistake but Ascham by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which carries in it the Notion of something premeditated and designed But this is directly contrary to the very words of Moses here in this Verse which expresly speak of a Trespass committed through ignorance Aben-Ezra therefore distinguishes these two much better making Chattah to significe a Sacrifice which was made for the purging Offences committed through ignorance of the Law and Ascham for such as were committed through forgetfulness of the Law But as he gives no proof of this so he was sensible it was liable to exception there being one of this sort of Sacrifices mentioned v. 17. which he saw could not be comprehended under this Rule Others therefore think the former hath respect to Offences against God and the latter to those against Men not observing that the very same sort of sin which when it was known is called Chattah when it was doubtful is called Ascham From whence a very learned Person of our own now with God who had much and long considered this matter concludes That an Offence was peculiarly called Ascham which is a name for the Sin as well as for the Sacrifice as Chattah also is about which either a Man was dubious as in the following Verse or did a manifest damage to other Men. There being no Ascham or Trespass-offering commanded to be offered by the Law but for such Offences as were so committed against God that their Neighbours also were injured by them As in the Case of those who did eat holy things here mentioned whereby the Priests were damaged and of those mentioned VI. 2 3 4. and such as lay with a
Mr. Selden L. III. de Synedr cap. 11. n. 6. where he likewise observes that Chiskuni is of opinion that such of the Family of the Priests as were both excluded from their Ministry in the Sanctuary and from wearing the holy Garments by reason of some defect in their Bodies were permitted to perform this Office of carrying away the Ashes And carry forth the Ashes without the Camp into a clean place See IV. 12. The fore-mentioned Rasi will have it that they needed not to take away all the Ashes every day but only a shovel full which they laid beside the Altar And when the hollow place of the Altar was so full that there was no room to lay on the Wood they were bound to empty it and carry all the Ashes away Ver. 12. Verse 12 And the fire upon the Altar shall be burning in it it shall not be put out This Precept is repeated again in the next Verse as it was mentioned once before v. 9. For which there is a just reason as Abarbanel makes account For in the ninth Verse he requires that the Wood for the Evening Sacrifice should be so ordered and attended that the fire might be kept in till the Morning And then here in this Verse he requires there should such care be used in taking away the Ashes that the fire might still remain and not be extinguished After which speaking of the Morning Sacrifice in the latter part of this Verse he requires in the next v. 13. that such a quantity of Wood should be laid on the Altar when they offered it that the fire might be kept in till the Evening Sacrifice or that if there were any extraordinary Sacrifices brought besides the daily Burnt-offering the Priests should still add more Wood that the fire might not be put out by that means but be able to devour them And the Priest shall burn wood on it every morning c. The Hebrew word for Wood being in the Plural Number R. Levi of Barcelona concludes there were more bundles than one brought in every day And from this place and I. 7. he gathers there were three The first of which he calls the great heap with which the daily Sacrifice and the rest for which there was occasion were offered of which he thinks Moses speaks in the ninth Verse of this Chapter The second was lesser which was laid at the side of the other that they might have Coals for the burning Incense and this he thinks intended here And the third was meerly to keep in the fire perpetually of which he thinks Moses speaks in the next Verse The Misna also tells us that there being seven Gates to the great Court of the Sanctuary three on the North and as many on the South and one at the East the first on the South-side was called the Gate of burning because at that Gate they brought in the Wood which was to preserve the fire perpetually on the Altar See Codex Middoth cap. 1. sect 4. And he shall burn thereon the fat of the peace-offerings This fat of the Peace-offerings was to be burnt together with the Burnt-offering and not separate from it by which means the Burnt-offering was the sooner consumed and more room was made for other occasional Sacrifices Ver. 13. Verse 13 And the fire shall be ever burning upon the Altar This fire was not kindled by the Priests but by God himself who sent it from Heaven to consume the first Sacrifice that was offered by Aaron IX ult From which time they were bound to take care that it never went out that so their Sacrifices might be constantly offered by Celestial fire because it was the continuation of that fire which came from Heaven by a continual addition of Fewel whereby it was preserved And so it continued as the Jews affirm till the Captivity of Babylon and after it as some of them would have us believe who fancy it was preserved in a Pit by the care of some religious Priests till their return though against the common Tradition among them which is That there was no sacred fire in the second Temple for they reckon this among the five things which were wanting there and had been in the first And as for the constant continuance of this fire there was care taken that wood should be laid up in the Temple for the maintenance of it so in order thereunto there was a certain set time when the People were obliged to carry wood thither which made a kind of Festival called by Josephus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L. II. de Bello Judaico cap. 31. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. it being the Feast of the Wood-carrying when it was the custom for all to bring up Wood for the Altar that there might be no want of Fewel for the fire which was never to go out It shall never go out This was a thing so famous that it was imitated among the Gentiles who thought it ominous to have their Sacred fire go out and therefore appointed Persons on purpose to watch it and keep it perpetually burning as appears by the Vestal Virgins at Rome whose great business it was to look after the Eternal fire as they called it imagining the extinction of it purported 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the destruction of the City as Dionysius Halicarn speaks This Institution is ascribed both by him and by Plutarch unto Romulus into whose History many things were translated by the ancient Pagans out of these Sacred Records of Moses as the Learned Huetius hath made probable in his Demonstratio Evangel Propos IV. cap. 9. n. 8. The Greeks also preserved such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inextinguishable fire at Delph and the Persians in like manner and many other People as Bochartus hath shown in his Hierozoicon P. I. L. II. cap. 35. and Dilheirus before him in a special Dissertation as he calls it de Catozelia Gentilium cap. 11. where he hath heaped up a great deal to this purpose and among other things hath this conjecture that the Grecian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Roman Vesta had their Names from the Hebrew word Esch or the Chaldean Escha which signifie fire The conjecture of David Chytraeus also is no less ingenious who derives those Names from Eschgal the fire of the LORD Ver. 14. Verse 14 And this is the law of the meat-offering He doth not speak of the Offerings which accompanied the daily Burnt-offerings but of those which were offered alone mentioned in the second Chapter Where directions are given of what they should consist and also how much the Priest should have for his portion but here are some things added concerning the place where they should be eaten by the Priests and concerning those Meat-offerings which were peculiarly to be offered for themselves The sons of Aaron shall offer it before the LORD before the Altar Or rather upon the Altar for so the Hebrew phrase on the face of the Altar signifies Or else
the meaning is he shall present it to the LORD before the Altar and then afterward as is directed in the next Verse burn an handful of it upon the Altar And so the Rule is Chapter second v. 8 9. When it is presented to the Priest he shall bring it to the Altar c. Ver. 15. Verse 15 And he shall take of it his handful of the flour of the meat-offering c. According to the prescription in the second Chapter v. 2. where all this Verse is explained Ver. 16. Verse 16 And the remainder thereof shall Aaron and his sons eat If they had no pollution upon them XXII 6. See Chapt. II. 3. The reason of the Precept was as R. Levi Barcel observes Praecept CXXXIII that it preserved the dignity of the Sacrifice to have it eaten only by the Priests and by them I may add only in the holy place and not carried out from thence as it here follows With unleavened bread shall it be eaten There is nothing in the Hebrew Text to answer unto the word with which makes the sense unaccountable that otherwise is easie and natural If we translate it as the Hebrew words plainly signifie unleavened it shall be eaten See X. 12. In the holy place There was a room in the Court of the Priests where they ate these holy things as Kimchi observes upon XLII Ezek. Which may be confirmed out of XVIII Numb 10. where the most holy place can signifie nothing but the Court of the Priests as L'Empereur rightly understands it in his Annot. upon Middoth cap. 2. sect 6. In the Court of the Tabernacle of the Congregation they shall eat it As the Priests did eat it in their own Court so their Male-children had a place in the Court of the Israelites wherein to eat it X. 12 13. And they are all said to eat before the LORD because this was a part of the Tabernacle as was also the Court of the Women where there was a place for the Priest's Daughters to eat as well as their Sons of the Firstlings that were offered to the LORD XVIII Numb 19. Ver. 17. Verse 17 It shall not be baken with leaven There were two little rooms at the East-gate of the Court of the Temple called The Gate of Nicanor one of which was a Vestry for the Priests to put on their Garments when they went to Minister and the other was for baking this flour and that mentioned v. 21. So they tell us in Middoth cap. 1. sect 4. And therefore it is ordered to be baken without leaven because it was a part of the LORD's Sacrifice which being offered unleavened Chapt. second v. 11. the remainder must needs be unleavened also because the whole was God's and the Priests could have it no other ways than it was offered unto him I have given it to them for their portion of my offerings made by fire That is of the Meat-offerings before-mentioned It is most holy c. This is the reason why it was not to be carried to be eaten out of the holy place See Chapt. second v. 10. As is the sin-offering and as the trespass-offering See v. 26. and VII 6. Ver. 18. Verse 18 All the males among the children of Aaron shall eat of it And none but they because it was a thing most holy It shall be a statute for ever in your generations That is as long as the Law about Sacrifices shall last Every one that toucheth them shall be holy According to this translation of these words the meaning is That it was not sufficient to be descended of Priests and to be Males but they were also to be free from any legal defilement who were admitted to eat of this Offering XXII 6. But these very words which we here translate every one in the 27th Verse we translate whatsoever and then the meaning is Every thing that toucheth them shall be made holy by them That is the very Dishes into which such holy things were put or the Spoons or Knives wherewith they were eaten were never to be imployed to any other use See XXIX Exod. 37. Ver. 19. Verse 19 And the LORD spake unto Moses saying At the same time the LORD gave direction about another Offering near of kin to the former but not yet mentioned Ver. 20. Verse 20 This is the offering of Aaron and his sons which they shall offer unto the LORD The Jews call this a Mincah of imitation which every High-Priest and every other Priest as they understand it were bound to offer when they were Consecrated and the High-Priest to continue every day as long as he lived So Abarbanel in his Preface to this Book Section 2. reckoning the various sorts of Meat-offerings makes this the fourth kind which the High-Priest offered every day and every other Priest once in his Life viz. when he first was admitted to Minister at the Altar at the Age of twenty years For both these Meat-offerings saith he are comprehended in this Verse But it may as well be understood only of Aaron and his Successors in the Priesthood of whom the following words seem to speak and not of the common Priests In the day when he is anointed The Hebrew word bejom may be translated from the day and so the Jews understand it that he was to make this Oblation not only upon the day of his Consecration but ever after as I said every day as long as he continued in the Priesthood And so the next words seem to explain it The tenth part of an Ephah of fine flour for a meat-offering perpetual half thereof in the morning and half at night The High-Priest saith Josephus L. III. Antiq. cap. 10. sacrificed twice every day at his own charges and then he describes this very Offering which was distinct from that which attended the daily Burnt-offering as appears by the quantity of this Meat-offering and by the manner of ordering it For that seems to have been raw Flower mixed with Oil but this baken as it follows in the next Verse See XXIX Exod 40 41. The reason why it is here mentioned is because it was a Mincah or Meat-offering of whose Rites Moses is treating and this is an Exception from the rest Ver. 21. Verse 21 In a pan shall it be made with Oil. With three logs of Oil as the Jews determine And when it is baken See v. 17. Thou shalt bring it in Unto the Altar And the baken pieces shalt thou offer c. If it was a Meat-offering of the High-Priest it was divided into XII pieces as Maimonides saith if of a common Priest for they will have both to be included in this Law then into X pieces which were so exactly divided that half of them were offered in the Morning and the other half in the Evening And the handful of Frankincense which they say was offered with them was in like manner divided and burnt on the Altar Maase Korban cap. 13. Ver. 22. Verse 22 And the Priest of
peace-offerings that pertain unto the LORD By these last words it appears that the whole Offering was the LORD's whose Bounty entertained him and his Friends to whom he gave the greatest part of it Having his uncleanness upon him c. In this Verse and in the next every one that had any legal defilement upon him is prohibited under a severe Penalty to eat of the Peace-offerings And they might be made unclean either by impurity in their own Body or by the contact of unclean things of the former of which he speaks in this Verse and of the other in the next Both were to be punished with cutting off which hath been explained elsewhere XVII Gen. 14. From whence it was that the Jews were so very careful not to go into the Judgment-Hall when our Saviour was condemned lest they should be defiled but that they might eat the Passover XVIII John 28. at which Feast Peace-offerings were offered together with the Paschal Lamb. See more of this XXII 2 3 4. Ver. 21. Verse 21 Moreover the soul that shall touch any unclean thing as the uncleanness of man or any unclean beast or any abominable unclean thing All these several sorts of Uncleanness contracted by touching things unclean we shall find in the following Chapters XI c. And shall eat of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace-offerings which pertain unto the LORD even that soul shall be cut off c. The intention of such Precepts was that the greater Reverence as Maimonides speaks P. III. More Nevoch cap. 41. might be maintained towards the Sacrifices which were offered unto God Upon which account Julian highly commends Moses who he saith as St. Cyril quotes his words Lib. IX contra Julian was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 truly religious about the eating of holy things which he proves from these very words of Moses But his conclusion from thence was very frigid as St. Cyril calls it That Christians were therefore to blame because they would not partake of such Sacrifices for we abstain not from them saith that Father as unclean things but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we rather make a progress as from Types unto the Truth Ver. 22. Verse 22 And the LORD spake unto Moses saying At the same time that all these Precepts were ordered to be delivered to the Priests he takes occasion to repeat several Precepts he had before given which concern all the People because it was of great moment to have them observed Ver. 23. Verse 32 Speak unto the children of Israel saying ye shall eat no manner of fat Because this was God's part and therefore not to be eaten by any one but burnt on his Altar See III. 16 17. And the reason Maimonides gives why it was reserved for him alone was because it was very delicious to the Taste More Nevoch P. III. cap. 41. Of Ox or of Sheep or of Goat The Jews restrain this Precept to these three sorts of Creatures which were the only Beasts that were offered at the Altar taking the Fat of all other Beasts to be lawful So R. Levi before-mentioned Praecept CXLIX Ver. 24. Verse 24 And the fat of the beast Of any of the fore-named Beasts which alone were allowed in Sacrifices That dieth of it self and the fat of that which is torn with Beasts may be used in any other use c. Though the Flesh of such Beasts was unclean yet they might apply the Fat when separated from the Body to any use only they might not eat it Ver. 25. Verse 25 For whosoever eateth the fat of the beast of which men offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD This seems to justifie the Opinion of those Jews who restrain the eating of Fat only to the three sorts of Creatures mentioned v. 23. as was there observed Even the soul that eateth it shall be cut off from his people If he did it presumptuously but if through inanimadvertence he was to be scourged as the Jewish Doctors affirm Yet if he did it a third time scourging did not suffice but they shut him up in a little Cave where he could not stand upright nor had room to sit down and there fed him with the Bread and Water of Affliction till his Bowels were sorely pinched c. as Maimonides describes this punishment See Schickard's Mischpat Hammeleck and Carpzovius his Annot. on him cap. 2. Theorer VII Ver. 26. Verse 26 Moreover ye shall eat no manner of blood whether it be of fowl or of beast See III. 17. Men were very prone to this in those times as Maimonides thinks whereby they ran into Idolatrous Worship Which was the reason God restrained them from it by threatning cutting off v. 27. to those who were guilty of it More Nevoch P. III. cap. 41. In any of your dwellings This is added to signifie that they might no more eat of the Blood of those Beasts which they killed at home than of those slain at the Altar Ver. 27. Whatsoever soul it be that eateth any manner of blood even that soul shall be cut off c. The reason of it is given XVII 10 11. But the Jews here distinguish particularly R. Levi Barcelonita Praecept CXLVIII between the Blood of the Soul or the Life as they speak and the Blood of a Member The former which run out freely when the Beast was killed in which was the Life of the Beast is that which is here meant as Moses more fully explains it in the place before-mentioned The other which remained in the several parts of the Beast they lookt upon as belonging to the Flesh and therefore might be eaten with it Ver. 28. Verse 28 And the LORD spake unto Moses saying He delivered at the same time some other Rules to be observed by the People in these Matters See v. 22. Ver. 29. Verse 29 Speak unto the children of Israel saying He that offereth the sacrifice of his peace-offerings unto the LORD shall bring his oblation unto the LORD of the sacrifice of his peace-offerings The meaning may be no more than this that before he and his Friends feasted together as is directed v. 15 c. he was to take care to bring his Oblation unto the LORD that is to see that God had his part of the Peace-offering for till that was offered none could meddle with the rest But if the import of the Hebrew words be well observed they seem to have a further meaning which is that whensoever any Man brought the Sacrifice which in the Hebrew is here called Zebach of his Peace-offerings he should also bring his Oblation which in distinction from the other is called Korban that is a Mincha or Meat-offering together with it that the Feast which was to be made might be compleatly furnished with Bread and Wine as well as the Flesh of the Sacrifice Ver. 30. Verse 30 His own hands shall bring the offerings of the LORD made by fire the fat with the breast it shall he bring The Sacrifice being
slain and divided the Priest was to put what belonged unto the LORD into the Man 's own hands viz. the Fat with the Breast and the Shoulder that he might present it himself unto the Divine Majesty That the breast may be waved for a wave-offering before the LORD This is the manner wherein it was to be presented the Man was to lift it up over his head and wave it to and fro his hands being supported and guided by the Priest See XXIX Exod. 24. and VI Numb 19 20. Maimonides describes the order of it in this manner first the Priest put into the Man's hands the Fat and then laid upon it the Breast and the Shoulder and after that one of the pieces of the Cakes for the Meat-offering upon them all which he waved about Ver. 31. Verse 31 And the Priest shall burn the fat upon the Altar but the breast shall be Aarons and his sons When that part which belonged to God's Altar viz. the Fat had been burnt there the Priests had the Breast and the Shoulder to their own use as Servants have what comes from their Master's Table For it was all offered unto God v. 29 30. who taking only the Fat for himself bad them take the rest viz. the Breast and the Shoulder which had been presented unto God by waving them to and fro as a Sacrifice to the LORD of the World but by him bestowed upon his Ministers for their maintenance in his Service This is more fully expressed in the three next Verses in which there is no difficulty and therefore I shall but lightly touch them Ver. 32. Verse 32 And the right shoulder shall ye give unto the Priests c. This is only a more particular declaration what belonged to the Priest who was to have not only the Breast before-mentioned but also the right Shoulder Ver. 33. Verse 33 He among the sons of Aaron that offereth the blood of the peace-offerings and the fat shall have the right shoulder for his part This is still a more special direction providing for the incouragement of that Priest who on that day ministred at the Altar unto whom the right Shoulder was appropriated as a reward of his pains in offering the Sacrifice Ver. 34. Verse 34 For the wave-breast and the heave-shoulder have I taken of the children of Israel from off the sacrifice of their peace-offerings and have given them to Aaron and his sons c. This doth not contradict what I observed just before for when he saith he hath given these to Aaron the Priest and his Sons the meaning must be to those of his Sons who at the time when these were offered sprinkled the Blood and burnt the fat Ver. 35. Verse 35 This is the portion of the anointing of Aaron and of the anointing of his sons c. In the Hebrew the words are This is the anointing of Aaron c. That is this they have in right of their Unction to the Priest's Office which intitles them to all before-mentioned In the day The Hebrew word Bejom may both here and in the next Verse be translated as I observed before VI. 20. from the day and ever after When he presented them to minister unto the LORD in the Priests office Made them draw near to attend upon him at his Altar Ver. 36. Verse 36 Which the LORD commanded to be given them in the day that he anointed them c. By virtue of a Grant from God when they were made Priests to enjoy this benefit in all future Ages By a statute for ever c. As long as this Law of Sacrifices and this Priesthood shall last See VI. 22. Ver. 37. Verse 37 This is the law of the burnt-offering of the meat-offering and of the sin-offering and of the trespass-offering c. This Verse contains a Summary of what he had commanded Aaron and his Sons from the ninth Verse of the sixth Chapter unto this place And of the Consecrations The whole order of their Consecration is not here directed but in XXIX Exod. only something belonging to that matter VI. 20 c. Ver. 38. Verse 38 Which the LORD commanded Moses in mount Sinai In that mountainous Country which lay near to Mount Sinai as Maimonides truly expounds it For he was come down from Mount Sinai and had delivered to them all that he received there XXXIV Exod. 29 32. before these Commands were given but they still continued near unto it and so the word behar may be translated by mount Sinai For as the last words of this Verse tells us they were still in the Wilderness of Sinai that is in that part of the Wilderness which took its name from its nearness to Mount Sinai In the day that he commanded the children of Israel to offer their oblations unto the LORD c. This doth not precisely signifie that he commanded Aaron and his Sons VI. 9 c. all these things on the very same day that he commanded the Children of Israel what Oblations to bring Chapt. I. 2 c. but they were delivered all at the same time immediately after the other without any other Commandments intervening CHAP. VIII Ver. 1. Verse 1 AND the LORD spake unto Moses saying See IV. 1. Ver. 2. Verse 2 Take Aaron and his sons with him Having delivered the Laws and Rules about Sacrifices and the Rites belonging to them he now prepares the Priests to offer them as had been commanded And there is not much said in this Chapter but what hath been explained in XXIâ— Exod. and other neighbouring Chapters where he relates the Orders he received in Mount Sinai about those things which were now performed And the garments XXVIII Exod. 2 4. And the anointing oil XXX Exod. 24 c. And a bullock for the sin-offering and two rams and a basket of unleavened bread See XXIX Exod. 1 2 3 c. These were in their kind the very best of the legal Sacrifices as appears in part from that Expression of the Psalmist LXIX Psalm 30 31. where he prefers Thanksgiving and Praise before a Bullock that hath Horns and Hoofs a young Bullock which began to spread its Horns and Hoofs that is before the very best of all their bloody Sacrifices Ver. 3. Verse 3 And gather thou all the Congregation together c. All the Elders of the People with the great Officers who were set over Thousands and Hundreds c. For these are frequently called by the Name of Col ha Edah which we translate all the Congregation particularly in XXV Numb 7. XXXV 12. XX Josh 6. XXI Judg. 10 13 16. where the Elders of the Congregation and the Congregation and all the Congregation are plainly the same thing Which is further confirmed from the next Chapter of this Book v. 1. where it is said expresly Moses called Aaron and his Sons and the Elders of Israel Ver. 4. Verse 4 And Moses did as the LORD commanded Summoned them to appear before the LORD And the assembly
the very same time But I have given some Arguments to prove the contrary upon XL Exod. 17 18. And the meaning of these three Verses 10th 11th 12th of this Chapter may be not that they were Consecrated at the same time but with the same Oil. For first he says Moses took the anointing Oil and shows how it was employed after a different manner upon the Tabernacle and its Utensils upon the Altar and upon Aaron on whose Head it was poured whereas the former had it only put upon them with the finger or were sprinkled with it But though they were not Consecrated together yet their Consecration immediately followed one another For seven days being spent in sanctifying the Tabernacle and the Altar then immediately began the sanctification of Aaron and his Sons during which time Moses may be supposed to have received the foregoing Laws about Sacrifices in which they were to be employed as soon as they were Consecrated And the seven days for the Consecration of Aaron and his Sons immediately succeeding the other seven days which were spent in the Consecration of the Tabernacle and the Altar it may be the reason why they here are succinctly mentioned both together and neither of them mentioned before For if the account we have in the XLth of Exodus concerning these things be well attended to it will appear that nothing is there said of the anointing of the Tabernacle or any thing else but only that he set it up the first day of the Month as he was commanded v. 2 c. and 17 c. And he is commanded in like manner to take the anointing Oil and anoint the Tabernacle and all therein v. 9 c. and then to anoint Aaron and his Sons v. 13 15. but he relates nothing of his doing either of them till now when he executed those commands Ver. 13. Verse 13 And Moses brought Aarons sons and put coats upon them and girded them with girdles c. See XXVIII Exod. 40 41. XXIX 30. XL. 14. As the LORD commanded Moses He commanded him also to anoint them at the same time XXVIII Exod. 41. XL. 15. but it is not here mentioned because they were not anointed as he was by pouring Oil upon their Heads but sprinkling it on their Garments with the Blood of the Sacrifice offered for them And that he did afterward as he had been ordered v. 30. See XXVIII Exod. 41. XXIX 7. Ver. 14. Verse 14 And he brought the bullock See XXIX Exod 1 10 c. For a sin-offering So it was designed to be XXIX Exod. 14. And Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the bullock for the sin-offering See XXIX Exod 10. I Levit. 4. Ver. 15. Verse 15 And he slew it XXIX Exod. 11. And Moses took the blood and put it upon the horns of the Altar round about with his finger As he had been directed XXIX Exod. 12. And purified the Altar It was purified before but this was a further purification of it that it might be the more fitted to be a place to make reconciliation upon it as it follows in the conclusion of the Verse And poured out the blood at the bottom of the Altar and sanctified it c. The vulgar Latin I think gives the true interpretation of these words rather than translates them in this manner It being expiated and sanctified he poured out the blood at the bottom of the Altar c. Fort. Scacchus hath taken a great deal of pains to prove that this Expiation as the Vulg. Lat. calls it went before the Anointing or Consecration of the Altar in his Myrothec P. II. cap. 34. But his Arguments seem to me of no force to overthrow the Opinion of Abulensis and Philo That these words do not speak of a proper Expiation of the Altar but that it was only hereby more particularly set apart as the word sanctifie signifies to be the place where Sin-offerings might be made that Men who had committed Offences might be expiated by these Sacrifices Ver. 16. Verse 16 And he took all the fat that was upon the inwards and the caul c. See XXIX Exod. 13. Ver. 17. Verse 17 But the bullock and his skin his flesh and his dung he burnt with fire without the camp as the LORD commanded Moses See XXIX Exod. 14. Yet we do not find that the Blood of this Sacrifice was carried into the holy place and therefore it did not fall under the Rule in the VIth Chapter of this Book v. 30. but might have been eaten by the Priests as is there allowed v. 26. Some think it sufficient for the solution of this to say that Aaron and his Sons were not yet compleatly Consecrated and therefore had not a right to eat of the Flesh of this Sin-offering But such Persons do not consider that Moses who now acted as a Priest could not be debarred of that benefit by this reason And therefore it is better to say that no High-Priest whether ordinary or extraordinary such as Moses now was might eat of any Sin-offering offered for the Priests themselves although the Blood of it was not brought into the Sanctuary From whence we may draw this Consequence that although the Sins of the People were taken away by the Priests who by eating of their Sin-offering plainly showed that they bare their sin as the phrase is X. 17. yet the Sins of the Priests themselves could not be taken away by any Sacrifice they could offer for sin of which they might not eat But they were to expect as an excellent Person of our own speaks Dr. Jackson Book IX upon the Creed cap. 26. a better Sacrifice made by a better High-Priest the Son of God But these Legal Sacrifices in the mean time were offered in such a place as prefigured the place where this better Sacrifice should be offered viz. without the Camp as when they came to their rest without the City of Jerusalem where our Saviour's Body was offered for our Redemption Ver. 18. Verse 18 And he brought the Ram for the burnt-offering and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the Ram. According to the direction given to Moses when he was with God in Mount Sinai XXIX Exod. 15 16. where all that follows here to the end of the 21st Verse is explained this being nothing else but the execution of what was before ordered Ver. 22. Verse 22 And he brought the other Ram. For he was commanded to bring two v. 2. and XXIX Exod. 1. The Ram of Consecration So it is called XXIX Exod 22 31. for the reason there given Ver. 23 24. Verse 23 24. And he slew it and Moses took of the blood of it c. These two Verses are explained XXIX Exod. 20. where order was given for what was now done I shall only add a Remark of R. Levi ben Gersom upon the order wherein these Sacrifices were offered which was most rational For first there was a Sacrifice
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
XL Exod. 34 35. openly showed it self to them all v. 23. and declared his Grace and Favour towards them by consuming their Sacrifice as an acceptable Oblation to him v. 24. Whereby a particular Honour also was done unto Aaron who was hereby most illustriously owned to be God's High-Priest and all other Persons deterred from pretending to his Office Ver. 7. Verse 7 And Moses said unto Aaron Go unto the Altar and offer thy sin-offering and thy burnt-offering One of them after the other in the order wherein they were directed viz. his Sin-offering first to make his Burnt-offering accepted Make an atonement for thy self and for the people First for himself as the Apostle observes VII Hebr. 27. that then he might be capable to offer for the Sins of the People This was the great imperfection of the Aaronical Priests that they were Sinners like other Men by reason whereof they were bound as for the people so also for themselves to offer for sins V Hebr. 3. And offer the offering of the people and make an atonement for them After he had offered both the Sin-offering v. 8. and the Burnt-offering v. 13. for himself then he was to begin to offer for the People For his own Sins being expiated and his Burnt-offering being accepted he was fit to procure Remission and Acceptance for them Ver. 8. Verse 8 Aaron therefore went unto the Altar That he might be ready to perform his part of the Service which was to sprinkle the Blood after he had first of all offered the Morning Sacrifice See v. 17. And slew the Calf of the sin-offering which was for himself Ordered it to be slain for this was no part of the Priests work as I showed upon the first Chapter v. 5. Ver. 9. Verse 9 And the sons of Aaron brought the blood unto him They received it in Basons as it run from the Calf when it was killed See I. 5. and brought it unto him who stood at the Altar to receive it and do what follows And he dipt his finger in the blood The fore-finger of the right hand which had been sanctified to this Ministry by putting the Blood of the Sacrifice of Consecration upon the thumb of the right hand VIII 23 24. whereby we grasp all things and cannot hold them strongly nor perform any thing well if that be wanting And put it upon the horns of the Altar c. See IV. 25. Ver. 10. Verse 10 But the fat and the kidneys and the caul above the liver See IV. 8 9. He burnt upon the Altar as the LORD commanded Moses Laid or disposed them upon the Altar to be burnt by the heavenly fire v. 24. as most understand it And the LXX justifie this Opinion who though they here translate it He offered it on the Altar yet v. 13. where there is the same phrase they expresly translate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he laid the Burnt-offering upon the Altar and again v. 17. in the same manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. he laid it upon the Altar besides the burnt-sacrifice of the morning For common fire it is supposed was no longer to be used when Aaron's Sacrifice began as it had been all along before But there is no certainty in this and we may as well take the words in their proper sense that Aaron burnt this and the following Sacrifice as Moses had done before VIII 14 21 28. until the Burnt-offering for the People came to be offered which God consumed by fire from himself and then followed those other Sacrifices mentioned v. 17 18. For all these Sacrifices for Aaron and for the People could not be laid upon the Altar at once but one after another in the order here directed and consequently this Sacrifice here mentioned was actually burnt upon the Altar to make way for those which followed it Ver. 11. Verse 11 And the flesh and the hide he burnt with fire without the camp See VIII 17. Ver. 12. Verse 12 And he slew the burnt-offering and Aaron's sons presented to him the blood c. See I. 5. Ver. 13 14. Verse 13 14. And they presented the burnt-offering unto him with the pieces thereof c. All that is contained in these two Verses is explained in the first Chapter v. 8 9. where the Law about burnt-offerings is delivered Ver. 15. Verse 15 And he brought the peoples sin-offering c. Having offered all that was necessary for himself now he became fit to make Supplication for the People And offered it for sin as the first In the same manner as he offered the foregoing Sin-offering for himself v. 8 c. Ver. 16. Verse 16 And he brought the burnt-offering Here being no express mention of burning it some from thence conclude that this was the Offering which alone was consumed by fire from the LORD See v. 24. And offered it according to the manner Laid it upon the Altar as Moses had directed in the first Chapter of this Book Ver. 17. And he brought the meat-offering c. Which attended upon Burnt-offerings XV Numb 2 3 4 c. Beside the burnt-offering of the morning This shows that Aaron began his Priestly Function with the Morning Sacrifice which preceded all other and was never omitted for the sake of any other Sacrifice that was to follow it and it had always a Meat-offering waiting upon it XXIX Exod. 39 40. Ver. 18 19. Verse 18 19. He slew also the Bullock and the Ram for a sacrifice of peace-offerings These two Verses are explained in the third Chapter which treats of such kind of Offerings Ver. 20. Verse 20 And he put the fat upon the beasts c. That it might by elevation and waving be presented unto the LORD and then burnt upon the Altar See VII 30. Ver. 21. Verse 21 And the breasts and the right shoulder Aaron waved for a wave-offering before the LORD The Fat being burnt upon the Altar as God's portion these were the portion of the Priests who feasted upon God's Meat for they were solemnly presented unto him before they had them See VII 34. Ver. 22. Verse 22 And Aaron lifted up his hands towards the people Imploring the Divine Blessing upon the People which he afterwards pronounced At this day they that are of the Family of Aaron going up the steps which lead to the place where the Book of the Law is kept lift up their hands as high as their heads and pronounce a Blessing in their Synagogues upon the Assembly And they say the ancient Custom was which is still observed not only to lift up and spread their hands but then to joyn them together by the thumbs and the two fore-fingers dividing the other from them in that Figure which is represented by an eminently learned Person J. Wagenseil in his Commentary upon Sota cap. 7. p. 672. and 1132. And blessed them We read of no order for this but natural Reason taught them from the beginning that the Priestly Office consisted in praying
for the People and Blessing them We find an Example of it in XIV Gen. 18 19. And not long after Aaron's Consecration Moses delivered from God a form of words wherein the Priests should bless the People VI Numb 24. And at this day there is nothing done among the Jews with such Solemnity and in which they place so much Sanctity as this For when the Blessing is pronounced in their Synagogues they all cover their Faces believing they would be struck blind if they should look up because the Divine Majesty at that time sits upon the hands of the Priest So the same Wagenseil observes in the place above-named which shows not only how laborious they have been to maintain in the Peoples minds an opinion that God is still as much present with them in their Synagogues as he was anciently in the Tabernacle and Temple but how high a value they set upon the Divine Blessing pronounced by his Ministers And came down from offering the sin-offering and the burnt-offering and peace-offerings He pronounced the Blessing before he came down from the Altar which stood upon raised Ground though there were no steps to it XX Exod. 26. that all the People might the better see what was done while he offered all these Sacrifices for them and lift up his hands to implore God's Blessing upon them Ver. 23. Verse 23 And Moses and Aaron went into the Tabernacle of the Congregation The Sacrifice being ended it is likely Moses went with Aaron into the Sanctuary to instruct him how to sprinkle the Blood and to burn Incense and order the Shew-bread and such like things as were to be done only in the Holy Place And came out and blessed the people I suppose that all the Sacrifices before-mentioned might be offered after the Morning Sacrifice v. 17. which took up a great deal of time before they were all compleated After which Moses and Aaron went into the Sanctuary and stayed there till the time of the Evening Sacrifice and then came out and dismissed the People with a new Blessing when the Evening Sacrifice was finished And the Glory of the LORD appeared unto all the people That Glory which filled the Tabernacle XL Exod. 34 35. now appeared without either at the door of it or upon it in the sight of all the People as Moses had foretold v. 6. Ver. 24. Verse 24 And there came a fire out from before the LORD Either out of the Sanctuary from the Holy of Holies or from that Glory which now appeared unto them and sent out flashes of fire which burnt up the Sacrifice In either of these senses it may be said to come from the face of the LORD as the Hebrew phrase is And consumed upon the Altar the burnt-offering and the fat It seems to me most natural and easie to take this Burnt-offering and its Fat for the Evening Sacrifice which concluding the work of this day God gave a special Token of his acceptance of all the other Sacrifices by consuming this and likewise publickly testified his approbation of all the fore-mentioned Rites of the Ministry of Aaron whose Authority was hereby established in a miraculous manner To confirm this it may be noted that as the place which God chose for his Worship and Service was afterward designed in the time of David after the very same manner 1 Chron. XXI 26. So it was at the time of the Evening Sacrifice as may be gathered from 2 Sam. XXIV 15. where it is said the Pestilence continued from Morning to the time appointed that is to the Evening and then David saw the Angel who commanded Gad to bid him set up the Altar in the Threshing-floor of Araunah where God answering him by fire from Heaven it made him say This is the House of God and this is the Altar of Burnt-offering 1 Chron. XX. II. 1. And when Solomon built the Temple in that very place it was thus consecrated by fire coming from Heaven and consuming the Burnt-sacrifice as well as by the Glory of the LORD filling the House 2 Chron. VII 1 2 3. And it is very probable also that this was at the time of the Evening Sacrifice for the former part of the day had been spent in bringing the Ark into the House of the LORD and in Solomon's Prayer as we read in the two foregoing Chapters Certain it is that the Authority of Elijah to restore God's true Religion and Worship was thus justified 1 Kings XVIII 38 39. and it was at the time of the offering the Evening Sacrifice v. 36. From whence that Prayer of the Psalmist CXLI Psal 2. Let the lifting up of my hands be as the evening sacrifice All this was so notorious that Julian himself acknowledges that fire came down from Heaven in the time of Moses and again in the days of Elijah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consuming the Sacrifices as we find his words related by St. Cyril L. X. contra Julianum And this gave such a Divine Authority to the Jewish Religion that it is no wonder to find that the Pagans indeavoured to get credit to their Religion by the like reports of fire from an invisible Power consuming their Sacrifices which perhaps was sometimes really done by the Prince of the Power of the Air as the Apostle calls the Devil However that be there are several Instances of this in Pausanias Dionysius Halicarnassaeus Valerius Maximus and Pliny But Servius may serve instead of all who upon those words of Virgil in Aeneid XII faedera fulmine sancit saith that anciently they did not kindle fires upon their Altars sed ignem divinum precibus eliciebant c. but they procured by their Prayers Divine fire which inflamed their Altars And Solinus saith cap. 11. that the flame sprung out of the Wood by a Divine Power Si Deus adest si sacrum probatur Sarmenta licet viridia ignem sponte concipiunt c. If God be present if the Sacrifice be acceptable the Faggots though green kindle of themselves and without any one to set them on fire a flame is raised by the Deity to whom the Sacrifice is offered Thus there rose up fire out of the rock and consumed Gideon's Sacrifice VI Judg. 21. They that would see more of this out of Pagan Writers may consult J. Dilherrus Dissert Special de Cacozelia Gentil cap. 11. But especially Huetius in his Alnetanae Quaestiones L. II. cap. 12. n. 21. But whether this Fire which now came from before the LORD consumed Aaron's Sacrifice instantly or only set it into a flame which consumed it leisurely in the sight of all the People cannot certainly be determined The Jews seem to suppose the latter the heavenly fire being now kindled which continued ever after by a constant supply of Fewel whereby it was kept perpetually burning as is ordained VI. 12 13. See Note on that place Where to me it seems very observable that this Law of keeping in the fire perpetually is ordered to
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
ordered to be IV. 12 21. that is if their Blood was carried into the Holy Place then nothing of them might be eaten VI. 30. But otherwise their Flesh was to be eaten in the Court of the Tabernacle as is expresly commanded VI. 26. This distinction they either did not well observe when it was delivered or being oppressed with sorrow for the loss of Nadab and Abihu they did not think it fit to feast at this time upon the Flesh of this Offering For so Aaron excuses this Fact v. 19. And he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar He saith nothing to Aaron either because he was loth to add to his Grief or because it was the business of his Sons to look after this Sacrifice and to see that the Flesh of it was disposed of according to God's orders The sons of Aaron which were left alive Who by the punishment upon their Brethren should have learnt greater caution in their Ministry Ver. 17. Verse 17 Wherefore have ye not eaten the sin-offering in the holy place That is obeyed the Commandment which I gave you VI. 26. Seeing it is most holy VI. 25. And God hath given it you VI. 29. To bear the iniquity of the Congregation to make atonement for them before the LORD God bestowed upon the Priests this Reward of their Service that they might be the more willing to take upon them the Peoples Sins and to make an Expiation carefully for them And indeed the very eating of the Peoples Sin-offering argued the Sins of the People were in some sort laid upon the Priests to be taken away by them Which being done they had reason to rejoyce also in a Feast upon this Sacrifice which God had been pleased to accept for the taking away of the Sins of the People From whence the Sacrifice of Christ may be explained who is said to bear our iniquity as the Priest is said here to do all our Sins being laid on him who took upon him to make an Expiation for them by the Sacrifice of himself For the Priest here by eating of the Sin-offering receiving the Guilt upon himself may well be thought to prefigure one who should be both Priest and Sacrifice for Sin which was accomplished in Christ Ver. 18. Verse 18 Behold Observe what I say to you The blood of it was not brought in within the holy place It was none of those Sacrifices which I commanded you to burn intirely but required you to eat of it VI. 26 30. Ye should indeed have eaten it in the holy place as I commanded For as there was a peremptory Law forbidding the Priests to eat the Flesh of any Sacrifice whose Blood was brought into the Holy Place to make atonement with it so there was as peremptory a Law that they should eat the Flesh of those Sacrifices for Sin whose Blood was not brought in thither Ver. 19. Verse 19 And Aaron said unto Moses Though Moses questioned only Eleazar and Ithamar yet Aaron makes the answer they not being able perhaps to give an account of what they had done though sensible of their mistake Behold this day have they offered their sin-offering and their burnt-offering before the LORD His Apology for them seems to be this that they had not wholly violated God's Command but performed the Substance of it though they had failed in one Circumstance For they had not only offered the Sin-offering for the People for that is meant by their Sin-offering but also their Burnt-offering IX 15 16. and that before the LORD in the place where he ordered them to be offered In all this Aaron was the principal Minister but they assisted him For it is expresly said They presented unto him the Blood of the Peace-offerings which at the same time were also offered and they put the fat upon the breasts when he burnt the fat upon the Altar IX 18 20. And such things have befallen me After this was done followed the death of Nadab and Abihu who went in to burn Incense which struck him into such a Consternation and made him so exceeding sad that he was not fit to feast with Eleazar and Ithamar upon the Sacrifice and so suffered them to burn it And if I had eaten the sin-offering to day should it have been accepted in the sight of the LORD Would God have been pleased with me if in such Sadness and Sorrow I had eaten of the Sacrifice This is the reason whereby he justifies the omission of which his Sons were accused in not eating the Sin-offering in the Holy Place The blame of which he takes upon himself for to have eaten it with a sad Countenance and a heavy Heart he thought would have been to pollute it And therefore he chose to forbear it and to give it wholly to God by burning the Flesh of it as he had done the Fat which he hoped would be more acceptable than to eat it in grief And to eat it without grief and sorrow was impossible for though they had not been so dutiful to him as they ought to have been yet he could not extinguish the Affection of a Father towards them nor suddenly cease to mourn inwardly for their untimely death From this place Maimonides gathers there was but one day of Mourning due to the dead viz. the first the rest were added by the Constitution of the Elders Ver. 20. Verse 20 And when Moses heard that he was content He was either satisfied with his reason and thought he had done well for Nature seems to have directed what was afterwards enjoyned that they should rejoyce in their Feasts XII Deut. 7 c. and not eat holy things in their mourning XXVI 14. or he would not further charge him with a Fault for which there was so fair an Excuse For where there is no wilful Contempt but rather a Respect intended in any Action all good Men are inclined to make a favourable Construction of it and grant it an Indulgence though there be some Error in it CHAP. XI MOSES having mentioned in his preceding Discourse about Sacrifices several sorts of Uncleanness V. 2 3. and in the foregoing Chapter X. 10. commanded the Priests to keep themselves sober that they might at all times be able to distinguish between clean and unclean takes an occasion from thence to give an account of that matter For otherwise that which we read Chapter XVI would here have most naturally followed as appears from the 11th Verse of it being about the principal Sacrifice whereby all manner of Uncleanness was to be expiated which he now inserts in the midst of those things that belong to that head For first he treats in this Chapter of unclean Meats and in the XII XIII XIV XVth of unclean Persons Garments and Habitations And then after he hath directed how to make the great Atonement for the whole Nation and some other things he returns in the latter end of the XVIIth Chapter to speak of some forbidden Food and Chapter XVIIIth of unclean
were not so to other People See XXII Exod. ult Neither shall ye defile your selves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth Here being a different word used in the last Clause from that in the foregoing both which signifie creeping things Maimonides here distinguishes between them and saith that the first word Scheretz signifies such creeping things as are produced by Male and Female and Romesch which is the other word such as arise out of Putrefaction Which is now discovered to be an Error there being no such Animals as are produced meerly by the power of the Sun out of putrified matter but all out of some Seed or other which comes from Male and Female This therefore is only a Repetition of what was delivered before and now confirmed by an unanswerable reason Ver. 45. For I am the LORD your God that bringeth you up out of the Land of Egypt This was a benefit so fresh in their minds that he speaks of it as if it were now a doing and being the first and greatest benefit the very foundation of the rest there could not be a higher aggravation of Guilt than to be insensible of this Obligation XXXII Exod. 8. To be your God He having redeemed them out of Slavery made them thereby his own People over whom he had a peculiar Dominion in the right of this Redemption See XX Exod. 2. Ye shall therefore be holy for I am holy They being his peculiar People he separated them from all other Nations by peculiar Laws which made them different from all other People as he himself was from all other Beings Ver. 46. Verse 46 This is the law of the beasts and of the fowl c. That is this is the Rule you are to observe in eating of Beasts and Fowl and Fishes and things that creep on the Earth Of which four sorts of living Creatures Moses had treated in this Chapter though not in that very order wherein they are set down in this Verse but first of Beasts v. 2 3 c. then of Fishes v. 9 c. then of Birds v. 13 c. and lastly of creeping things v. 20 c. Some of all which kinds he forbad them to eat for such reasons as I have already mentioned unto which this may be added that by not allowing them an intire liberty to eat every thing but rather laying many Restraints upon them he intended to prevent that Gluttony and Luxury which is the ruin of a State unto which nothing administers more than too great variety of Meats the desire of which is insatiable Ver. 47. Verse 47 To make a difference To direct you how to make a difference Between the unclean and the clean and between the beast that may be eaten and the beast that may not be eaten There was no uncleanness in any of these things but what was made by this prohibition of them But there being great reason to prohibit them it was very necessary that both Priests and People should observe and be well skilled in the Marks whereby what was lawful to be eaten might be known from what was unlawful Upon which account this is so oft repeated and the same here expressed twice in different words CHAP. XII Ver. 1. Verse 1 AND the LORD spake unto Moses saying The Directions in this Chapter are given to Moses alone whereas those in the foregoing were delivered unto Aaron also as those are in like manner which follow about the Leprosie XIII 1. because Aaron and his Sons were peculiarly concerned in those matters to make an exact difference between clean and unclean X. 10 11. XIV 57. in which there was some difficulty and therefore they are charged by God himself to attend carefully to the Laws he gave about them But there was no such difficulty in what belong'd to the Purification of Women and therefore it was sufficient that they received Admonitions from Moses concerning it Ver. 2. Verse 2 If a woman have conceived seed and born a man-child Whether it were born alive or dead were an Abortive or come to its full time this made no difference as the Hebrew Doctors understand it She shall be unclean seven days For the first seven days after the Birth of the Child she was neither to partake of any holy thing nor to have common Conversation with others her Husband not being permitted to eat and drink with her all that time for they that attended her became unclean also And so they were accounted among the Heathen as Dilherrus observes out of Plautus in his Dissert Special de Cacozelia Gentilium cap. 3. where he saith the Women that assisted at the Labour solemnly washed their hands and had a Sacrifice offered for them on the fifth day after the Delivery Plautus his words indeed will not warrant all this which I find in his Truculentus Act. 2. Scen. 4. where the Harlot says she will Sacrifice for the Child on the fifth day according to the Custom Quin Diis Sacrificare hodie pro puero volo Quinto die quod fieri oportet Where Scaliger observes that the Greeks were wont to purifie their Children on the fifth day but the Latines on the eighth if they were Daughters and on the ninth if they were Sons which was called Dies lustricus According to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean That is her Case shall be the same with that of a Menstruous Woman who was in a state of the highest Uncleanness XV. 19 20. For every thing she touched was unclean and made those so who touched that thing Ver. 3. And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised This is here mentioned to show that one reason for not Circumcising the Child till the eighth day was its Mothers Uncleanness the first seven days of her lying in which made the Child unclean also Ver. 4. Verse 4 And she shall then continue From the seven days end In the blood of her purifying In the Purification of her Blood For all the following days were days of Purification not of entire Separation Three and thirty days All the days of her Uncleanness were forty And for the first seven days she was to be separated from all Conversation with her Neighbours but the following three and thirty she had free Conversation with them and was only excluded from the Sanctuary and from eating of the Peace-offerings or the Paschal Lamb and if she were the Wife of a Priest of the Tithes and other lesser holy things of which otherwise she might have eaten She shall touch no hallowed thing nor come into the Sanctuary until the days of her purification be fulfilled If Maimonides may be credited the Zabij an ancient sort of Idolaters in those Eastern parts had a great number of tedious and tiresom Customs about the Purisication of their Childbed-women from all which God freed his People by restraining them only from coming into his Sanctuary or partaking of
clothes i. e. The Man upon whom the Spittle fell Ver. 9. Verse 9 And what saddle soever he rideth upon c. By the same reason that the Seat he sat upon was defiled v. 4. Ver. 10. Verse 10 And whosoever toucheth any thing that was under him c. Either the Saddle or any thing else that was under him when he rode And he that beareth any of those things c. Removeth them from one place to another though it be to carry them out of the way that others may not be defiled by them unawares Ver. 11. Verse 11 And whomsoever he toucheth that hath the issue and hath not rinsed his hands in water he shall wash c. It is somewhat doubtful whether these words hath not washed his hands in water belong to him that had the Issue or to him that his hands touched Most understand it of the former That if the Man who had an Issue touched any other Man and had not first washt his hands that Man whom he touched should be defiled But the Syriack takes it to refer to the Man that was touched by him who if he did not immediately wash his hands with water was to be cleansed after a more laborious manner by washing his Clothes and bathing himself in Water But I do not see how washing of his hands could cleanse him when the Man that had the Issue touched perhaps some other part of his Body Ver. 12. Verse 12 And the vessel of earth that he toucheth which hath the issue shall be broken c. That it might not be imployed hereafter to any use See XI 33. VI. 28. And every vessel of wood shall be rinsed in water Such Vessels were not broken but only well washed because they were not so easily made as the other and were of more value There are so many washings prescribed here and on other occasions that it is reasonable to believe there were not only at Jerusalem and in all other Cities but in every Village several bathing places contrived for these Legal Purifications that Men might without much labour be capable to fulfil these Precepts And one cannot but think that such frequent washings were enjoyned to admonish them how carefully they ought to preserve Purity of Heart and Life Ver. 13. Verse 13 And when he that hath an issue is cleansed of his issue It having ceased for some time Then he shall number to himself seven days for his cleansing That there might be sufficient proof made whether the Issue was stopt that is he was really cured And wash his clothes and bathe his flesh In the conclusion of the seventh day In running water i. e. Spring-water as we speak which was most pure River-water was the same which comes from Springs And shall be clean So that he might keep Company with his Neighbours but not have Communion with God at the Sanctuary till after the following Sacrifices were offered For if in the end of the seventh day after his washing the Flux returned again all this labour was lost and he was to stay seven days more as Maimonides observes in his Treatise on this Subject cap. 3. Ver. 14. Verse 14 And on the eighth day If he continued free from the Flux after his washing on the seventh day in the Evening He shall take to him two turtle doves or two young pigeons These were the Sacrifices appointed for the meaner sort of People who were not able to be at the charge of a Lamb or other Sacrifices of the Flock or Herd V. 7. XII 8. And perhaps the great trouble the Man had endured and given others while he laboured under this Disease might be considered so far as to put him to as little charge as might be for his Purification And come before the LORD unto the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation But not into the Court of the Israelites till his Sacrifices were offered Ver. 15. Verse 15 And the Priest shall offer them the one for a sin-offering and the other for a burnt-offering As in the Case of a poor Leper XIV 31. who was bound also to offer a Trespass-offering of greater value And the Priest shall make an atonement for him before the LORD for his issue Perfectly restore him to partake of holy things of which he was debarred while he had his Issue And here it may be fit to observe That the greater part of all the Legal Defilements depended upon the Seat or Place of the Divine Majesty as the Author of Sepher Cosri speaks Pars III. sect 49. whose Presence there made their Country be called the Holy Land and was the ground of all these Injunctions about Cleanliness To which he thinks they have no Obligations at this day now that they live in an unclean Land i. e. among us Gentiles and want the Presence of the Divine Majesty among them Ver. 16. Verse 16 And if any mans seed of copulation Though the holy Writers speak very plainly of some things that we think it not so modest to name in that manner yet it is observable on the other hand that in things of the same nature they use Circumlocutions to express them which we stick not to speak of in blunter words As when they say The water of the feet meaning Urin and call going to Stool Vncovering of the feet which shows that it is nothing but the vast difference of Times and Places which makes that Language seem uncivil to us that was not so to them and on the contrary made them very cautious in their Expressions where we think it unnecessary Go out from him Involuntarily in his sleep or otherwise which the Hebrews call keri i. e. accidental Then he shall wash all his flesh with water and be unclean until the even This was one of the smallest Legal Pollutions from which they were soon cleansed without any Sacrifice And which some of them think did not oblige them to wash unless they intended to go to the Sanctuary But though that Opinion be true yet this Rite had such a respect to the Sanctuary that now they have none they do not think themselves bound to use it on such occasions Ver. 17. Verse 17 And every garment and every skin c. These things were made so unclean by such Accidents that they might not be used the next day nor till they were washed Ver. 18. Verse 18 The woman also with whom man shall lie with seed of copulation It is no wonder the holy Writers speak so plainly of these Matters being Men of great simplicity free from all wantonness commonly far advanced in years among whom Marriage and a numerous Issue were accounted the greatest Blessings and therefore coveted by all and renounced by none They shall both bathe themselves in water c. There is no sort of Pollution in the act of Marriage which is of God's own Institution but what this Law made and the Law made it as Theodoret thinks that the trouble of such constant
Verse 5 And he shall take of the Congregation of the Children of Israel The former Sacrifices v. 3. were for himself these for all the People Two Kids of the Goats for a Sin-offering These two Goats made but one Sin-offering which is described more largely and particularly v. 8 9 10. The former perhaps which was sacrificed to the LORD was to procure those good things which they had forfeited by their sins and the other the Scape-goat as we translate it to avert those Evils which they had deserved For the name that is commonly given it by the Greeks signifies its power to turn away Punishments Or the simple reason of it might be that the Israelites by this double Sacrifice for both were presented before the LORD might be the more fully satisfied of the Expiation of their Sins There is the like example before of two Birds appointed for the cleansing of a Leper's House one of which only was killed the other let fly away but both of them are said to cleanse the House and to be for atonement XIV 49 52 53. In which some of the ancient Fathers thought they saw a notable Type of our LORD Christ Whose Sacrifice as it was prefigured by all the Legal Sacrifices for the Paschal Lamb it self was a Type of him sacrificed for us 1 Corinth V. 7. so by this more especially on the Day of Expiation Which was of greater and more universal efficacy than all the rest and therefore represented him more fully than the other did Insomuch that these two Goats joyned in one Sacrifice may be thought to represent one Christ consisting of two Natures For since it was not possible as Theodoret expresses it to adumbrate both the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which was mortal and that which was immortal in Christ he commanded two to be brought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Goat which was offered in Sacrifice might prefigure the passible Nature of his Flesh and that which was let go might show the impassible Nature of his Divinity Quaest XXII in Levit. And St. Cyril Discourses to the same purpose in his ninth Book against Julian And one Ram for a Burnt-offering Which was no more than was appointed for Aaron himself v. 3. who herein is equalled with all the Princes of the People in whose name this Ram seems to have been offered Ver. 6. Verse 6 And Aaron shall offer his Bullock of the Sin-offering which is for himself Not by killing it which was done afterwards v. 11. but only by presenting it before God to be sacrificed which was done with a solemn Prayer wherein he beseeched God to be propitious unto him and his The form of it is set down in Massechet Joma cap. 3. sect 8. He laid his hand upon the head of the Bullock and said I have done amiss and been rebellious and sinned before thee I and my House I beseech thee now O LORD remit my Rebellion and my Sin which I have committed and my House c. And make an atonement for himself and for his house For his Family as I said v. 3. and for all the Priests who are called the House of Aaron CXV Psal 10 12. CXXXV 9. And I do not see why all the House of Levi should not also be understood For they are not comprehended under the name of the Congregation of the Children of Israel mentioned in the Verse before and therefore must be contained here under the name of the House of Aaron See I Numb 49. Ver. 7. Verse 7 And he shall take the two Goats Mentioned v. 5. which were to be of equal stature of the same colour and the same price as the Hebrew Doctors say in Joma cap. 6. both designed to the same end the Expiation of their Sins And present them before the LORD at the door of the Tabernacle c. All the Sin-offerings which were made for the Congregation were presented either by the High-Priest or by the Elders IV. 15. and by them devoted to God to be sacrificed on his Altar For this presenting of the Goat is the same with his offering of the Bullock in the Verse foregoing in which was nothing else but his solemn Consecration of them as I said to be sacrificed According to which pattern our blessed LORD and Saviour a little before he suffered upon the Cross and made himself a Sacrifice for us voluntarily offered himself to die for our sins Which is the meaning of those words of his XVII John 19. where praying for his Apostles he saith For their sakes I sanctifie my self that is offer my self to die as an Expiatory Sacrifice for them For that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes signifies as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dr. Owtram hath demonstrated Lib. II. de Sacrificiis cap. 3. And so St. Chrysostom here expounds these words I sanctifie my self by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I offer thee a Sacrifice or consecrate and devote my self to be sanctified And it is not an improbable Conjecture of another very learned Friend of mine now also with God Dr. Spencer that the appointing of two Goats to be both presented to God at the same time and with the same Rites was to preserve the Jews in a belief that there is but one principle of all things who both bestows good things and inflicts evil Contrary to the opinion of the Gentiles who made two Principles one good and the other bad which was the ancient belief of the Chaldaeans and other Eastern People and from them propagated to the Greeks and Romans Most of whose Sacrifices as another very learned Man of our own Country hath observed had respect to these two Principles to one of which they offered in the Morning and to the other at Night See Dr. Windet de Vita Functorum statu sect 3. where he observes that there are plain footsteps of this old Error at this day through all the East as far as China for there was an endeavour to infect Christianity with it by Manes the Persian in the Reign of the Emperor Aurelian nor was there any Heresie that spread so far as this Dotage did Ver. 8. Verse 8 And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two Goats The manner of it is described in the same Treatise Massechet Joma cap. 3. sect 9. The High-Priest went to the East-part of the Court on the North-side of the Altar having the Sagan his Vicar on his right hand and the head of the House of the Fathers on his left There stood two Goats with an Vrn or Box which they call CALPI the very same name which Lucian and the Scholiast upon Aristophanes give to the same thing as our learned Sheringham upon that Book and Bochart in his Hierozoicon have observed Into this Urn the two Lots were cast which were made of Box-wood as the Misna here says and in after times came to be of Gold But Maimonides in his Treatise on this Subject saith they might be made either of Wood or Stone
or any Metal provided one of them was not bigger than the other nor one of Gold the other of Silver c. but both every way equal as the Goats were to be Upon one of these Lots was written the name of the Goat which was for the LORD and on the other that which was for Azazel And then the Priest shaking the Urn and putting in both his hands as it there follows in Joma cap. 4. took up a Lot in each And if he brought up God's Lot in his right hand the Sagan who stood there said My Lord lift up thy right hand If in his left hand the Head of the Fathers said Lift up thy left hand And so the Priest let the right hand Lot fall upon the Goat that stood on the right hand and his left hand lot upon the other One lot for the LORD To be offered unto the LORD at the Altar The other lot for the scape-goat Or as it is in the Hebrew for Azazel as some have anciently translated it Now why a Goat was offered in Sacrifice and another Goat let go free laden with their sins rather than any other Creature may be understood perhaps from the inclination of the Heathen World in those days when they worshipped Daemons in the form of a Goat The Egyptians were famous for this and the Israelites themselves it appears from the XVIIth Chapter of this Book v. 7. were prone to offer Sacrifices le Seirim which signifies Daemons in that form And therefore to take them off from such Idolatrous Practises God ordained these Creatures themselves to be sacrificed and slain to whom they had offered Sacrifice And the young ones he appointed for this purpose for so Seirim signifies which the Egyptians most of all honoured and abhorred to offer or kill So Juvenal Nefas illic foetum jugulare Capellae Satyr XV. V. II. Now from hence perhaps it was that some fancied Azazel signified the Devil as R. Menachem and R. Eliezer among the Jews Julian among the Heathen and some great Men lately among us Who conceive that as the other Goat was offered to God at the Altar so this was sent among the Daemons which delight to frequent desert places and there appeared often in the shape of this Creature But this will not agree with the Hebrew Text which says this Goat was for Azazel as the other was for the LORD Now none sure will be so prophane as to imagine that both these Goats being set before the LORD and presented to him as equally Consecrated to him he would then order one of them to be for himself and the other for the Devil We must therefore be content with our own Translation which derives the word Azazel from Ez a Goat and azal to go away and fitly calls it the Scape-goat So Paulus Fagius and a great many others against which I see nothing objected but that Ez signifies a she Goat not a he Which made Bochartus fetch this word from the Arabick in which Language Azala signifies to remove or to separate And this agrees well enough with the name of this Goat according as the ancient Translators understood it some of which as Symmachus render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Goat going away others as Aquila 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Goat let loose and the LXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In which they had no thought of the notion of this word among the Greeks who called those Daemons by this name who were esteemed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as J. Pollux speaks averters of evil things from them But simply meant as Theodoret interprets it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Goat sent away into the Wilderness And so St. Hierom expounds it Hircus emissarius which agrees with the notion which Bochartus puts upon the word out of the Arabick Tongue This Goat being sent away into remote places there to remain separate from the Flock to which he belong'd and that upon a Mountain as the Jews fancy in the Wilderness of Sinai which from this Goat was called Azazel But I see no ground for this Ver. 9. Verse 9 And Aaron shall bring the Goat upon which the LORDS lot fell In the Hebrew the word is went up For he first took it up out of the Urn and then let it fall upon the Goat And offer him for a sin-offering Devote him to God to be a Sacrifice for their Sins beseeching him to accept of this Sacrifice for that end So the word offer I observe signifies v. 6. order being given afterwards for the killing of the Goat v. 15. Ver. 10. Verse 10 But the Goat on which the lot fell to be the Scape-goat shall be presented alive before the LORD This shows that the Scape-goat was equally consecrated and devoted to God as the other was though not to be killed but sent away alive after the other had been offered in Sacrifice To make an atonement with him For this was a Sin-offering though not slain no less than the other as appears from v. 5. which shows these two Goats made but one Sin-offering Which was partly slain at the Altar and partly let go as it here follows to run whether he would the more perfectly to represent the taking away of their Sins and removing their iniquity as the Prophet speaks III Zach. 9. by vertue of this Offering for them Some indeed have thought that this Goat was not sacrificed but only presented alive before God and so let go lest it should be thought God could not forgive their Sins unless he was appeased by some slain Beast which imagination was destroyed by letting this Sin-offering be left alive at full liberty to run quite away But I can see no ground for such a Construction because these were not two but one Sin-offering as I said before which being slain in part established that opinion in them of the impossibility of obtaining reconciliation without a bloody Sacrifice Certain it is that the whole Law supposes this that without shedding of blood is no remission as the Apostle observes IX Hebr. 22. And therefore it will be more agreeable to the Holy Scriptures if we think as some do That the first Goat represented our LORD in his Sufferings and this other in his Resurrection whereby he was freed from the Bands of Death both his Death and his Resurrection being for our Deliverance as the Apostle shows IV Rom. ult And let him go free Whether he pleased For so the Hebrew word Schalac send him away or dismiss him signifies in Scripture intire liberty such as God demanded for the Israelites from Pharaoh IV Exod. 23. V. 1. For a Scape-goat Into remote places Into the Wilderness In token their sins were quite carried away to be found no more for the Goat was not meerly sent into the Wilderness but into the most desert places of it as appears from v. 22. Ver. 11. Verse 11 And Aaron shall bring the Bullock of the sin-offering
and then prayed for all that should believe on him i. e. the whole Congregation of Christian People from v. 20. to the end Immediately after which he went to the place where he was apprehended and led to be Condemned and Crucified XVIII John 1. See Dr. Owtram de Sacrificiis Lib. II. cap. 3. n. 3. Ver. 18. Verse 18 And he shall go out unto the Altar that is before the LORD These words before the LORD seem to restrain this to the Golden Altar where Incense was offered in the Sanctuary and so I find it is generally interpreted even by the Jews themselves in Joma cap. 5. sect 5. as well as Christians But the words he shall go out plainly signifie his coming from the Sanctuary where the golden Altar was and had been cleansed we may well suppose together with it v. 16. into the outward Court to the Altar of Burnt-offering which was also before the LORD XXIX Exod. 11. though at a greater distance from him and which one would think stood in need to be cleansed as much as the Altar of Incense Now unless it was ordered to be cleansed in these words I can see no care taken about it at all In XXX Exod. 10. there is express mention indeed made of making an atonement upon the Altar of Incense once a year and nothing said of the other and if we will so understand it here then the words he shall go out must have respect to his going into the holy place mentioned in the Verse before And make an atonement for it This is generally understood as I said of the golden Altar because such express mention is made of its Purification yearly in the place now mentioned XXX Exod. 10. And no doubt that which is here commanded was done there when he made Atonement for the Table where it stood But there being the same need as I said to expiate the other Altar where no fewer Errors had been committed than here and which stood nearer to an unclean People who incompassed it I cannot but think that it s here included And shall take of the blood of the Bullock and of the Goat He put the Blood of the Bullock and of the goat together and then poured them into another Vessel that they might be well mingled For here is no command in this place that he should go round the Altar twice and tip the Horns of it first with the Blood of the Bullock and then of the Goat separate one from the other as the Misna in Joma observes cap. 5. sect 4. And put it upon the horns of the altar round about He began at the North-east corner and so went to the North-west and from thence to the South-west and lastly to the South-east and as he came near to each corner he put the Blood upon it So the Jews describe this matter in the same place sect 5. Ver. 19. Verse 19 And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his finger seven times Not upon the middle of the Altar but nigh the corners viz. in the place where he ended when he put the Blood upon the horns of the Altar So the Jews say in the place above-named sect 6. And I do not see why the Particle upon should not be expounded here as in v. 15. if their interpretation be true to signifie that he sprinkled the Blood before the Altar which he did not touch And shall cleanse it and hallow it from the uncleanness of the Children of Israel The Jews refer this cleansing to his taking the Coals and the Ashes from the Altar that he might sprinkle the Blood in a clean place And then the words are to be translated He shall sprinkle the blood c. having cleansed and hallowed it But the conclusion of the Verse determines us to another fense which is That by sprinkling the Blood he cleansed and sanctified it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel whereby it had been defiled the Priests having either come in their uncleanness thither or not performed their Service as they ought there and the People thereby remaining in their Impurities Now when the High-Priest had done all this the Jews say in the Misna before-named he poured the rest of the Blood of the Bullock and Goat at the bottom of the Altar of Burnt-offerings where I conceive he concluded this Atonement for there was a conveyance to carry it away as I observed upon IV. 7. And they make account also that if every thing was not done in this order it was ineffectual and was to be done over again For example If the Blood of the Goat was sprinkled before the Blood of the Bullock contrary to the directions v. 14 15. he returned and sprinkled the Blood of the Goat after that of the Bullock c. Ver. 20. Verse 20 And when he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place Making it fit to continue God's dwelling place v. 16. And the Tabernacle of the Congregation By this I think is meant the Sanctuary and every thing in it particularly the golden Altar And the Altar Of Burnt-offerings where he ended his Atonement for the whole House of God He shall bring the live Goat Two had been presented to the LORD v. 7 10. that is solemnly consecrated and devoted to be expiatory Sacrifices one of which having been slain the other was now brought to be made an Expiation for Sin after another manner And he was brought no doubt to the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation where they were wont to lay their hands upon other Sacrifices I. 3 4. Ver. 21. Verse 21 And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live Goat Laying of the hand upon the head of the Beast was a Rite used in all sorts of Sacrifices whether Burnt-offerings Peace-offerings or Sin-offerings See I. 4. III. 2. IV. 4 33. In which places mention is made only of laying on his hand But here the High-Priest is commanded to lay on both hands as he and his Sons did in the Sacrifice of the Bullock and the Ram at their Consecration VIII 14 18. The meaning of which was the more solemnly and intirely to devote the Sacrifice to the uses for which it was designed which in this Sacrifice was to bear all their Sins For they were all laid upon this Sacrifice unto which the punishment of them was transferred This Rite signifying as much as if they had said Whatsoever we have done amiss let not us but this Sacrifice be charged with it that is let it bear the punishment which we deserve Such phrases there are 2 Sam. I. 16. IX Esther 25. VII Psal 16. and other places And confess over him This must have been understood if it had not been expressed for imposition of hands was always accompanied with Prayer of one sort or other according to the occasion of it Insomuch that the Jews say Where there is no Confession of Sins there is no Imposition of Hands for
therefore saw his Neighbour kill a Beast and neglect to cover its Blood with Dust he was bound to go and do it himself because God speaks here unto the Children of Israel i. e. to all of them v. 12. as R. Levi Barcelonita glosses Praecept CLXXXV And the forenamed MS. mentioned by Wagenseil saith they covered the Blood with this form of Benediction Blessed be the LORD our God the King of the World who hath sanctified us with his Precepts and commanded us to cover Blood Which shows they thought this a Precept of great weight Ver. 14. Verse 14 For it is the life of all flesh c. Whether of Beasts or Fowl before-mentioned and therefore prohibited to be eaten by them as was before observed because it was offered to God and accepted by him for their Life when they had forfeited it by their sins Therefore I said unto the Children of Israel ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh See v. 12. Where the same thing is said but not so fully as here for he only saith in that Verse No soul of you shall eat blood but in this Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh For the life of all flesh is the blood thereof This is so often repeated no less than three times in this Verse the more to deter them from eating Blood which was the Life of the Beast and therefore offered to God as the LORD and Giver of Life and consequently belong'd to no Body else Ver. 15. Verse 15 And every soul that eateth that which dieth of it self And consequently had the Blood remaining in it as all things also which were not rightly killed had the Hebrews think and therefore here forbidden Or that which was torn with Beasts Which was nothing else as Maimonides speaks but the beginning to be a dead Carcase More Nevochim P. III. cap. 48. Whether it be one of your own Country or a stranger By a Stranger is meant one that had embraced the Jewish Religion for other Gentiles might eat such things Nay the Israelites themselves as Maimonides observes when they went to War and entred the Countries of the Gentiles and subdued them might eat that which died of it self or was torn of Beasts nay Swines-flesh and such like Food when they were hungry and could find no other Meat See Schickardi Mishpat Hamelek cap. 5. Theor. 18. He shall both wash his clothes and bathe his flesh in water c. When he had eaten these things unwittingly and came to know it he was thus to purifie himself If he did it knowingly it was an high Crime against an express Law repeated more fully XIV Deut. 21. and punished as some think with Death But I suppose they mean he was obnoxious to the Divine Displeasure and in danger to be cut off by him if he did not offer a Sacrifice to expiate his Offence which seems to be allowed in such Cases as it was for greater Offences VI. 1 2 c. And the Jewish Doctors say he who violated this Law was only to be beaten for cutting off either by the hand of God or the Court of Judgment was not threatned to sins of so light a Nature as this So Maimonides observes in his More Nevoch P. III. cap. 41. Ver. 16. Verse 16 But if he wash them not nor bathe his flesh he shall bear his iniquity Be liable to be punished by God for the neglect of the means of his Purification And if while he continued thus unclean he adventured to eat of the Peace-offerings he was in danger to be cut off from his People VII 20. CHAP. XVIII Ver. 1. Verse 1 AND the LORD spake unto Moses saying It is not said when the LORD delivered these Laws to Moses but it is likely after the other and before those that follow Ver. 2. Verse 2 Speak unto the Children of Israel and say unto them They were all concerned in these Laws about Marriage and therefore they are directed to the whole Body of the People who received them I suppose by their Elders and Heads of the Tribes to whom Moses delivered them and charged they should be communicated to every Family and Houshold See XVII 2. I am the LORD your God I have a right to give you Laws being your Soveraign upon more Titles than one to which all Human Customs must yield though long practised and spread every where in the World This reason is mentioned six times in this Chapter and oftner in the next See v. 4. Ver. 3. Verse 3 After the doings of the Land of Egypt wherein ye dwell shall ye not do and after the doings of the Land of Canaan whither I bring you shall ye not do The Manners of these two Countries of Egypt wherein they had dwelt a long time and of Canaan wherein they were going to settle they were in the greatest danger to imitate Especially in taking the liberty of making such Marriages as they saw practised among them against which they are here severely cautioned But though these words seem to have a particular respect to those Marriages yet Maimonides extends them to all their other Practices for which they could see no reason Magick being in much use among them in dressing their Trees and ploughing their Ground and such like common things in which they had a respect also to the disposition of the Stars of Heaven which led them to the Worship of them as he shows at large in his More Nevoch P. III. cap. 37. R. Levi Barcelonita also extends these words to the Customs of all other Nations Praecept CCLXII which he that observed was to be beaten But the Doings or Customs which Moses here speaks of seem to be those that follow v. 6 7 c. as appears from v. 24 c. And the other Customs of those Nations about their Clothes and cutting their Hair which the forenamed Author mentions are forbidden in other places Neither shall ye walk in their Ordinances The Hebrew word Chukkoth which we commonly translate Statutes and here Ordinances seems to import that the incestuous Marriages here mentioned were allowed by the Laws and Constitutions of those Countries which made their Wickedness the more intolerable v. 24. Ver. 4. Verse 4 Ye shall do my Judgments and keep my Ordinances to walk therein Frame your Lives according to the Laws and Rules which I give you to observe and not according to their wicked Practises which were grown into Customs and Precedents The Gemara Babylonica mentioning these words saith it is a Tradition of their Doctors that by Mishpatim which we translate Judgments are to be understood such Natural Laws as all Mankind are bound to observe though there were no written Commands for them such as those against Idolatry and those about uncovering the Nakedness of such near Relations as are here mentioned and Murder c. And by Chukkim Ordinances or Statutes such Laws are meant as depended only on the Pleasure of God and obliged none but
Governours CHAP. XIX Ver. 1. Verse 1 AND the LORD spake unto Moses saying The following Precepts which contain in a manner all their Duty seem to have been delivered to Moses immediately after the former being in great part a Repetition of some principal things which had been already commanded Ver. 2. Verse 2 Speak unto all the Congregation of the Children of Israel It is uncertain whether he delivered these Precepts only to their Elders and Heads of their Tribes to be communicated by them to the People or at several times he called every Family of every Tribe and spake these words to them himself And say unto them Ye shall be holy for I the LORD your God am holy This very thing was said to them before with respect to several Meats which are forbidden them XI 44. See there And now is repeated with a peculiar respect as Maimonides thinks More Nevoch P. III. cap. 47. to the filthy Marriages and abominable Idolatries mentioned in the foregoing Chapter as it is repeated again in the next Chapter XX. 7 26. with respect to some other things It being a general reason why they should be separated from all other People by the observation of peculiar Laws which is the meaning of being holy because they were the Worshippers of him whose most excellent Nature transcended all other Beings not only in Purity but in all other Perfections Ver. 3. Verse 3 Ye shall fear every man his mother and his father This Duty is called Honour in the fifth Commandment XX Exod. 12. and the Father there put before the Mother which being here called fear and the Mother put before the Father it shows saith Maimonides that honour and fear are equally due to both without any difference And the proper Expressions of Fear and Reverence are according to those Doctors not to sit in their Seat nor to contradict them in any thing they say much less to cavil against them nor to call them by their proper names but to add the Title of Sir c. as we speak or the like And the Expressions of Honour are not to sit down in their Presence and to provide them with Necessaries if they fall into Poverty c. See Selden Lib. II. de Synedriis oap 13. p. 557 c. and R. Levi Barcelonita Praecept XXVII And keep my Sabbaths Obedience as well as Reverence is included in the word Fear but if Parents commanded them to break the Sabbath-day or to profane any other day consecrated to God's Service they were not to be obeyed I am the LORD your God I rested on the Sabbath-day who am your Soveraign and therefore have power to require you to rest on any other days Particularly on the great Day of Atonement XVI 31. when I am so gracious as to accept of an Expiation for all your sins This is repeated v. 30. and XXIII 3. Ver. 4. Verse 4 Turn ye not unto Idols Not so much as to look upon them no nor to think of them as R. Levi Barcelonita expounds it Praecept CCXXV. much less to enquire after what manner the Gentiles worshipped them which is expresly forbidden XII Deut. 30. for by this means they might be allured to Idolatry The word we here translate Idols is a word of contempt signifying a thing of nought Or as some of the Jews will have it this word Elilim is compounded of the Particle al signifying not and El i. e. God As much as to say which are not gods and therefore called in Scripture Vanities which can do neither good nor hurt Nor make to your selves molten gods This seems to have respect to the Golden Calf which they made to worship and is called a molten Calf XXXII Exod. 4. But all graven Images are no less forbidden for if to look towards an Idol was a sin much more was it to make an Image of any sort to worship it The Jews are something curious in their observations upon this Precept For in the Book Siphra they say that they might not make molten Gods for others much less for themselves Whence that saying He that makes to himself an Idol violates a double Precept first in making it and then in making it to himself See R. Levi before-mentioned Praecept CCXXVI I am the LORD your God The same reason is given in the foregoing Verse for the observation of their Sabbaths and that of the seventh day every Week was ordained in memory of the Creation of the World and consequently intended as a Preservative from Idolatry as I observed upon Exod. XX. 8. which perhaps makes these two Precepts be here put together But it is evident Moses doth not observe the order wherein these Precepts were first delivered but rather inverts it beginning with the fifth Commandment and so going back to the fourth and here to the two first Ver. 5. Verse 5 And if ye offer a Sacrifice of peace-offerings unto the LORD As they were to avoid all Idolatry so they were to be careful to perform the Service due to the true God in a right manner Peace-offerings are only mentioned because they were the most common Sacrifices being of three sorts See VII 11 c. XVII 5. Ye shall offer it at your own will Either of the Herd or of the Flock Male or Female III. 1 6. Or rather as the Vulgar Latin and the LXX understand it they were to offer it so that it might be acceptable to the LORD according to the Rules prescribed in the seventh Chapter Ver. 6. Verse 6 It shall be eaten the same day ye offer it and on the morrow This shows he speaks particularly of those Peace-offerings which were a Vow or a voluntary Offering VII 16. for Sacrifices of Thanksgiving might not be kept till the morrow but were to be eaten on the same day v. 15. of that Chapter See the reason of this XXIII Exod. 18. the latter end And if ought remain till the third day it shall be burnt with fire See VII 17. Ver. 7. Verse 7 And if it be eaten at all on the third day it is abominable See VII 18. It shall not be accepted See there This seems to justifie the sense which the Vulgar puts upon those words v. 5. which we translate according to thy will Ver. 8. Verse 8 Therefore every one that eateth it shall bear his iniquity See VII 18. Because he hath profaned the hallowed things of the LORD By keeping them till they were in danger to stink or to be corrupted That soul shall be cut off from his People By the Judges if the thing was known otherwise by the Hand of God Ver. 9. Verse 9 And when ye reap the harvest of your Land Which was a time of great joy when they offered its likely many Peace-offerings of that sort before-mentioned Thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field But leave a sixtieth part as their wise Men have determined it and that in the extream part of the Field rather than any other place
that the Poor might know where to come for it as R. Levi Barcelonita explains it Praecept CCXIII. And this whether they were in the Land of Israel or out of it as Mr. Selden observes out of the Talmudists Lib. VI. de Jure Nat. Gent. cap. 6. p. 692. where he shows it was the custom to add something to the sixtieth part proportionable to the largeness of the Field or the multitude of the Poor or the greatness of the Crop Neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest That is if an ear or two of Corn fell as they cut it or bound it up out of the Sheaves or from under their Sickle they were not to gather them up from the ground but leave them for the Poor as oft as they fell But not if there fell three ears at a time as the Talmudists determine See Mr. Selden in the place above-named and the same R. Levi Praecept CCXIV. Ver. 10. Verse 10 And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard When they had cut off the great Bunches they were not to examine the Vine over again for the scattered Grapes or small Clusters Neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy Vineyard If any fell to the ground as they gathered them they were not to take them up That is if one or two Clusters fell but not if three much less if more for they construe this as they do the Precept about Ears of Corn v. 9. They also say they were bound to leave the Corners of the Vineyard uncut as well as the Corners of the Field R. Levi Barcelonita Praecept CCXXX and CCXXXI and Mr. Selden Lib. VI. de Jure Nat. Gent. cap. 6. in the place before-named And these Precepts obliged such Strangers as sojourned among them mentioned XVII 8. XVIII 26. who before they were admitted to embrace the Jewish Religion were examined whether they understood that they must observe such and such Precepts particularly these here mentioned which were propounded to them plainly and distinctly and after they had promised to keep them they were Circumcised c. As G. Schickard observes out of the Talmud the custom was after the destruction of Jerusalem in Mishpal Hamelek cap. 5. Theorem XVII Thou shalt leave them for the poor and the stranger Though by Stranger the Jews think is understood a Proselyte of Righteousness as they call him who had embraced their Religion by receiving Circumcision yet they did not hinder any poor Gentile from partaking of this Charity as the same R. Levi says And if any one transgressed any of the Precepts contained in these two Verses he was beaten as Mr. Selden shows Lib. II. de Synedr Cap. 13. n. 8. I am the LORD your God I give you the Country to which you go with these reserves for the Poor and have been so bountful to you that I require you to be so them Ver. 11. Verse 11 Ye shall not steal Here are several Moral Precepts put briefly together for the maintaining Justice and Truth without which Societies cannot be preserved And first he forbids Theft the coveting of other Mens Goods being the Source of the other Sins that follow And whether they were the Goods of an Israelite or of a Gentile Idolater that any Man stole he was bound to make Restitution as R. Levi observes Praecept CCXXXII See XXII Exod. 1. Neither deal falsly This is a Divine Caution as the Hebrew Doctors observe against denying a thing that was deposited with them or which they had found c. which they would never pretend they had not if they were disposed to be sincere and upright in their Dealing Neither lie one to another Words being intended to declare the Mind and for no other end he that hears us speak hath a right in Justice to be done him that what we speak be true For otherwise he doth not know our mind by our words and then we had better be dumb But though all kind of lying be contrary to the intention of God in giving us Speech yet this relates particularly to such lies whereby a Man's Neighbour was injured defrauded for instance of his Goods which he had deposited with another or of the just Debts which were owing him c. But though the simple denying of such things was not punished with beating as Mr. Selden represents the opinion of the Talmudists Lib. II. de Synedr cap. 11. yet he that denied a thing deposited with him was not admitted to be a Witness in any case though he had not forsworn himself unto which this lying disposed him So R. Levi Praecept CCXXXIII Ver. 12. Verse 12 And ye shall not swear by my name falsly Much less was it lawful for them to confirm the lies fore-mentioned with an Oath So the Jewish Doctors interpret it as Mr. Selden observes in the same place If any Man did and was found guilty he was adjudged to restore the principal and a fifth part more VI. 5. And whether he forswore himself knowingly or ignorantly he was to expiate his Crime with a Sacrifice But if he was ignorant of that Command concerning a Sacrifice or if though he had the thing which he denied in his keeping yet he had really forgot it when he swore he had it not he was freed both from the fifth part and from the Sacrifice See V. 4. Neither shalt thou profane the Name of thy God By calling God to witness unto a frivolous thing or to a rash Resolution As if a Man swore in his anger he would not speak to such a Person but afterwards did or he would not eat of such Meat c. In such cases the Jews say when a Man's heart was touched with Repentance for his rashness and incogitancy he was to go to some wise Man or to three Neighbours and desire them to absolve him from his Oath of which he truly repented Which they did when they found him truly penitent saying Be thou loosed or It is remitted to thee or the like So Selden observes out of Maimonides Lib. II. de Synedr cap. 11. n. 9. Plato hath said some remarkable thing concerning Forswearing and also of Lying and Deceit For which I refer the learned Reader to his eleventh Book of Laws p. 916 917. Edit Serrani I am the LORD And therefore expect the greatest Reverence to my Name and that you should deal honestly one with another Ver. 13. Verse 13 Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour neither rob him c. Here are several Precepts almost coincident in their sense but have some peculiar Negations belonging to them For as R. Levi Barcelonita observes in all things from which God would have them carefully abstain he multiplies admonitions Praecept CXXXVI Accordingly here to defraud is to keep in ones hand that which belongs to another and such a Person he saith is called an Oppressor in Scripture The Vulgar Latine refers it to that which Men get from others by Calumny as the next words relate to that which is wrested
Hierozoicon P. II. Lib. V. cap. 9. But this spot did not make a Priest uncapable to minister as Selden observes in the place above-mentioned unless it was a little prominent which made the blemish more apparent Or be scurvy or scabbed One of these words signifies a dry scurf or scab the other a purulent Or hath his stones broken Is bursten or hath a rupture as some expound it The LXX translate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which Procopius Gazaeus understands an Hermophrodite Ver. 21. Verse 21 No man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the Priest shall come nigh c. This seems to confirm what was observed before v. 17. that any other blemish besides these here particularly mentioned made a Man uncapable to officiate at the Altar And in the first place the Hebrew Doctors reckon five in the Ears besides the want of them An Example of which Josephus gives in the Story of Hyrcanus the High-Priest whose Ears Antigonus cut off that if he should return again he might not resume his Office Lib. I. de Bello Jud. cap. 11. He hath a blemish This general repetition is a farther confirmation that all apparent Blemishes of the same kind with these here particularly named excluded them from ministring at the Altar And there being some of them that were permanent or perpetual as they speak and others that were transient which remained but for a time no Man that had a Blemish though only of the latter sort was to minister at the Altar till it was gone He shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God i. e. The Offerings made by Fire before-mentioned which are here plainly represented as the Meat that was served up to his Table See v. 6. If any of them did presume to offer at the Altar there were different Effects of their Contumacy according to the different sorts of their Blemishes which the Hebrew Doctors divide into three Classes as I observed v. 17. If any Man having a Blemish of the first sort ministred it profaned the very Sacrifice which he offered and he was to be scourged The second sort did not vitiate the Sacrifice but the Priest was to undergo the forenamed punishment The third sort was so inconsiderable that neither of these Effects followed upon his ministring who was blemished by them as Mr. Selden observes Lib. II. de Success in Pontif. cap. 5. p. 234. Ver. 22. Verse 22 He shall eat of the bread of his God But though such a Priest might not offer any Sacrifice yet he might eat with his Brethren of that part of the Sacrifices which was given to them for their portion which no Man in his Uncleanness might do Therefore these natural Infirmities were not Legal Impurities but only Incapacities as we speak which disabled them for their Office Here again the Sacrifices are represented as the Provision made for the Divine Majesty See v. 6 21. Both of the most holy Such were the Meat-offerings II. 3. VI. 17. the Sin-offerings VI. 25 26. and the Trespass-offerings VII 1. See XIV 13. The Shew-bread also was a most holy thing and all such were to be eaten only by the Males of the Priests Family in the holy place XVIII Numb 9 10 11 c. And of the holy Such were the Wave-breast and the Heave-shoulder of the Peace-offerings VII 35. X. 14. and the First-fruits and the Tythes But though the Peace-offerings of particular Persons were among the less holy things yet the Peace-offerings of the whole Congregation were most holy See XXIII 20. Ver. 23. Verse 23 Only he shall not go in unto the vail He was not to enter into the Sanctuary to burn Incense or to trim the Lamps c. Nor come nigh unto the Altar No nor go to the Altar of Burnt-offering which was in the Court of the LORD's House but he was to sit in the Wood-room where he was imployed in picking out all the Wood which had any Worms in it that it might be laid aside and not carried to the Altar as Maimonides and others relate He had also another imployment See XIII 2. If any Man were so presumptuous or so forgetful as to minister notwithstanding the manifest Blemish which was upon him he fell under Censure and was punished according to the degree of his Fault as I observed before v. 21. out of Mr. Selden who hath in the place there mentioned handled this more accurately than I thought it needful for me to do That he profane not my Sanctuary That he might not make others think meanly of the Service of God and consequently of God himself who would have Men in their greatest perfection minister unto him to preserve in Peoples minds a sense of his most excellent Being unto whom they ministred For which reason all the foregoing Prohibitions were given against marrying such Persons as had been vitiated c. and against mourning for the dead that they might not profane the name of their God v. 6. by doing as vulgar People did or making themselves uncapable to minister unto God as they were when they were defiled And thus Maimonides discourses upon this Subject More Nevoch P. III. cap. 45. God commanded his Ministers should wear precious Apparel and that none should be admitted to the Ministry who had any defect in his Body nay they who were deformed and ill-favoured were excluded because the Vulgar do not judge according to Mens true worth or beauty which lies in the Soul but according to their outward appearance in the comliness of their Bodies and the richness of their Garments And therefore the end of all these things was that God's House might be had in due honour and reverence My Sanctuaries This word in the Plural Number relates to the two parts of the Sanctuary the Court where the Altar of Burnt-offering stood which was an holy place and that which was properly called the Sanctuary wherein the Altar of Incense was Into neither of which a Priest that had any Blemish might enter as was said before For I the LORD do sanctifie them I have set apart both those places for my Service and therefore no Man with a blemish shall be admitted into them to perform any holy Office there Yet they might come into the Court to eat with their Brethren of holy things but not in their Priestly Garments which it was not lawful for them to use Ver. 24. Verse 24 And Moses told it unto Aaron and to his Sons and unto all the Children of Israel They were all acquainted with these Laws because they were all concerned the Service of God should be administred acceptably unto him CHAP. XXII Ver. 1. Verse 1 AND the LORD spake unto Moses saying These Commands that follow were delivered at the same time with the foregoing belonging to the same matter For though the Priests who had a blemish might eat of the holy things yet he would have them know that neither they nor such as were unblemished
should presume to do it in their Uncleanness Ver. 2. Verse 2 Speak unto Aaron and to his sons that they separate themselves Viz. When they were in their Uncleanness v. 3. From the holy things of the Children of Israel Abstain from eating v. 3 4 12. of that part of the Sacrifices which belonged to the Priests but was to be eaten only by such of them as were free from Legal Impurities VII 20 21. Nor were they to eat of the First-fruits which were also their portion XVIII Numb 12 13. but they might eat of the Tythes which were allowed for their constant Sustenance And that they profane not my holy Name This is the very ground of this Prohibition that they might preserve in their minds a due reverence to the Divine Majesty unto whom as they might not approach so they might not meddle with any thing Consecrated to him in a state of Legal Impurity All great Persons are to be approached with a great deal of Ceremony especially when any are invited to their Table otherwise they might fall into contempt And therefore much more was this reverence to be shown to the Divine Majesty that they might entertain high Apprehensions of him by abstaining from all things belonging to him when they were under any pollution In those things which they hallow unto me Which the Children of Israel devoted unto God For so the foregoing words and the next Verse explain it I am the LORD The greatest regard is to be paid to my Majesty Ver. 3. Verse 3 Say unto them whosoever he be of your seed Of the Priests Among your generations In succeeding times That goeth unto the holy things To eat of them as appears from v. 4 6 12. Which the Children of Israel hallow unto the LORD Offer to him at his Altar Having his uncleanness upon him For which they were to separate themselves v. 2. That soul shall be cut off from my presence Thrust out of the Priests Office no more to minister at the Altar and then it was the act of a Judge or cut off from the Land of the Living which was done by the Hand of Heaven I am the LORD Who will vindicate my own Honour Ver. 4. Verse 4 What man soever of the seed of Aaron These words of the seed of Aaron include his Daughters as well as his Sons who might eat of some holy things XVIII Numb 11 19. but not in their Uncleanness Is a leper or hath a running issue There are eleven Fountains of Uncleanness as the Hebrews speak two of which are these here mentioned as appears from XIII 3. XV. 2. He shall not eat of the holy things until he be clean See XIV 2. XV. 13. And whoso toucheth any thing that is unclean by the dead or a man whose seed goes from him These were two other Fountains of Uncleanness XI 31 32 c. XV. 16. Ver. 5. Verse 5 Or whosoever toucheth any creeping thing whereby he may be made unclean See XI 24 c. Or a man of whom he may take uncleanness XV. 7. Whatsoever uncleanness he hath Suppose the Leprosie XIII 45. These are two such Fountains of Uncleanness as the former Ver. 6. Verse 6 The soul which hath touched any such shall be unclean until even and shall not eat c. So the Law was in the forenamed Cases as appears by the places above-mentioned Ver. 7. Verse 7 And when the Sun is down he shall be clean Having washed his flesh with water And shall afterward eat of the holy things because it is his food God was so gracious as not to keep a Priest any longer in a state wherein he should want his necessary or comfortable Sustenance Ver. 8. Verse 8 That which dieth of it self or is torn with beasts he shall not eat to defile himself therewith This was forbidden before to all the Israelites XVII 15. but made a Priest no longer unclean than an ordinary Man because of the foregoing reason I am the LORD Who will have my Ministers pure from all such pollutions The remainder of which were the uncleanness of the Water of Separation as Maimonides speaks XIX 21. and of the great Sacrifice of Expiation XVI 28. and of a menstruous Woman XV. 9. and of a Woman in Child-bed XII 2. But nothing made Men so unclean as the dead Body of a Man which defiled not only him that touched it for seven days but all that came into the House and every thing that was in the House where he died XIX Numb 11.14 which was the reason of the foregoing Law that the High-Priest should not go in to the dead Body of his Father or Mother nor any inferiour Priest be defiled for any but their near Relations XXI 1 2 11. Ver. 9. Verse 9 They shall therefore keep mine Ordinance Observe this Constitution because I who am their LORD make it Lest they bear sin for it Be punished if they break it And die therefore As Nadab and Abihu did who presumed to break another Law about holy things If they profane it By eating of the holy things in their Uncleanness I the LORD do sanctifie them Separate them to my Service and by such Constitutions teach them carefully to avoid all pollutions Ver. 10. Verse 10 There shall no stranger eat of the holy thing The holy thing here mentioned is that before-named X. 14. and by a Stranger he doth not mean one of another Nation but one that is not of the Seed of Aaron or is not one of his Family For the word in the Hebrew is not Nechar which properly signifies such a Stranger as is not an Israelite but Zar which signifies any one to whom a thing doth not belong as holy things did not to those who were not at least part of the Priests Family though not of his Race For that such might eat of them who were not of their Race provided they belonged to them as a part of their Family appears from the next Verse A sojourner of the Priest Who boards with him as we now speak or dwells in a part of his House as some understand it but hath a distinct Family Or an hired servant Such were those who served by the day XIX 13. or for a certain time and after that might dispose of themselves as they pleased Shall not eat of the holy thing None of these might eat of the Priests portion X. 14. XVIII Numb 11. because they were not Members of his Family Ver. 11. Verse 11 But if the Priest buy any soul i.e. Person with his money There were those of their own Nation who by their Poverty were compelled to sell themselves or their Children XXV 39. and others they bought of other Nations v. 44 45 c. who becoming Proselytes to the Jews Religion were permitted to eat of the Priest's Meat because they became part of his Family And he that is born in his house c. They that were born of such purchased Servants were their Masters Goods and
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
Of new Corn made into Loaves as it follows in the next Verse which was the First-fruits of Wheat-harvest as the place before-mentioned tells us XXXIV Exod. 22. This day the Samaritans take to have been the first day of the Week after the very Letter of this Law which is thus made out by the great Primate of Ireland Our blessed LORD being slain at the Feast of the Passover the whole Sabbath following which was the first day of Unleavened Bread he rested in his Grave The next day after that Sabbath the Sheaf or Omer of the First-fruits of the Barley-harvest was offered to the LORD when Christ rose from the dead and became the First-fruits of them that slept From this day was the account taken of the seven Sabbaths or Weeks and upon the morrow after the Seventh that is upon our Lord's Day was celebrated the Feast of Weeks which is called the day of the First-fruits XXVIII Numb 26. because then were offered the First-fruits of their second or Wheat-Harvest and therefore called the Feast of 〈◊〉 XXIII Exod. 16. because then was the principal and the Conclusion of the whole Harvest of the year Upon which day the Apostles having themselves received the First-fruits of the Spirit begat three thousand Souls through the Word of Truth and presented them as the First-fruits of the Christian Church unto God and unto the Lamb. Now the matter being so ordered by God that in the observation of the Feast of Weeks the Seventh day of the Week the Jewish Sabbath was purposely passed over and that great Solemnity kept upon the first day of the Week no wonder the Christian Church hath appropriated that day instead of the Seventh for the Service of God Ver. 17. Verse 17 Ye shall bring out of your habitations These Oblations seem to have been offered at a common charge in the name of the whole Nation which is the reason of this phrase Out of your habitations For to affirm as some do that two Loaves were to be brought out of every House or at least out of every Town is absurd for they may as well say seven Lambs as it follows which were offered with this Bread were to be furnished in like manner out of every Family or Town Two Wave-loaves of two Tenth-deals A double proportion as before v. 13. which was presented to God the LORD of the whole World by waving them to all quarters Each Loaf did not contain two Tenth-deals but there was one in each Loaf They shall be of fine flour Of Wheat They shall be baken with leaven And therefore were not burnt upon the Altar for that was unlawful II Lev. 11 12. but wholly given to the Priests Whence it was as the Jews observe that the Bread accompanying their Peace-offerings of Thanksgiving were leavened VII 13. and not burnt on the Altar but intirely given to the Priests the Servants of God who attended at his Altar that they might Feast together with him They are the first-fruits unto the LORD Other First-fruits are mentioned v. 10. but these were the principal being the First-fruits of Wheat-harvest which with all the rest are exactly enumerated by Nehemiah X. 35 36 37. And that place of Pliny mentioned v. 14. seems to prove that the Heathen offered both the first of their Fruits before they brought them out of their Fields and Vineyards and also the first of what was made of them after they were brought home Which they did partly out of gratitude to God to thank him for making the year fruitful and partly to pray him to grant fruitful Seasons for the future Ver. 18. Verse 18 And ye shall offer with the Bread seven Lambs without blemish c. This being a great day and Burnt-offerings being the noblest sort of Sacrifice purely in honour of God a greater number both of Lambs and other Creatures are required upon this Solemnity And one young Bullock and two Rams In XXVIII Numb 27. it is said Two young Bullocks and one Ram besides the seven Lambs Perhaps they were left to their liberty either to bring one young Bullock and two Rams or one Ram and two young Bullocks Or else those mentioned in Numbers were distinct Sacrifices besides those here mentioned and so Josephus saith Lib. III. Antiq. cap. 10. that there were offered upon this day three young Bullocks two Rams it should be three Rams and fourteen Lambs All which were offered besides the Morning and Evening Sacrifice of every day They shall be a Burnt-offering to the LORD with their Meat-offering c. There being all sorts of Sacrifices prescribed for the great Solemnity of this Day he mentions the Burnt-offering in the first place because it was the principal and offered next to the two Loaves Ver. 19. Verse 19 Then shall ye Sacrifice one Kid of the Goats for a Sin-offering Next followed the Sin-offering Which for a particular sin of the Congregation was a Bullock 18.14 but for the sins of the Nation in general only a Kid of the Goats For as Maimonides observes More Nevoch P. III. cap. 46. the more grievous the Sin was the viler the Sacrifice there being no greater Sin than Idolatry nor viler Sacrifice than a She-goat and yet this was the Expiation of that Sin as they interpret IV. 27. XV Numb 17. And two Lambs of the first year for a Sacrifice of Peace-offerings Double the number to what was commonly offered For this being an high day all sorts of Sacrifices as I said before were offered Burnt-offerings Sin-offerings and Peace-offerings upon it and in greater proportions except the Sin-offering then on other days And these were the only Peace-offerings of the whole Congregation of Israel offered only at this one time of the year and never else Ver. 20. Verse 20 And the Priest shall wave them with the Bread of the First-fruits for a Wave-offering before the LORD These Sacrifices with the Trespass-offering for a Leper XIV 12 24. were the only Offerings that were waved about towards all the corners of the World So Abarbinel upon this place The waving was performed by the Priest who reached them out upward and downward this way and that way towards the six quarters of the World to show that the Earth is the LORD's and the fulness thereof Or as R. Levi ben Gersom speaks that they might understand the Providence of God is every where above and beneath in every corner of the World With the two Lambs This seems to signifie the forenamed Burnt-offering and Sin-offering were thus waved as well as these Peace-offerings That is some part of them all in the name of the rest for the Priest could not wave the whole Body of them they were so heavy They shall be holy to the LORD for the Priest Who had not only the Breast and the Shoulder as was usual but all the flesh of these Peace-offerings their Blood being sprinkled and their Inwards burnt was given unto him to be eaten by the Males among the Priests
c. subjoyning these words Blessed be God who hath hitherto preserved us in life and brought us unto this time When all was ended the People said with a loud voice these words of the Psalmist LXXXIX Psal 15. Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound they shall walk O LORD in the light of thy countenance See Buxtorf Synag Jud. cap. 24. Such blowing with Trumpets was used by the Gentiles particularly in the Solemnities they observed in honour of the Mother of the Gods One whole day which was the second being spent in blowing of Trumpets as Julian tells us in his fifth Oration upon this Subject 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 168. Ver. 25. Verse 25 Ye shall do no servile work therein It was a very Solemn Day like the Day of Pentecost v. 21. and others before noted on which they might only make provision for their Meals XII Exod. 16. which were wont to be very liberal upon this day And among other Dishes they serve up to the Table a Ram's head in the memory of that Ram which was sacrificed in the room of Isaac which they fancy was upon this day But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD About which Directions are given afterwards XXIX Numb 2 c. For it was not to be a Day of Rest meerly but of Religion Ver. 26. Verse 26 And the LORD spake unto Moses saying The following Precept is of great moment which makes this Preface to be set before it Ver. 27. Verse 27 Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement This hath been explained XVI 29 30 31. It shall be an holy convocation to you On which they were to assemble to humble themselves before God as it here follows And ye shall afflict your souls See Chapter XVI I shall only add That the Jews fancy this Solemn day of Fasting was appointed partly to avert those Diseases which were wont to be rife in the Autumnal Season and this day chosen rather than any other that they might express their Grief at that time when the Sin of the Golden Calf was committed And offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD A Burnt-offering about which Directions are given in XXIX Numb 8. Ver. 28. Verse 28 And ye shall do no work on that same day See v. 3. and XVI 31. For it is a day of atonement Set apart wholly for this work which is at large described in the XVIth Chapter To make an atonement for you before the LORD your God First the Priest made an Atonement for himself and his Family XVI 6 c. and then for the People and for the holy place c. v. 15 16 33. Ver. 29. Verse 29 For whatsoever soul he be that shall not be afflicted on that day he shall be cut off from among his people The Affliction here spoken of consisted chiefly in abstaining from all manner of Food as the Jews make account from one Evening to the next In which time if any Man eat to satisfie his Appetite that is above the quantity of a Date he was in danger to be cut off by the hand of God I suppose So they say in Joma cap. 8. n. 2. Besides which there were four other Mortifications for no Man was to put on his Shoes nor anoint himself nor wash his Face nor enjoy his Wife See Buxtorf Synad Jud. cap. 26. Ver. 30. Verse 30 And whatsoever soul he be that doth any work in that same day the same soul will I destroy from among his people The two great things required on this day being to Afflict themselves and to rest from Labour they who transgressed either of these Commands are threatned to be cut off and that by God himself as this Verse teaches us to Expound the foregoing Ver. 31. Verse 31 Ye shall do no manner of work It shall be a statute for ever c. This is repeated again because it was a thing of such high importance that they should wholly attend to the business of this great Day which was a Day of Humiliation and Repentance and making their Peace with God And as the Jews themselves observe there was no Man so good but he had offended in some thing or other and besides they were to Afflict themselves for the Sins of the whole Body of the Nation Ver. 32. Verse 32 It shall be unto you a Sabbath of rest As the weekly Sabbath was v. 3. when they did not meerly rest from Labour but imployed themselves in the Divine Service as v. 8. I observed they did on other Sabbaths of lesser strictness And this the Heathens themselves could discern that the design of their Festivals which were Days of Ease and remission of Labours was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to withdraw the Mind from Human Imployments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that so a Man may have leisure to turn his Mind towards God Which is a most Divine saying of Strabo which I think I have noted before but cannot be too oft repeated Lib. X. Geograph p. 467. And ye shall afflict your souls in the ninth day of the month at even They kept the High-Priest on the Even of the Day of Expiation from eating much because it would make him sleepy as they tell us in Joma cap. 1. n. 4. Where our learned Sheringham observes that the Evening before is called the Even of the Day of Expiation because they began the Fast before the setting of the Sun so that the whole Evening belonged to the following Sabbath By which these two places XVI 29. where it is said they shall Afflict their Souls on the tenth day and this Verse which saith on the ninth day which seem to clash one with another may be easily reconciled For they began to afflict themselves in the conclusion of the ninth day and ended the Fast in the conclusion of the tenth See Menasseh ben Israel Quest 4. ad Lev. From even unto even shall ye celebrate your Sabbath This justifies what was just now said That this Day began in the Even of the ninth day and continued till the Even of the tenth Your Sabbath So this day was called because no manner of work might be done on this day no more then on the Seventh or weekly Sabbath v. 31. And so it is called by the Prophet LVIII Isaiah 13. Ver. 33. Verse 33 And the LORD spake unto Moses saying The same Preface is prefixed to this as to the rest because it was one of the three greatest Solemnities appointed by God in remembrance of his Benefits See v. 39. Ver. 34. Verse 34 The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days unto the LORD It was to begin on the fifteenth day and continue seven days as the Feast of Unleavened Bread did The design of this Feast is thus expressed by Maimonides who compares it with the Passover Which served saith he More Nevoch P. III. c. 43.
â—hen they were all carried Captive they only numbred the rest of every seventh year without any Jubile It shall be a Jubile unto you Whence this year hath the name of Jobel there are so many Opinions that Bochartus himself scarce knew which to follow Josephus saith it signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 liberty and the LXX and Aquila translate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 remission having a regard to the thing rather than to the import of the word Jobel which never signifies any thing of that nature D. Kimchi tell us that R. Akiba when he was in Arabia heard them call a Ram by this name of Jobel and thence some fancy this year was so called because it was proclaimed with Trumpets of Rams-horns But what if there were no such Trumpets as Bochart thinks there were not these Horns being not hollow See Hierozoicon P. I. Lib. II. cap. 43. p. 425 c. where several other Opinions are confuted The most probable that I meet withal is that it was called Jobel from the peculiar sound which was made with the Trumpet when this year was proclaimed For the Trumpet blowing for several purposes viz. to call their Assemblies together to give notice of the moving of their Camps to excite Souldiers to fight and to proclaim this year there was a distinct sound for all these ends that People might not be confounded but have a certain notice what the Trumpet sounded for And this sound mentioned before v. 9. was peculiarly called Jobel as Hottinger thinks who considers a great many other Opinions in his Analecta Dissert III. wherein he follows Joh. Forsterus who near an hundred years before observed that Jobel which we commonly translate Trumpet XIX Exod. 13. and other places doth not signifie the Instrument it self but the sound that it made And when it is used absolutely alone it signifies this year which was called Jobel from that sound which was then made as the Feast of Unleavened Bread was called Pesach from the Angel passing over them when he slew the Egyptians The Opinions of the Hebrew Writers about it are collected and largely represented by Josephus de Voisin Lib. I. de Jubilaeo cap. 1. And ye shall return every man unto his possession Unto his Field or his House which his Poverty had forced him to sell but now was restored to him without any price because they were not sold absolutely but only till this year By which means the Estates of the Israelites were so fixed that no Family could ruin it self or grow too rich For this Law provided against such Changes revoking once in fifty years all Alienations and setting every one in the same Condition wherein they were at the first By which means Ambition was retrenched and every Man applied himself with affection to the improvement of his Inheritance knowing it could never go out of his Family And this application was the more diligent because it was a religious duty founded upon this Law of God And ye shall return every man unto his family From which he had been estranged by being sold to another Family either by himself or by his Father or by the Court of Judgment So here are two parts of the liberty fore-named more expresly declared Their Land which was alienated returned to the first Owner and such as were sold for Servants into another Family came home again to their own Family being freed from their Servitude Which was a figure of that acceptable year of the LORD as St. Luke calls it IV. 19. in the Prophet Isaiah's Language wherein our blessed Saviour preached Deliverance to all Mankind The Jews themselves are not so stupid as to thinâ— nothing further was intended but only freedom from bodily Servitude in this year of Jubile for Abarbanel himself in this very Verse indeavours to discover something of a Spiritual Happiness For the former part of the words now mentioned Ye shall return every man to his possession he saith belong to the Body but the latter part And every man unto his family belongs to the Soul and its return to God So several others whom J. de Voisin produces in the forenamed Book cap. 2. And if our Dr. Lightfoot hath made a right Computation the last year of the Life of our Saviour who by his Death wrought an Eternal Redemption and restored us to our heavenly Inheritance fell in the year of Jubile the very last that was ever kept For if we count from the end of the Wars of Canaan which was seven years after they came into it and I do not know why we should not think they began to number then and not seven years after as Maimonides would have it there were just fourteen hundred years to the thirty third of Jesus Christ that is just XXVIII Jubiles And it is the Confession of the old Book called Zohar as he observes That the Divine Glory should be freedom and redemption in a year of Jubile See Harmony of the New Testament sect 59. And Vsserij Chronologia Sacra cap. 13. Ver. 11. Verse 11 A Jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you It is a question whether the year of Jubile was the year following the forty ninth year or the forty ninth year was the Jubile which reckoning the foregoing Jubile for one was the fiftieth year Josephus Scaliger in his fifth Book de Emend Temporum and several other great Men are of this last opinion to avoid a great inconvenience which otherwise would ensue viz. That the forty ninth year being the Sabbatical year in which the Land was to rest if the next year to that had been the Jubile two Sabbatical years would have come immediately one after another for the Land was to rest in the year of Jubile as it here follows One would have expected therefore that in the forty eighth year there should have been a special Promise that the Land should bring forth Fruit for four years and not for three only as the Blessing is promised every sixth year v. 21. Thus Jacobus Capellus reasons in his Historia Sacra Exotica ad A. M. 2549. But others think this Objection not to be so great as to make them depart from the letter of this Law which saith v. 10. Ye shall hallow the fiftieth year and here in this Verse A Jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you Though a very learned Man P. Cunaeus thinks this is of no great moment either way for it is usual in common speech Septimanam octidum appellare and Hospinian in like manner we call a Week octiduum eight days because we reckon utramque Dominicam both the LORD's days And the greatest Writers anciently called an Olympiad which contained but the space of four compleat years by the name of Quinquennium See Lib. I. de Republ. Judaeorum cap. 6. Yet besides the express words of the Law the Consent of the Jews sways very much the other way for they accurately distinguish between the Schemitta or Year of
this Verse was added to prevent such Oppressions as St. Hierom mentions who says some would lend a Neighbour ten Bushels of Corn suppose in Winter to receive fifteen Bushels for it the next Harvest Ver. 38. Verse 38 I am the LORD your God which brought you forth out of the Land of Egypt Who have obliged you with far greater Blessings then I command you to bestow upon others To give you the Land of Canaan Under such Covenants as have been mentioned And to be your God To preserve you in the possession of it in Peace and Plenty if you keep these Covenants v. 18 19. Ver. 39. Verse 39 And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor and be sold unto thee Some were sold by the Court of Judgment when they had committed Theft and were not able to make Satisfaction of whom the Hebrews interpret that place XXI Exod. 2 c. Others were sold by their Parents v. 7 8. of that Chapter But others sold themselves being reduced to great Poverty notwithstanding the Alms that had been bestowed upon them and the Money or Goods that had been freely lent them And of such the Hebrew Doctors understand these words and say it was not lawful for a Man to sell himself till his Poverty was extream and he had nothing at all left but must preserve his Life by the price which was given for him Thus Maimonides in these words A man might not sell himself to lay up the Money which was given for him nor to buy Goods nor to pay his Debts but meerly that he might get Bread to eat Neither was it lawful for him to sell himself as long as he had so much as a Garment left See Selden Lib. VI. de Jure Nat. Gent. cap. 7. where he observes that the Court of Judgment might not sell a Thief of their Nation to any but to an Hebrew not to a Proselyte of either sort much less to a meer Gentile But if an Hebrew sold himself to a Proselyte or to a Gentile which he was admonished not to do the Bargain was good but he was to be redeemed by his Kindred or by the People as it here follows v. 48 49. Which other People imitated who derived their Laws from Moses particularly the ancient Indians as Huetius observes out of Diodorus whose Philosophers commanded that none of their Nation should submit themselves to Servitude Demonstr Evang. Propos IV. cap. 6. Thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bond-servant As a Slave which they bought of other Nations or took in their Wars over whom they had an absolute Dominion as they had over their Goods or Cattle and might bequeath them and their Children to their Sons and Posterity for ever v. 45 46. or sell them and their Children at their pleasure Ver. 40. Verse 40 But as an hired Servant and as a sojourner They were to treat him gently as they did those who let out their Service for Wages for a certain time and then were at their own disposal again Shall he be with thee Some of the Jews have carried this very far in Speculation For thus they gloss upon this place in Jalkut Let him be with thee in Meat and Drink so that thou do not eat bread of fine flour and he of bran nor thou drink old Winâ— and he new nor thou lie on a soft Bed and he upon Straw But it is not likely that this was their practice And shall serve thee unto the year of Jubile Beyond which time it was not lawful to keep him in Service for in the very beginning of this year all such Servants were immediately dismissed Which made the year of Jubile such a time of joy that for nine days together before it began these Servants kept a kind of Saturnalia in prospect of their approaching Happiness For as Maimonides saith in the latter end of the tenth Chapter of Schemitta ve Jobel from the beginning of the year until the Day of Atonement Servants were neither dismissed nor yet served their Masters but they did eat and drink and made merry wearing Garlands on their heads And when the Day of Atonement came the Sanhedrim commanding the Trumpet to be sounded all Servants immediately went whether they pleased as Lands were restored to their first Owners Ver. 41. Verse 41 And then shall he depart from thee His Master to whom he was sold might keep him till the Jubile Whereas he that was sold by the Court of Judgment might go free if he pleased in the seventh year of Release XXI Exod. v. 2. Both he and his Children with him He that bought a Servant of the Court of Judgment was bound to maintain his Wife and Children if he had any with Meat Drink and Clothes and yet they were not bound to serve him much less did they remain Servants when their Fathers or Mothers Servitude was at an end as Mr. Selden observes in the fore-named place and therefore it was much more reasonable in this case that he and his Children should go out together And shall return unto his whole family From which he was gone while he remained a Servant And unto the possession of his fathers shall he return If any was befaln him since his Servitude Ver. 42. Verse 42 For they are my servants which I brought forth out of the Land of Egypt A good reason why they should not be treated like Slaves because they were all redeemed by God out of the slavery of Egypt into a state of perfect liberty They shall not be sold as bond-men Not publickly and in the common place of Sale or in the street but privately and in a way of honour as the Jewish phrase is So Maimonides alledged by Mr. Selden in the fore-named place p. 705. But the plainest sense is they should not be used like Slaves while they continued in Servitude for though they had the use of them in all bodily Employments yet their Bodies or Persons were not theirs and therefore they might not use them as they pleased So it follows in the next Verse Ver. 43. Verse 43 Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour As Pharaoh did over all the Israelites I Exod. 13 14. or as the Israelites were wont to do over their Servants of other Nations but gently use their Service in such Imployments as would not be unworthy of them if they were Freemen But shalt fear thy God Remembring that they were all Slaves in Egypt and delivered by his wonderful goodness which was thankfully and reverently to be acknowledged Ver. 44. Verse 44 Both thy bond-men and thy bond-maids which thou shalt have shalt be of the heathen If they would have any Slaves they were to be such of other Nations as were sold to them or were taken by them in their Wars Whence the very name of Mancipia came as the Roman Lawyers tell us quasi manu capti and the name of Servus also which signifies one who was saved when he
of whom it was bought c. Not unto him who bought the Field and then vowed it to God but unto the Hereditary Owner which is the meaning of the next words Even unto him to whom the possession of the Land did belong Ver. 25. Verse 25 All thy estimations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary c. Full weight according to the Standard kept in the Sanctuary See XXX Exod 13. and XIX of this Book v. 36. Ver. 26. Verse 26 Only the firstling of the Beasts which shall be the LORD's firstling no man shall sanctifie it By vowing it to be a whole Burnt-offering or a Peace-offering unto the LORD as Maimonides expounds it The reason was because no Man could lawfully vow that which was not his own as the Firstlings were not they being the LORD 's already as it follows in the end of this Verse The same Reason held as Maimonides likewise observes in all things belonging to God as Tenths Yet they devised ingeniously enough as he speaks a way to give these Firstlings to God by a new Obligation and yet not offend as they imagined against this Law For they interpret these words of Firstlings already brought forth No Man might sanctifie such but while they were in the Womb they might saying I vow that Lamb suppose which my Ewe goes with to be a whole Burnt-offering to God if it be a male But they could not vow it for a Peace-offering because no Man could alter any thing for his own profit Whether it be ox or sheep Under these two are comprehended all other kind of Creatures whose Firstlings belonged to God It is the LORD's III Numb 13. VIII 17. For this reason no Man was to presume to vow such things it being a kind of mockery to make a present of that to another which was his own before See Mr. Mede concerning this Verse p. 512. Ver. 27. Verse 27 And if it be of an unclean beast Most understand this of the Firstling of an unclean Beast Against which there is this Objection That such things were before ordered to be redeemed not with Money but with a Lamb XIII Exod. 13. Therefore it seems more reasonable to understand this of the Firstling of such an unclean Beast which a Man had redeemed v. 13. but afterward devoted to God which he might do for after the Redemption it was become his own again Then he shall redeem it according to thy estimation At the rate thou shalt set upon it And shall add a fifth part of it thereto As was ordained before in the like case v. 11. Or if it be not redeemed then it shall be sold according to thy estimation Any other Man might buy it at that rate the Priest had set upon it and the Money was applyed to holy uses Ver. 28. Verse 28 Notwithstanding no devoted thing that a man shall devote unto the LORD Nothing that was devoted by that sort of Vow which was called Cherem as the word is here in the Hebrew with a Curse as the word implyes upon themselves and others if the thing was not imployed according to their Vow Of all that he hath both of man and beast c. All manner of things which might be sanctified to the LORD by the fore-mentioned simple Vow might be thus devoted and consecrated to him by a Cherem i. e. Beasts and Houses and Lands and even Men themselves as far as they had power over them For that is meant by those words all that a man hath See next Verse Shall be sold or redeemed For this was the peculiar nature of this sort of Vow that the things devoted by it should remain irreversibly and unalterably to the use unto which it was devoted for the Person was accursed that applyed it to any other use than that to which it was consecrated Every devoted thing Of this kind Is most holy to the LORD Other things devoted by a simple Vow were holy v. 9 10 c. but these were most holy so that none might touch them but the Priests and they were so strictly applyed to the Divine Service that they could not be alienated either by Sale or Redemption or Commutation or Donation or any other way See Mede p. 160. Ver. 29. Verse 29 None devoted which shall be devoted of men shall be redeemed but shall surely be put to death Some learned Men have from these words asserted That Parents and Masters among the Jews had such a power over their Children and Servants that they might devote them to Death and so kill them only the Sentence of the Priest was to concur to whom every devoted thing fell as his portion This is maintained by Ludov. Capellus and confuted by Mr. Selden Lib. IV. de Jure Nat. Gent. juxta Disciplin Hebr. cap. 6. where he judiciously observes That this Power would have too much intrenched upon the sixth Commandment if private Men might have at their pleasure thus disposed of their Children and Slaves And in the next Chapter he explains the sense of this Verse and proves indeed that there may be a Cherem minhaadam of men or from among men as well as of beasts but this word hath four several senses among the Hebrews First It signifies the Sacred Gift it self which was devoted to God or to holy Uses and so it signifies in the foregoing v. 28. Secondly It signifies that which was devoted to Perdition and utter Destruction either by the right of War or upon the account of Capital Enmities an Example of which we have in Jericho VI Josh 17. where the whole City was a Cherem devoted to Destruction as a Punishment to their Enemies yet so that the Metals were made a Cherem of the first sort that is Sacred to the LORD and his Holy Uses And thus the great Sanhedrim called in Scripture the whole Congregation might devote those to be a Cherem who going to the Wars did not obey orders and perform the Charge laid upon them An Example of which we have XXI Judg. 5. 1 Sam. XIV 24. I omit the other two for brevities sake of which there are Examples VI. Josh 26. X Ezra 8. XXIII Acts 12 14 21. See Selden Ib. cap. 7. 8. because the Cherem here mentioned by Moses is of this second sort For it is evident that the Cherem of the first sort mentioned v. 28. was of such things over which they had an intire power to dispose of them as they pleased And therefore those words both of Man and Beast the Hebrews understand of their Slaves whether Men or Women who were Canaanites or Gentiles not others who were in their power as much as their Beasts to give away or to sell But to take away their Life or to give them to be slain was not in their power but all the effect of this Cherem was that the whole right which they had to the Service of such Slaves was transferred by him that devoted them to the Service of the
25. which the Misna in Joma says was the Fat of the inwards only Ver. 28. Verse 28 And he that burneth them The Vulgar Latin I think rightly translates it Quicunque combusserit whosoever burneth them for there was more than one as I said before imployed in this business Shall wash his clothes c. Being defiled by touching the Sacrifices which were charged with so many sins as he that carried away the Scape-goat was v. 26. where there is the very same order in the same words Now when all this was done the Misna saith cap. 7. Joma sect 4. the High-Priest washed himself again and put on his white Robes which were proper to this day and went into the most holy place to fetch out the Censer with the Dish or Cup which he carrried in when he went to burn Incense v. 12 13. And when he came out from thence he washt and put on his golden Garments and offered Incense upon the golden Altar and trimmed the Lamps Which being done they brought him his own Garments which he wore constantly and when he had put them on they accompanied him to his House where he entertained his Friends with a Feast being come out of the Sanctuary in peace that is safe and in health For by shifting his Garments and washing so often he was in danger to catch Cold as we speak and they did sometimes fall into various Diseases upon this occasion as P. Cunaeus observes out of Maimonides L. II. de Repub. Hebr. cap. 14. and some died in the holy place not having performed the Service duly Which made it very reasonable that he and his Friends should rejoyce when he returned in health and safety Ver. 29. Verse 29 And this shall be a statute for ever unto you Till the coming of Christ in whom all that these Sacrifices signified was accomplished who put an end therefore to this Legal Dispensation See XII Exod. 14. That in the seventh month When they had gathered in all the Fruits of the Earth and thereby had the more liberty to attend such a solemn Service Which was the reason perhaps why there were more Solemnities appointed in this Month than in any other Month in the Year as appears from XXIII of this Book It had been anciently also the first Month of the year being the Month it 's likely wherein the World was created But upon the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt the Month Abib by God's special command was ordered to be the first Yet not absolutely but only in respect of that which was most eminent viz. for the Ecclesiastical Account For as to their Civil or Temporal Affairs the seventh Month Tisri still retained the precedence On the tenth day of the month The Arabians imitated this calling the Fast of the Tenth day of the Month Moharram by the name of Ashura which is exactly the Ashor tenth day here mentioned by Moses from whom these People derived it before the appearance of Mahomet Who finding the Jews when he came to Medina fasting upon this day Ashura askt them the reason of it who told him as the Mahometan Writers report it was in remembrance of Pharaoh's being then drowned in the Red Sea whereupon he said I have more to do with Moses than you and thereupon commanded his Followers to fast on this day See Dr. Pocock upon Abal-Farajius concerning the Manners of the Arabians p. 309 310. But this is plainly an idle Tale invented by him or his Followers for the Jews would rather have feasted than fasted upon the day of such a Deliverance But it shows that this Day was remarkable among the Jews and solemnly observed by them wheresoever they were and was chosen by God rather than any other Day of the Month if we may believe Maimonides More Nevoch P. III. cap. 43. because it was the day on which Moses came down from the Mount with the second Tables in his hand and proclaimed to the People the Remission of their great Sin in worshipping the golden Calf in memory of which it was ordered to be intirely a Day of Repentance and of Divine Worship Ye shall afflict your souls By Fasting and Abstinence not only from all Meat and Drink but from all other Pleasure whatsoever Insomuch that they might not wash their Faces much less anoint their Heads nor wear their Shoes nor use the Marriage Bed nor read if their Doctors say true any portion of the Law which would give them delight For example the story of their coming out of Egypt and leading them through the Red Sea c. so far is the Mahometan story from having any colour of truth It is likely also that to increase their Grief they rent their Clothes as they did in other Fasts in after times put on Sackcloth girded it close to their Flesh sprinkled Ashes on their heads c. Which were all intended no doubt to work in them an inward sorrow for all their sins with an hearty abhorrence of them and resolution to mortifie and abstain from them For though the word Soul be generally expounded the sensitive part of us which is afflicted by fasting as the Prophet Isaiah expounds this Phrase LVIII 3 5. yet it is absurd to think that God was pleased with this alone without that inward Compunction of Mind which made them break off their sins by righteousness which the Prophet there declares was the only acceptable Fast to the LORD The Hebrew Doctors here observe that they did not afflict little Children on this day by making them fast from all Food till they were of the Age of Eleven years But only taught them what they were to do when they came of Age that they might be accustomed to the Precept See Joma cap. 8. sect 4. And do no work at all Not only abstain from all Pleasure but from all Labour whatsoever nothing being to be done upon this day but Confessing of Sins and Repentance as Maimonides expresses it in the place before-mentioned Whether it be one of your own Country or a Stranger that sojourneth among you The Hebrew word Ezrach is extant only here and XXIII 42. which signifies as much as one that had his original among them being born an Israelite as it is there expressed The opposite to which is gher a Stranger we translate it one that was of another Nation but had embraced the Jewish Religion and lived among them who in the New Testament is called a Proselyte Ver. 30. Verse 30 For on that day shall the Priest make an atonement for you If upon this day they afflicted and humbled their Souls as Conr. Pellicanus glosses with fasting and prayer and anguish for their sins with alms also beseeching God's mercy with tears and sighs in sackcloth and ashes resting from all servile works and devoted wholly to the LORD To cleanse you From all the Transgressions and Sins mentioned v. 16. from which both the High-Priest and his Family and all the People were to be purged on this
day For which reason the greatest care was to be used to see it rightly observed because all their happiness depended upon it For the Land of Canaan was promised them upon condition that they kept the Law offering all the Sacrifices therein prescribed especially this great Sacrifice which was to cleanse them from the guilt of all their Neglects or Breaches of this Law Which should teach us Christians to conclude That as the Inheritance of that good Land was assigned the Jews in consideration of their Sacrifices as the condition of that Covenant by which they were prescribed so the Inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven is made over to us by the Covenant of Grace in consideration of the Obedience and Sufferings of Christ Jesus of which they were a Figure For it is his Blood that cleanseth us from all unrighteousness as St. John speaks and secures our Claim to the heavenly Inheritance That ye may be clean from all your sins If a Man was bound to offer Sacrifice for any sin that was certain he was not excused from it by this Sacrifice on the Day of Expiation but was bound to make that other Sacrifice also But the Day of Expiation freed those who were bound to offer Sacrifices for dubious Offences So Maimonides saith in his Treatise of Offences committed through Error cap. 3. sect 9. that those sins which were known to none but God were taken away by this solemn Day of Expiation without any other Sacrifice But the Misna in the last Section of Joma acknowledges very honestly that the Day of Expiation did not purge Men from the guilt of the Offences they had committed against their Neighbour unless they first gave him Satisfaction Before the LORD Who dwelt among them and would continue to do so if they observed his Laws and took care to be thus cleansed from all their sins But least any Man should mistake this matter it may be here fit to observe that there were no Sacrifices at all appointed by the Law of Moses for Capital Offences and therefore when he speaks here of making them clean from all their sins upon this day such as these for instance Murder Adultery Idolatry c. are not included for this great Sacrifice could not obtain a Pardon for them but only for Offences committed against the Ritual Laws contained in this Book and that also when they were committed through Error or Ignorance for if they were done presumptuously cutting off was threatned to them See XV Numb from v. 22. to v. 32. And this appears plainly from the Sacrifices themselves that are here appointed which had no vertue in them from their own worth and value but only from God's Institution to make Expiation for any Sin For the death of a Bullock or a Goat was not of such account with God that it could prevail for the taking away of guilt unless he had given it such a power And that power which he was pleased to allow unto them was neither infinite nor could it be so For the guilt that they were principally designed to abolish was not of such a nature as to require such an Expiation It arising from things which were neither good nor evil in themselves and therefore could not create such a guilt Such were all the uncleannesses from certain natural Fluxes from touching a dead Body and innumerable other such like Impurities which depending wholly upon the will of God who by a positive Law made such things to bring Men under a guilt by the same Will he appointed a proportionable Expiation of it by these Sacrifices whose power to cleanse depended also purely upon his pleasure And if they had any vertue to purge Men from the real guilt of sins committed against the Eternal Laws of God this they had not of themselves but from the most gracious Will of God who was pleased to apply to this purpose the future Satisfaction of the immaculate Lamb of God of which these Sacrifices were a Shadow and Type For a Body being prepared for the Son of God and he offering himself for us that was a Sacrifice of such infinite value in its own nature that it expiated all manner of sins of all Men. To this effect that excellent Person Joh. Wagenseil discourses in his Confutation of R. Lipman's Carmen Memoriale p. 488. Ver. 31. Verse 31 It shall be a Sabbath of rest unto you In the Hebrew the words are a Sabbath of Sabbaths i. e. a great or perfect Sabbath like that of the Seventh day in every Week on which they might do no manner of Work And so the Seventh day is called just as this is a Sabbath of Rest or Sabbath of Sabbaths See XXXI Exod. 15. XXXV 2. which gave occasion to those jeers we meet withal in Martial and others at the Jews fasting on their Sabbath days For reading Moses his Books carelesly they fancied the Jews observed as strict a Fast upon every Sabbath day as they did on this which was but once a year And ye shall afflict your Souls by a statute for ever See v. 29. Ver. 32. Verse 32 And the Priest whom he shall anoint c. The High-Priest who should be anointed and consecrated in his Father's stead when he was dead is here ordered to make this Atonement yearly That is what was now done by Aaron was to be done by every High-Priest successively when he was legally put into his Office by vesting him with the Priestly Garments anointing him and offering the Sacrifices of Consecration VIII 7 10 22. This Statute confined the sacred work of this day to the High-Priest who alone could perform it But it shows withal as the Apostle observes the great imperfection of this Legal Priesthood which could not by reason of death continue always in one Person but there were many Priests succeeding one another in the Office which became often vacant Whereas our great High-Priest because he continueth for ever i. e. never dies hath an unchangeable Priesthood and therefore is able to save to the uttermost or evermore those that come to God by him VII Hebr. 23 24 25. And shall put on the linen clothes even the holy garments He was to take a special care not to officiate on this day in any other Garments but those mentioned v. 4. which were peculiarly appropriated to this Service and called the white Garments which were a Figure perhaps of the perfect Purity of our great High-Priest who as it there immediately follows VII Hebr. 26. is holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners Ver. 33. Verse 33 And he shall make an atonement for the holy Sanctuary c. In this Verse he only sums up the whole duty of the day in which a general Atonement was made for all Things and for all Persons The only thing to be observed is That the Expiation of the Sanctuary the Tabernacle and the Altar preceded the Expiation of the Priests and of the People who were to be expiated by the Sacrifices offered