represented as Plutarch tells us in his Book de Iside Osiride But whether in such ancient times as this of Moses it may be justly doubted Wood and Stone Silver and Gold Generally they were made of Wood or Stone which sometimes were silvered or gilded over And if any of them were made of massy Silver or Gold yet being liveless things they were no more able to afford them any help than the Dung on the Earth And it was an abominable thing to look upon dead matter as a god or to think he made his habitation there which was the opinion of the better sort of Heathen or would be represented by them they having no likeness at all unto him Ver. 18. Lest there should be among you man or woman Verse 18 or family or tribe These words are to be connected with v. 15. as the principal end why he engaged every Soul of them to renew their Covenant with God that none of them might revolt from him to serve any other god And the order wherein he places these words show that Idolatry is of a very infectious nature spreading it self strangely from single Men and Women unto Families and at last into whole Tribes Whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God Who had a hankering as we now speak after other gods which might afterwards break out into Idolatry To go and serve the gods of these Nations When the heart i. e. the Mind Will and Affections are depraved Men easily find occasions to follow whither they lead them And by this it appears that the principal part of the Covenant was to keep them close to the Worship of one God and no other as I have often observed VI. 4. VII 2 25. IX 1 c. Lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood Many take a root here to signifie an evil principle which the Apostle calls an evil heart of unbelief III Hebr. 12. But the words going before in this Verse and those that follow in the next plainly lead us to take it for any Person lurking secretly among them like a root under ground that was tainted with Idolatry who might poison others therewith and in time bring forth the fruits of their Impiety which he calls gall and wormwood Where it must be observed that the Hebrew word Rosch which we translate Gall properly signifies an Herb growing among Corn as bitter as Gall. Which in X Hosea 4. we translate Hemlock and commonly in Scripture is joyned with Wormwood as it is here IX Jerem. 15. III Lament 19. VI Amos 12. Unto which Idolatry is compared because it is most ungrateful and distastful if I may so speak unto God and produces bitter effects that is most grievous Punishments unto Men. Verse 19 Ver. 19. And it come to pass when he The Man spoken of before under the name of a root of bitterness Heareth the words of this Curse Against Idolatry which Moses engaged every one of them to renounce by making a Solemn Covenant with God to Worship him alone and dreadful Imprecations upon themselves if they did not make good this Covenant v. 12 14 15 16. XXVII 15. That he bless himself in his heart Secretly fancy none of these Curses shall fall upon him but quite contrary promise himself all manner of happiness Saying I shall have peace Prosper and be happy Though I walk in the imagination of mine heart Or in the stubborness of mine heart as it is in the Margin That is resolve to worship what God I best fancy To add drunkenness to thirst In the Hebrew the words are as the Margin of our Bibles observes the drunken to the thirsty for both words are Adjectives as Grammarians speak and supposing a Substantive to support them many think none so proper to be understood as the word Earth Which makes this a Proverbial Speech to add the wet ground to the dry and thirsty or rather the thirsty to the wet For the Particle beth which in the Hebrew is the Note of the Accusative Case is put before the word dry or thirsty and therefore that 's the thing which is to be added to the wet or drunken not the drunken to the dry And the sense is draw others into the same wickedness just as if a drunken Man should draw sober Persons to play the fool with him and do as bad as himself or after one piece of Land is overflowed the Water should be let into that which is dry and spoil that also For this seems to be the meaning of the whole Verse If a Man shall be so presumptuous as not only to cry peace to himself when he runs after his own Devices in serving other gods but endeavours to draw others into the same wicked practices There are a great many other Interpretations of these words seven or eight given by the Hebrew Doctors besides others in Christian Writers which may be seen in Coccejus in his Vltima Mosis Sect. 134. But this seems to me the most easie at which the Chaldee aims and the LXX if the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be omitted which is not in the Hebrew or the Chaldee nor the Vulgar Latin And if we take the words as we translate them only inverting them add thirst unto drunkenness the sense is as easie viz. add more sins to the foregoing XXX Isa 1. and to be still inflamed as the Scripture speaks with love to more Idols after the Service of many of them increasing their Altars as Hosea speaks like heaps in the furrows of the field X Hos 1. XII 11. Dr. Jackson in his first Book upon the Creed Chapt. XXX Paragr 4. thinks the meaning is that Posterity added to the wickedness of their Ancestors For they being cast out of their good Land for their Infidelity and Disobedience their Posterity saith he continue Exiles and Vagabonds for their stubborness in like Practices not being willing to this day to offer up the Sacrifice of a contrite heart for their disobedience past but rather adding thirst to drunkenness bless themselves when they hear the words of that Curse promising peace to themselves though they walk on according to the stubborness of their fore-fathers hearts Verse 20 Ver. 20. The LORD will not spare him That is not pardon or pass by his wickedness without punishment But then the anger of the LORD and his jealousie shall smoak against that man These words import the highest degree of Anger That is the severest Plagues which are the effects of the Anger of an incensed Majesty And all the Curses that are written in this Book Particularly in the foregoing Chapter Shall lye upon him Not only fall but remain upon him to his utter ruin as it follows in the next words And the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven By his name is meant himself so that this is a threatning of Destruction to him and his Posterity till there be no memory of him left Ver.
21. And the LORD shall separate him unto evil out of all the Tribes of Israel Though he offended Verse 21 never so secretly for he speaks of one that blessed himself in his heart c. v. 19. God threatens to make him a publick and notorious Example of his Vengeance to all the People of Israel According to all the Curses of the Covenant that are written in the Book of the Law It was a singular condescension in the Divine Majesty to enter into Covenant with them but it contained not only Blessings to the obedient but Curses upon the disobedient the latter of which were as certain as the former Ver. 22. So that the Generations to come of your Children Verse 22 that shall rise up after you and the stranger that shall come from a far Land shall say That which follows v. 24. When they see the Plagues of that Land This shows that these Threatnings are denounced not meerly against a simple Idolater but such an one as made it his endeavour to draw others from the Worship of God not being content to be drunk himself with Heathenish Superstition but zealous to intoxicate as many as he could with it and to root true Religion out of the Nation And the sicknesses which the LORD hath laid upon it In the Hebrew it is The sicknesses wherewith he hath made it sick i. e. the heavy Punishments which he hath inflicted upon it and thereby made it a miserable Nation Ver. 23. And that the whole Land is brimstone and salt and burning Or as it may be translated Is burnt up with brimstone and salt For these make Land Verse 23 barren and unfruitful as Pliny particularly observes of Salt Lib. XXX Cap. VII Omnis locus in quo reperitur Sal sterilis est nihilque gignit All ground in which Salt is found is barren and produceth nothing See IX Judges 45. CVII Psal 34. XVII Jerem 6. XLVII Ezek. 11. II Zephan 9. That it is not sown nor beareth nor any grass groweth therein That neither Nature nor Art will make it fruitful Like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah Admah and Zeboim And the Country about them which was the most beautiful of all other in that part of the World XIII Gen. 10. but on a sudden turned into a filthy stinking Lake where no Creature neither Fish nor Fowl can live Which the LORD overthrew in his anger and in his wrath Being highly incensed by their wickedness See Gen. XVIII 20. XIX 24 25. as he was by the wickedness of the Jews which was the more provoking because they had such an example of his Vengeance continually before their eyes and yet went on in their evil ways till they brought the like Judgment upon all Judoea This was more exactly fulfilled in the last destruction of the Jews by the Romans than in their first by the Babylonians For the whole Land was laid waste and deserted by its Inhabitants and made a Den of Thieves being brought to desolation by repeated returns of Wars More especially in the time of Adrian when Julius Severus as I observed upon the foregoing Chapter made such a devastation that the whole Country was turned in a manner into a Wilderness Ver. 24. Even all Nations shall say All that were near them or came that way from far Countries as it goes before v. 22. Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this Land Verse 24 Which he formerly made so populous and plenteous And what means the heat of this great anger These exceeding dreadful Calamities which evidently proceeded from a Divine Vengeance For the Jews fought so valiantly and defended Jerusalem so resolutely as appears by Josephus that the Author of Schebet Juda had reason to say that it was not want of Arms nor the unusual terrour of new Machines but the Anger of God provoked by their Wickedness which was the true and only Cause of their destruction And indeed Titus himself said as much that God fought for the Romans and drove the Jews from their Fortifications 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for what could the hands of Men or Machines have done against such strong Towers See Chap. XXXII v. 22. Ver. 25. Then shall men say because they have forsaken Verse 25 the Covenant of the LORD God of their Fathers which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the Land of Egypt This account must be supposed to be given by the pious Jews or by those who were made sensible when it was too late how stedfast God was in his Covenant which contained Curses as well as Blessings as was before observed v. 21. And see VII 9 10. XI 26 27 28. Ver. 26. For they went and served other gods and Verse 26 worshipped them whom they knew not This aggravated their sin that they sought for acquaintance with strange gods directly contrary to the Covenant of God XII 30 31. And whom he had not given unto them Or as it is in the Margin had not given or divided to them any portion that is never bestowed any benefit upon them as the LORD their God had done who brought them out of Egypt Or more simply as Bootius thinks the words will bear to whom no worship belonged Verse 27 Ver. 27. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against this Land to bring upon it all the Curses that are written in this Book So Moses foretold them VII 4. XI 16 17. Verse 28 Ver. 28. And the LORD rooted them out of their Land in anger and wrath and in great indignation Here is one word more to express his displeasure against them than was used before when he speaks of the destruction of Sodom c. v. 23. And they all denote the great Plagues threatned in XXVI Levit. and in the foregoing Chapter of this Book And cast them into another Land as it is this day This may seem to relate only to their Captivity in Babylon for after they were rooted out by the Romans they were scattered into all Lands XXVIII 63 64. But considering what goes before v. 23 24. and that they were not quite rooted out many of them remaining in the Land when Nebuchadnezzar conquered them till the desolation made by the Romans I think these words relate to them also and another Land is only the singular number as is usual for the plural And so the Author of Schebet Juda understood it who quoting these words cast them out into another land adds which experience now proves to be true Verse 29 Ver. 29. The secret things belong unto the LORD our God but those that are revealed belong unto us and to our Children for ever c. The Jews generally take these words to be meant of the punishment of secret sins particularly of Idolatry spoken of before v. 19. which belongeth unto God as the punishment of open sins belonged unto them in obedience to his Law who commanded them to put to death him that seduced any Person to Idolatry and to raze the
that it be left for them But not any thing given them in lieu of it See Selden in the forenamed place p. 699. It shall be for the stranger for the fatherless and for the widow The Jewish Doctors by the Stranger here mentioned in this and the foregoing Verses would have only Proselytes of Justice understood who had intirely embraced the Jewish Religion So that other Proselytes and meer Gentiles had no right to these things For by the Law say they concerning the Tythe for the Poor XIV 29. the Levite and the Stranger are put together and the Levite being a Child of the Covenant so must the Stranger be who is joyned with him But this Restriction confined this Charity within such narrow Bounds that they themselves are not satisfied with it and therefore they add that though such only as were within the Covenant had a right to these things by the Law yet if Proselytes of the Gate or meer Gentiles mixed themselves with the Jews by the decree of their Wise-men Chapter XXV they were not to be hindred from gathering their share in these Fruits of the Earth which were left for the Poor And they give this Reason for it because of the way of peace that is Offices of Humanity and Charity ought to be extended to all See Selden p. 700. Ver. 22. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a Verse 22 bondman in the Land of Egypt therefore I command thee to do this thing If they had been only Strangers there and neglected by the Natives of the Country the remembrance of God's Mercy in providing for them had been a powerful Motive to obey this Command and therefore the remembrance of the Slavery and grievous Oppressions under which they there groaned was a far greater See v. 18. CHAP. XXV Verse 1. IF there be a controversie between men and Verse 1 they come into judgment It is evident by the sequel that he speaks of Criminal Causes That the Judges may judge them Who were appointed to be constituted and settled in all their Gates See XVI 18. Then they shall justifie the righteous Acquit him who is falsly accused of doing any wrong And condemn the wicked To suffer such punishment as his Crime deserves Ver. 2. And it shall be if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten For what Crimes Men were to be beaten by the Sentence of the lower Courts as well as by that of the great Sanhedrim See Selden Lib. 2. de Synedr Cap. XIII N. VII VIII They were in all as they reckon CCVII. The Judge shall cause him to lye down By his Officers who attended the Court. Before his face In open Court but he was first to be admonished and the Witnesses were to be produced against him as in Capital Causes After which the Judge commanded him to lye down before a low Pillar to which his hands were tied and he being stript down to his waste the Executioner stood behind him upon a stone where he scourged him both on the back and breast with Thongs made of an Oxes hide before the face of the Judges For though one Judge be only mentioned the Execution was done before the whole Bench after the Sentence was pronounced by one of them According to his fault For the violation of a negative Precept he might be scourged before the Court consisting of three Judges but not for the violation of an affirmative which was to be done before the Court of XXIII as Selden observes in the place forenamed Sect. VI. By a certain number He was condemned to receive more or fewer Stripes proportionable to his Crime and all the time the Executioner was scourging him the principal Judge proclaimed those words XXVIII Deut. 58. with a loud voice If thou observest not all the words of this Law c. then the LORD shall make thy Plagues wonderful c. adding those XXIX 9. Keep therefore the words of this Covenant and do them c. Concluding at last with those of the Psalmist LXXVIII 38. But he being full of compassion forgave their iniquities Which he was to repeat if he had finished these sayings before the full number of Stripes were given See Selden Lib. II. de Synedr Cap. XIII N. VI. which I find in the Title Maccoth Cap. III. Sect. XIV And see G. Schickard Mischpa◠Hamelek Cap. II. p. 57 58. Ver. 3. Forty stripes he may give him Which Verse 3 was more merciful than the Athenian law mentioned by Aeschines which inflicted upon some Criminals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fifty stripes by the publick scourge But none among the Jews were to receive above XL. for any Crime fewer they might inflict though not more And not exceed Of this they were so careful that as one of the three Judges commanded the Executioner to strike another told the stripes while the third pronounced the Sentences out of Scripture before-mentioned to admonish him and every one else of the Justice of the Punishment So Schickard observes out of Maimonides in the place above-named For the prevention also of excess in this Punishment they were wont to give but XXXIX Stripes and no more though the Offender was ever so strong or pertinacious Thus the Jews generally affirm and it appears to be true by what S. Paul saith of himself 2 Corinth XI 24. Of the Jews five times I received forty stripes save one which is exactly the phrase of the Mischna in Maccoth Cap. III. Sect. X. Where they interpret forty stripes by the next number to forty i. e. thirty nine For which they give a foolish reason in the Gemara as Joh. Coch there observes but Maimonides gives a sober account that this was ordered lest the Executioner by carelesness might exceed the number of XL. beyond which the Law required them not to go but it was lawful to fall short of it and therefore they required him to stop at the Thirty ninth stroke Yet if any Man deserved this Punishment twice together they did sometime exceed the number of XL. and went so far as to Sentence such a Malefactor to receive LXXIX stripes as Mr. Selden observes in the same place Where he likewise notes on the other side that if a Man was so weak that he was ready to faint away before he had received XXXIX the Judges ordered the Executioner to stay his hand Lest if he should exceed and beat him above these with many stripes then thy brother should seem vile unto thee Being beaten like a Dog as we speak that is so cruelly that the marks of it remained afterward to make him contemptible Which the Law was so far from intending that the Jews say no Man was to be reproached afterward with this whipping or the Crime for which he was whipped because he was still a Brother as the word here is And therefore he was to be restored to the same respect among them that he had before nay to any Office which before he enjoyed except he was the President
were taken Captive as well as those that fell in the battle From the beginning of revenges upon the Enemy How the Hebrew word Paroth comes to signifie revenges I am not able to give an account but in that sense we take it both here and in V Judges 2. The word Para from whence it seems to be derived signifies to make bare or naked And so the Vulgar Latine here understands it and thence Joh. Forsterus hath given a probable sense of these words taking rosch which we translate beginning for the head as it properly signifies or the King in this manner because of the baring i. e. making bare of the head by the Enemy That is the taking away of the Kingdom and Priesthood from Israel The LXX translate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Head of the Princes of the Enemies Which is a sense very agreeable if we could find any word in the Hebrew like to Paroth that signifies Princes or Rulers But I think there is a more simple sense may be given of these words than any of the forementioned only by supposing the Particle Lamed to be omitted as in many other places before paroth Which is this from the King to the Slave of the Enemies For they were wont to shave their Captives as every one knows by way of Contempt and Scorn Which is the reason God threatens baldness so often to the Israelites by his Prophets when he was so angry with them that he gave them up to be Slaves Next to this is the Translation of Onkelos I will take away those words he adds the Crowns from the head of the Enemy Which was the making the King's head bare This universal slaughter is most notably expressed by Jeremiah L. 35 36 37 43. And some think this Prophecy will be then most amply fulfilled when the Jews shall be called and made Members of the Church of Christ See Dr. Jackson Book XI on the Creed Chap. XII Ver. 43. Rejoyce O ye Nations with his People Verse 43 Here the Particle eth is omitted before ammo as I supposed in the foregoing words lamed to be before paroth Which made the Vulgar translate these words O ye Nations praise his People But the LXX discerned the true sense and translate it as we do The Apostle having justified their Translation in XV Rom. 10. where he expresses this word for word as they do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rejoyce ye Gentiles with his People But it must here be noted that before these words the LXX have some other which are very remarkable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rejoyce ye Heavens together with him and let all the Angels of God worship him and then follows Rejoyce ye Gentiles with his People which are not in the Hebrew nor in the Chaldee and yet the latter Clause of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let all the Angels of God worship him are the very words of the Apostle I Hebr. 6. which seem to have been taken from hence out of the LXX for they are no where else to be found in the Scripture The Margin indeed of our Bibles refers us to XCVII Psalm 7. But there the words of the LXX are otherwise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Worship him all ye his Angels Which are in the second Person whereas here and in the Apostle the words are in the third We may therefore suppose rather that the LXX from ancient Tradition among the Jews added these words before they translated this Verse to declare unto what time the fulfilling of them should principally belong For the XCVII Psalm seems to be but a descant as Dr. Jackson's words are upon this part of Moses his Song from whence the Jews might learn the Scope of it And accordingly the Apostle uses the words of the LXX here in this place rather than those of the Psalmist because he would have the Hebrews understand and consider that Moses himself had predicted the Exaltation of the Son of God as the Psalmist afterwards expounded him There is another Translation of these words of Moses which is very agreeable to the Apostle in XV Rom. 10. Rejoyce ye Nations who are his People See v. 21. of this Chapter Either way this is a plain Prophecy of the Gentiles becoming one Body with the People of Israel And thus Kimchi himself translates it Sing ye Gentiles who are his People which began to be fulfilled after our Saviour's Ascension to the Throne of his Glory in the Heavens when all the Angels of God worshipped him Hitherto Moses had supposed in this Song great Enmity between them and that sometimes they had plagued Israel sorely as at others God rendred to them according to what they had done unto his People But now he breaks out into a rapture of Joy to think that they should one day be reconciled and made one People of God And the LXX thus understanding it might well preface to their Translation of this Verse with the words now mentioned Rejoyce ye Heavens together with him For if there be joy in Heaven as Procopius Gazaeus well glosses at the Repentance of one Sinner how much more for the Salvation of the whole World by destroying the Devil's Tyranny Which being to be performed by the Advancement of the Son of God into the Heavens the next words might well be added Let all the Angels of God worship him Which they had always done the same Procopius observes as their God who created them but now they Praise and Extol his Humanity exalted at the right Hand of God For he will avenge the blood of his Servants These words seem to express some of the Motives that should perswade the Gentiles to become one Body with the Jews for such the Apostles and all the first Converts were God's punishing all those who shed the Blood of his Servants as the Christian Martyrs are called in the Book of the Revelation In which confidence the LXX add another Sentence before these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and let all the Sons of God be strong in him And will render vengeance to his Adversaries To all such as oppose this blessed Union and first to the Jews who set themselves against it more than any others being mad at the Apostles for preaching to the Gentiles and then to the Romans who persecuted all those who embraced Christianity And will be merciful unto his Land This cannot be meant of the Land of Israel which was no longer God's Land than any other but of the whole Earth as Conrad Pellicanus well explains it in which that one People of God dwells reduced as he speaks in the whole Multitude of the Faithful into one Catholick Church For they all acknowledge from the greatest to the least that One only Omnipotent God with no less Devotion and Affection than Abraham Isaac Jacob and Moses did And unto his People The whole World that believe in Christ and are his faithful Servants whose Blood he will avenge XIX Revel 2. and then
A COMMENTARY UPON THE Fifth Book of MOSES CALLED DEUTERONOMY 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 Churchyard 1700. A COMMENTARY UPON DEUTERONOMY Chapter I. THE Fifth Book of MOSES CALLED DEUTERONOMY CHAP. I. THIS Book had the Name of DEUTERONOMY given it by the Greeks from the principal Scope and Design of it which was to repeat unto the Israelites before he left them the chief Laws of God which had been given them that they who were not then born when they were first delivered or were uncapable to understand them or had not sufficiently regarded them might be instructed in them and awakned to attend to them See v. 1. 5. In order to this he premises a short Narrative of what had befaln them since they came from Mount Sinai unto this time in the three first Chapters And then in the fourth urges them by a most pathetical Exhortation to the observance of those Laws which he had taught them especially the Ten Commandments with which he begins the fifth Chapter Where he makes a solemn Rehearsal of the Covenant God made with them in Horeb and what immediately followed upon the delivery of the Law by God himself from Mount Sinai And then having earnestly pressed the observation of the first Commandment in the former part of the sixth Chapter and in the latter part of it and in several Chapters that follow to the end of the eleventh reminded them of a great many things which God had done for them and given them several Cautions lest they let them slip out of their Minds and used many Arguments from several Topicks as we call them to move them to be obedient to all the other Commandments he proceeds in the twelfth Chapter and so forward to the twenty eighth to remember them of a great many other Laws besides the Ten Commandments which he had delivered to them Some of which he explains others he inforces with further Reasons and in several places adds new Laws for the greater Security of the whole particularly he orders the writing of God's Law upon Stones when they came into the Land of Canaan Chapter XXVII And then pronounces those Promises which God had made to the Obedient and his Threatnings to the Disobedient more largely and with greater force then he had done in the XXVIth of Leviticus After which he again remembers them of several wonderful Works of God for them Chapter XXIX and renews the Covenant between God and them using several Arguments to perswade them to a dutiful observance of God's Law Which he commands Chapter XXXI to be read to all the People in the conclusion of every Seventh Year that none might pretend ignorance of it And then concludes all with a most admirable Song which he orders every one to learn and with a Blessing upon the Twelve Tribes All this was done in the two last Months of the last Year of Moses his life But not all at once as plainly appears by several parts of the Book in which he writes what he delivered to them at several times Which is the reason of the Repetition of the very same thing over and over again that he might make it sink into their Minds by being often inculcated Some have been so foolish as to make this an Objection against this Book being composed by Moses But it shows their great ignorance all wise Men having ever judged it necessary to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very same things concerning the same things that they might be thoroughly understood and fixed in the memory of their Auditors and setled in their Hearts and Affections Particularly Epictetus as David Chytraeus long ago observed delivered this as a profitable Rule in all Studies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This must be known as a certain Truth that it is not easie for a Man to attain the solid knowledge of any thing unless he both read and hear the same things every day and also set himself to the practice of them This Course Moses took with the Children of Israel spending every day it is likely of the latter end of his life in calling to their mind again and again what he had taught them and the reason they had to do accordingly Verse 1. THese be the words This Book contains the words Verse 1 Which Moses spake unto all Israel All the People could not hear what he said but he ordered the Elders and Heads of the several Tribes to communicate to the whole Congregation what he delivered to them in the Audience of many of the People who were assembled with them Thus these words are commonly understood But considering the great weight of what is here said I rather think that Moses himself at several times spake what here follows in the Ears of the People See V. 1. On this side Jordan The Vulgar Latin having translated the Hebrew words beeber on the other side Jordan it hath furnished some ill disposed Minds with an Argument that Moses was not the Author of this Book For he that wrote plainly shows that he was in Canaan when he wrote it But a very little consideration would have prevented this frivolous Objection there being nothing more certain than that the Hebrew words signifie indifferently either one side or the other and may be literally translated in the passage over Jordan or as they were about to pass over it as Huetius observes and proves by plain Examples that the Hebrews have no other word to express their mind when they would say either on this side or beyond See Demonstr Evang. Propos IV. Cap. XIV To which another learned Writer since him Hermannus Witsius Lib. I. Miscel Sacr. Cap. XIV hath added several other places which evidently show that beeber is a word that indifferently belongs to either side of any place See 1 Sam. XIV 40. and must be determined by the Matter in hand to which it is to be applied And here undoubtedly it is to be rendered on this side Jordan See III. 8. In the Wilderness in the Plain In the Plain of Moab where they had remained a long while as appears from the foregoing Book XXII Numb 1. XXVI 3 63. XXXI 12. XXXIII 48 49. XXXV 1. XXXVI 13. Over against the Red Sea There is no word in the Hebrew Text for Sea and therefore the Marginal Translation is to be preferred which is over against Suph which was a place in the Country of Moab See XXI Numb 14. over against which they now lay encamped but were so far distant from the Red Sea that there can be no respect to it here Between Paran He doth not mean the Wilderness of Paran frequently mentioned in the foregoing Book for that was as remote from hence as the Red Sea but some place in the Country of Moab as Zuph was and the rest of the places which here follow And Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth
and Dizabah There was a place called Hazeroth where they had encamped a long time ago XI Numb 35. XXXIII 17. but it was in another Wilderness far from this place as appears by the account Moses gives of their Removals from that place to this where they now lay XXXIII Numb 17 48 49. And therefore I take this and the other three places here mentioned to have been frontier Towns in the Country of Moab which lay upon the borders of this Plain The last of which Dizabah is translated by the LXX and the Vulgar as if it signified a place where there were Mines of Gold Onkelos and the Hierusalem Targum who take Suph to signifie the Red Sea and Paran for the Wilderness through which they had come many years ago c. are forced to add several words to make out the sense of this Verse in this manner These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan c. reproving them because they sinned in the Desert and provoked God in the Plain over against the Red Sea and murmured in Paran about Manna and at Hazeroth for Flesh c. And so they proceed to mention other Sins committed in other places but not in these here named which they force from their natural sense to comply with this Conceit Verse 2 Ver. 2. There are eleven days journey from Horeb c. Or eleven days we were a coming from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir unto Kadesh-Barnea Which cannot be understood of the whole time they spent between these two places but only of the time they spent in travelling For they stayed a Month at Kibroth-Hattaavah and a Week more at Hazeroth XI Numb 21. XII 15 16. before they came to Kadesh-Barnea This he represents to them to make them sensible they had been kept in the Wilderness so many years as had passed since they came out of Egypt not because it was a long way to Canaan but for the reason mentioned in the XIVth of Numbers For from Horeb whither he order'd them to go when they came out of Egypt they came in eleven days and took no long Journeys to the borders of the Land of Canaan where Kadesh-Barnea lay So Maimonides the way was plain and known between Horeb whither God brought them on purpose to serve him and Kadesh which was the beginning of an habitable Country according to what he saith XX Numb 16. See More Nevochim P. III. Cap. L. See XIII Numb 26. By the way of Mount Seir. The Country of the Edomites Chapt. II. v. 12. Vnto Kadesh-Barnea How they were ordered to come hither and what they did here he relates v. 6 19. and so proceeds to give an account of several remarkable things which befell them unto the time when he wrote these things which he sets down in the next Verse Ver. 3. And it came to pass in the fortieth year Verse 3 After they came out of Egypt In the eleventh month on the first day of the month In the first Month of this fortieth Year they came into the Wilderness of Zin unto another Kadesh XX Numb 1. From whence they removed to Mount Hor where Aaron died on the first Day of the fifth Month of this Year See there v. 28. Where it appears v. 29. they mourned for him thirty days that is till the beginning of the sixth Month. In which they fought with King Arad XXI Numb and from Mount Hor travelled from place to place as we read there and XXXIII Numb till they came to these Plains of Moab In which Journeys and in the rest of the Transactions mentioned in the latter end of the Book of Numbers they spent the other five Months of this Year as I have observed in their proper places And now began the eleventh Month when Moses being to leave the World before the end of this Year spake all that follows in this Book And this Speech which he begins v. 6. and continues to the fortieth Verse of the fourth Chapter the great Primate of Ireland thinks he made to the People on the twentieth of February and on the Sabbath-day as the Reader may find in his Annals That Moses spake unto the Children of Israel according unto all that the LORD had given him in Commandment unto them Made a Rehearsal of all that at several times he had received from the LORD and delivered unto them Ver. 4. After he had slain Sihon the King of the Amorites Verse 4 which dwelt at Heshbon About five Months ago for it was after Aaron's death which was the first Day of the fifth Month XXXIII Numb 38. and they mourned for him all that Month. See XXI Numb 21 c. And Og the King of Bashan which dwelt at Astaroth This was a City in the Country of Bashan XIII Josh 31. and a City it was of very great Antiquity as appears from XIV Gen. 5. See there From whence some think the famous Goddess Astarte had her Name being here worshipped But whether that Goddess took her Name from this City or the City from the Goddess is not certain as Mr. Selden observes in his Syntagma II. de Diis Syris cap. 2. But that the Heathen Deities were wont to have their Names from the Groves Mountains Cities and Caves where they were worshipped is as certain as it is uncertain from whence Astarte or Astoreth as the Scripture Name is was so called In Edrei His Royal Palace was at Astaroth as Sihon's was at Heshbon but he was slain in Edrei XXI Numb 33. Verse 5 Ver. 5. On this side Jordan in the Land of Moab In the Plains of Moab before they passed over Jordan See v. 1. Began Moses to declare this Law saying To call to remembrance that which any one had forgotten and to explain that which any one did not understand So Maimonides expounds these words in Seder Zeraim In the end of the fortieth Year in the beginning of the Month Shebat Moses called the People together saying The time of my Death draws near if any one therefore hath forgot any thing that I have delivered let him come and receive it or if any thing seem dubious let him come that I may explain it And so they say in Siphri If any one have forgotten any Constitution let him come and hear it the second time if he need to have any thing unfolded let him come and hear the Explication of it For which he quotes this Verse and says that Moses spent all his time in this from the beginning of the Month Shebat to the seventh day of Adar And what he now said was likely to be the more regarded because these were in a manner his dying words for he lived but till the seventh day of the next Month and seems to have composed this Book as a Compendium of his whole Law for the familiar use of the Children of Israel from whence it is called Deuteronomy i. e. a second Law See Huetius in his Demonstr Evang.
these Expeditions But they seem to be here remembred as an Encouragement to the Israelites to hope that they might drive out the Inhabitants of Canaan who were not stronger than these as they had already driven the Amorites out of the Country of Sihon as it here follows As Israel did unto the Land of his possession which the LORD gave unto them Some have argued from hence that this Book was not written by Moses but by some body else after they had got possession of the Land of Canaan But it is manifest this may relate to what they had done already in dispossessing Sihon King of the Amorites and Og King of Bashan of their Country which it is expresly said Moses had given for a possession to the Tribe of Reuben and Gad and the half Tribe of Manasseh and that by God's direction XXXII Numb 33. XXXIV 14 15. and in this Book XXIX 8. This hath been observed by many particularly by Huetius in his Demonstratio Evangelica Propos IV. Cap. XIV N. XV. Ver. 13. Now rise up said I and get you over the Verse 13 Brook Zered c. Which elsewhere we translate the Valley of Zered See XXI Numb 12. Ver. 14. And the space in which we came from Kadesh-Barnea Verse 14 until we came over the Brook Zered was thirty eight years For it is evident by the story in Numbers that they came to Kadesh-Barnea about the fourth Month of the second Year after they came out of Egypt See upon XII Numb 16. And if we suppose that they removed from hence in the seventh or eighth Month of that Year it is certain that they could not come to this Brook till the seventh or eighth Month of the fortieth Year For Aaron died at Mount Hor on the first day of the fifth Month of this Year and we must allow two or three Months time for all that followed between that and this viz. the conquest of King Arad and of Sihon and Og c. Vntil all the Generation of the Men of War So they were called who were above twenty years old I Numb 3. Were wasted out from among the People Utterly consumed so that not one of them was left XXVI Numb 64 65. As the LORD sware unto them See XIV Numb 28 29. Verse 15 Ver. 15. For indeed the hand of the LORD was against them to destroy them from among the Host Some of them it is likely died a Natural death but many of them might in the course of Nature have lived longer if God had not several ways cut them off before their time Vntil they were consumed By one Plague or other which God sent among them So that a great deal of their time in the thirty eight Years before mentioned were spent it is likely in burying and mourning for their dead Verse 16 17. Ver. 16 17. So it came to pass when all the Men of War were consumed and dead from among the People that the LORD spake unto me saying This was spoken it is probable just as they passed over the Brook Zered or in their next Station at Dibon-Gad XXXIII Numb 45. Ver. 18. Thou art to pass through Ar the Coast of Verse 18 Moab this day Or rather to pass by the Border of Moab for they were not permitted to come into their Country v. 9. See upon v. 4. Ver. 19. And when thou comest nigh over against the Verse 19 Children of Ammon As they did after the conquest of Sihon King of the Amorites whose Country bordered upon the Ammonites XXI Numb 13 24. Distress them not neither meddle with them The same command with that about the Edomites and Moabites v. 5 9. For I will not give thee of the Land of the Children of Ammon any possession As he had said before of the Land of Moab v. 9. Because I have given it unto the Children of Lot for a possession To the Descendants of his youngest Son as he had done the Country of Moab to the Children of the eldest Ver. 20. And that also was accounted a Land of Giants Verse 20 c. Was called the Country of Giants or Rephaim for People so called inhabited it And the Ammonites called them Zamzummims Changed their Names it is probable from Zuzims See XIV Gen. 5. as they were called before into Zamzummims But why they were called either by the one Name or the other it is but conjectured Some conceive they were called Zuzims from their swiftness or nimble running which in Warriours was a quality always highly valued and Zamzummims from their abominable Wickedness or their craft and cunning in doing Mischief Ver. 21. A people great and many and tall as the Anakims The same description which he gave of the Emims v. 10. Verse 21 But the LORD destroyed them before them i. e. Before the Ammonites who expelled them out of their Country and it 's like cut off the most of them And they succeeded them and dwelt in their Land This is so often repeated to possess the Minds of the Israelites with a sense of God's Providence which rules every where displacing one People and setling another in their stead and fixing their Bounds also which they shall not pass without his leave Verse 22 Ver. 22. As he did to the Children of Esau which dwelt in Seir when he destroyed the Horites from before them c. He repeats this which he had said before v. 12. because it was a fresher Instance of God's disposal of Countries unto what People he pleases and nearly touched the Israelites because they were their Brethren Verse 23 Ver. 23. And the Avims which dwelt in Hazerim even unto Azzah Unto which he adds an instance which seems to be elder than any of the former concerning a People called Avims who inhabited some part of the Land of Canaan whither they were going For though we do not read of Hazerim in any other place yet Azzah i. e. Gaza was in the Country of the Philistims who expelled these Avims And David Chytraeus thinks that Hazerim was a Town afterward in the Tribe of Judah called Haza-gaddah XV Josh 27. The Caphtorim which came out of Caphtor That is some People of Cappadocia who were near of Kin to the Philistims See X Gen. 14. Destroyed them and dwelt in their stead Concerning which see in the place above-named Unto which I shall only add That the Avims being expelled out of Canaan by the Caphtorims went it is very probable over Euphrates and settled there till the King of Assyria brought some of them back again to plant the Country of Samaria 2 Kings XVII 31. where we translate this word Avites See Bochart in his Phaleg Lib. IV. Cap. XXXVI Ver. 24. Rise ye up take your Journey and pass over Verse 24 the River Arnon See XXI Numb 13 14. Behold I have given into thy hand Sihon King of Heshbon and his Land c. You your selves shall do to him what your Brethren the Children of Esau did to the
it c. According to their own desire but on condition they should help their Brethren to conquer the Land of Canaan See XXXII Numb 20 21 22. Verse 19 Ver. 19. But your Wives and your little Ones and your Cattle for I know you have much Cattle shall abide in your Cities which I have given you See XXXII Numb 16 24 26. Verse 20 Ver. 20. Vntil the LORD have given rest unto your Brethren as well as unto you c. Brought them to a Settlement in the Land of Canaan and given them a peaceable possession of it After which we read that Joshua dismissed these Tribes and sent them to their Wives and Children XXII Josh 4. Verse 21 Ver. 21. And I commanded Joshua at that time About that time when by God's order he appointed Joshua to be his Successor and took him to be his Associate in the Government XXVII Numb 18 c. Thine eyes have seen all that the LORD your God hath done unto these two Kings So shall the LORD do unto all the Kingdoms whither thou passest This seems to be the Preface to the Charge which by God's Command he gave to Joshua at that time XXVII Numb 19 23. Ver. 22. Ye shall not fear them for the LORD your Verse 22 God fighteth for you This is part of the Charge it self which he had heard him give all the People eight and thirty years ago I. 21 29 30. Ver. 23. And I besought the LORD at that time Verse 23 saying Being told by God at the same time XXVII Numb 12 13. that he should shortly dye and only see the Land of Canaan but not enter into it Moses made his humble Supplication to God that he would not execute the Sentence which he had denounced against him For the word besought signifies Supplication to one that is offended Ver. 24. O LORD God thou hast begun to shew Verse 24 thy Servant thy greatness and thy mighty hand In subduing the two Kings of the Amorites For what God is there in Heaven or in Earth that can do according to thy works and according to thy might He speaks according to the Language of those times when Men worshipped many Gods of several sorts None of which he acknowledges were able to bring to pass such things as the LORD had done Ver. 25. I pray thee let me go over and see the good Verse 25 Land that is beyond Jordan To see is here to enjoy it as the rest of the Israelites were to do For God bad him go up into a Mountain and behold it but threatned he should not enter into it Which Threatning he might well think was reversible as others had been against the People of Israel upon his Prayer for them though they had more highly offended the Divine Majesty than he had done For though he doubted at the first especially when he saw no Water come out of the Rock at the first stroke yet he presently recovered himself and smote it the second time believing God would relieve them That goodly Mountain Most think that he desired to go so far into it as to see the place where God intended to settle his Divine Presence which proved to be Mount Moriah But nothing was known of this a long time after unless we suppose it was revealed unto him that where Abraham offered Isaac there the LORD would dwell It seems to me that he means that goodly Country full of noble Mountains for thus the word Mountain is often used particularly XIII Numb 29. where the Spies say the Amorites dwell in the Mountain i. e. in that mountainous part of Canaan And Lebanon He desired to go through the whole Country as far as Lebanon which was the most Northerly part of it famous for goodly Cedars as the Mountain before spoken of was in the South of Canaan Verse 26 Ver. 26. But the LORD was wroth with me for your sakes See I. 37. And would not hear me Refused to grant my Petition And the LORD said unto me Let it suffice thee speak no more unto me of this matter This suggests that Moses renewed his Petition after the first denial and more earnestly begg'd this Favour of God which he could not obtain but was enjoyned silence This argues great displeasure and is mentioned by him as an Admonition to the Israelites Chapter IV. to be fearful to offend the Divine Majesty Ver. 27. Get thee up to the top of Pisgah See what I have noted upon XXVII Numb 12. Verse 27 And lift up thine eyes Westward and Northward c. Take a full view of the Country in all the Quarters of it which might be seen from the top of this Mountain which was called Nebo See XXXIV 1 2 3. Ver. 28. But charge Joshua and incourage and Verse 28 strengthen him c. Bid him not doubt that I will bring my People thither under his Conduct though I deny thee entrance into it Ver. 29. So we abode in the Valley over against Verse 29 Beth-peor It is likely that there was a Temple built to Baal-Peor which fronted this Valley for so Beth signifies an House or Temple of Peor Which gave the Name to a City wherein it stood which was part of the Inheritance of the Reubenites XIII Josh 20. In this Valley Moses was buried XXXIV 6. where he made this most excellent Exhortation to all the People CHAP. IV. Verse 1. NOW therefore hearken O Israel Having Verse 1 commemorated several Benefits which God had bestowed upon them since their coming out of Egypt and the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai with several severe Punishments which he had inflicted on them for their Disobedience to it Moses proceeds now to exhort them earnestly to the observance of it Vnto the Statutes These seem to be such Laws as concerned the Worship of God And the Judgments And then these were such as concerned their Dealings one with another Which two words comprehend all that is signified by Testimonies and Precepts also in other places Which I teach you for to do them Which he was about to set before them and press upon their Practice That ye may live and go in and possess the Land which the LORD God of your Fathers giveth you Not perish as their Fore-fathers had done in their Rebellion but be happy and enjoy what God had promised and was ready now to bestow upon them Verse 2 Ver. 2. Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you neither shall ye diminish from it This is thought by some to signifie that they should not make the least alteration in the Laws he had given them about the Rites of Divine Worship and Abstinence from several Meats and such like things which were distinctive Marks whereby they were separated from other Nations to be a peculiar People to him Thus Chiskuni interprets these words Thou shalt not add fear upon the fear of the blessed God That is any other Worship to the Divine Worship prescribed by these
nor the likeness of any thing c. The Second Principle That God's Nature is invisible is contained in this Second Commandment Being the Ground of this Prohibition to make any Image of him Which the best of the Heathen forbad also for this very reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because it is impossible to conceive God otherwise but by the Mind alone as Plutarch reports the sence of Numa among the Romans And we find the same as plainly said by Antisthenes among the Greeks in Clemens Alexandrinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is not seen by the Eyes nor is like to any thing and therefore none can learn any thing of him by an Image Nor could the Vulgar I am apt to think have been kept so long and so generally as they were to the worship of them if it had not been by bold Fictions that some of them were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Faln down from Heaven and that all of them were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divine Things and full of a Divine Communication as Jamblichus speaks And to make them more reverenced while some of them were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conspicuous to all the People others were kept secret in the inmost part of their Temple as having hidden in them a Symbolical Presence of God as Proclus speaks upon Timaeus Which Ezek Spanhemius justly thinks was done in imitation of what Moses saith concerning God's Presence upon the Mercy-Seat in the Holy of Holies Observationes in Callimachum p. 586 c. See upon these three Verses my Annotations on XX Exod. 4 5 6. Verse 11 Ver. 11. Thou shalt not take the Name of the LORD thy God in vain c. This contains the Third Principle before-mentioned that God takes Notice of all things even of our Thoughts and governs all our Affairs For it is the Foundation of an Oath that God knows our very Hearts and is Witness to our Meaning as well as our Words and will if we swear falsly punish us for it Which is an acknowledgment also both of the Justice and the Power of God See upon XX Exod. 7. Ver. 12. Keep the Sabbath-day to sanctifie it They were to keep it in Memory that they might sanctifie it as it is XX Exod. 8. see there And it was sanctified Verse 12 or set apart for special Ends and Purposes that they might give to the blessed God the seventh part of the Week as Abarbinel speaks upon these Words and might learn the Divine Law together with the Kabalah or Traditional Exposition of the Words and mark well the Niceties of it For which he quotes a Saying out of the Gemara of the Hierusalem Talmud Sabbaths and Feasts were not given but to learn the Law upon them Which is the reason he saith of another Speech of theirs in their Midrasch or Allegorical Exposition upon Exodus That the Sabbath weigheth against all the Commandments Because it was a principal means to make them known and observed There is not much said indeed in express Words concerning this End of the Rest of the Sabbath But common Reason told the Jews it could not be intended meerly as a Day of Ease from Labour but for the solemn Service of God and Instruction in their Duty to him As the LORD thy God commanded thee At Marah say the Jews commonly where he gave them a Statute and an Ordinance See XV Exod. 25. But one of them saith better At Marah it was designed and at Sinai it was commanded But they do not look back far enough for the Original of this Commandment For there being two Things in this Day the Rest of it and the Religion the Rest of it was in Remembrance of their Deliverance out of Egypt and the Overthrow of Pharaoh in the Red Sea which compleated their Deliverance immediately after which they kept their first Sabbatical Rest The Religion was in Remembrance of the Creation of the World and so this Day had been observed from the beginning by the Patriarchs tho' we find no mention made of their Resting And that may possibly be the meaning of these Words As the LORD thy God commanded thee That is immediately after he had finished the Creation of the World Verse 13 Ver. 13. Six Days shalt thou labour and do all thy Work See upon XX Exod. 9. Verse 14 Ver. 14. But the Seventh Day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God in it thou shalt not do any Work c. The reason why they might not do any Work on this Day is given in the XX Exod. 11. which is wholly omitted here because Moses had another Reason to add for the Inforcement of this Precept And refers them in the foregoing Words v. 12. As the LORD thy God hath commanded thee to what he had said in the Book of Genesis and Exodus where he had set down the Reason which God himself gave with his own Mouth for the Religious Observation of this Day because in Six Days the LORD made Heaven and Earth c. So that this Commandment was designed to establish the Fourth Principle I mentioned that God is the Maker of all Things To preserve the Memory and Sence of which as the Author of the Answer Ad Orthodoxos observes LXIX this Rest was instituted to be observed with a more than ordinary Sanctity It being of such great moment that the first Sabbath-breaker was punished with Death because the voluntary Violation of it contained in it a Denial that the World was created by God That thy Man-servant and thy Maid-servant may rest as well as thou Mercy towards Men as well as Piety towards God was a Reason for the observation of this Sabbatical Rest Ver. 15. And remember that thou wast a Servant in Verse 15 the Land of Egypt and that the LORD thy God brought thee from thence c. therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath-day This is a new Ground for the observation of the Sabbath because God had given them rest from their hard Labour in Egypt Which obliged them to keep that Seventh Day which God appointed at the giving of Manna being the Day on which he overthrew Pharaoh in the Red Sea as the Memory of the Creation of the World obliged them to keep one Day in seven So our Mr. Mede hath explained it See my Annotations on XIV Exod. 30. And Maimonides hath something to the same purpose in his More Nevochim P. II. Cap. XXXI See upon XX Exod. 11. Ver. 16. Honour thy Father and thy Mother as the Verse 16 LORD thy God hath commanded thee In the Twentieth of Exodus v. 12. See there To which I shall here add That the Laws of Solon made those Children infamous who did not afford Sustenance to their Parents and provide them an Habitation And by the ancient Law of Athens he that reproached his Parents was disinherited if he struck them his Hand was cut off if he left them unburied he lost their Estate and was banished his
Evil but he serves God truly because he is the Truth and the chiefest Good that he may be admitted to Communion with him And a Man ought to love him with the most vehement and intense Affection so that he languish with love to him just as a Man that is in love with one he desires to make his Wife Wheresoever he is at home or abroad when he eats and drinks when he lies down and rises up he thinks of her To which Solomon compares the Love of the Spouse who saith I am sick of Love 2 Cant. 5. To this purpose Baal Chasidim mentioned by Wagenseil upon Sota Cap. V. p. 611. By the Heart may be here meant the Will which is the Original of all that a Man doth as the Jews speak whether Good or Evil By the Soul the Affections to which St. Mark adds the Mind i. e. the Understanding or Rational Faculty and by Might or Strength is meant the Power of the Body for Action which four all together make up the whole Man And the word ALL added to each of these doth not exclude all other things from any share in our Thoughts and Affections but only from an equal Interest in them The Love of God ought to be superiour and direct all our other Motions to serve him as Maimonides expresses it in his Preface to Pirke Avoth Ver. 7. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy Children In the Hebrew the words are as our Margin observes shall whet or sharpen them signifying Verse 7 as some think that they should endeavour to make them pierce their Hearts But De Dieu rather thinks it signifies Beat them into them as things are hammered on an Anvil with repeated Strokes Which the famous Bochartus doth not so well approve who observes that the word Sanan which in Arabick signifies in the first place to sharpen or whet signifies also Exquisitè docere c. to teach exquisitely so that he who is taught be made thereby more acute and perspicacious Which is the intention he thinks of the Hebrew word here L. 2. Canaan Cap. XVII However it be expounded it imports the Diligence they should use as we translate it to instil this Principle into their Children's Minds that there is but One God and to work in them a fear and love of his Divine Majesty For to that which goes before v. 4 5 6. these words have a particular respect By which it appears that Moses thought his Law was so plain that every Father might be able to instruct his Sons in it and every Mother her Daughters And shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine House and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up As much as to say they should take all occasions to inculcate this great thing at home and abroad Night and Day never ceasing their most earnest Endeavours to perswade their Children not to worship any other God nor to fail to worship the LORD their God with sincere Affection The Jews have made from hence one of their affirmative Precepts That twice a Day at least they should recite these words Hear O Israel c. which is a very dilute Sence of this Precept Wherein Moses requires not meerly their saying these words in which there might be a great deal of Superstition but taking all opportunities to imprint them upon the Minds and Hearts of their Children Verse 8 Ver. 8. And thou shalt bind them for a Sign upon thine Hand and they shall be as Frontlets between thine Eyes Just thus he commands them to preserve the Memory of their Deliverance out of the Land of Egypt almost in the same words See XIII Exod. 9 16. where this is sufficiently explained And it appears to be a Proverbial Speech from XLIX Isa 16. There are some learned Men indeed who take these words literally notwithstanding St. Hierom hath delivered his Opinion to the contrary that there is no Command for Phylacteries which are grounded upon these words particularly Jos Scaliger in his Elench Trihaeres Nic. Serarii Cap. 7. 8. Where he thinks God gave this Command to the Israelites to prevent their following the Rites of other Nations who armed themselves against Dangers with superstitious Amulets in their Foreheads which the Egyptians he thinks called Totaphot But since neither here nor in Exodus there are any such words as thou shalt make thee Frontlets but Moses only saith the things he is speaking of shall be for Frontlets between their Eyes I take it not to be meant literally Tho' it 's likely they intended well who so understood it For our blessed Saviour doth not seem to reprove the Jews for wearing Phylacteries but for their Ostentation in making them broader than ordinary Ver. 9. And thou shalt write them upon the Posts of thy House and on thy Gates This looks more like a literal Command than the former and it might Verse 9 have been very useful to them when they went in and out of their House to read these words Hear O Israel the LORD thy God is one LORD c. But the Jews are too scrupulous about the Words they should write and upon what part of the Posts and Gates they were to put them c. as Mr. Selden observes Lib. III. De Synedr Cap. XIII N. 2. Tho' after all it may be this was not intended but only that they should never let this Principle slip out of their Mind but think of it when they went out and came in as well as when they were in their Houses and by the Way when they rose up and when they lay down Yet it must be observed that other Nations used to write their Laws upon their Gates as Huetius notes in his Demonstratio Evangelica p. 58. which it 's likely they did in imitation of the Jews who to this Day have written in a Parchment these Words from v. 4. to the end of this Verse with that other passage Chap. XI from v. 13. to v. 20. which they roll up and writing on it the Name of Shaddai put it into a piece of Cane or other hollow Wood and fasten it to the Doors of their Houses and of each particular Room in them and as often as they go in and out they make it a part of their Devotion to touch this Parchment and kiss it As Leo Modena tells us in his History of the Jews P. 1. Cap. 2. Ver. 10. And it shall be when the LORD thy God Verse 10 shall have brought thee into the Land which he sware c. Of this he speaks with the greatest assurance there being no doubt to be made that God would immediately give them possession of the good Land promised to them The only danger was lest they should be thrown out of it for their Disobedience Great and goodly Cities which thou buildedst not For they did not lay all waste as they did Jericho for which there was a particular Reason but dwelt in them
and stony places have the least swelling in them Or as some translate it grow callous There are those that refer this last Clause not to their Feet but to their Shoes according to what we read XXIX 5. Ver. 5. Thou shalt also consider in thine Heart Often reflect and ponder Verse 5 That as a Man chastneth his Son so the LORD thy God chastneth thee All the Afflictions which God had sent upon them he would have them think were not for their undoing but for their amendment and correcting what was amiss in them and therefore ought to be thankfully acknowledged as well as his Benefits Ver. 6. Therefore thou shalt keep the Commandments Verse 6 of the LORD thy God to walk in his ways and to fear him Howsoever therefore he dealt with them it ought to have led them to Obedience In the repetition of this so often Moses doth but practice his own Lesson which he had taught them VI. 7. That they should teach these Words diligently to their Children c. Ver. 7. For the LORD thy God bringeth thee into a Verse 7 good Land Therefore there was the greater need they should enter into it with the pious Resolution before-mentioned to fear God and walk in his ways Otherwise they would be in great danger to be corrupted by such plenty and variety of all good things as this Land afforded A Land of Brooks of Water of Fountains and Depths that spring out of Valleys and Hills The Hebrew word Tehom which we translate deep and in the plural Number Depths signifies sometimes those great Caverns of Water that are within the Ground which were made by the plentiful Rains which God sent upon this Country while they were obedient to him Which both made it fruitful tho' now barren and abounding also with Water for their Cattle LXXVIII Psal 15. XXXI Ezek. 4. But it is here commonly interpreted Lakes or Wells of Water Verse 8 Ver. 8. A Land of Wheat and Barley and Vines and Fig-trees and Pomegranates Plentifully stored with all things necessary for the support and pleasure of Life A Land of Oyl-Olive and Honey The same word Debas which signifies Honey signifies also Dates And so de Dieu thinks it most reasonable to translate it here being joyned with four other sorts of Fruits And so Kimchi saith the ancient Jews expounded it in this place and in 2 Chron. XXXI 5. where it is said That Israel brought in abundance the first Fruits of Corn Wine Oyl and Honey or Dates as we there translate it in the Margin Verse 9 Ver. 9. A Land wherein thou shalt eat Bread without scarceness Be in no want of any sort of Provision which is comprehended under the Name of Bread Thou shall not lack any thing in it No other Conveniences of Life A Land whose Stones are Iron and out of whose Hills thou mayst dig Brass Where there are useful Minerals as plentiful as Stones are in other places These are the rather mentioned because there were no such Mines in Egypt where they had long dwelt and were stored with plenty of other things XI Numb 5. Verse 10 Ver. 10. When thou hast eaten and art full After a liberal Meal Then thou shalt bless the LORD thy God for the good Land which he hath given thee Give solemn Thanks to God not only for that present Repast but for the plentiful Provision he had made for them of all good things in the Land he had bestowed on them From this place the Jews have made it a general Rule or as they call it an affirmative Precept That every one bless God at their Meals That is as I said give him Thanks for his Benefits For he blesses us when he bestows good things upon us and we bless him when we thankfully acknowledge his Goodness therein Which is a natural Duty which we owe to the Fountain and Original of all Good Ver. 11. Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy Verse 11 God in not keeping his Commandments and his Judgments and his Statutes which I command thee this day He would have their Thanksgiving for his Benefits leave such a sence of God upon their Minds as should make them careful to yield him an entire Obedience Ver. 12. Lest when thou hast eaten and art full Verse 12 and hast built goodly Houses and dwelt therein Feasted in stately Houses wherein they enjoyed their Ease Ver. 13. And when thy Herds and thy Flocks are multiplied Verse 13 and thy Silver and thy Gold is multiplied and all that thou hast is multiplied The sence of these two Verses is when they had great abundance of all good things within Doors and without Ver. 14. Then thine Heart be lifted up Which is Verse 14 an usual Effect of great Riches as Euripides observes in that known Saying of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wealth breeds Pride Scorn and Contempt of others This Moses Kotzensis thought so great a Sin that he puts it among the Negative Precepts and pretends he was warned in a Dream so to do tho' Maimonides and others had omitted it And when he awaked he was confirmed in it by reading a place in the Gemara upon Sota Cap. I. which saith Wheresoever we find these Words in Scripture Take heed lest there is a Prohibition as there is v. 11. and here to take heed of Pride For whosoever is proud he shall be brought low as the Gemara there adds which are in a manner the Words of our blessed Saviour XVIII St. Luke 14. And thou forget the LORD thy God This is another common effect of large Possessions which make the Owners of them fall into Sloth and Luxury and such Forgetfulness of the Donor of all good Things that they trust in uncertain Riches as the Apostle speaks and not in the living God imagining now they can never want not because God is so good but because they have such store of good Things laid up for many Years Which brought thee forth out of the Land of Egypt and from the House of Bondage No wonder if they forgot all his former Benefits when they were unthankful for the present Verse 15 Ver. 15. Who led thee through that great and terrible Wilderness See I. 19. Wherein were fiery Serpents See XXI Numb 6. And Scorpions These are commonly joyned with Serpents in Scripture even in the New Testament X Luke 19. XI 12 13. being found in the same places especially in this Desert of Arabia And Drought The Hebrew word Tsimmaon signifies a dry place as we translate it CVII Psal 33. XXXV Isa 7. And that best agrees with what here follows Where there was no Water Who brought thee forth Water out of a Rock of Flint From which one would have sooner expected Fire than Water XX Numb 11. Who fed thee in the Wilderness with Manna which thy Fathers knew not v. 3. The great Salmasius in a Treatise on purpose about Manna hath said a great deal to prove that the Manna which God sent
rewarded their Obedience to them as if he had received the Benefit thereof Verse 14 Ver. 14. Behold the Heaven Where the Sun Moon and Stars shine And the Heaven of Heavens And all the glorious Regions beyond them Is the LORD 's thy God Are all his Possession as they are his Work The Earth also with all that therein is As well as this Earth and all the Creatures that are in it Ver. 15. Only the LORD had a delight in thy Fathers to love them and he chose their Seed after them Verse 15 even you above all People c. He would have them sensible therefore that the Possessor of Heaven and of Earth could have no need of them or of their Services who were a very inconsiderable Part of his Creatures But it was his own meer good Will and Pleasure which moved him to show such Love to Abraham as he had done and to his Posterity for his sake above all other Nations on Earth Ver. 16. Circumcise therefore the fore-skin of your Verse 16 heart Do not satisfie your selves therefore with the bare Circumcision of your Flesh and the Observance of such External Rites and Ceremonies but cut off and cast away all your naughty Affections which make you insensible both of God's Mercies and Corrections and disobedient to his Commands And be no more stiff-necked As he had often before complained they were particularly XXXII Exod. 9. and see IX 6. of this Book It is a Metaphor as I observed from Oxen who when they are to draw in a Yoke and go forward pull back their Neck and their Shoulder to withdraw themselves from the Yoke To both which the Scripture alludes IX Nehem. 29. And sometime severally we find mention of them as in the place before-named in Exodus he speaks of their stiff-neck and in VII Zachar. 11. he saith They pull'd away the shoulder St. Stephen puts both these together in his Character of the wicked Jews that killed our blessed Saviour VII Acts 51. that they were stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart Therefore the contrary disposition God promises towards the Conclusion of this Book as the greatest Blessing he could bestow on them XXX 6. Ver. 17. For the LORD thy God is God of gods and Verse 17 Lord of lords Superiour to all other Beings whether Kings on Earth or Angels in Heaven A great God a mighty and a terrible Who can do what he pleases every where and therefore is to be greatly dreaded Which regardeth not persons nor taketh reward The most righteous Judge of Men who will not connive at your Sins because you are Circumcised nor be bribed by any Sacrifices to overlook your Wickedness XXIII Exod. 8. XIX Lev. 15. I Deut. 17. Nor on the contrary reject those that uprightly obey him though they be not Jews So St. Peter learnt to understand these words X Acts 34. Verse 18 Ver. 18. He doth execute the Judgment of the Fatherless and Widow Takes their part as we speak and defends them against those that would oppress them And loveth the Stranger in giving him Food and Raiment Provideth for those who are driven unjustly out of their own Country or travelling on their honest Occasions fall into want For he seems here to speak of those who were neither Proselytes of Justice nor of the Gate as the Jews speak but were meer Gentiles Verse 19 Ver. 19. Love ye therefore the Stranger Be kind and hospitable to such distressed Persons which is a Vertue that flows from the Love of God v. 12. to which it is in vain to pretend if we love not all Mankind This Love consists in imitating God's Care of such Persons whereof he speaks in the foregoing Verse viz. doing them Justice equally with others and affording them Food and Raiment For ye were strangers in the Land of Egypt This Vertue was peculiarly required of the Jews who had been in that Condition which he commanded them to pity See XXIII Exod. 9. XIX Levit. 33 34. And if they had sincerely practised this Duty towards Aliens the Grace of God shown to the Gentiles in our blessed Saviour would not have seemed so strange to them as it did Ver. 20. Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God him Verse 20 shalt thou serve This was explained before v. 12. To him shalt thou cleave Serve that is and Worship none but him And swear by his Name See VI. 13. Ver. 21. He is thy praise Whom thou oughtest Verse 21 therefore to praise Or rather in whose Love and Favour thou oughtest to glory and to think it the highest honour to be his Servant and to have him for thy God as it here follows He is thy God Who hath bestowed upon thee all the good things which thou enjoyest That hath done for thee all these great and terrible things which thine eyes have seen In bringing them out of Egypt destroying Pharaoh in the Red-sea leading them through the Wilderness giving them the Country of Sihon and Og c. Whom therefore they were bound to Love and Serve and to confide in his Mercy and not in their own Power or Righteousness VIII 17 18. IX 4 5 6. Ver. 22. Thy Fathers went down into Egypt with Verse 22 threescore and ten persons See XLVI Gen. 27. I Exod. 5. Their Family he would have them remember was very small Chapter XI about Two hundred Years ago And now the LORD thy God hath made thee as the Stars of Heaven for multitude Vastly increased them according to his Promise unto Abraham XV Gen. 5. XII Exod. 37. XXVI Numb 51 62. Which alone as Conradus Pellicanus here notes was sufficient to fill their Hearts with his Love and their Mouths with his Praise CHAP. XI Verse 1 Verse 1. THerefore thou shalt love the LORD thy God Who of so small hath made thee so great a Nation And keep his charge A Phrase used frequently concerning the Levites III Numb 7 8 c. But here comprehends all the Particulars following His Statutes and his Judgments and Commandments which he had charged them to observe See VI. 1. Verse 2 Ver. 2. And know you this day Consider seriously what I have said to you till you be sensible of it VIII 5. IX 6. For I speak not with your Children which have not known and which have not seen The words I speak are not in the Hebrew and they may as well be supplied thus For not with your Children have these things been done c. Which agrees well with v. 7. The Chastisement of the LORD your God The Plagues he sent upon the Egyptians His greatness Which appeared by the many great things he did only upon the stretching out of Moses his Rod. His mighty hand and stretched out arm These are more words to express the same thing Ver. 3. And his miracles and his acts which he did in the midst of Egypt Or His miraculous Acts c. Verse 3 He uses so many words to make them sensible how much they were
translate withdraw is twice before v. 5 10. translated thrust away signifying only earnest endeavours to seduce Men from their Religion But here it seems to signifie also the Effect of those Endeavours whereby they had prevailed with Men to forsake the God of Israel or to worship other gods with him Saying Let us go and serve other gods which ye have not known Strange gods as they are often called in Scripture which the Nations round about them worshipped v. 7. but were always abhorred by true Israelites Ver. 14. Then shalt thou enquire and make search Verse 14 and ask diligently The great Sanhedrim who only could take Cognizance of this Crime were upon this Information to send some on whose fidelity they could rely to examine the truth of the Report which was spread abroad concerning the defection of a City to the worship of other gods Who were to use their utmost care and diligence in this inquisition and by all possible means endeavour to find whether or no the Information was true For it was a matter of great concernment that neither the Innocent should suffer nor Apostates go unpunished But the Punishment being so dreadful there was the greater exactness used to be certain of the Crime and there were likewise a great many temperaments as Mr. Selden calls them found by the Jewish Lawyers partly from the nicest Interpretation of every Syllable in these two Verses and partly from the pretended Tradition of their Elders whereby they mitigated the sharpness of this Law For they would not proceed upon it to destroy a City though they found them Idolaters unless the Seducers were two or more and those also Men not Women because the Law here speaks in the Plural Number of certain Men Children of Belial As if their forsaking God was not a Crime whether they were perswaded to it or no by others They say also it was not to be a meer Town or Village but a City because the words here are In one of thy Cities in which there were more than an hundred Houses If there were fewer it was no City in their account and so escaped They who seduced a City also were to be of the same City because it is said here These Men of Belial are gone out from among you All which are meer quirks which have no solid Reason in them They are all mentioned together in the Title Sanhedrim set forth by J. Coch. Cap. XI Sect. 4. and by Maimonides more largely in his Avoda zara and our Selden Lib. III. de Synedi Cap. V. N. 2. But there are other temperaments of this Law which have better Foundation in Reason As first that a City was not to be destroyed unless the major part of the Inhabitants were fall'n off to serve other gods And secondly that the Law speaks only of lesser Cities not of those which were so large that the greatest part of a Tribe lived in it for God would not have a whole Tribe cut off by the Senate Thirdly They might not destroy any of the six Cities of Refuge because they were none of theirs but God's and the words of the Law are in one of thy Cities which the LORD hath given thee to dwell in whereas these were given for a further purpose And fourthly some add not a frontier Town because it is said in the midst of thee so the words are in the Hebrew which we translate among you to which they subjoyn a better Reason because the whole Country might have been exposed to be over-run with the Gentiles And lastly they except Jerusalem from this Law because it was God's Seat and as Maimonides will have it it was not distributed to any particular Tribe Which how it is to be understood see Selden in the place above-named Sect. III IV. where he touches upon all these But if Jerusalem was to be excepted from the Judgment of Men God took care to have this Sentence executed upon it by his own judgment for he sent Nebuchadnezzar against it whose Souldiers burnt with fire both the House of the LORD and the House of the King and all the Houses of Jerusalem LII Jerem. 13. And behold if it be truth and the thing be certain that such abomination is wrought among you If the Inquisitors found upon due Examinations that there was a plain and evident Proof of their Guilt they were to make their Report to the great Sanhedrim who being satisfied that either the whole City or the greater part of them were fall'n to Idolatry sent to them two Men of extraordinary Wisdom who were Candidates for the Senatorial Dignity to admonish them and by Arguments and Perswasions to endeavour to reduce them to the Worship of the LORD God of Israel And if they prevailed they were pardoned and no further Proceedings against them but if they continued obstinate then the Sanhedrim commanded the People of Israel to raise an Army and besiege the place and enter it by force if they could not otherways And when the City was taken several Courts were appointed to try and condemn all that were guilty Thus Maimonides in the forenamed Treatise reports the method of proceeding out of their ancient Authors See Selden Sect. VI. Verse 15 Ver. 15. Thou shalt surely smite the Inhabitants of that City with the edge of the Sword The same Author there saith that in the hearing of their Cause every one who was found guilty of Idolatry after admonition by two Witnesses was set aside And if they proved to be the lesser part of the City they were stoned according to the Law against single Apostates the rest being freed from Punishment but if they were the greater part of it they were sent to the great Sanhedrim who adjudged them to be cut off by the Sword together with their Wives and Children And thus the whole City was to be punished if there was an Universal defection Destroying it utterly and all that is therein and the Cattle thereof with the edge of the Sword In the Hebrew the word is thou shalt make it a Cherem or an accursed thing And so the LXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where the Vulgar translate it as we do thou shalt utterly destroy it which is consonant to the notion of the Hebrew word See Selden L. I. de Synedr Cap. VII p. 131. So that if any righteous Man had any thing therein at that time it was to be destroyed as the very words are in the Title Sanhedrim Cap. XI Sect. 5. But it is to be supposed that all who feared God would remove their Effects together with themselves from so wicked a place before Sentence was pronounced against them On the contrary they say the Goods of the Idolaters wheresoever they were found whether within the City or without were to be burnt Ver. 16. And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into Verse 16 the midst of the street thereof Into the Market-place as the Jews interpret it Or if it had none they
VII 6. as a Reason why they should destroy the Images of the Heathen c. Which shows he is still speaking of the Idolatrous Customs which they should eschew because they were separated to God as a peculiar People by Laws different from all other Nations The Author of Sepher Cosri speaks not amiss That the People of Israel were call'd God's Segullah because they were elected by him to enjoy special Priviledges above other People and brought by him for that end out of the Land of Egypt in a wonderful manner and then had his Glory dwelling among them From whence it is that he doth not say in the Preface to the Ten Commandments I am the LORD of Heaven and Earth or thy Creator and therefore thou shalt have no other gods but me but I am the LORD thy God that brought thee out of the Land of Egypt c. To shew that this Law was given peculiarly to them and that they were tied to it by virtue of their Deliverance out of Egypt and God's placing his Glory among them Whereas if they had been bound to it by virtue of their Creation it would have belonged to other Nations as well as to them Pars I. Sect. 27. Verse 3 Ver. 3. Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing All the Meats forbidden by God to be eaten are called abominable not meerly because his Prohibition made them so but because the Gentile Superstition had consecrated most of them to their gods See upon XI Levit. 2. However after this Law was given the Jews were to look upon them as abominable by which means they were kept from having such free Conversation as otherwise they would have had with their Idolatrous Neighbours So that this Law also was intended to preserve them in the true Religion Verse 4 Ver. 4. These are the Beasts which ye shall eat The original of the difference of Meats see in the Learned J. Wagenseil in his Tela Ignea p. 553 c. where he shows it was not to continue for ever And it is a rational account of this which I just now gave That hereby they were preserved from common Conversation with other Nations and consequently from their Idolatries But it is a meer fancy and indeed a proud Imagination which some of the Jews have particularly the Author of Schebet Judah that as Men are more excellent than Beasts because they have better Food so Jews are more excellent than all other Men because they do not feed upon all sorts of Animals but only of some certain kinds and that after much preparation by rejecting the Blood and the Fat c. whereby they fancy the Flesh is so much alter'd that it is not so much flesh as some other food The Ox the Sheep and the Goat These were the only Beasts that were offered in Sacrifice to God and therefore are the first that are mentioned as clean for their use Ver. 5. The Hart and the Roe-buck These and Verse 5 the rest that follow in this Verse though they might not be offered in Sacrifice were allowed to be eaten and seem to be mentioned as the principal Food in the Land of Canaan XII 15 22. And the Fallow-deer It is not very material what the word Jachmur signifies because we are not now concerned in this Law about difference of Meats therefore we may follow our Translation as well as any other and the famous Bochartus hath made it probable that it signifies either a kind of Deer or of Goat P. I. Hierozoic Lib. III. Cap. XXII And the wild Goat So the Hebrew word Akko signifies which is no where else to be found the same Author proves in the same Book Cap. XIX And the Pygarg This is also a kind of Doe or Goat as he shows Cap. XX. which the Hebrews call Dison We find mention of Pygargus in Juvenal's Eleventh Satyr where the old Scholiast gives this account of it that it is a kind of Deer quoe retriores partes albas habet whose hinder parts are white From whence it had its Name among the Greeks who call the Buttocks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the wild Ox. So we translate the Hebrew word Theo or Tho. But herein Bochartus dissents because there were no such Creatures in Judaea as he observes there Cap. XXVI which are bred in colder Countries And therefore he reckons this also among the Deer or Goats Cap. XXVIII And the Chamois The Hebrew word Zemer he also thinks signifies as the former a kind of Goat or Hart of which there were great variety in those Countries And this he thinks of all other was maximè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 remarkable for jumping which is the signification of the word Zemara in the Arabick Language See Cap. XXI Verse 6 Ver. 6. And every Beast that parteth the hoof and cleaveth the cleft into two Claws and cheweth the Cud that shall ye eat He forbears to reckon up any more Particulars and only sets down the general Marks whereby they might be known which he had delivered in XI Levit. 3. See there Verse 7 Ver. 7. Nevertheless these shall ye not eat of those that chew the cud or of them that divide the cloven hoof c. These Exceptions from the general Rule have been explained XI Levit. 4 5 6. Verse 8 Ver. 8. And the Swine because it divideth the hoof yet cheweth not the cud it is unclean to you See upon XI Levit. 7. Ye shall not eat of their flesh nor touch their dead carcase See XI Levit. 8. Verse 9 Ver. 9. These ye shall eat of all that are in the waters all that have fins and scales shall ye eat See XI Lev. 9. Verse 10 Ver. 10. And whatsoever hath not fins and scales c. See XI Levit. 10 11 12. Verse 11 Ver. 11. Of all clean Birds ye shall eat He doth not name any as he did of Beasts but by enumerating those of which they might not eat all the rest were left free to be used for Food Verse 12 Ver. 12. But these are they of which ye shalt not eat the Eagle the Ossifrage and the Ospray All these are mentioned just as they are here in XI Levit. 13. Verse 13 Ver. 13. And the Glead and the Kite and the Vulture after his kind There are only two of these mentioned in XI Levit. 14. the last of them Hadajah being there omitted for it is so near to Haajah which goes before that the Transcriber as Bochart imagines might there leave it out But rather Moses now adds this sort of Bird which was not so like in Nature as in Name otherwise he would not have distinctly forbidden it Ver. 14. And every Raven after his kind The same Verse 14 words with those XI Levit. 15. Ver. 15. And the Owl and the Night-hawk and the Verse 15 Cuckow c. All the Birds mentioned in this and the three next Verses 16 17 18. are the very same which are forbidden in XI Levit. 16 17
18 19. And therefore I refer the Reader to what I have noted there only adding that from hence it appears how false their Opinion is who think the Hebrew word Tzippor is a general Name only for small Birds such as Sparrows for it is evident from this place that it is a Name for all Birds whatsoever even the greatest such as are here mentioned Ver. 19. And every creeping thing that flieth is unclean Verse 19 to you they shall not be eaten See XI Lev. 20. Ver. 20. But of all clean fowls ye may eat This is Verse 20 not the same Precept with that v. 11. for there he speaks of Birds but here of other winged Creatures which are not Birds but Insects as we call them And in XI Levit. he describes the flying creeping things which they might eat and particularly mentions several sorts of them v. 22. Ver. 21. Ye shall not eat of any thing that dieth of it Verse 21 self Unto this Discourse about Food it was very proper to add a Caution which he had given before XI Levit. 39 40. that though they might kill and eat any clean Creature yet if it died of it self it was unlawful to eat it because the Blood was in it Some Verses ascribed to Phocylides contain this sence so fully that one would think he had read Moses See Jos Scaliger in Eusebium p. 88. Thou shalt give it unto the Stranger that is within thy Gates The Proselytes of the Gates as they called them who had not embraced their Religion but were not Idolaters and therefore suffered to dwell among them might eat such Meat having no obligation upon them to observe these Laws for they were not Circumcised Or thou mayest sell it unto an Alien To a meer Gentile who might happen then to be in their Country For there were three sorts of People called by the name of Strangers being not of the Jewish Nation First Such as had received Circumcision and consequently embraced the Jewish Religion who were called Gere-tzedek strangers or Proselytes of Justice Others were not Circumcised but yet worshipped the God of Israel who were called Strangers of the Gate or Gere-toshab Strangers dwelling among them because they were to abide in their Country constantly But there were a third sort called Nocherim which we here translate Aliens who were meer Gentiles and not suffered to have an habitation among them but only to come and go in their Traffick with them For thou art an holy People unto the LORD thy God This Reason was given in the beginning of this Discourse v. 2. and so it is in Leviticus in the Conclusion of it See XI 44 45. Thou shalt not seeth a Kid in its Mothers milk Now he plainly returns to caution them against Idolatrous Customs For this was practised among the Heathens in the end of Harvest when they sprinkled their Fields and their Gardens with this Broth to make them fruitful It is mentioned twice before See XXIII Exod. 19. and XXXIV 26. Ver. 22. Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy Verse 22 Seed which the field bringeth forth year by year This doth not seem to reach unto Herbs as the Pharisees interpreted it of which see Grotius on XXIII Matth. 4. But though Causabon and Drusius and other great Men are of this Opinion yet the contrary is maintained by Persons of no small note because our Saviour when he determines this Case saith These things ye ought to have done and not left the other undone As for the Tithe here mentioned I have shown elsewhere that it was the manner of the Eastern Princes to receive the Tenth of the Fruits of their Country for the Maintenance of their Ministers and Officers as we read 1 Sam. VIII 15. In like manner God the great King of all the Earth and the peculiar Soveraign of this Country required a Tenth of all their Increase for the Maintenance of his Priests and Levites in his Service After which he ordered also a further Tithe to be taken out of the Nine Parts remaining which was called the Second Tithe to be spent in Feasts at his Tabernacle And this is with great reason thought to be particularly enjoyned in these words for of such Tithes he speaks in the next Verse It might seem indeed a little hard to give another Tenth Part after they had paid one already which they might be tempted not to perform exactly and therefore he saith Thou shalt truly that is faithfully without any deceit or fraud Tithe all the Increase of thy Seed And when this was done he required also once in three years a third Tithe for the use of the Poor See v. 28. that they might also be entertained at his Cost though not at that time at his House For it was sutable to his Royal Greatness that all his Subjects should be feasted by his order at his Palace and that the poorest of them should not be neglected but some time or other partake of his Bounty as they did at those Feasts I mentioned where their Men-servants and Maid-servants were to be entertained as well as the Levites XII 12 18. Verse 23 Ver. 23. And thou shalt eat before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall chuse to place his Name there See XII 5 6. The Tithe of thy Corn and of thy Wine and of thine Oil. This cannot be meant of the Tithe paid to the Levites of which the People were not to partake but only the Priests to whom the Levites were to give a Tithe Therefore it must be understood of the second Tithe separated after the other was paid for this holy use The design of which was that they might be secured in his Religion by eating and drinking in his Presence and thereby professing that they belong'd to him and were his thankful Servants The observation of R. Bechai upon these words thy Corn thy Wine and thine Oil is something curious but it hath a great deal of Truth in it If thou pay the Tithe saith he then it is thy Corn if thou do not it is my Corn and not thine in like manner if they paid the Tithe of Wine and Oil for it is said in II Hosea 9. Therefore I will return and take away my Corn in the time thereof and my Wine in the season thereof For they forfeited the whole who did not pay the Tenth which was the Rent God reserved to himself And the same R. Bechai represents this as a very merciful Law For it is the fashion of the World saith he if a Man have Ground of his own to let it out to Tenants at what rate he pleases for an half or third part to be paid to him But it is not so with the Almighty whose the Earth is and who raises Clouds and Waters it with Rain and sends down drops of Dew and makes fat the Fruits of the Earth and yet requires but one part of Ten for his own uses This made it highly reasonable
shows how they should proceed against any particular Person who apostatized from God Ver. 3. And hath gone and served other gods and Verse 3 worshipped them either the Sun or Moon or any of the Host of Heaven The most ancient Idolatry of which Abarbinel makes account there were ten sorts was the Worship of the Heavenly Bodies as I have observed before IV. 19. and see XXXI Job 26. The forenamed Doctor indeed places first the Worship of Angels about which I will not dispute but only observe that by condemning those who worshipped the Host of Heaven though very glorious Creatures Moses suggests plainly enough how vile they were who worshipped Images of Wood and Stone Which I have not commanded This is a way of speaking in this Language importing the quite contrary which God had forbidden and that most strictly See XVII Prov. 21. XXIV 23. and many other places Ver. 4. And it be told thee Thou hast had information Verse 4 of such wickedness And thou hast heard it and enquired diligently Upon information they were to make diligent search whether the Report were true or no. And behold it be true and the thing certain They were not to proceed upon Rumours nor yet to slight them but endeavour to be satisfied whether or no there was ground for them And if upon Examination they found there was no doubt of the Truth of the thing to do as is here directed That such abomination is wrought in Israel So Idolatry is frequently called See XIII 14. Verse 5 Ver. 5. Then thou shalt bring forth that man or that woman which have committed that wicked thing unto thy gates Set them before the Court of Judgment in the City to which they belonged See XVI 18. For particular Persons were tried and sentenced in the lower Courts but a Tribe or a City accused of Idolatry only by the highest Court of all as Maimonides and the rest of the Jewish Doctors inform us See Selden Lib. III. de Synedr Cap. IV. N. 3. and Cap. V. N. 1. And shalt stone them with stones that they die This was the Punishment of a particular Person as a City fall'n to Idolatry was to be killed with the Sword and a false Prophet who seduced others to Idolatry to be strangled See XIII 5. Verse 6 Ver. 6. At the mouth of two witnesses or three witnesses shall he that is worthy of death be put to death No Man could be convicted but by two Witnesses at least and those of a competent Age of good Fame and not convicted themselves of having born false Witness c. Many other Qualifications of lesser moment the Jews required in a Witness which Mr. Selden reports and the reason of them Lib. II. de Synedr Cap. XIII N. 11. But at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death Because Chapter though the Witness was never so credible it was possible he might be mistaken But it was not likely that two or three honest Men agreeing in the same Testimony should all be deceived Yet in pecuniary Matters the Hebrew Doctors say the Testimony of one credible Witness was sufficient to put a Man to his Oath for his Purgation And they set a Mark of Infamy upon him who in such Matters as are here spoken of had such a single Witness against him See Maccoth Cap. I. Sect. VIII and J. Coch his Annotations there Ver. 7. The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him Verse 7 to put him to death This was great reason that they might thereby still confirm the Truth an Certainty of their Testimony by being the first Executioners of the Sentence Which no Men would easily venture to be who were not sure they had testified the Truth And afterwards the hands of all the people From hence some infer that he was to be put to death at a publick Feast So shalt thou put away the evil from among you See XIII 5. Ver. 8. If there arise a matter too hard for thee in Verse 8 judgment Now he returns to speak of the Courts of Judgment which he had ordered to be erected in all their Cities when they came into the Land of Canaan XVI 18. who might find some Causes to be so difficult that they could not determine them Between blood and blood The Jews I think interpret this absurdly concerning menstruous Women and the Tokens of Virginity See Mr. Selden Lib. III. de Synedr Cap. II. when there is a plain and obvious meaning of these words that there might be a doubt whether a Man had committed wilful Murder or only casual and consequently whether he should have the benefit of the City of Refuge or be taken from it Between plea and plea. As the former words belong to Criminal Causes so these to Civil such as Suits about Debts or Purchases of Lands or Houses c. Between stroke and stroke It doth not seem reasonable to me that this should be interpreted of the Leprosie which is often called a Plague or Stroke though the Jews so understand it for that was to be judged solely by the Priests whereas he speaks also of other Judges Therefore the meaning is concerning any wound or hurt that was done to a Man in his Body About which if the Judges could not agree but were divided in their Opinions either about the Fact it self or about the Punishment to be inflicted an Appeal was to be made to an higher Court Being matters of controversie Or Contention and Strife That is Disputes arising about them which could not be determined by the Judges in those Courts below Within thy gates Where God commanded Judges and Officers to be settled XVI 18. and therefore here he speaks of the Inferiour Courts of Judgment that were in the lesser Cities of their several Tribes Then thou shalt arise and get thee up unto the place which the LORD thy God shall chuse Where the Supreme Court was settled in the chief City of the Kingdom While they continued in the Wilderness the Captains of Thousands and Hundreds and Fifties and Tens whom Moses constituted by the advice of Jethro judged the Causes of the People under Moses himself to whom God joyned Seventy Persons for his Assistance all hard Causes being brought before him But this Authority of the Captains lasted no longer than during their Pilgrimage in the Wilderness for when they came to Canaan the Law as I now observed required Judges and Officers to be ordained in every City Who if there fell any difference about the Law are here ordered to repair to the place where the Sanctuary was for there the highest Court sat as the Successors of Moses and his Consistory of Seventy Elders mentioned XI Numb 16 24 c. who judged all difficult Causes while he lived Ver. 9. And thou shalt come unto the Priests the Levites Verse 9 and unto the Judge Who must be supposed to be resident in this place where the Sanctuary was And these words the Priests
the perpetual Service of God at the Sanctuary so that instead of coming in his Course he would always wait there and never stir from that place Ver. 7. Then he shall minister in the name of the LORD Verse 7 his God Attend continually at the Altar to do all the Service of the Sanctuary The LXX translate it He shall minister to the name of the LORD i. e. to the Divine Majesty who dwells there As his brethren the Levites do As all those do who live at that place Which stand there before the LORD To minister unto him This was the case of Samuel Ver. 8. They shall have like portion to eat This Verse 8 shows that he is speaking of the Priests for the Levites did not eat of the holy things offered at the Altar And the meaning is that the rest of the Priests who waited there should allow him the same Portion which they themselves had in the Sacrifices Besides that which cometh of the sale of his patrimony Which was to remain proper to himself and not be divided with other Priests at Jerusalem suppose where he ministred The Hebrew words are something obscure being beside his sales by or unto the fathers That is such Possessions as their Fathers purchased and left to them For though the Priests had no share in the Land of Canaan given them at the division of it yet they might purchase Houses and Goods and Cattle and sometimes they purchased Fields as we read Abiathar had Fields of his own at Anathoth 1 Kings II. 26. and the Prophet Jeremiah who was a Priest also purchased a Field of his Uncle's Son in his own Town XXXII Jer. 7 8 c. But the Jews make a quite different construction of these three Verses which they understand in this manner That if any Levite i. e. Priest for they only ministred before God came up out of the City where he commonly resided out of pure Devotion to attend at the three Solemn Feasts which were held at the place where the Sanctuary was where they were bound to wait only when their Course came but at these Feasts might all come and minister in the Sanctuary his Brethren whose Week it was then to attend should both admit him to minister before God with them and also give him an equal Portion with themselves in the extraordinary Sacrifices which were then offered at those Festivals Except only those which were peculiarly assigned to them whose Week of waiting at the Altar it then was who by the Ordinance of God delivered to Moses and Aaron who they suppose are here called the Fathers were to have the right Shoulder of the Peace-offerings See VII Levit. 33. where it is said He among the Sons of Aaron that offereth the Peace-offerings and the fat shall have the right shoulder for his part in which none other was to participate But why this should be called the Sales I do not understand unless we interpret it as Fosterus doth Venditiones i. e. res venditas à patribus things sold by the Fathers That is appropriated by them to the particular Priest that offered the Sacrifice as things sold are to those that buy them Ver. 9. When thou art come into the Land which the Verse 9 LORD thy God giveth thee The Land of Canaan which the LORD was about to bestow upon them according to his promise Thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those Nations Now he returns to warn them again not to fall into the Idolatry and the Superstitions of the Country whither they were going See XVIII Levit. 3. Ver. 10. There shall not be found among you So Verse 10 as to be tolerated Any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire This was the most abominable Idolatry practised in that Country whither they were going who consecrated their Children in this manner to Moloch or the Sun of which I have said sufficient XVIII Levit. 21. Therefore I shall only add here that this wicked Custom seems to have flowed from this Country of the Phaenicians and Tyrians unto the Carthaginians Who were guilty of the Impiety of Sacrificing their Children as they did also here unto Moloch XX Levit. 2 3. Which spread it self in a manner over all the World as many have shown particularly Joh. Geusius in his Treatise de Victimis Humanis Pars I. Cap. XI and it was found among the Americans when that new World was discovered See also P. II. Cap. V. Or that useth divination Of which there were many sorts and one was by raking into the bowels of their Sacrifices particularly of Humane Sacrifices by the observation of which they pretended to foretell things as many Authors testifie Yea they offered little Children on purpose that thereby they might make their Auguries as the same Geusius hath observed in that Book Cap. XXI Unto which perhaps there is a peculiar respect in this place for I find most of the things here mentioned joyned in other places with making their Children pass through the fire particularly 2 Kings XXI 6. 2 Chron. XXXIII 6. and the Prophet Ezekiel seems to intimate that hereby they divined when he charges the Israelites with this crime XX. 26 31. For he adds Shall I be enquired by you O House of Israel Who have enquired that is by making your Children pass through the fire But it must be confessed that the Hebrew words Kosem kosemim which we translate useth divination are by many thought to have a peculiar respect unto such as used to divine by casting or drawing of Lots And the word as our Learned Dr. Castell observes is so used in the Arabian Language for distribution of Lots Which sort of Divination was much in use among the Greeks and Romans and had been so it is very likely in more ancient times among the Eastern Nations For nothing is more known than the Sortes Praenestinae and Pativinae among the Romans and the Dodonaeae and Dindymenae and many others among the Greeks Particularly that at Bura in Achaia where there was a Cave in which was the Image of Hercules before which they who resorted thither to enquire directions in any Case or the success of any Affair used to fall down and say their Prayers and after that to throw four Dice upon the Table and by the Letters or Marks upon which they fell the divination was made as Pausanias describes it in his Achaica In other places they used them in a different manner and the ancient Arabians divined by Arrows as our famous Dr. Pocock hath shown in his Notes upon Gregor Abul-farajus his Book concerning the Original and Manners of the Arabians p. 327 328 c. Where he describes the manner of it and shows that it was performed before some Idol and therefore was strictly forbidden by Mahomet in his Alcoran as a Diabolical Invention In which he seems to have imitated Moses who may be thought here to forbid such kind of
Divination which was in use among the Eastern People in the days of the Prophet Ezekiel XXI 21. where we find the same word Kosem which that Learned Author thinks is illustrated by that Arabian Custom It is to be noted also that they used to divine by a dead man's skull as our Dr. Windet hath observed out of the Sanhedrim Cap. VII and Maimonides Which Custom the Greeks likewise followed for Palladius relates how Macarius enquired 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at a dry Skull c. See Windet in his Book de Vita functorum statu Sect. I. Several sorts of such kind of Persons there were among the Edomites Moabites and other Nations near Judaea who in the days of Jeremiah deceived the People with their Divinations Prophecies Dreams Enchantments and Sorceries as we learn from XXVII Jerem. 3 9. Or an observer of times or an enchanter Of these I have said enough upon XX Levit. 26. Or a witch This word signifies worse than any of the former viz. one that doth Mischief unto Men or Beasts by evil Arts. Concerning which see upon XXII Exod. 18. Unto which I shall here add That the Jewish Nation have been extreamly addicted to Witchcraft and some of their famous Rabbins have been suspected of it See J. Wagenseil upon Sota p. 529. Verse 11 Ver. 11. Or a charmer There are various Conjectures about the meaning of the Hebrew words chober chaber which importing something of society or conjunction some translate fortune-teller who by the Conjunction of the Planets pretends to predict future things others one that hath Society with Evil Spirits which is mentioned afterwards in another word Job Ludolphus seems to me to have given the plainest account of the words which he translates congregans congregationem gathering together a Company For it was an ancient way of Enchantment to bring various kinds of Beasts into one place which the Rabbins distinguish into the great Congregation and the little Congregation The great was when they assembled together a great Company of the larger sort of Beasts and the less when they gathered together as great a Company of the smaller such as Serpents Scorpions and the like But we cannot be certain of this though Telezius tells us it is in use at this day in the Eastern Countries For so he describes the Election of the King of Gingir that he stood compassed about with Lions Tygers Leopards and Dragons which by Magical Arts were gathered together as his Guard and Courtiers See Ludolphi Comment in Histor Aethiop Cap. XVI Numb CXVI But the common Interpretation which the Jews give of Chober chaber is that he is one who uses strange words which have no signification but he pretends are powerful to charm a Serpent for instance that it shall not sting or to preserve from any other harm So Maimonides in Avoda Zara Cap. XI And to this sort of Superstition the World was so addicted that this Precept of Moses could not bring the Jews quite off from it but when they threw away other Charms they used the words of Scripture instead of them Pretending for instance to cure Wounds by reading that Verse in the Law XV Exod. 26. I will put none of these Diseases upon thee c. So we find they themselves acknowledge in Sanhedrim Cap. II. Sect. I. and Maimonides saith in the forenamed Treatise this is forbidden by Moses in this place as much as any other kind of Charm for the words of the Law are turned hereby to another use than God intended in them which was not for healing the body but curing the soul And I see no reason why it should not be thought as great a Crime to use the Schem Hamphorash as they call the Name Jehovah to such purposes and yet the Jews are so stupid as to imagine Moses wrought all his Miracles by the virtue of it Maimonides indeed was so sober as to reject this common Conceit condemning those who think there was a power in the very Letters and pronunciation of the word Lib. I. More Nevochim Cap. LXII Or a consulter with familiar spirits or a wizzard Of these two see what I have noted XIX Levit. 31. and XX Levit. 6. A necromancer In the Hebrew one that seeks to or enquires of the dead It is not easie to tell wherein this differs from one that had a familiar Spirit as we translate it For the Woman whom Saul consulted who had a Spirit called Oboth enquired also after this manner their Spirit it seems teaching such Persons to call for the Dead to appear to them But some perhaps had not such a Spirit who notwithstanding consulted the Dead by going to their Graves in the Night and there lying down and muttering certain words with a low voice that they might have Communion with them by Dreams or by their appearing to them Unto which the Prophet Isaiah is thought to allude VIII 19. XXIX 4. Maimonides in Avoda Zara Cap. XI Sect. XV. thus describes a Necromancer He is one who having afflicted himself with Fasting goes to the burying place and there lyes down and falls asleep and then the Dead appear to him and tell him what he desires Such are they also who put on a certain kind of Garment speak fome uncouth words and make a Fume and then lye down alone that the Dead whom they desire may come to them and discourse with them in their sleep To the same purpose Aben-Ezra To this the Gentiles were very prone and it was thought so high an Attainment to come to this Knowledge that Julian the Apostate who was ambitious to be acquainted with all the Heathen Mysteries secretly practised this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the most retired part of his Palace cutting up the Bodies of Virgins and Boys to bring up the dead to him which was far more impious than what the Talmudists say in the Title Beracoth that such kind of People were wont to burn the Secundine of a black Cat when she had first Kitlens and beating it very small put some of the Powder upon their Eye whereupon Daemons appeared to them See Greg. Nazianz. in his Invectives against Julian p. 91. and St. Chrysostom in his Oration upon S. Babylas I shall only add that this was not only privately practised among the Gentiles but there were also publick places to which Men resorted to consult the Dead Particularly at Thesprotis near to the River Acheron where Herodotus Lib. V. mentions a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Plutarch to name no more mentions another at Heraclea which Pausanias in his distress went to consult as he relates in the Life of Cimon Ver. 12. For all that do these things are an abomination Verse 12 to the LORD Because they were invented by idolatrous People if not by the Suggestions of evil Spirits And because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee Expelled the Amorites and other wicked Inhabitants of the Country where they practised these
Abominations which no doubt had some relation to Idolatry and therefore were forbidden to the Israelites Ver. 13. Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy Verse 13 God This shows there was something of Idolatrous Worship in all the forenamed Practices which if they followed it was in some degree to forsake the LORD on whom they were wholly to depend and seek to him alone in the ways which he had prescribed in his Laws For this was to be perfect with the LORD to have nothing to do with any other god nor with the Rites and Ceremonies that were used in their Worship And therefore the LXX translate this word sometimes by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 XXII Job 3. as well as by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for then they were perfect with God when they kept his Worship simple and pure without the mixture of any Forreign Religion Which the whole Context shows to be the sense both in the words foregoing and followng Ver. 14. For those Nations which thou shalt possess hearkned unto observers of times and to diviners The ancient Heathen as Strabo tells us Lib. VI. had these Verse 14 Diviners in such esteem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they thought them worthy of the highest Authority But God would not have his People so much as to consult such Persons for it appears by these words that not only they who were Diviners for instance but they who hearkned to them were odious to God For that even the Art of Divination depended upon some Idolatrous Opinions and Practices appears evidently even from the most refined Account we have of it in ancient Authors For Instance Ammianus Marcellinus who to acquit his Master Julian from the suspicion of Sorcery which some said he used to get the fore-knowledge of things future makes it a principal point of Wisdom not unworthy such a Prince who was a professed Lover of all Sciences to offer placatory Sacrifices to draw in the Spirit of all the Elements to endue him with a Spirit of Divination For so his words are in the beginning of his One and twentieth Book The spirit of all the Elements being alway and every way invigorated with the fore-perceiving motion of the everlasting i. e. the heavenly bodies make us partakers of the gifts of divining and the substantial Powers ritu diverso placatae being rendred favourable by respective Rites i. e. such as were proper and sutable to each of them convey Praedictions to Mortality as from so many perpetual Springs or Fountains Over which Substantial Powers the goddess Themis is said to praeside c. Which shows that Julian who called Jupiter the most high god the king of all yet courted other inferiour powers by such rites as he imagined would win their favour which was rank Idolatry But as for thee the LORD thy God hath not suffered thee so to do But absolutely forbad it XIX Lev. 31. XX. 6. where he warns them to have nothing to do with some of the Persons here mentioned and not only instructed them in the way to live happily but established an Oracle among them to be consulted on all weighty occasions and governed them by Men whom he had endued with his Spirit XI Numb 16 17 25. Therefore if any Israelite practised any of the things here forbidden though he did not worship any Idol he was scourged by the Sentence of the Court of Judgment See Selden Lib. de Jure Nat. Gent. Cap. VII Ver. 15. The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Verse 15 Prophet Since the Jews as all other Nations were extreamly desirous to know things to come Moses reveals unto them from God a thing future of the highest importance viz. the Coming of CHRIST and the greatness of his Authority and in after times God revealed to them by degrees the time of his Birth his Death Resurrection c. The Jews indeed commonly take these words to be a promise of a constant Succession of Prophets that should be among them to preserve them from going to such Diviners as were famous among their Heathen Neighbours and thus many Christian Interpreters make out the connexion of these words with the foregoing But though this may be allowed to be intimated and this Promise be acknowledged to be partly verified in those Prophets which God raised up from Age to Age after Moses for further knowledge of his Will as the promise of a Saviour was in part verified in those Judges and Kings by whom God delivered his People from their Enemies yet it is very evident that he speaks of a single Prophet more eminent than all the rest and that these words in their most literal sense cannot belong to any other Person but the MESSIAH So that albeit the continuance of Prophets among this People was a means to prevent all occasions of consulting Sorcerers or Witches yet the chief ground upon which Moses disswades them from such practices according to the literal connexion of these words with the foregoing the LORD thy God hath not suffered thee to do so i. e. to hearken unto Observers of Times and Diviners was the consideration of their late mighty Deliverance by Moses the excellency of their present Law which God had given them for their direction and their expectation of a greater Law-giver in future times when the first Covenant should wax old and Prophecy it self for a long time fail as it did before the Coming of this great Prophet the LORD CHRIST To this purpose Dr. Jackson in his Third Book upon the Creed Chap. XXI paragr 19. From the midst of thee of thy brethren It was a great honour to them to have such a Prophet as is here spoken of arise out of their Nation but as he was after a peculiar sort raised up by JEHOVAH not meerly by the External Assistances or Impulsion of his Spirit to use the words of the same excellent Person paragr 9. but by intrinsick assumption into the Unity of his Person So likewise he was raised up in a strict and proper sense from the midst of them being as it were extracted out of a pure Virgin as the first Woman was out of the Man by the Almighty's own immediate hand Like unto me This shows he speaks of a single Prophet and not of a constant Succession of Prophets there being none of them like to Moses whom God himself distinguished from them all XII Numb 6 7 8. And accordingly that Divine Writer who added those Verses which are at the end of this Book concerning the Death of Moses testifies that there never rose in Israel a Prophet like to Moses See XXXIV Deut. 10. It is commonly thought to be done by Ezra who hath effectually confuted all the Conceits of R. Bechai Aben-Ezra Abarbinel and other Jewish Doctors who take either Joshua or Jeremiah to have been this Prophet If Joshua as some fancy added these words then he excluded himself from being the Person nor did Joshua act as a Prophet but
their own hands to apprehend him and bring him before the Court though it seems reasonable enough that both Father and Mother should agree in the Complaint against him and desire Officers might be sent to lay hold of him In which one cannot well suppose that they would consent to have such a Punishment as follows inflicted upon him unless he were intolerable And bring him unto the Elders of his City Who were to examine the proofs and accordingly to pass Sentence upon him Concerning these Elders see v. 3 4. And unto the gate of his place Where the Court of Judgment was wont to sit See XVI 18. The Paternal Power among the ancient Romans was so great that they might put their Children to death as they did their Slaves without any Process before a Magistrate And this some have taken to be a Natural Right and imagined God would not have commanded Abraham to kill his Son but that it was a part of his inherent Power However this be they were not thought fit to be long intrusted with it for God here orders by Moses that it should be committed to the publick Judges as the most disinterested Persons Ver. 20. And they shall say unto the Elders of his City Verse 20 This seems to intimate the Authority of Parents was still so preserved that their Testimony alone was sufficient to convict a rebellious Son without any further proof The Hebrew Doctors indeed are of another mind as I shall show in the Explication of what follows This our Son is stubborn and rebellious he will not obey our voice This is to be understood say they of a Son that was no less then Thirteen years old and a day and so might be presumed to know his Duty and to be capable of being governed by Counsel and good Advice And this is reasonable enough But what they say concerning the time when he became his own Man is monstrously absurd See Selden Lib. II. de Synedr Cap. XIII p. 559 560. What they say of a Daughter not to be comprehended under this Law may be admitted because she was not capable to do so much Mischief in a Family as a rebellious Son He is a glutton and a drunkard These Sins are no where made capital by the Law of Moses but when they were accompanied with rebellious Disobedience to Parents Who were to bring Witnesses as the Hebrew Doctors say that this Son had stoln some of their Goods and sold them that he might spend the Money in these Vices under which others are comprehended which usually attend them And that he had done this after he had been admonished and chastised so that he was not to be punished as this Law at last prescribes till he was grown incorrigible For they say the Court was first to order him to be whipt and not to proceed further till upon a new Complaint it was proved that he had run into the same riotous Courses since that punishment Then upon this second Testimony as they call it the Court gave Sentence against him that he should be stoned to death unless the Parents before the Sentence was pronounced said they gave him their Pardon There are a great many little Niceties about the quantity of Meat and Wine that he eat and drank and other Matters with which I do not think fit to trouble the Reader Verse 21 Ver. 21. And all the Men of his City shall stone him with stones that he die This is such a severe Sentence that it inclines me to think the Parents lookt upon such a Son as so debaucht that he would not only spend all their Estate if he had it but was inclined to kill them that he might get it into his own hands For the Sentence of Death is denounced elsewhere against one that struck his Father or Mother XXI Exod. 15. or that cursed them v. 17. It is not said indeed he should be stoned but put to death which they interpret of strangling this punishment of stoning being appointed for Idolaters and Blasphemers of God Next to whom Parents are to be reverenced being in God's place with respect to their Children See upon the fifth Commandment And therefore other Nations were very severe in their punishment of such Children as are here described and particularly the Romans after the power was taken from Parents to sell them or put them to death and the Censure of them committed to the Magistrates See Hen. Stephen in his Fontes Rivi Juris Civilis p. 18. And among the Athenians Lysias saith in his Oration against Agoratus he that beats his Parents or did not maintain them and provide an habitation for them when they were in want 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deserved to be put to death The Law indeed did not inflict that punishment but only said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let him be infamous That is as they expound it he might not come into the Publick Assemblies nor enter into their Temples nor wear a Crown in their Publick Festivals and if any such Persons presumed so to do they were brought before the Magistrates who set a Fine upon their Heads and committed them to Prison till they paid it See Sam. Petitus in his Commentary upon the Attick Laws Lib. II. Tit. IV. p. 163. No wonder therefore Moses ordained this punishment when a Son was come to such a degree of profligate wickedness that he indeavoured to undo his Parents Which some States have thought fit to follow in these latter Ages For David Chytraeus saith he himself saw an Example of this Severity at Zurich in the year One thousand five hundred and fifty where a disobedient Son was beheaded who had cursed his Mother and beaten her So shalt thou put evil away from among you and all Israel shall hear and fear See concerning this before upon XIX 20. Verse 22 Ver. 22. If a man have committed a sin worthy of death and he be put to death There were several sorts of Capital Punishments viz. Strangling Burning Cutting off by the Sword and Stoning Now the Hebrew Doctors limit this unto such Offenders as were stoned of which Punishment he speaks in the foregoing Verse But there being Eighteen sorts of Offenders who were to be Sentenced to this Death they put a further limitation upon these words their Tradition being as they tell us the Sin worthy of death or Stoning is only Idolatry or Blasphemy So we read in the Sanhedrim Cap. VI. Sect. IV. All that were stoned were also hanged according to the opinion of R. Eliezer but the wise Men say none were hanged but the Idolater and Blasphemer And they add there that only Men not Women were thus used for which I can see no reason but their sticking to the meer Letter of these words as if the word Man did not comprehend both senses But if we examine the Scripture we shall find this not to be true that no Men were hanged but they that were stoned for the King of Ai
who had the Cognizance of Common Capital and Penal Causes in every City In the Gate Where the Court sat as I observed before upon XVI 18. And this may be added to what I noted there that by this may be explained those words in the Book of Job V. 4. concerning the Children of the wicked that they are crushed in the Gate i. e. lose their Cause and are Condemned in the Court of Judgment and those of the Wise-man XXII Prov. 22. Oppress not the afflicted in the Gate i. e. do him justice and not let him be overthrown because he wants Money to defend his Cause This appears to be the sense from the very next words v. 23. For the LORD will plead their Cause c. Ver. 16. And the damsels father shall say unto the Elders I gave my daughter unto this man to wife The Jews say the Mother had no power to espouse her Daughter but the Father only before she was of Age. Verse 16 Mischna Sotae Cap. III. Sect. VIII where Wagenseil notes that the Mother and Brethren also had some power in this matter but such that the Daughter within a time limited might make the Contract void And he hateth her Hath not the Affection which an Husband ought to have to his Wife If she had no Parents alive the Judges appointed her a Guardian and Josephus saith the next of kin were to Patronise her as if they had been her Parents Ver. 17. And lo he hath given occasion of speech against Verse 17 her See v. 14. He doth not add what there follows and brought up an evil name upon her i. e. accused her publickly before you of Adultery because it is sufficiently comprehended in this Saying I found not thy daughter a maid As such and such give Evidence And yet these are the tokens of my daughters virginity I have good Witnesses to the contrary which are here ready to be produced before the Court to disprove the former Testimony And they That is the Witnesses which the Father produces Shall spread the cloth before the Elders of the City Though such Tokens of Virginity as are commonly understood by these words might always be found in those Countries being very consonant to the Opinion of the chiefest Arabian Physicians as Mr. Selden observes out of Avicenna and of the Africans and other People at this day as many Authors testifie See Joh. Geusius de Victimis Humanis Pars I. Cap. IX and P. II. Cap. II. and Wierus L. Medicarum Observationum Sect. de Hymene especially in such Virgins as the Jews say were here meant who were under thirteen years of Age and though all that some Physicians and Lawyers in these parts of the World have said to the contrary is of no consideration yet there are weighty Reasons to incline us to think that no Man of common sense would bring such an Action against his Wife wherein he was sure to be cast whether his Cause was right or wrong if these were the Evidences whereby it was to be tried For if he accused her falsly he knew her Friends were able to produce the Sheet wherein they lay when they were married with such Tokens upon it as would disprove him and render him guilty of Defamation And if he had a just ground to accuse her because he knew they could produce no such Tokens yet this was no proof she had been vitiated since she was Espoused to him for she might have been corrupted before and then he could not attain his end which was to be rid of her not by way of Divorce for then he must have given her a Dowry which he was desirous to save but by having her put to death as an Adulteress which v. 21. shows to be the present Case Such evident Reasons as these have constrained the Jews to understand these words not according to the very Letter of them but figuratively of such Witnesses produced by her Parents as convinced the other of falsity so evidently that they made it appear as plainly as a piece of Cloth that is unfolded and laid before Mens eyes to view it And they think the Hebrew word Simlah which we translate the Cloth favours this Exposition For it never signifies a Sheet or a Linnen Cloath which is wont to be called Sadin XIV Judg. 12. XXXI Prov. 24. but such Cloth as Mens Garments are made of which commonly is Woollen not Linnen And so it is used in this Book X Deut. 18. and in this very Chapter v. 5. So that the sense is They shall produce evident proofs and lay them before the Court like a piece of Cloth which is spread for all that please to look upon it Whether this be the Truth or no I will not dispute but refer the Reader to Mr. Selden Lib. III. Vxor Hebr. Cap. 1 2. Ver. 18. And the Elders of that City shall take that Man Verse 18 If they were convinced that he had accused his Wife falsly he was to be delivered into the hands of the Officers who executed the Sentence of the Court. And chastise him Condemn him to receive forty Stripes save one as both Josephus and the Talmudists agree and it was to be done with a Scourge made of Thongs of an Oxes Hide The Woman was dismissed with a Solemn Benediction the Form of which is set down in the Jewish Rituals and as for the false Witnesses against her they were condemned to be stoned according to the Law XIX 18 19. Ver. 19. And they shall amerce him in an hundred Verse 19 shekels of silver and give them unto the father of the damsel Who was to receive this Satisfaction for the Reproach which was thrown upon his Family It is something strange that Josephus should mention only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fifty Shekels to be paid to her Father when the Scripture expresly saith an hundred Lib. IV. Archeolog Cap. VIII But it is supposed by some that he means fifty besides her Dowry which he was to have given her if he had put her away Which that he might save he designed to take away her Life and therefore was punished double to what it would have cost him if he had not been so wicked Because he hath brought up an evil report upon a virgin of Israel Laid the most infamous Crime to the Charge of an Innocent Virgin and that out of hatred to her and love to his Money For if he would have put her away according to the Law of Divorce no Man could have hindred him as Maimonides observes But then he must have paid her fifty Shekels which they take to be the Dowry of Virgins mentioned XXII Exod. 16 17. To keep which to himself and be rid of her he brought this Scandalous Action against her for which he was thus justly punished And she shall be his wife he may not put her away all his days Besides the two former Punishments in his Body and his Purse he was deprived of the common benefit which
second Husband whom she married nor with respect to any other Man who might marry her without any pollution but only with respect to her first Husband Unto whom by this Law she was made unclean for so all things forbidden to the Jews were accounted as appears from X Acts 14 15. where all Meats prohibited by the Law are called unclean and God is said to have cleansed them by taking off that Prohibition For that is abomination before the LORD That is to return to her first Husband and to be his Wife again For this saith Abarbinel was to imitate the Egyptians who changed their Wives and took them again into their Houses which was the occasion of great filthiness But this intimates that if she had not been married to any other Man but kept her self free she might have been his Wife again if he had a mind to be Reconciled to her And this shows also that God intended to discourage them from putting away their Wives by making them uncapable after they had been married to another for ever to enjoy them again though they grew very rich or otherwise desirable which inclined many no doubt to consider well before they parted with them And thou shalt not cause the Land to sin which the LORD thy God giveth thee c. The People of the Land might by such a large Indulgence have been tempted to pollute it with many sins and thereby bring God's Judgments upon it See III Jerem. 1. For as Isaac Arama glosses if this had not been prohibited a Gate had been opened unto vile Men to make a trade of changing their Wives and thereby filled the Land with Whoredoms Ver. 5. When a man hath taken a new wife The Verse 5 Hebrews think as I observed before XX. 7. that whether he had married a Virgin or a Widow he was to have the Priviledge here mentioned yea they extend it to him who had married his Brother's Wife but not to him who had married her whom he put away and might take again if she had not been married since that to another Man For she could not be said to be a new wife He shall not go out to war See XX Deut. 7. Nor be charged with any business No Publick Employment was to be put upon him which might occasion his absence from his Wife Not so much as watching or such like For the better understanding of which it must be remembred what was said about the fearful and timorous who were bid to return home from the Army lest they disheartned their Brethren XX. 8. And yet these Men were bound to furnish the Army with Victuals and Water to clear the Ways and take up their Quarters But a new Bridegroom was free from all these Only they made a difference between a War by the Divine Commandment and one undertaken voluntarily unto the former of which they think this Immunity doth not extend but only to the latter In the Margin these words are translated Nor any thing pass upon him that is he shall not pay tribute But he shall be free at home for one year The same time of freedom it was thought reasonable to grant unto Builders and Planters because they are joyned with new married Men in the Speech the Priest made before they went to battle XX. 5 6 7. And shall cheer up his wife whom he hath taken Make much of her as we speak and so endear himself to her by his kindness that there might be no occasion of a Divorce For the prevention of which this Law seems to have been intended that by so long a Conversation together without any interruption they might have so perfect an understanding one of another and such a mutual confidence might be settled that he might not easily entertain any jealousies of her when he should be absent in the Wars or elsewhere Verse 6 Ver. 6. No man shall take the nether or the upper Milstone to pledge This is a Law of the same nature with that XX Exod. 26 27. for the preservation of Mercy Beneficence and Clemency towards the Poor as Maimonides speaks More Nevochim P. III. Cap XXXIX For he taketh a man's life to pledge That is his livelyhood by which he maintains himself and his Family and keeps them from starving By this reason it was unlawful to take any other thing for a Security by the want of which a Man might be in danger to be undone For instance they did not allow any Man to seize upon the Oxen which were at Plough He who broke this Law was scourged Ver. 7. If a man be found stealing any of his brethren Verse 7 the children of Israel If he were either taken in the fact or it was plainly proved against him So the very words of the Athenian Law were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if a Man be an apparent Man-stealer And maketh merchandise of him or selleth him This was the end of Man-stealing to make a gain of him either by exchanging him for some Commodity or selling him for Money Then that Thief shall die This Crime was punished with death though stealing of Beasts or other things was not See XXI Exod. 16. because it was very heinous on a double account both by depriving the Community of one of its Members and making him a Slave in another Country And indeed the most moderate Lawyers did not know how to secure Men in the possession of things very valuable but by inflicting such a Punishment on those that stole them Thus after Solon had tempered the rigid Law of Draco which punished all Theft with death by ordering in most Cases only the payment of double he enacted the stealing of a great Sum of Money to be Capital Nay he made it a great Crime to steal Dung because it was a thing of great value in that Country which was very barren needed it for their Ground How much more valuable was a Man in all Mens account whom if any Man stole the Law was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that death should be his punishment as Xenophon reports it And he was accounted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Man-stealer who not only by force or by fraud carried away a free Man and sold him for a Slave or suppressed him but he who inveigled away another Man's Servant and perswaded him to run away or concealed such a Fugitive as Samuel Petitus observes out of Pollux and others Lib. VII in Leges Atticas Tit. V. p. 533. which makes me think not only he that stole one of his Brethren of the Children of Israel but he that stole a Proselyte of any sort or the Servant of a Stranger was liable to the punishment mentioned in this Law of Moses And thou shalt put away evil from among you By these words we may understand the greatness of this Crime for they are never used in this Book but when Moses speaks of the punishment of some enormous sin See XIII 5. XVII 7. XIX 19 c. Verse 8
sufficient if they were such as they called Elders of the Street or common Men. See Lib. I Vxor Hebr. Cap. XV. and Lib. II. de Synedr Cap. VII N. III. And say my husband's brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel he will not perform the duty of my husband's brother She was to put in a Bill of Complaint against him in these words Verse 8 Ver. 8. Then the Elders of his City shall call him and speake to him c. He being summoned to appear before them together with the Woman who they say was to be fasting and two Witnesses at the least she opened the whole matter And then the question being askt Whether it were three Months since her Husband's death which were to be allowed to see whether she proved with Child or no and whether this Man was next of kin And a satisfactory answer being returned the Judges laid the Law before them and admonished them seriously to consider on each side their Age or any Disparity or Incommodity that might be in their Marriage and accordingly to resolve And then they ask't the Man in express words Whether he would marry her and raise up Seed to his Brother If he stood to his first Resolution as it here follows and said I like not to take her then the Woman read the words foregoing v. 7. My husband's brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel c. and then proceeded to do as follows v. 9. See Selden in the Book fore-named Cap. XIV Ver. 9. Then shall his brother's wife come unto him in the Verse 9 presence of the Elders and loose his shoe from off his foot From his right foot as the Hebrew Doctors say which was done I suppose as a Mark of Infamy for his want of Natural Affection which made him unworthy to be reckoned among Free-men but rather deserve to be thrust down into the Condition of Slaves who were wont to go barefoot And spit in his face In contempt of him who had despised her The Hebrew Doctors indeed expound this only of her spitting upon the Earth directly before his face so that the Spittle might be seen by the Judges And they give this a reason why the King was not subject to this Law of marrying his Brother's Wife and they might add the High-Priest XXI Lev. 13 14. because it would have been below his dignity to have had his Shoe pulled off if he had not liked the Woman or to have had her spit before him as Bartenora's words are Which would have been a better reason if they had said It had been very unbecoming for her to have spit in the King's Face See Selden Lib. I. Vxor Hebr. Cap. X. and Hackspan Lib. I. Miscellan Cap. VII N. VIII where he observes the King was bound to all the DCXIII Precepts but only this of marrying his Brother's Wife And shall answer To his peremptory refusal of her And say so shall it be done unto that man that will not build up his brother's house She was immediately to read these words of the Law And then the Judges gave her a Writing signifying his renunciation of her in the manner now related that so it might be free for any other Man to marry her See the form of it in Selden Lib. I. Vxor Hebr. Cap. XIV where he hath observed certain Niceties about the kind of the Shoe that was to be pulled off but gives no account why this Ceremony was used Verse 10 Ver. 10. And his name shall be called in Israel the house of him that hath his shoe loosed As soon as she had loosed his Shoe both the Judges and all the By-standers round about cried aloud three times The Shoe is pulled off the Shoe is pulled off the Shoe is pulled off and thereupon his Family had this Name as a disgrace for not doing the Duty of a Brother Some will have this pulling off the Shoe to have been only a mark that he parted with his right to her but these words show that it was in the nature of a Brand upon him and his Posterity And so Josephus saith Lib. IV. Archaeolog Cap. VIII that he went out of the Court with a Mark of Ignominy Which doth not relate meerly to her spitting in his face for Maimonides saith expresly in his More Nevochim P. III. Cap. XLIX that this Action viz. of pulling off the Shoe as well as the other was a foul and ignominious thing in those days intended to move Men to perform the Duty of a Husband's Brother that they might avoid such Reproach J. Wagenseil hath given us the exact form of the Shoe which was used on such occasions in his Annotations upon Sota p. 664. and see 1212. where he commends Leo Modena his account of this whole Business Which differs not at all from that which I have given only I observe that he saith when the Woman taketh off the Shoe fom the Man's foot she lifts it up on high and throweth it against the ground which I take to be a Note of Indignation and Contempt And he saith also it was anciently accounted a more laudable thing to take her than to release her and imputes it to the Corruption of Men's Manners and the Hardness of their Hearts that now they look only after worldly ends either of Riches or Beauty which makes very few in these days especially among the Dutch and Italian Jews to marry their Brother's Widow See his History of the Rites and Customs of the Jews Part IV. Chap. VII Ver. 11. When men strive together one with another Verse 11 Fall out as we speak and fight either with their Fists or Sticks or other Weapons And the wife of the one draweth near for to deliver her husband out of the hand of him that smiteth him Who had wounded him and was likely I suppose to be too hard for him And putteth forth her hand and taketh him by the secrets As a sure means to make him let go his hold of her Husband that he might preserve himself Ver. 12. Then thou shalt cut off her hand This Verse 12 was to be done by the Sentence of the Court as a punishment for her Impudence and for the hurt which perhaps the Man might have received hereby in those Parts whereby Mankind is propagated Thine eye shall not pity her The word her not being in the Hebrew Text several of the Jews and Grotius seems to approve their Opinion interpret this Law quite otherwise As if the Woman might both take hold of his Secrets for the delivery of her Husband and also cut off the other Man's hand and they should not pity him who suffered thus nor punish the Woman who might do any thing of this nature to preserve one so dear to her as her Husband But this is a very forced Interpretation Maimonides is a little more reasonable in his Exposition of these words which he will have to signifie that they
Josh 33. Which could not have been unless it were placed between the two Mountains whereon they stood upon both sides from the top to the bottom With a loud voice That every one that stood on the side or top of the Mountains might hear what they said the Priests being placed so in several parts of the Valley that their voice might reach them all For which end they were advanced perhaps upon a Pulpit as Ezra afterwards was VIII Nehem. 4. and a signal likewise given when they should say Amen Ver. 15. Cursed be he that maketh any graven or molten Verse 15 image The People upon the Mountains being to bless as well as curse the Mischna in the Title Sota Cap. VII Sect. V. rightly explains this that first the Priests turning their Faces towards Mount Gerizim proclaimed with a loud voice Blessed be the man that maketh not any graven c. Unto which all the People that stood there answered Amen And then turning their Faces towards Mount Ebal they said these words Cursed be the man that maketh c. to which they that stood there made the same answer See also the Hierusalem Targum which paraphrases these words in the same manner An abomination unto the LORD Which is odious and far to be removed from the Presence of the LORD as the same Targum interprets it The work of the hands of the Crafts-man A meer device of Men and therefore not to have Divine Worship given to it of any sort And putteth it in a secret place Though he was not a publick declared Worshipper of Images yet if he did it privately in some Closet of his own House or in any other secret place to conceal his wickedness though he escaped the punishment of the Law which sentenced open Idolaters to death yet he could not escape the vengeance of God And all the people The forenamed Mischna and Targum say That the People on both Mountains answered Amen both to the Blessings and to the Cursings which doth not agree with what goes before v. 12 13. Shall answer and say Amen Express their consent to it For the word Amen as the Talmudists say in Schebuoth hath sometimes the force of an Oath sometimes only declares consent and approbation and sometimes is used for the confirmation of any thing An Example of the first they think there is in V Numb 22. and they alledge this place for an Example of the second and for the third XXVIII Jerem. 6. Verse 16 Ver. 16. Cursed be he that setteth light by his father and mother It is observed by Interpreters that as the Precept of honouring Parents stands next to the Commandment concerning the Honour that is due to God XX Exod. 12. so the Curse pronounced against those who dishonoured them is here placed next to the Curse against Worshippers of Images And as Idolaters were to be put to death so were those that cursed their Parents XXI Exod. 17. XX Levit. 9. And I may add from the foregoing words that though they did it ever so secretly they lay under this Curse And all the people shall say Amen But before this Curse was pronounced they had said Amen to the Blessing opposite to it blessed is he that setteth not lightly by his Father and Mother as was observed on the foregoing Verse And the same is to be noted concerning the following Curses which were preceded with a Blessing till they were all ended Ver. 17. Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour's Verse 17 Land-mark c. Against which there is an express Precept in the foregoing part of this Book XIX 14. And Pellicanus well observes that by this particular Instance of God's displeasure against Injustice they were deterred from all Incroachments upon their Neighbours Possessions Ver. 18. Cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander Verse 18 out of the way By giving him wrong directions or misleading him See XIX Levit. 14. Some apply this to giving pernitious Advice to simple People which is certainly worse than misguiding of the blind because it leads Men into sin as well as into danger Ver. 19. Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of Verse 19 the stranger fatherless and widow These three I observed before XXIV 19. are commonly put together as a paraphrase upon the word poor whose Cause God himself undertakes to plead X. 18. and see XII Exod. 21 22. And therefore all good Law-givers have taken special care of them particularly of Orphans concerning whom Plato ordains that the Conservators of the Laws should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instead of their natural Parents and look after them so well that they should not fare the worse for wanting their Fathers See Lib. VIII de Legibus fol. 926 c. Edit Serrani Verse 20 Ver. 20. Cursed be he that lieth with his father's wife See XXII 30. and XVIII Levit. 8. Verse 21 Ver. 21. Cursed be he who lieth with any manner of beast c. XXII Exod. 19. and XVIII Levit. 23. This some of the Jewish Doctors out of an unaccountable pride apply to the Vulgar sort of their own Nation whom they call the People of the Earth as if they were no better than Beasts with whom they were not to marry Verse 22 Ver. 22. Cursed be he that lyeth with his sister the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother c. This hath been explained also XVIII Levit. 9. Verse 23 Ver. 23. Cursed be he that lyeth with his mother-in-law c. See XVIII Levit. 17. and XX. 14. Verse 24 Ver. 24. Cursed be he that smiteth his neighbour secretly c. Though it be but with his Tongue whereby he wounds the same of an absent Person But the word smite is often used for killing XXI Exod. 12. XXIV Levit. 17. Of which if a Man was guilty though he committed the Murder so secretly that he could not be put to death by the Sentence of the Judges yet he lay under this heavy Sentence of God Verse 25 Ver. 25. Cursed be he that taketh a reward to slay an innocent person c. This seems to have respect to the Judges who for Money not only gave wrong Judgment in other Causes but condemned those that were not guilty to death See XXIII Exod. 7 8. and in this Book X. 17. XVI 19. Ver. 26. Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them The word we here translate confirm is more plainly translated perform in 1 Sam. XV. 11. And so it certainly signifies here the performing Verse 26 of what God commands being a kind of Establishment of the Law as Disobedience is a Subversion of it and as far as lyes in the Offenders power an abolishing it and taking it away Therefore the Apostle exactly translates the sense of these words III Galat. 10. Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things c. where the Apostle adds the word all as the LXX and the Samaritan did even in St.
Hierom's time to expound the words of this Law to signifie not meerly all that is contained in these Blessings and Curses but all things which are written in the Book of the Law So that whether this whole Book i. e. all the Laws contained in it written upon the Pillars or only these Blessings and Cursings the matter comes to the same Issue because all that is contained in this Book is comprehended in this last Curse yea all that is contained in the whole Law of Moses Therefore it is not very material neither whether only these Curses and Blessings were recited upon Mount Gerizim and Ebal or the whole Law of Moses from one end to the other about which the Jews themselves differ But they that are of the latter Opinion think it well grounded upon VIII Josh 33. where we read how Joshua carefully performed what Moses here enjoyned And that his words might not be forgotten Moses seems to have ordered the continuance of this Solemnity every seventh year in the Twenty ninth Chapter of this Book v. 10 11 c. The Misâ—hna in Sota which I have often mentioned concludes this matter with these words When the Blessings and the Cursings were ended they brought Stones and built an Altar which they plaistered over and wrote upon them all the words of this Law in Seventy Languages But I have shown before that the Stones on which the Law was written was different from the Altar and were erected before the building of the Altar The Gemara there adds Cap. VII Sect. XXIV That every one of the Israelites there present stood bound one for another that is for the whole Company that they would observe these Laws Which I know not how they extract out of Moses his words but their Doctors frequently mention it in their Books and make this pious use of it That by virtue of this Security which they gave for each other every Man was bound to reprove his Neighbour if he saw him offend unless he was content to undergo the Punishment which was threatned unto the Breach of God's Laws and come under the Curse XIX Levit. 17. And unto this they apply those words They shall fall one upon another as we truly translate XXVI Levit. 37. as if they signified every one shall fall by his Brother that is by his Brothers Crimes For we all promised say they in the Gemara Sanhedrim Cap. III. Sect. VI. and engaged one for another and so from that time were punished one for another CHAP. XXVIII Chapter XXVIII Verse 1. AND it shall come to pass In this Verse 1 Chapter he repeats with many Enlargements the Rewards and Penalties which he had promised and threatned in the Book of Leviticus unto the Observance or Breach of the Covenant they had made with God And here in this Verse he promises in general the Blessings which are more particularly enumerated in the following Verses If thou wilt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God to observe and do all his Commandments c. See VII 12. Where the same thing is said only here he adds the word diligently to make them attend with the greater seriousness to what he delivered See Chapt. XI 13 22. That the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all Nations of the earth By bestowing on them the following Blessings See VII 14. They were already endued with singular Priviledges above other Nations XIX Exod. 5 6. which by their Obedience would be confirmed continued and augmented in greater plenty of all things Ver. 2. And all these Blessings shall come upon thee Verse 2 and overtake thee Blessings that come unexpectedly and when we are not in pursuit of them are most welcome and highly delight us And such God here promises to bestow on them by his gracious Providence without their laborious and anxious seeking after them By which very thing he set them above all Nations for what they followed after eagerly and many times in vain he undertakes should come to them and prevent their desires If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God So as to observe and do all his Commandments as it is explained in the foregoing Verse Verse 3 Verse 3. Blessed shalt thou be in the City and blessed shalt thou be in the field That is in all their Affairs within doors or without Or whether they lived by Employments in the City or by Husbandry in Tilling the Ground It is not a natural Interpretation of these words which one of the Hebrew Doctors gives of them in Bava Metzia where he expounds blessed shalt thou be in the City thy House shall be so nigh unto the Synagogue that thou needest not be troubled by going a long way to it And blessed in the field thy Ground shall lye so near to the City that thou mayest quickly bring the Fruit it produces to be sold in the Market But if he could have gone on in this manner it had been something tolerable but he expounds what follows in a most undecent manner See Wagenseil upon the Gemara of Sota Cap. III. Sect. IX Annot. 5. Verse 4 Ver. 4. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body This seems to be a Promise of preventing Miscarriages when they were with Child for a numerous Progeny is promised afterwards v. 11. And the fruit of thy ground This signifies they should have seasonable Harvests and Vintages For fruit of the ground comprehends not only all sorts of Corn but Grapes Figs Pomegranates and such like Fruit which grow on Trees And the fruit of thy Cattle By the word Behemah is sometimes meant all sorts of brute Creatures in opposition to Men sometimes tame Creatures in opposition to wild Beasts But here all sorts of Domestick Creatures except Kine Sheep and Goats viz. Asses and Camels Which Jacob brought with him as well as Oxen and Sheep when he came from Laban into Canaan XXXII Gen. 5 7. And the increase of thy kine The breed of these was very profitable being a considerable part of the Riches not only of that but of other Countries as appears by what Pausanias saith of them See Bochartus P. I. Hierozoicon Lib. II. Cap. XL. in the beginning And the flocks of thy sheep Under the name of Sheep in the Hebrew are comprehended Goats also All which God promises to increase that is to make them very wealthy And here it may be observed that the Israelites were generally Husbandmen or Shepherds and did not commonly follow any other Trades and therefore no mention is made of them here unless it be in v. 6. where he seems to speak of all sort of Business Ver. 5. Blessed shall be thy basket The Hierusalem Verse 5 Targum refers this to the Basket wherein they carried up their First-fruits XXVI 2. But the Vulgar Latin translates it thy Barns and so do the LXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the places where they laid up their Corn and other Fruits of the Earth Which
XXVI Levit 25. where he saith he will send it among them and here adds that it shall cleave unto them that is Verse 21 be incurable And so the Author of Schebet Judah confesses that after they had been wasted and broken in pieces by Wars they that fled into Spain in the time of Alphonsus were swept away in great numbers by a Plague and introduces one applying these very words as a Prophecy of it Which I thought fit to note though this part of the Prophecy doth not belong to what hath befaln them since the last destruction of Jerusalem as I shall show hereafter but to the times before the first destruction When he often sent a Pestilence to destroy them 2 Sam. XXIV 15. XIV Jerem. 12. XXI 6 7 9. and many other places of that Book V Ezek. 12. VI. 11 12. IV Amos 10. But it must be acknowledged also that the Greeks call such unseasonable weather as destroys the Fruits of the Earth by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pestilence So Plato Lib. X. de Legibus saith that which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Disease in Bodies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. is called Pestilence in the Seasons of the Year The Murrain also in Cattle is called by the same name which even the Pagans thought was sent by the anger of their gods for the sins of Men as we learn from Callimachus in his Hymn to Diana where he saith verse 125. That when she was angry Pestilence eat up their Cattle and Hail destroyed the Fruits of the Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As on the contrary when she was well pleased she sent fruitful Seasons and all manner of Happiness as it follows in that Hymn Vntil it have consumed thee from off the Land whither thou goest to possess it Made a great destruction by sweeping away many People the rest being reserved for other Judgments which follow in the next words Ver. 22. And the LORD shall smite thee with a consumption Verse 22 and with a fever and with an inflammation These three words signifie sore Diseases in Mens Bodies the two first of which Sachepheth and Kaddachath we translate in XXVI Levit. 16. as we do here only the second of them we render the burning Ague which here we translate Fever Unto which is here added Dalleketh which signifies such an inflammation as is accompanied with itching according to the LXX who translate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is extreamly grievous because the scratching of it increases the inflammation And with an extream burning and with the sword These two seem to relate unto the indisposition of the Air by extream heat and drought as we translate the Word Chereb in the Margin of our Bibles For it signifies both the Sword and Driness as the first word Charchur signifies scorching heat which frequently causes Diseases For it being the doubling of the word Charar it denotes the extremity or highest degree of it as all such words do of which Bochartus hath given many Examples in his Hierozoicon P. II. Lib. I. Cap. XIX And with blasting and with mildew These two relate to the destruction of their Corn and the fruits of the Earth which follows upon the Corruption of the Air as Famine follows upon the Corruption of the Fruits of the Earth The first word Schiddaphon the LXX and the other Greek Interpreters translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 blasting by biting Winds though elsewhere the LXX translate it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies such bliting as comes by heat And the second word Jerakon which comes from jerek Herb or Grass or any green things seems properly to be expressed by the LXX who translate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Corn and Grass and Herbs turn pale and wan for want of moisture And they shall pursue thee until thou perish These Plagues upon their Bodies and upon the Air and the Corn and Herbs he threatens shall come upon them one year after another till they were consumed Verse 23 Ver. 23. And thy heaven that is over thy head shall he brass That is as brass having no more moisture in it than brass hath It is remarkable that he doth not say the Heaven that is the Air or Clouds but thy heaven that is the Clouds which hung over their Country should be dry though they dropt upon other Lands See XIV Jeremiah And the earth that is under thee shall be iron Hard as Iron for want of Rain to soften it See XXVI Levit. 19. The Observation of Maimonides is worth noting upon this part of the Law That the Zabij an ancient sort of Idolaters in the Eastern Countries thought the fruitfulness of the Earth depended upon the Worship of the Planets and the rest of the heavenly Bodies And therefore their Wise-men and their Prophets as he saith he found in their Books particularly in one concerning the husbandry of the Egyptians taught the People to keep Festivals in their honour because the fruitfulness of the Earth by which Men subsist depends upon their Will and Pleasure In opposition to which God ordered Moses to tell the Israelites in his Name that if they worshipped the Stars they should have no Rain the Earth should be barren the Trees yield no Fruit the Season prove unhealthful and their Lives be shortned On the contrary if they worshipped him the LORD of Heaven and Earth and him alone they should have showres from above the Earth should bring forth abundantly and they should be blessed with healthful Seasons sound Bodies and long Life For it is the very Foundation of the Law as his phrase is to root the forenamed false Opinion out of Men's minds More Nevochim P. III. Cap. XXX Ver. 24. And the LORD shall make the rain of thy Verse 24 Land powder and dust That is there shall be such a long drought that instead of Rain showres of Dust blown up into the Air by the Wind shall fall down from Heaven upon them From heaven shall it come down upon thee till thou be destroyed This seems to denote something more than the falling of Clouds of Dust wherewith the Air was filled by high Winds viz. showers of Ashes which have sometimes faln in great quantities as good Historians testifie Nothing is more known than the vast Clouds of Ashes which Mount Aetna hath often vomited whereby all the Country thereabout hath been laid desolate And the like hath been thrown out by Mount Vesuvius which hath reached as far as Rome and Constantinople See Bonfrerius But if there was any such thing in Judaea it must be a miraculous judgment there being no such Mountains in those parts of the World to make such Evomitions Ver. 25. And the LORD shall cause thee to be smitten before thine Enemies He saith the same in effect XXVI Levit. 17. For to smite in Scripture as I Verse 25 have before observed signifies to slay or kill Thou shalt go
out one way against them and flee seven ways before them Though they marcht out in a great Body against their Enemies he threatens that they should soon be dispersed the hand of the LORD as well as of their Enemies being against them For that Expression is remarkable the LORD shall cause thee to be smitten See v. 7. And shalt be removed into all the Kingdoms of the earth This is something more than is threatned XXVI Levit. 33. signifying not only their dispersion into the remotest parts of the World but their being tossed up and down like Vagabonds from one Country to another without any certain Settlement Which hath been notoriously verified since their last dispersion by the Romans of which they themselves have given us large accounts in several Books viz. Juchasin Schalscheleth Hakkabala Schebet Jehuda and Zemuch David wherein they have abundantly confirmed what Tertullian saith of them in his time Dispersi palabundi coeli soli sui extorres vagantur per orbem that being scattered straggling up and down uncertainly banished from their own Country they wander about the World without any King c. But this belongs to the time of the first Captivity when Nehemiah I. 8. confesses these words were fulfilled See IX Jerem. 16. VI Ezek. 8. XII 14 15. Verse 26 Ver. 26. And thy carcase shall be meat unto all the fowls of the air and unto the beasts of the earth Nothing was accounted a greater Calamity among the Jews than to have their dead Bodies lye exposed to be buried only in the bowels of Birds and Beasts And therefore Jeremiah threatens this as the utmost punishment of the King of Judah XXII 19. XXXVI 30. and the Psalmist bewails it as one of the forest Judgments that was befaln them LXXIX Psal 2 3. And no man shall fray them away That is no Man took so much compassion upon them as to chase them away and to interr the remainders which the Birds and Beasts had not devoured Ver. 27. And the LORD shall smite thee Why the Verse 27 Hierusalem Targum should here in a particular manner say the WORD of the LORD shall smite thee I cannot imagine unless it was to suggest that he being their Conductor out of Egypt was the Person more especially concerned to punish them for their shameful ingratitude to their Deliverer See v. 68. With the botch of Egypt Some take this to signifie the Leprosie unto which they in that Country were subject Others that boil breaking out with blains wherewith God smote the Egyptians IX Exod. 9 c. For that is called Schechin as this is And with the Emerods The Hebrew word Apholim is no where to be met with but here and I Sam. V. 6 9 11. and in the rest of that History Which most Interpreters and not without reason think signifies those painful tumors in the Fundament which sometimes turn into Ulcers See Bochartus in his Hierozoicon P. I. Lib. II. Cap. XXXVI And with the Scab The LXX here translate the Hebrew garab as they do also XXI Levit. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fierce or malignant Scab And the Vulgar adds the word jugis to signifie that this was no small punishment And the itch The Hebrew word cheres signifies as is generally thought a dry Itch which is the most troublesome of all other Whereof thou canst not be healed This may refer both to the Scab and to the Itch before-mentioned which proceeded from such a Corruption of the Blood that they were as incurable as the Leprosie Verse 28 Ver. 28. And the LORD shall smite thee with madness and blindness and astonishment of heart All these three relate to the Mind The first of them importing such a distraction in their Thoughts that they should not know what course to take when they consulted for their safety The second such a stupidity that they should not discern the true way but always take the wrong The third that amazement and horror which followed thereupon when they saw themselves ruined by their own foolish Counsels and mad Contrivances A famous instance of which was in the time of Trajan when they committed such outragious Massacres both upon the Greeks and Romans as Dion a very sober Author relates in Cyrene and Cyprus where great numbers of Jews dwelt after they were driven out of their own Country that the Lord no doubt to use the words of Dr. Jackson on the Creed B. I. Chap. XXVII had smote them with the madness and blindness of heart here threatned that they might hereby provoke that puissant Emperour's indignation which otherwise would have slept but now pursued them throughout his Dominions not only as Enemies or Rebels but as noxious Creatures to Humane Society with a Revenge sutable to their former Outrages And indeed this Prediction was verified in their blind Credulity which made them follow every one that pretended to be their Messiah which always brought great Calamities upon them as R. Gedaliah himself confesses in Schalschetheth Hakkala Where he mentions no small number of these Deceivers and shows how many Jews perished who followed them Yet they are but a few in comparison of a long Catalogue that might be made of those pretended Messiahs See the Learned Wagenseil's Confutation of R. Lipman's Carmen Memoriale pag. 233 c. Unto which I shall add only one Observation more out of Solomon ben Virgae who saith in some places of Germany they were possessed with such a rabies that they cut one anothers Throats to avoid the Oppression of their Enemies and burnt themselves and their Neighbours in their Houses setting whole Cities on fire and perishing in the Flames Such was their extream Rage and furious Revenge on those Christians who pressed them to change their Religion Many Stories of the like nature that Author tells in his Book intituled Schelet Jehuda where he hath LXIV Relations of the Calamities which befel them in that and in other Countries But these words I doubt not were fulfilled before in the first Desolation of Jerusalem to which they belong For though we have not such particular Relations as those now mentioned to illustrate them yet the Prophets speak of their being mad by drinking of the Cup of the LORD's Fury XXV Jerem 16 18. and blind Zephan I. 17. Lament IV. 14. and astonished Jerem. IV. 9. Ezek. IV. 17. Ver. 29. And thou shalt grope at noon day as the blind Verse 29 gropeth in darkness This shows the blindness spoken of in the foregoing Verse relates to their Mind which was so darkned that in the plainest and clearest things they mistook the way and means of their Preservation Zephan I. 17. And thou shalt not prosper in thy ways But quite contrary whatsoever Course they took it turned to their undoing And thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore One Oppression followed upon another as the same Dr. Jackson observes and such Rapines were committed in several places upon them as only made way
all Then he went to their Wives and offered them Mercy if they would submit themselves But they replyed What thou hast done to the ground do to the stubble So he dispatcht them also and shed so much Blood that it ran into the Sea as far as Cyprus At this time so he concludes his Story the Horn of Israel was cut off from Israel never to be restored into its place till the Son of David come This passage I find alledged by Joh. Benedictus Carpzovius out of Massec Sanhedr in explication of another matter in Schickard's Mischpat Hammelek Cap. III. Theor. X. p. 199. And sore sicknesses and of long continuance Such as Gonorhaea's Leprosies and burning Fevers as the Author of the old Nitzacon set forth by J. Wagenseil explains it p. 131. Ver. 60. Moreover he shall bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt which thou wast afraid of and they Verse 60 shall cleave unto thee The same Diseases he foretells should infest them in and after their destruction by the Romans which had done formerly under the Chaldaeans and other Oppressors v. 27. What these Diseases were Pet. Cunaeus Lib. II. de Republ. Jud. Cap. ult hath expressed in these words Vitiligines psorasque tetra ulcera c. Leprosies Itches Botches and foul stinking Ulcers the greatest Physicians have anciently ascribed to the Egyptians and Syrians as Plagues proper to those Nations unto which Diseases he observes the Jews were strangely obnoxious Ver. 61. Also every sickness and every plague which Verse 61 is not written in the Book of this Law them will the LORD bring upon thee until thou be destroyed It had been too long to have set down all the Diseases and Calamities that Mankind are subject to but he tells them they should not escape any one of them though very numerous and be afflicted with them till their destruction was compleated For they were of such long continuance as was said before and pursued them so closely whithersoever they went that they are no longer a Nation but a scattered forlorn People abandon'd and forsaken by him that formerly protected them Of this they themselves are so sensible that they have confessed the truth of this part of the Prophecy in these latter Ages For Solomon ben Virgoe having related in the fiftieth Section of his Book called Schebet Jehuda how they were transported out of Palestine into Spain and so miserably handled that not one of a thousand remained and then how they were destroyed in Germany and France where of innumerable Multitudes equal to the number which came out of Egypt scarce Five thousand survived that Calamity and what he himself saw in Castile and Portugal where they suffered such things as cannot be expressed nor conceived by Famine by Depredations by Transportations and by being sold for Slaves or drowned in the Sea he thus at last concludes his sad Story that they who fled to avoid that dreadful Tempest in Castile found the truth of this Oracle Every sickness and plague which is not written in the Book of this Law shall the LORD bring upon thee till thou be destroyed Verse 62 Ver. 62. And ye shall be left few in number whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude The multitude of the Jews killed in the Wars was equal to the number of living Men in Israel in the time of King David For Josephus saith That in the siege of Jerusalem there were destroyed by Pestilence Famine and other ways Eleven hundred thousand besides above Ninety thousand carried Captive For they being come from all Countries to keep the Passover the whole Nation as his words are Lib. VII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cap. XVII were shut up here by a fate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in a close Prison or rather driven thither as Dr. Jackson speaks into a Slaughter-house after they had been foild by the Romans in the Field And yet after this they recovered strength as I observed before meerly to be more tormented and miserably destroyed For in the reign of Adrian who succeeded the Emperour Trajan they shook the Roman Empire by their rebellious Commotions as Dion who lived not long after relates in his History Lib. LXIX which moved Adrian to exercise the greater Severity upon them in their punishment there being slain of them in Battles and Skirmishes Five hundred and eighty thousand besides a vast number consumed by Famine and Sicknesses and Fire during the time of this lingring War which Julius Severus a famous Commander sent for on purpose out of Britain designedly protracted to a great length not being willing to try it out in the Field in one Battle with a desperate Multitude And now as Moses foretold they were left few in number For Dion as if he had intended to expound these words saith that Severus so beset and attacked them separately in several Parties that very few of them escaped fifty of their strongest Fortresses being utterly razed and nine hundred eighty and five of their most noble and populous Towns sackt and consumed by fire with the slaughter of the forementioned number Insomuch that as his words are all Judaea was in a manner laid waste and left as a Desert This we may truly call the last Conflict of this Nation with Death and Destruction in their own Land out of which they were now almost totally expelled Because thou wouldst not obey the voice of the LORD thy God Who had spoken to them by that great Prophet his Eternal WORD promised in the eighteenth Chapter of this Book v. 15 c. but they would not hearken to him For which Cause he gave them up to listen unto false Christs whom they followed to their destruction Particularly Barchocheba who in the time of Adrian took upon him the Title of their King and set up his Throne at Bitter in the Tribe of Benjamin which the Jews had made their cheaf Seat after the Destruction of Jerusalem and had in it as they pretend four hundred Synagogues Here the Romans made such a slaughter of them when they took it that the Jews themselves cannot find Expressions tragical enough to represent it Twice as many they tell us perished now as came out of Egypt great Rivers ran with the Blood of the slain which say some of them carried great Rocks along with it in the stream With these and many other such like hyperbolical Speeches they themselves exaggerate their Calamities as many have observed out of Juchasin and Gittin particularly Const L'Empereur in his Annotations on Jacchiades XI Dan. 34. But though now they were left few in number in Judaea yet in other Countries where they were dispersed they multiplied again that God's Plagues might continue to be multiplied upon them and this Prophecy more perfectly fulfilled For some Ages after this An. 1009. they had so incensed Christian People against them by bringing the Persians upon them who destroyed the Churches dedicated to our Saviour at Jerusalem that it
likely they would have a greater regard to Joshua than they had to him who had such near familiarity with God as never any Man had Ver. 28. Gather unto me all the Elders of your Tribes Verse 28 I suppose after Moses had spoke to the People what God ordered v. 1 2 c. See there he dismissed them again that he might write the Book of the Law v. 9. and deliver it to the Priests c. and then write this Song which follows in the next Chapter v. 19 22 c. Which being done he is ordered here to summon all the Elders of the several Tribes and with them all the People came v. 30. that he might deliver to them by word of Mouth the Song which he had wrote And your Officers I have frequently observed that these Schoterim which we translate Officers were but Ministers to their Elders or Judges See V Exod. 14. I Deut. 15. XVI 18. Unto which I shall add here only the words of Abarbinel The Office of the Schoterim was to see that the Sentence which the Judges had given was observed and to compel Men to it They who would have more may find a long Roll of Authors who are of this mind both Jews and Christians in Jo. Benedic Carpzovius upon Schickard's Jus Regium who hath also said a great deal to the same purpose Cap. IV. Theorem XIV That I may speak these words in their ears The Song which God had suggested to him and commanded him to write v. 19 22. And call heaven and earth to record against them Call the whole World to witness how wicked they are if they fall from God after such care to preserve them in his Obedience Verse 29 Ver. 29. For I know that after my death you will utterly corrupt your selves Fall to the foulest Idolatry II Judges 19. And turn aside from the way which I have commanded you Departing from that way of God which I have delivered to you by his command It was a very melancholy thing for Moses to leave the World in this belief that all his pains would be lost upon them but he comforted himself in doing his Duty to the very last and omitting no means to secure them from Apostasy And evil will befal you in the latter days This seems to express a foresight that they would not immediately revolt but after the death of Joshua and of the Elders who survived him II Judges 7 11 12 c. Because ye will do evil in the sight of the LORD to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands By making Images after the manner of other Nations and bowing down to them and worshipping them II Judges 12 13. III. 7. where the Groves signifie the Images in the Groves Verse 30 Ver. 30. And Moses spake With the assistance of Joshua XXXII 44. In the ears of all the Congregation of Israel Whom the Elders and Officers v. 28. had assembled according to their Tribes and Families unto whom they went severally and spake these words in their hearing The words of this song Which follows in the next Chapter and much differs in the raised Expressions and loftiness of the Stile from the rest of this Book hitherto Vntil they were ended Omitted nothing but compleatly delivered this Song to them Or they spake all these words to them at the same time with one continued Speech I observed before that the most ancient way of Instruction was by Poetical Compositions which was more ancient than Rhetorical Discourses And as their chief Learning did consist of Poetry so the excellency of their Poetry was seen in the proper and native Subject of this Faculty that is in Matters of sacred use or observation From whence the Title of Vates descended unto Secular and Prophane Poets who detained the manner of Speech used by the former But as Conradus Pellicanus here truly observes and see my Notes on XV Exod. 1. the Scripture Poetry doth not consist in the cadency and number of Syllables contrived to please the ear but in brief and weighty Sentences simply and sincerely composed in a lively manner to enlighten the Understandings move the Affections and stick in the Memory And the Ancients as a great Man of our own observes had this advantage of later Poets That the Fashion of the World as he speaks in their times was more apt to ravish their thoughts with admiration wonderful Events being then more frequent and their frequency not abating but rather increasing their wonderment because their variety was very great and the apprehension of invisible or supernatural Powers in those Events was usual and undoubted So that admiration was then inforced upon Men and the Breasts of those who diligently observed those Events or were any way disposed by Nature to it were inspired with lively and sublime Affections apt to vent themselves in such Poetical Phrase and Resemblances as we cannot reach unless we raise our Invention by Imitation and stir up Admiration by Meditation and Study But now our Senses being neither moved with such extraordinary Effects of God's Power nor our Minds bent to observe the ways of his Wisdom so as to be stricken with true observation of them we have fewer good Sacred Poems than of any other kind Thus Dr. Jackson Book I. on the Creed Chap. XIV David Chytraeus also hath an excellent Discourse on this Subject to show that the ancient Poetry among the Heathen contained the Doctrine of God and of Celestial Things all the Offices and Rewards of Vertue with the Punishment of Vice the History of their Kings and the noble Acts of famous Men Tome I. of his Works p. 154 c. Where he confirms this out of the Verses of Orpheus who lived as he computes about an Hundred and fifty years before David and those of Pindar Simonides and the rest who lived in the time of the War with Xerxes But Moses led the way to them all whose Mind was raised to that Sublimity of Thoughts and Speech which we find in his Songs by admiration of those strange Events which he saw XV Exod. XXI Numb and here in the next Chapter wherein he was followed by Deborah Barak and Hannah c. in after times V Judges 1 Sam. II. CHAP. XXXII Chapter XXXII Verse 1. GIve ear O ye heavens and I will speak Verse 1 and hear O earth the words of my mouth He calls Angels and Men to bear witness XXX 19. that the Israelites had been admonished of their Duty and warned of their Danger and this not by words of his own invention but which were put into his mouth by the Spirit of God Or after an elegant form of Speech he calls upon all insensible Creatures every where to listen to him that he might awaken the Israelites out of their stupidity or upbraid them as a People that had ears to hear and would not hear him And as some of themselves have observed he may be thought to intimate hereby
set up his Tabernacle with Men and dwell with them and they shall be his People and he will be their God XX Revel 3. which I mention because this part of the Prophecy reaches unto the last times and is not yet all fulfilled Thus this famous Song concludes which as the Jews reckon consists of Seventy Verses each of which contains two distinct and entire Sentences and as they fancy are a Compendium of the whole Law of Moses Nay some of them such are the idle Conceits of this Nation think this Hymn is so perfect a Prophecy that it contains in it the Names of all the Men in the World which they undertake to find and by that Versicle where it is to tell what Fortune he whose Name they seek shall have in the World Thus instead of observing seriously what Moses foretold would certainly befal themselves their Superstition and hardness of heart have led them to vain Conjectures concerning other Men. See Jo. Wagenseil upon Sota p. 164 c. where he saith a Jew undertook to show him his Name in this Song which fell out in a Verse that signified Prosperity to him And since him Martinus Mauritius in his Book de Sortitione Hebraeorum Cap. XVI Sect. 3 4 5. Ver. 44. And Moses came and spake all the words of Verse 44 this Song in the ears of the people The very same that is said before he spake this Song XXXI 30. and is now repeated at the Conclusion of it to express his Fidelity in his Office to the very last He and Hoshea the Son of Nun. Who was now his Assistant in this Work as he was designed to be his Successor after his death He is commonly called Joshua but Oshea was his Name at the first XIII Numb 8. Ver. 45. And Moses made an end of speaking all Verse 45 these words to all Israel When he had made an end of speaking them then he added what follows Ver. 46. And he said unto them set your hearts unto Verse 46 all the words which I testifie among you this day Apply your Minds to press upon your selves the observation of all these things For this Expression is a little more than letting them be in their heart VI. 6. or laying them up in their heart XI 18. For they were so to retain the remembrance of them as to attend unto them and consider them Which ye shall command your Children to observe to do This necessary duty of instructing their Children is often pressed IV. 10. VI. 7. XI 19. because without this care their Religion would soon be lost but by this means might be preserved and propagated to all Generations All the words of this Law Which they might be certain was delivered by God to Moses there being as many Witnesses of God's Presence with him as there were Men in their Nation But he had seen so many instances of their unbelief that he uses all the ways manners and forms as Pellicanus observes that he could think of to urge them to obedience By delivering them Tables of their Laws written by God himself by Books by Pillars by Blessings Cursings Obtestations Threatnings long Exhortations Songs Phylacteries and other Ceremonies c. which he continued to do as long as he had breath and was able to speak that they and their Posterity might be happy Verse 47 Ver. 47. For it is not a vain thing for you You shall not imploy your diligence in this matter unprofitably The Jews upon these words have founded a Maxim which Maimonides often mentions That every Precept hath its end and use which though they do not appear to us are grounded upon strong Causes and Reasons More Nevochim P. III. Cap. XXVI and L. The design for instance of many Ceremonial Laws cannot now be fully discerned because they were instituted directly contrary to the idolatrous Rites of the Zabij which are long since utterly abolished and but imperfectly recorded in those ancient Authors that speak of them Because it is your life The means to make you an happy People Here are two benefits saith R. Isaac which are promised by the observation of this Law a Spiritual and a Corporal The Spiritual in these words and the Corporal in the next ye shall prolong your days c. And he puts the Spiritual first though among all Corporal Blessings this of long Life be the chief Chissuk Emuna P. I. Cap. XVIII And through this thing By teaching your Children to observe to do all that is commanded in this Law You shall prolong your days in the Land whither you go over Jordan to possess it Have the great Blessing of a long Life in all manner of Happiness which your Posterity shall enjoy for many Generations in the Land of Canaan By which it appears that nothing else but Contempt of this Law could have ejected them out of this Country Ver. 48. And the LORD spake unto Moses that self Verse 48 same day Immediately after he had ended the foregoing Song and given them this Admonition at the Conclusion of it Vre 49. Get thee up into this Mountains Abarim Verse 49 Which he had pointed him unto before and told him what he doth now XXVII Numb 12. Vnto Mount Nebo Abarim was a ridge of Hills whereof Nebo was one See there upon XXVII Numb 2. Which is in the Land of Moab that is over against Jericho This is a more particular Description of the Site of this Mountain than he gave before in the Book of Numbers Behold the Land of Canaan which I give unto the Children of Israel for a possession Which he might easily do from the highest part of the Mountain called Pisgah III Deut. 27. Ver. 50. And die in the Mount whither thou goest up Verse 50 After he had taken a view of the Land every way And be gathered unto thy People To Abraham Isaac and Jacob. This signifies saith R. Isaac that he should be associated and joyned to the Souls of the just who are called his People For the People of Moses were not buried in Mount Abarim and therefore he doth not speak of gathering his Body to their Bodies but of his Soul to their Souls Chissuk Emuna P. I. Cap. XI Chapter XXXIII As Aaron thy brother died in Mount Hor and was gathered unto his People See Numb 24 28. XXXIII 38. Ver. 51. Because ye trespassed against me among the Verse 51 Children of Israel c. Rebelled against his Commandment as he speaks XXVII Numb 14. Because ye sanctified me not in the midst of the Children of Israel XX Numb 12. XXVII 14. Ver. 52. Yet thou shalt see the Land before thee He had earnestly begg'd of God that he might go over Verse 52 Jordan but he denied him that favour I Deut. 37. III. 25 27. yet he was pleased to mitigate his punishment by letting him enjoy a sight of that good Country into which he might not enter But thou shalt not go thither unto the Land which I give the Children
knew face to face Or as de Dieu thinks it should be translated who knew the LORD face to face This was one Preheminence of Moses above all the Prophets that he conversed more familiarly with God than any of them did See XII Numb 8. which place explains this for to know him face to face was to speak familiarly to God and to hear God speaking in like manner unto him And so the Hierusalem Targum expounds these words only instead of the LORD he saith Who knew the WORD of the LORD talking with him and delivering to him most excellent Laws for the good government of his People In which Laws he still lives they all remaining upon Record to this day when the Laws of all the famous Lawgivers whom the Gentiles honoured as gods are obliterated But it must be observed that in this wherein Moses excelled all the Prophets our blessed Saviour far transcended him For he was in the bosom of the Father I Joh. 18. and spake what he saw and heard c. III Joh. 11 32. Verse 11 Ver. 11. In all the signs and the wonders which the LORD sent him to do The Hierusalem Targum hath it Which the WORD of the LORD sent him to do in the Land of Egypt to Pharaoh and to all his Servants and to all his Land See IV. 34. VI. 22. VII 19. In these signs and wonders Moses excelled all the Prophets doing more Miracles than all that succeeded him as Maimonides observes More Nevochim P. II. Cap. XXXV But our blessed Saviour excelled him in this as well as them doing more wonders than all the Prophets put together had done from the beginning of the World and far greater also than theirs XXI Joh. ult Ver. 12. And in all that mighty hand and in all that great terror which Moses showed As the former Verse relates to what he did in Egypt so this hath respect unto their passing through the Red Sea and to all that befel them in the Wilderness both at the giving of the Law and afterward till this time So the Hierusalem Targum expounds these words In all that strong hand and in all those great Visions which Moses managed And Onkelos to the same purpose In the sight of all Israel In the place forenamed Maimonides insists much upon this that Moses wrought all his Miracles publickly the whole Congregation being Witnesses of them And so our Saviour commonly wrought his till they sought to kill him in their Synagogues at their Publick Feasts when there was the greatest Concourse of the People of Israel So that in this he was a Prophet like unto Moses though infinitely superiour which some of the old Jews could not but discern as I observed upon Chap. XVIII when upon these words of Isaiah LII 13. He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high they thus gloss in Tanchuma which is an ancient Book among them This is the King MESSIAS who shall be exalted above Abraham extolled above Moses and be very high above the Angels of the Ministry Upon which Conradus Pellicanus thus glosses and concludes his Commentary as I shall do mine with these words What is it to be above the Angels let the Jews explain we can understand nothing by it but the very WORD of God which was in the beginning with God and was God by whom all things were made and without him nothing was made viz. the LORD God of Hosts to whom in perfect Vnity God the Father Son and Holy Spirit be all Honour and Glory for ever Amen Thus ends the Pentateuch which as our great Primate of Ireland computes contains the History of Two thousand five hundred and fifty two years and an half from the beginning of the World to the death of Moses FINIS By reason of the Distance of the Author this Omission hapned which the Reader is desired to insert in its proper place At the end of Page 511. Line ult after three hundred years add these words But if any one think good thus to apply the words of this Verse unto Vespasian they must not take this for the literal meaning of them because it is evident that by the Stranger is to be understood those of other Nations who lived among them Particularly those Gentiles who were brought into their Country by the Assyrians instead of the Ten Tribes as some of the best of the Jewish Writers expound it What the Doctor also saith concerning their advancing Vespasian to the Imperial Dignity cannot be maintain'd ERRATA Page 21. Line 24. read their Cities Page 30. Line 14. r. Elate Page 39. Line 18. r. faith Page 43. Line 17. r. Ammonites Page 67. Line 15. r. Atargatis Page 85. antepen r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Page 86. Line 11. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Page 90. Line 24. r. even before Page 116. Line 2. r. Melech Page 145. Line 13. r. until the other Page 174. Line 5. for notion r. reason Page 183. Line 10. for Geder r. Seder Page 194. Line 18. r. Author of Sepher Ikkarim Page 220. Line 20. r. Acra-batta Page 242. Line 20. r. Arcadica * Page 264. Line 24. blot out but as the persons concerned in the Controversie brought it and read But whoever brought the Controversie before this Court when the Inferiour could not determine it they gave the sentence Page 269. Line 10. r. Cunaeus Lib. II. Page 290. Line 29. r. had her first Page 323. Line 15. r. Chillel Page 332. Line 20. r. was so setled Page 348. Line 2. r. slake Page 358. Line 24. r. both Sexes Page 365. Line 6. r. whom all that Page 372. Line 1. r. make thee Page 382. Line 31 32. r. paid to her father Page 408. Line 20. for inherent r. indigent Page 420. Line 28. r. Chasidah Page 428. Line 2. r. remember it Page 438. Line 16. r. of no consequence Page 439. Line 26. r. as a reason Page 442. Line 28. r. Dr. Pocock Page 488. Line 19. r. would furnish Page  Line 20. r. that should further Page 507. Line 9. r. strangeness Page 599. Line 16. r. retained the manner Page 612. Line 1. r. Olive Tree thrives Page 617. Line 27. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a field Page 641. Line 12. r. Mountain Page 650. Line 22. r. he speaks of himself Page 652. Line penult r. staid behind them Page 663. Line 20. r. Gazellas Page 665. Line 5. r. great numbers Page  Line 25. r. IV Gen. 10. Page 668. Line 17 18. r. He came the Heads of the People Page 685. Line 12. r. he having BOOKS Printed for Richard Chiswell BIshop Patrick's Commentary on the First Book of Moses called Genesis The Second Edition 4 to 1698. His Commentary on the Second Book of Moses called Exodus 4 to 1697. His Commentary on the Third Book of Moses called Leviticus 4 to 1698. His Commentary on the Fourth Book of Moses called Numbers 4 to 1699. His Commentary on the Fifth Book of Moses called Deuteronomy 4 to 1700. His Hearts Ease or a Remedy against all Troubles A Consolatory Discourse directed to those who have lost their Friends and dear Relations To which is added Two Papers printed in the time of the late Plague The Seventh Edition 120. 1699. The Life of Henry Chichele Archbishop of Canterbury In which there is a particular Relation of many remarkable Passages in the Reigns of Henry the Fifth and Sixth Kings of England Written in Latin by Arthur Duck LLD. Chancellor of the Dioscess of London and Advocate of the Court of Honour Now made English And a Table of Contents annexed Archbishop Tollotson of Sincerity and Constancy in the Faith and Profession of the True Religion Being the First Volume Published from the Originals by Dr. Barker Chaplain to his Grace His Second Volume Containg Sixteen Sermons on several Occasions His Third Volume Containing Sixteen Sermons on several Subjects His Fourth Volume Containing several Discourses on Natural and Instituted Religion The Nature and Necessity of Regeneration the Danger of all known Sin c. His Fifth Volume Proving Jesus to be the Messiah the Son of God The Danger of Apostacy from Christianity c. His Sixth Volume Being the First part of his Discourses on the Divine Attributes 1699. His Seventh Volume Being the Second or Remaining Part of his Discourses on the Divine Attributes 1700. A Discourse of the Government of the Thoughts By George Tullie Sub-Dean of York The Third Edition Corrected 120. 1699. Preparation for Death Being a Letter sent to a young Gentlewoman in France in a dangerous Distemper of which she died By William Wake D.D. The Sixth Edition 120. Private Devotions digested into Six Litanies with Directions and Prayers By Hen. Valentine The Bishop of Sarum's Exposition of the 39 Articles of the Church of England in Folio 1700. The Life of John Whitgift Archbishop of Canterbury in the Times of Queen Elizabeth and King James the First Written by Sir George Paul Comptroller of his Graces Houshold To which is added a Treatise intituled Conspiracy for Pretended Reformation Written in the Year 1591. By Richard Cosin LLD. Dean of the Arches and Official Principal to Archbishop Whitgift 80. 1699.
Laws nor diminish that Worship Which Interpretation seems to be warranted by what follows Thy eyes have seen what the LORD thy God did because of Baal-Peor But in the words before-going which introduce these Judgments being mentioned as well as Statutes there must be a larger sense of this Injunction which relates to all the Laws of God and the meaning seems to be Ye shall not transgress any of these Precepts either by doing any thing contrary to them which was to add or omitting any thing which they required which was to diminish Thus Grotius interprets it upon 2 Corinth XI 24. Addere ad legem est facere quod lex vetat diminuere est omittere quod lex jubet But which way soever we take it nothing is more certain than that this Prohibition preserved these Books from any alteration since the time they were written For the whole Body of the People acknowledging their Divine Authority none of them dared to change any thing either by addition or diminution Of which there is a wonderful instance in the People that came out of Assyria in the room of the Israelites who were transported thither to inhabit the Country of Samaria who receiving this Law their Posterity have kept it all along to this day as uncorrupted as the Jews themselves have done although they were their mortal Enemies and have been exposed to all the Changes and Revolutions that can befall a Nation during the long interval of Two thousand and four hundred years Thus the most learned Dr. Alix observes in his Reflections upon the four last Books of Moses p. 144. And I do not see why the perfection of the Scripture without the Oral Law of the Jews should not be thought to be established by these words as another learned Person Joh. Wagenseil understands them in his Confut. Carminis Lipmanni p. 585. Yet as the forenamed Chiskuni notes it doth not seem reasonable to conclude from hence that they were prohibited to add any Constitutions as a Hedge and Fence to the Law or as an Explication of it when the sense was doubtful See Mr. Thorndike in his Rights of the Church in a Christian State p. 180 c. That ye may keep the Commandments of the LORD your God which I command you This justifies the Explication I gave of the foregoing words as respecting all God's Laws and XII 32. makes it more plain And indeed God being their Law-giver it was the highest presumption to make any Alteration in any of his Laws Verse 3 Ver. 3. Your eyes have seen what the LORD did because of Baal-peor c. How he cut off Twenty four thousand by a Plague and by the Hand of Justice who had been guilty of Idolatry by the enticements of the Midianitish Women XXV Numb 5 9. Which seems to be a reason why they should take a special Care about the Worship of God that nothing were done contrary to the Laws he had ordained concerning it For all the men that followed Baal-peor the LORD thy God hath destroyed them from among you The Judges put to death all those that they knew to be guilty and the Hand of God found out all the rest so that there was not a Man of them left who was not swept away by the Pestilence Verse 4 Ver. 4. But ye that did cleave unto the LORD Did not depart from his Worship but bewailed the Apostasie of some of their Brethren XXV Numb 6. Are alive every one of you this day A singular Providence watched over them to preserve them in such good health that not one in so many Thousands was dead since that time Nor in the War with the Midianites wherein they slew all the Males did they lose so much as one Man XXXI Numb 7 49. Ver. 5. Behold I have taught you Statutes and Judgments Verse 5 v. 1. Even as the LORD my God commanded me Sincerely and uprightly without adding any thing of my self or diminishing any thing that he said That ye should do so in the Land whither ye go to possess it To be the Rule of your Life when ye come into the Land of Canaan Ver. 6. Keep therefore and do them for this is your Verse 6 wisdom and understanding in the fight of all the Nations It is your interest to observe them as you will soon find by experience which will teach you that it is not only the wisest Course in it self but will get you the reputation of being a wise People among all your Neighbours Which shall hear of all these Statutes There being mention before v. 1 5. of Judgments as well as Statutes and here only of the latter Abarbinel thence infers That even those Laws which depended wholly upon the Will and Pleasure of God and for which they could give no reason for such they understood by Chukkim would procure them very great Honour if they were carefully observed For the Nations seeing how wonderfully they prospered would be apt to impute it to these extraordinary Prescriptions which they followed Just saith he as a Physician who cures desperate Diseases by some small trifling Remedies as they seem to others is highly applauded for the profoundness of his Knowledge and Wisdom But Maimonides takes this word Statutes to comprehend all the Laws of God and undertakes to show that all the Six hundred and thirteen Precepts have a wise End in them for the Profit and Benefit of those that observe them either to beget some wholesome Opinion in their Mind or to pull out some perverse one either to institute some good Order or to take away Iniquity c. See More Nevochim P. III. Cap. XXXI And say Surely this Nation is a wise and understanding People Who continued in Safety Liberty and Prosperity abounding with all manner of Blessings while they continued all to go up to worship One God sincerely at one Place at certain Set-times as if the whole Nation was but one Family All the rest of their Laws also were admirably fitted to unite them unto God and one to another and consequently to make them appear a wise People in the Eyes of other Nations whose Writers have not only highly magnified Moses but their Law-Givers have transcribed several of his Laws into their own Constitutions This appears by the old Attick Laws and those of the Twelve Tables as many learned Men have observed Nay the Oracle reported by Porphyry in Eusebius his Praeparatio Evangelica Lib. IX Cap. X. thus extols this Nation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Chaldaeans and the Hebrews who came from Chaldaea are the only wise People who worship God the Eternal King in a pure manner And the Oracle of Apollo Clarius recorded by Macrobius Lib. I. Saturnal Cap. 18. is no less remarkable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acknowledge Jao so they pronounced the Name JEHOVAH to be the highest God of all For though Macrobius fancied the Sun to be here called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no Body
Ver. 8. Take heed in the plague of Leprosie that thou observe diligently This was the highest legal Uncleanness and therefore the greatest Caution was to be used to prevent its Contagion And do according to all that the Priests the Levites They were constituted by the Law the sole Judges whether a Man had the Leprosie or no and were to order his Separation from others if he had and frequently make inspection whether it spread or was at a stand c. See the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Chapters of LEVITICVS where there are Laws about Houses and Garments as well as Persons infected with this Disease by the Hand of God as the Jews understand it Shall teach you To teach in this place signifies to declare the Obligation of the Law by the Judges of it the Priests the Levites Thus Jehosaphat is said to have sent his Princes to teach in the Cities of Judah and with them he sent Levites and Priests 2 Chron. XVIII 18. where R. Solomon notes that it was the business of the Priests and Levites to teach and instruct as is here written in this place which he quotes and the Princes went with them that none might disobey them but be constrained by their Authority to do according to their command See Mr. Thorndike in his Religious Assemblies Chap. II. p. 22. where he observes that in LEVITICUS direction is given to the Priests how to proceed in judging Leprosies but no Provision made till now that the People should stand to their Judgment They who imagine that the Priest had the care of Lepers as their Physicians forget that no other diseased Persons are ordered to repair to them which is a sign they did not pretend to cure them but only to preserve others from being defiled by them and to do what was necessary for their cleansing when they were healed by God As I command them so shall ye observe to do They were so to observe the Priests as to mark what God commanded and accordingly obey them not against but according to his command Ver. 9. Remember what the LORD thy God did unto Verse 9 Miriam by the way after that ye were come forth out of Egypt This seems to be mentioned that they might not think much to be shut up seven days when they were but suspected to have the Leprosie and seven days more to make farther trial and to be put out of the Camp when it appeared plainly they had this Disease XIII Levit. 4 5 45 46. Since so great a Person as Miriam was excluded so long from the Society of God's People XII Numb 15. And this may be also lookt upon as an Admonition to take care lest they spoke Evil of Dignities which brought this Punishment on Miriam or disobeyed the Commands of the Priests which might bring the like or some other Judgment upon them Verse 10 Ver. 10. When thou dost lend thy brother any thing thou shalt not go into his house to fetch his pledge This was a very merciful provision for the Poor whose Houses he would have so priviledged that no Man might enter into them without their consent and there chuse what he pleased for the Security of his Debt But he was to take what the Borrower could best spare Verse 11 Ver. 11. Thou shalt stand abroad Keep without door And the Man to whom thou dost lend shall bring out the pledge abroad unto thee So the Debtor not the Creditor was to chuse what Pledge he would give For he best knew what he could with most convenience to himself part withal and if it was sufficient the Lender had reason to be satisfied with it Verse 12 Ver. 12. And if the Man be poor thou shalt not sleep with his pledge But restore it before Night Which is to be understood of such things as were necessary for the preservation of his Life or Health as the following words demonstrate Verse 13 Ver. 13. In any case thou shalt deliver him the pledge again when the Sun goeth down that he may sleep in his own raiment And not to be forced to borrow of others a necessary Covering to defend him from the Cold and not be able perhaps to procure it See XXII Exod. 26 27. which Laws seems to have been intended to keep them from taking any pledge of a very poor Man For to what purpose should they every Morning fetch a pledge and every Evening carry it back again which would only create them a great deal of trouble And bless thee Pray God to bless thee And it shall be righteousness unto thee before the LORD thy God Procure thee a Blessing from God who will esteem it an Act of great Mercy which is often called by the name of Righteousness in the Holy Books CXII Psalm 9. X Prov. 2 c. Nay such like actions are properly called tzedekah or righteousness according to the opinion of Maimonides who observes More Nevochim P. III. Cap. LIII that this word doth not meerly signifie giving to every Man his own For when a Man pays the Hireling his wages or a Debtor pays his Creditor that is not called tzedekah but what a Man doth out of pure love to Vertue and Goodness as when a Man cures a poor Wretch of his wounds is properly called by that name From whence it is said concerning the restoring of a poor Man's pledge it shall be to thee for righteousness That is saith Dr. Hammond in his Practical Catechism that degree of Mercy which the Law required of every Jew without which he could not be accounted righteous but there was a degree of Bounty beyond this called chusidah which was an excess of Righteousness or Goodness Ver. 14. Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant Verse 14 Either by putting more work upon him than he is able to do or by detaining his Wages when it is done The latter of these is most properly here denoted as Const L'Empereur observes out of D. Kimchi who in his Book of Roots saith the difference between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the word here and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not lye in this that the former signifies to defraud the latter to take away by violence but the former signifies to detain by force and the other to take away by force what belongs to another And for the proof of it alledges this place in Deuteronomy which he thus translates Thou shalt not detain by force the wages of the hireling Which is expressed more clearly III Malachi 5. Annot. in Bava kama Cap. IX Sect. VII p. 247. That is poor and needy And therefore the more to be pitied and not oppressed either by giving him less Wages than another Man when he ought rather to have greater or by keeping back his hire beyond the time wherein it ought to be paid For as the ancient Lawyers say Minus solvit qui tempore minus solvit as it is observed by Grotius upon V James 4. Whether he be of thy brethren or