If he kill, &c. That is, in order to sacrifice. The law of God forbids sacrifices to be offered in any other place but at the tabernacle or temple of the Lord: to signify that no sacrifice would be acceptable to God, out of his true temple, the one, holy, Catholic Apostolic Church. (Challoner) --- O... [ Continue Reading ]
_They. The Egyptians and other nations, kill in the field, as the Hebrews had also done, till it was now prohibited. Some were, perhaps, still much inclined to adore, (Calmet) and to offer sacrifices privately to devils; (ver. 7,) and therefore God forbids any sacrifice, but such as was performed by... [ Continue Reading ]
_Devils. Hebrew schirim: which some translate goats, (the hairy ones,) satyrs, &c. The Egyptians adored the goat, (which they represented like the god Pan) particularly in the territory of Mendes, near which the Hebrews had dwelt. Its worship was very abominable and obscene. (Strabo xvii.) (Calmet)... [ Continue Reading ]
_Eat blood. To eat blood, was forbidden in the law; partly because God reserved it to himself to be offered in sacrifices on the altar, as to the Lord of life and death; and as a figure of the blood of Christ; and partly to give men a horror of shedding blood, Genesis ix. 4, 5, 6. (Challoner) --- So... [ Continue Reading ]
_Life, ( anima). The sensitive soul depends on the blood. The soul and the blood are often used in the same sense. (Deuteronomy xii. 23; Psalm xxix. 10.) Sanguine quærendi reditus animaque litandum---Argolica. (Virgil, \'c6neid ii.) (Calmet) --- If any one think that blood is the soul of cattle, we... [ Continue Reading ]
_Hunting, with nets, or with bow and arrow. If a dog had killed the prey, it would have rendered it unclean. (Tostat) But perhaps dogs were not employed in hunting by the Hebrews. The Persians use lions, &c. (Chardin.) (Calmet) --- Earth, to prevent any abusive custom, such as that of the magicians,... [ Continue Reading ]
_Stranger. Perhaps the proselyte of justice, not simply of the gate, for the latter were allowed to eat and purchase what had died of itself, Deuteronomy xiv. 21. --- Clean, having offered the sacrifice, chap. iv. 27. But if he eat such things knowingly, or neglected these regulations, he was more s... [ Continue Reading ]
CHAPTER XVII.... [ Continue Reading ]