Leviticus 19:3
Sabbaths. Both those which occur every week, and extraordinary ones, ver. 30.... [ Continue Reading ]
Sabbaths. Both those which occur every week, and extraordinary ones, ver. 30.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Idols. Hebrew, "vain things." (Calmet) --- Molten, or any other sort of workmanship. (Menochius)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Profane. Hebrew, "it shall be defiled." Septuagint, "improper for sacrifice." Aquila, "It shall be rejected." (Calmet) --- So that the person who had offered it, shall become more guilty. (Menochius)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Ground. Hebrew and Septuagint, "the extremity of thy field." The Rabbins say, a sixtieth part of all the products of the earth, was to be left for the poor. (Selden, Jur. vi. 6.) Thus God teaches his people to exercise themselves in the acts of mercy. (Du Hamel)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Strangers. Septuagint and Syriac, "proselytes," who might dwell in the country. As the soil did not belong to them, great compassion was requisite: otherwise they must have perished, or become slaves. --- Lord; the sole proprietor. (Calmet)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Lie. "When no injury is done to another, it is a great question whether a lie can ever be justified. The case would perhaps be easily decided, if we considered the commandments alone, and not the examples," of those holy men who seem to have sometimes thought it lawful. (St. Augustine, q. 68) But i... [ Continue Reading ]
_Profane. No greater indignity can be offered to God, than to solicit Him, as it were, to assist us in doing evil, by attesting falsehood. (Philo)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Morning. Pay what is due to the labourer, immediately, if he desire it. (Haydock) --- It was customary among the Jews to pay their workmen in the evening, Matthew xx. 8._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Deaf. The word Kophos, used by the Septuagint, means also the dumb, as these defects are generally found in the same person. Nothing can be more base, than to attack those who are unable to defend themselves. Solon forbids anyone "to speak ill of the dead," though he may receive an injury from his... [ Continue Reading ]
_Detracter, whisperer. Hebrew rakil, stands for both these terms. Some translate a parasite, a merchant, vilifying the goods of others to enhance the price of his own; or a spy, seeking to discover and laugh at others' faults. --- Neighbour; accusing him wrongfully, to the danger of his life; or lyi... [ Continue Reading ]
_Openly, is not in the Hebrew or other versions. Instead of bearing malice at the heart, we are authorized to demand our right in a legal manner, or to correct in a fraternal matter, the person who may have injured us, lest we incur sin for our neglect, and the offender continue impenitent. Jesus Ch... [ Continue Reading ]
Revenge, by private authority, or out of passion, which the pagans themselves acknowledged was more becoming a brute than a man, feræ est. (Muson. Sen. de ira ii. 32.) --- Citizens. Hebrew, "observe or lie not in wait." Septuagint, "act not with fury against the son of thy people." (Calmet) --- Hebr... [ Continue Reading ]
Kind. Mules were therefore either brought from other countries, (3 Kings x. 28,) or they were produced by some of the same species, as, good authors assert, is frequently the case in Syria, Cappadocia, &c. (Pliny, [Natural History?] viii. 44.; Pineda) (Tirinus) --- Spencer (Leg. ii. 20,) says, witho... [ Continue Reading ]
_Marriageable. Hebrew, "promised, or given in marriage." Septuagint, "reserved for another....she shall," &c. Onkelos and the Arabic version suppose also, that the woman alone was to be scourged with leather thongs; a punishment to which the Samaritan copy condemns only the man. The Rabbins agree wi... [ Continue Reading ]
_Pray. Hebrew and Septuagint, "shall atone for him with the ram of the sin-offering, before the Lord, for his sin."_... [ Continue Reading ]
_The first-fruits. Præputia, literally their fore-skins: it alludes to circumcision, and signifies that for the first three years the trees were to be as uncircumcised, and their fruit unclean; till the fourth year their increase was sanctified and given to the Lord, that is, to the priests. (Challo... [ Continue Reading ]
_Lord. It was to be brought to the holy city, and offered with the other tithes, out of which a feast was made for the poor, &c. (Josephus, [Antiquities?] iv. 8.) Besides the first-fruits for the priests, and the tithes for the Levites, out of which they again paid tithes to the priests, there was a... [ Continue Reading ]
_Blood. The flesh of any animal. The blood must belong to God. The members of the Sanhedrim eat nothing on the day that a criminal is executed, supposing that this is the meaning of the precept. The Septuagint read erim, "on the mountains;" and another version has, "on the roof," as if the worship o... [ Continue Reading ]
Cut your hair, &c. This, and other such like things, of themselves indifferent, were forbidden by God, that they might not imitate the Egyptians or other infidels, who practised these things out of superstition, in honour of their false deities. (Challoner) --- The pagans consecrated locks of hair,... [ Continue Reading ]
Dead. Adonis or Osiris; as if you were mourning for them, in which sense the former verse may be explained. At funerals it was customary to cut off the hair. Achilles and his soldiers did so at the death of Patroclus. (Homer) --- The Persians also cut the manes of their horses, to shew their grief f... [ Continue Reading ]
CHAPTER XIX. _ Strumpet, which was done formerly in the honour of idols. "They gave to Venus the prostitution of their daughters." (St. Augustine, City of God xviii. 5.) "In Cyprus they lead the unmarried women to the sea-shore, in order to acquire a dowry by these means on certain stated days, as... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wizards. Hebrew oboth, denotes familiar spirits, (1 Kings viii.[xxviii.?] 7,) which gave answers from the belly or breast, as from a bottle; whence such wizards are called by the Greeks, engastrimuthoi; and by Sophocles, sternomanteis. (Calmet) --- Soothsayers, are properly those who will judge wha... [ Continue Reading ]
_Aged man. Such are supposed to be possessed of wisdom and experience. The Egyptians and Lacedemonians rose up out of respect to an old man. (Herod., ii. 80.) The Rabbins pretend that a person ought to rise up when the old man is four cubits distant, provided he be, as he ought, a man of wisdom; for... [ Continue Reading ]
_Rule; Hebrew, "taking dimensions" with a yard, tape, &c._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Weights. Hebrew, "stones of justice," for stone weights were formerly used, Proverbs xvi. 11. --- Bushel, &c. Hebrew, "a just epha, and a just hin." (Calmet)_... [ Continue Reading ]