Deuteronomy 14:1

1 f. Against certain Rites for the Dead

No parallel in JE; but one in H, Leviticus 19:28 a.

1. Sons are ye to Jehovah your God The order of the EVV. misses the emphasis. Note not merely the change to the Pl. address but its cause, the conception of individual Israelites as the sons of Jehovah: not elsewhere in D. In the discourses in D Israel, the nation, is as the son of Jehovah, Deuteronomy 1:31; Deuteronomy 8:5 and so more definitely in J, Exodus 4:22 f., Hosea 11:1, and Jeremiah 31:20. The transition from this conception to the statement of Jehovah's fatherhood of Israelites as individuals was natural; the two conceptions occur together in the Song Deuteronomy 32:5-6 and in Hosea and Jeremiah. The latter is already found in the 8th century, Hosea 1:10; Isaiah 1:2. But as we advance through the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, with their strong individualism, to the exilic and post-exilic writings we find a great increase of references to Israelites as the sons of Jehovah, Jeremiah 3:14; Jeremiah 3:19; Jeremiah 3:22; Jeremiah 4:22, Ezek. (Ezekiel 2:4?), Ezekiel 20:21; Isaiah 63:8; Isaiah 63:16; Isaiah 64:8 (cp. Isaiah 57:4), Malachi 2:10; Deuteronomy 32:5; Psalms 73:15; Psalms 82:6. This is contemporary with the breaking up of the Jewish state and the destruction of the national worship. While then it is clear that one cannot take sons of Jehovahin this law as by itself proof of an exilic or post-exilic date, we can say that if it does not add to, it at least agrees with, the evidence in that direction adduced in the note below.

Many ancient nations believed in their descent from gods or demigods; and among them the Semitic peoples, e.g. the Moabites are called sons and daughters of Kemosh, Numbers 21:29. But the relation was conceived physically. In the O.T. God's fatherhood and Israel's sonship are historical and ethical, based not on physical generation, but on an act of love on God's part, on His choice or adoption (cp. Romans 9:4) of the people, and on His deliverance of them from Egypt; and it is carried out by His providence of love and moral chastisement (see the references above and cp. Amos 3), which is nowhere more tenderly described than in this Book. But when all the O.T. references to God as the Father whether of Israel or Israelites and to them as His children have been reckoned up, how few are they in comparison to the number of times that sons, and children, of God occur in the N.T. God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying Abba Father(Galatians 4:6); joint heirs with Christ(Romans 8:17).

ye shall not cutor gash yourselves So of the priests of Ba-al (1 Kings 18:28) and in Ar. one form of the vb. is used of mutilations of animals, Leviticus 19:28: you shall put no incision on your flesh(cp. Deuteronomy 21:5) nor any tattooing upon you.

nor set a baldness between your eyes Leviticus 21:5: not make a baldness on their head neither shave off the corner of their beard.

for the dead That these customs were not practised merely from excess of grief, nor only as testifying to the continuance of the mourner's blood-covenant with the dead, but also in acknowledgement of the divinity of the latter and as the mourners" consecration to them, is implied in the reason given in Deuteronomy 14:2 for Israel's abstention from such things. Jehovah's people are holyand sacred to Himself alone. Hence, too, the inclusion of this law among those against the worship of strange gods. Moreover Jeremiah 16:7 describes a communion feast as part of the same rites. May not also the choice of the expression sons are ye to Jehovahbe due to this cause, as if such rites implied an ancestor worship? For the worship of their ancestors by Arab tribes who bring offerings and sacrifice at their graves see Musil, Ethn. Ber.329.

For the prevalence, among many ancient nations, particularly the Semitic, as well as among modern peoples, of these customs of gashing the flesh and shaving part of the hair or beard, apparently always with a religious implication, see W. R. Smith, Rel. Sem.302 ff. Gashing, both of face and body called -Tashrit" (cp. Heb.) was explained to Burton in Mekka as a sign -that the scarred was the servant of Allah's House." (Pilgrimage, etc. ii. 234.) Mohammed expressly forbad the practice. The O.T. confirms it for Moab (Isaiah 15:2) and the Philistines (Jeremiah 47:5), and states that both customs were practised in Israel not only as usual and natural in mourning (equally so with the wearing of sackcloth), but as even sanctioned by Israel's God (Amos 8:10; Isaiah 22:12): he calls to weeping … and baldness; Jeremiah 16:6: as His punishment of an evil generation, the usual rites of mourning for its dead, including gashingand baldness, shall not be observed; Jeremiah 41:5: men come from Shechem to the house of Jehovah with shaven heads and having gashed themselves; Ezekiel 7:18. Note, too, the absence from the earlier legislation of a law against these practices. The law first appears here and in H, Leviticus 19:28, Lev 21:25.

Unknown to Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and to those Shechem Jews who, in obedience to the central law of D, brought their offerings to the Temple, this law cannot have formed part of the original code of D; but is an exilic or post-exilic addition.