YE SHALL BE HOLY ... - These words express the keynote to the whole book of Leviticus, being addressed to the whole nation. There does not appear to be any systematic arrangement in the laws which follow. They were intended as guards to the sanctity of the elect people, enforcing common duties by im... [ Continue Reading ]
Compare Exodus 20:8, Exodus 20:12; Exodus 31:13. The two laws repeated here are the only laws in the Decalogue which assume a positive shape, all the others being introduced by the formula, “Thou shalt not.” These express two great central points, the first belonging to natural law and the second to... [ Continue Reading ]
Rather, ye shall offer it that you may be accepted.... [ Continue Reading ]
See Deuteronomy 24:19. “Grape” signifies fallen fruit of any kind; and “vineyard” a fruit garden of any kind. Compare Deuteronomy 23:24. THE POOR - is the poor Israelite - “the stranger” is properly the foreigner, who could possess no land of his own in the land of Israel.... [ Continue Reading ]
Leviticus 19:11 forbids injuries perpetrated by craft; Leviticus 19:13, those perpetrated by violence or power, the conversion of might into right. In Leviticus 19:13 “defraud” should rather be, oppress.... [ Continue Reading ]
The meaning appears to be, “Thou shalt not utter curses to the deaf because he cannot hear thee, neither shalt thou put a stumbling-block in the way of the blind because he cannot see thee (compare Deuteronomy 27:18), but thou shalt remember that though the weak and poor cannot resist, nor the deaf... [ Continue Reading ]
STAND AGAINST THE BLOOD OF THY NEIGHBOR - Either, to put his life in danger by standing up as his accuser (compare Matthew 26:60); or, to stand by idly when thy neighbor’s life is in danger. Whichever interpretation we adopt, the clause prohibits that which might interfere with the course of justice... [ Continue Reading ]
NOT SUFFER SIN UPON HIM - Rather, not hear sin on his account; that is, either by bearing secret ill-will Ephesians 4:26, or by encouraging him to sin in withholding due rebuke Romans 1:32.... [ Continue Reading ]
LINEN AND WOOLEN - The original word is found only here and in Deuteronomy 22:11, where it is rendered “of divers sorts.” It may denote such tissues as linsey woolsey.... [ Continue Reading ]
BETROTHED TO AN HUSBAND - Rather, who has been betrothed to a man. The reference appears to be to a bondwoman who has been betrothed to a fellow-servant by her master. Death was the punishment for unfaithfulness in a betrothed woman in other cases. Compare Deuteronomy 22:23. SHE SHALL BE SCOURGED -... [ Continue Reading ]
FRUIT ... UNCIRCUMCISED - i. e. unfit for presentation to Yahweh. In regard to its spiritual lesson, this law may be compared with the dedication of the first-born of beasts to Yahweh Exodus 13:12; Exodus 34:19. Its meaning in a moral point of view was plain, and tended to illustrate the spirit of t... [ Continue Reading ]
Certain pagan customs, several of them connected with magic, are here grouped together. The prohibition to eat anything with the blood may indeed refer to the eating of meat which had not been properly bled in slaughtering (Leviticus 7:26; Leviticus 17:10, etc.): but it is not improbable that there... [ Continue Reading ]
The devotion of faith, which would manifest itself in obedience to the commandment to keep God’s Sabbaths and to reverence His sanctuary Leviticus 19:30, is the true preservative against the superstition which is forbidden in this verse. The people whose God was Yahweh were not to indulge those wayw... [ Continue Reading ]
The outward respect due to old age is here immediately connected with the fear of God. Compare the margin reference.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE STRANGER - The foreigner. See Leviticus 16:29 note; Exodus 23:9.... [ Continue Reading ]
The ephah is here taken as the standard of dry measure, and the bin (see Exodus 29:40 note) as the standard of liquid measure. Of the two very different estimates of the capacities of these measures, the more probable is that the ephah did not hold quite four gallons and a half, and the hin not quit... [ Continue Reading ]