_A.M. 2514. B.C. 1490._ Laws concerning persons sanctified to God, Leviticus 27:1. Concerning cattle, Leviticus 27:9. Concerning houses and lands, Leviticus 27:14. An exception concerning firstlings, Leviticus 27:26; Leviticus 27:27. Concerning what was devoted, Leviticus 27:28; Leviticus 27:29. Co... [ Continue Reading ]
_Shall make a singular vow_ The Hebrew may be rendered, _Shall separate_, or _set apart a vow;_ that is, shall, by solemn promise; separate any thing from a common to a sacred use. For vows were religious promises made to God, for obtaining some blessing or deliverance from some evil or danger, and... [ Continue Reading ]
_If it be a beast it shall be holy_, &c. A _second_ sort of things vowed to God are beasts. With respect to which the law is, that the very individual beast was to be disposed of by the owner according to the first intention of his vow, whether to be sacrificed upon the altar, or given to the priest... [ Continue Reading ]
_He shall not alter it, nor change it_ Two words expressing the same thing more emphatically; that is, he shall in no wise change it, neither for one of the same nor of another kind: partly because God would preserve the sanctity and reverence of consecrated things, and therefore would not have them... [ Continue Reading ]
_Unclean_ Either for the kind or for the quality of it; if it were such a one as might not be offered. In the case of any unclean beast; that is, which was not allowed to be offered in sacrifice, such as a horse, camel, &c., it was to be valued by the priest, and then the owner had liberty to leave... [ Continue Reading ]
_When a man shall sanctify his house_ By a vow; for of that way and manner of sanctification he speaks in this whole chapter. This is the _third_ case, and was to be regulated by the same law as the last- mentioned. It was to be justly valued by the priest; and if the party chose rather to pay the p... [ Continue Reading ]
_Shall sanctify some part of his field_ This intimates that it was not lawful for a man to vow his whole field or estate, because God would have no man's family made beggars to enrich his sanctuary. The design of consecrating a part to God, was to procure his blessing upon the rest of their possessi... [ Continue Reading ]
_If he sanctify his field from the year of jubilee_ That is, if the vow has been made immediately after the jubilee, then the land requiring a homer of barley-seed is to be valued at fifty shekels, as before mentioned. _If after the jubilee_ That is, some considerable time after, then the priest was... [ Continue Reading ]
_When it goeth out_ That is, out of the possession of the other man to whom the priest sold it. _The possession shall be the priest's_ For his maintenance. Nor is this repugnant to that law, that the priests should _have no inheritance in the land, Numbers 18:20_; for that is only spoken of the trib... [ Continue Reading ]
_Not of the fields of his possession_ His patrimony or inheritance. _Thy estimation_ That is, the price which thou, O Moses, by my direction, hast set in such cases. _To the jubilee_ As much as it is worth, for that space of time between the making of the vow and the year of jubilee: for he had no r... [ Continue Reading ]
_The shekel of the sanctuary_ About 2 Samuel 6 _d._... [ Continue Reading ]
_No man shall sanctify it_ By vow; because it is not his own, but the Lord's already, and therefore to vow such a thing to God is a tacit derogation from, and a usurpation of, the Lord's right, and a mocking of God by pretending to give what we cannot withhold from him. _Ox or sheep _ Under these tw... [ Continue Reading ]
_An unclean beast_ That is, if it be the firstborn of an unclean beast, as appears from Leviticus 27:26, which could not be vowed, because it was a firstborn, nor offered, because it was unclean; and therefore is here commanded to be redeemed or sold. _It shall be sold_ And the price thereof was giv... [ Continue Reading ]
_No devoted thing_ That is, nothing which is absolutely devoted to God with a curse upon themselves or others if they disposed not of it according to their vow; as the Hebrew word implies. _Most holy_ That is, only to be touched or employed by the priests, and by no other persons; no, not by their o... [ Continue Reading ]
_Devoted of men_ Not _by men_, as some would elude it, but _of men_, for it is manifest both from this and the foregoing verses, that _men_ are here not the persons devoting, but devoted to destruction, either by God's sentence, as idolaters, Exodus 22:20; Deuteronomy 23:15; the Canaanites, Deuteron... [ Continue Reading ]
_The tithe_ There were divers sorts of tithes, but this seems to be understood only of the ordinary and yearly tithes belonging to the Levites, as the very expression intimates, and the addition of the fifth part in case of the redemption thereof implies.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Under the rod_ Either, 1st, The tithers' rod, it being the manner of the Jews in tithing to cause all their cattle to pass through some gate or narrow passage, where the tenth was marked by a person appointed for that purpose, and reserved for the priest. Or, 2d, The shepherd's rod, under which the... [ Continue Reading ]
_These are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel in mount Sinai_ This has reference to the whole book. Many of these commandments are moral; others ceremonial, and peculiar to the Jewish economy; which yet are instructive to us, who have a key to the mysteries th... [ Continue Reading ]