_A.M. 2514. B.C. 1490._ Laws concerning meat-offerings and drink-offerings, Numbers 15:1. Concerning dough for heave-offerings, Numbers 15:17. Sacrifices for sins of ignorance, Numbers 15:22. Concerning presumptuous sinners, Numbers 15:30; Numbers 15:31. An instance in the sabbath-breaker, Numbers... [ Continue Reading ]
When the following laws were delivered, is uncertain. But it would seem, from Numbers 15:23, to have been toward the end of their peregrinations, and not long before their settlement in Canaan, consequently at a time when part of that mutinous generation, mentioned in the former chapter, were cut of... [ Continue Reading ]
_An offering made by fire_ This is a general expression for those offerings which were in whole or in part burned upon the altar. _A sacrifice in performing a vow_ Namely, _peace-offerings_, which are often called sacrifices, in general, as Exodus 18:12, and Leviticus 17:5; Leviticus 17:8. See the n... [ Continue Reading ]
_Bring a meat-offering_ Sacrifices, being of the nature of spiritual feasts, were each of them to have מנחה, _mincha_, a _meat_ or _meal- offering_, and _drink-offering_, as an appendage annexed to them, consisting of flour, oil, and wine, in the proportion following: for as wine and oil are the mos... [ Continue Reading ]
_If a stranger sojourn with you_ It is plain this is to be understood of such strangers as had renounced idolatry and become proselytes to the worship of the true God. And if strangers, who were intermixed with the Jews, and resided in their country, had not been obliged to conform to the same cerem... [ Continue Reading ]
_So shall the stranger be before the Lord_ As to the worship of God; his sacrifices shall be offered in the same manner, and accepted by God upon the same terms, as yours; which was a presage of the future calling of the Gentiles. And this is added by way of caution, to show that strangers were not... [ Continue Reading ]
_When ye eat_ When you are about to eat it; for before they eat it, they were to offer this offering to God. _The bread of the land _ That is, the bread-corn. _The threshing-floor_ That is, of the corn in the threshing-floor, when you have gathered in your corn.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Have erred, and not observed all these commandments_ If the whole body of the people be guilty of any neglect of the public ceremonies of religion, or of any deviation from any of the rites instituted concerning the outward service of God, (for of these only Moses seems here to speak,) which might... [ Continue Reading ]
_It shall be forgiven, for it is ignorance_ Proceeding from some mistake, and not from contempt of God and his laws; for then the guilty person was to be utterly cut off.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The soul that doeth aught presumptuously_ Hebrew, _With a high hand_, or, _with violence._ It is meant to express the action or conduct of a man who knowingly and wilfully broke the law, and when admonished, despised the admonition, and set the law at naught. Maimonides and other rabbis think this... [ Continue Reading ]
_A man gathered sticks on the sabbath day_ This seems to be mentioned here as an instance of sinning presumptuously; and accordingly it is so understood by the Jews. The law of the sabbath was plain and positive, and this transgression of it must therefore have been a known and wilful sin. And from... [ Continue Reading ]
_To all the congregation_ That is, to the rulers of the congregation. _They_ (Moses and Aaron, and the other rulers) _put him in ward_ Till the will of the Lord concerning him should be declared. _What should be done_ That is, in what manner, or by what kind of death he was to die, which, therefore,... [ Continue Reading ]
_The man shall surely be put to death_ One reason why the breach of the sabbath was punished with such severity by the Jewish law is, that it was an implicit denying of God to be the Creator of the world. For the sabbath being a sign, (Exodus 31:13,) whereby the worshippers of the one true God, who... [ Continue Reading ]
_Fringes_ These were certain threads, or ends, standing out a little farther than the rest of their garments, left there for this use. _In the borders_ That is, in the four borders or quarters, as it is, Deuteronomy 22:12. _Of their garments_ Of their upper garments. This was practised by the Pharis... [ Continue Reading ]
_That ye may remember_ As circumcision in their persons, so this ornament in their garb was designed as a badge to distinguish them from all other nations; so that as often as they looked upon this mark, they might be put in mind of their being the worshippers of the true God, a holy people, and bou... [ Continue Reading ]
_That ye may remember_ They were not to mistake the wearing of these fringes or borderings, as if they had real sanctity or religion in themselves, but to consider them as helps to their memories, and means of awakening them to a sense of their special relation to God, as the only object of their wo... [ Continue Reading ]