Numbers 5 - Introduction
_A.M. 2514. B.C. 1490._ A command to remove the unclean out of the camp, Numbers 5:1. Laws concerning restitution, Numbers 5:5. The law concerning a woman suspected of adultery, Numbers 5:11.... [ Continue Reading ]
_A.M. 2514. B.C. 1490._ A command to remove the unclean out of the camp, Numbers 5:1. Laws concerning restitution, Numbers 5:5. The law concerning a woman suspected of adultery, Numbers 5:11.... [ Continue Reading ]
The camps and divisions of priests, Levites, and people being thus settled, now was the time when the law about excluding leprous and unclean persons from the camps was to take place; God having, for wise reasons, appointed that all persons under such legal impurities should, in proportion to the de... [ Continue Reading ]
_That they defile not the camp_ By which God would intimate the danger of being made guilty by other men's sins, and the duty of avoiding intimate converse with wicked men. _I dwell_ By my special and gracious presence.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Any sin that men commit_ Hebrew, _any sins of men;_ that is, sins against men, as deceits or wrongs, whereby other men are injured, of which he manifestly speaks. _Against the Lord_ Which words may be added, to show that such injuries done to men are also sins against God, who hath commanded justic... [ Continue Reading ]
_They shall confess their sin_ They shall not continue in the denial of the fact, but give glory to God, and take shame to themselves by acknowledging it. _The principal_ That is, the thing he took away, or what is equivalent to it. _And add_ Both as a compensation to the injured person for want of... [ Continue Reading ]
_No kinsman_ This supposes the person injured to be dead, or gone into some unknown place. _To the priest_ Whom God appointed as his deputy, to receive his dues, and take them to his own use, that so he might more cheerfully and entirely devote himself to the ministration of holy things. This is an... [ Continue Reading ]
_Every man's hallowed things_ Understand this not of the sacrifices, because these were not the priest's entirely, but part of them was offered to God, and the remainder was eaten by the offerer as well as by the priest; but of such other things as were devoted to God, and could not be offered in sa... [ Continue Reading ]
_If a man's wife go aside_ From the way of piety and virtue, and that either in truth or in her husband's opinion. This law was given partly to deter wives from adulterous practices, and partly to secure them against the rage of their hard-hearted husbands, who otherwise might, upon mere suspicion,... [ Continue Reading ]
_The man shall bring her to the priest_ With the witnesses that could prove the ground of his suspicions, and desire she might be put upon her trial. The Jews say, the priest was first to endeavour to persuade her to confess the truth, saying, to this purpose, “Dear daughter, perhaps thou wast overt... [ Continue Reading ]
_The water shall enter into her_ These effects, the Jews tell us, presently followed; for she grew pale, and her eyes were ready to start out of her head, so that they cried out, _Carry her away, lest she defile the court of the temple_, by dying there. But if what has just been observed from the Je... [ Continue Reading ]
_Conceive seed_ That is, shall bring forth children: as the Jews say, in case of her innocence, she infallibly did, yea, though she had been barren before.... [ Continue Reading ]
_This is the law of jealousy_ “It is not to be wondered,” says Grotius, “if God, among his own people, produced a miraculous effect for the detection of a crime most heinous, and very difficult to be proved. Indeed history abounds with examples of the direful effects of jealousy, not only to private... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then shall the man be guiltless_ Which he should not have been if he had either indulged her in so great a wickedness, and not endeavoured to bring her to repentance or punishment, or cherished suspicions in his breast, and thereupon proceeded to hate her or cast her off. Whereas now, whatsoever th... [ Continue Reading ]