_MOSES COMMANDS ALL THE MONUMENTS OF IDOLATRY TO BE DESTROYED, AND THAT THE SACRIFICES BE BROUGHT ONLY TO THE PLACE WHICH THE LORD SHALL CHOOSE: HE PERMITS THEM TO EAT FLESH, BUT FORBIDS THE EATING OF BLOOD._ _Before Christ 1451._... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 2. _AND UNDER EVERY GREEN TREE_— The use of sacred groves for the celebration of mysteries is of very great antiquity, and, perhaps, of all others, the most universal. At first, there were in these groves neither temples nor altars; they were simple retreats, to which there was no access for... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 4. _YE SHALL NOT DO SO UNTO THE LORD YOUR GOD_— That is, "Ye shall not adore him _upon mountains, upon hills,_ and _under every green tree;_ but you shall serve him publicly in one place which he shall choose." That this is the sense, appears from the following verse. Notwithstanding this pro... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 5-7. _BUT UNTO THE PLACE WHICH THE LORD YOUR GOD SHALL CHOOSE_— We meet with no clear or exact determination of the place; but only such general expressions as this, _which the Lord your God shall choose:_ which, Maimonides supposes, was intended for these three reasons. 1. Lest the Gentiles... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 8. _EVERY MAN WHATSOEVER IS RIGHT IN HIS OWN EYES_— While the Israelites in the wilderness were destitute of many things requisite to the exact performance of all their sacred rites, and not yet sufficiently accustomed to the yoke of their new laws, they were excused from the observance of ma... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 11. _THITHER SHALL YE BRING ALL THAT I COMMAND_— Maimonides observes, that one design of this institution was, to teach the Israelites not to have too high an opinion of sacrifices, since they were not of such account in the sight of God as to be accepted everywhere; but were limited to one p... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 15. _NOTWITHSTANDING, THOU MAYEST KILL AND EAT FLESH,_ &C.— During their encampments and travels in the wilderness, it was enacted, that all the beasts that were to be slain by any Israelite, for the use of his family, should be first presented to God at the tabernacle, by way of peace-offeri... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 16. _YE SHALL POUR IT,_ &C.— That is, they might pour it out with as little religious ceremony as water.... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 17. _THOU MAYEST NOT EAT WITHIN THY GATES_— A free dispensation being given them to eat their common food without religious ceremonies, it is here enjoined what they were to eat with such ceremonies. The _tithe_ here means, as in the 2nd verse, the _second tithe._ As the _firstlings_ of their... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 21. _IF THE PLACE_— _Because the place:_ Houb. כי _ki,_ says he, should be rendered _quia_ or _quippe cum._... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 23. _EAT NOT THE BLOOD_— This is, says Mr. Locke, in opposition to the Zabii: for though, continues he, as Dr. Cudworth has remarked, _blood_ was very impure and unclean in the sight of the Zabii, yet, notwithstanding, it was eaten by them, because they thought it to be the food of the daemon... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 27. _THE BLOOD OF THY SACRIFICES_— i.e. _Of the peace-offerings;_ (see on ver. 6.) for of these sacrifices only the people were allowed to eat.... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 30. _ENQUIRE NOT AFTER THEIR GODS,_ &C.— The pretentious of the heathen deities, as Bishop Warburton observes, being mutually acknowledged by their distinct and proper followers; and some, by the fortunate circumstances of these followers, being risen into superior same, the rites used in the... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 31. _THEIR SONS AND THEIR DAUGHTERS THEY HAVE BURNT,_ &C.— To what we have said of this horrid custom on Leviticus 20:1; Leviticus 20:27 we shall only add, that it was notoriously practised by the Carthaginians, who, it is certain, derived it from the Phoenicians, the ancient inhabitants of C... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 32. _THOU SHALT NOT ADD THERETO, NOR DIMINISH FROM IT_— See on chap. Deuteronomy 4:2. One would wonder, says Bishop Patrick, that so learned a man as Maimonides should have laboured to prove from this the immutability of the law of Moses. It is strange that he could not see, what some of his... [ Continue Reading ]