Leviticus 19 - Introduction
_A REPETITION OF VARIOUS LAWS; WITH THE ADDITION OF SOME NEW ONES._ _Before Christ 1490._... [ Continue Reading ]
_A REPETITION OF VARIOUS LAWS; WITH THE ADDITION OF SOME NEW ONES._ _Before Christ 1490._... [ Continue Reading ]
TURN YE NOT UNTO IDOLS— The word rendered idols אלילים _elilim,_ coming from אליל _elil, vain, foolish, false,_ signifies _vain, foolish,_ or _false things:_ a name given in just contempt by believers to the vain objects of heathen worship, which were nothing in themselves, and to worship which shew... [ Continue Reading ]
AT YOUR OWN WILL— Houbigant renders this, _that you may be accepted;_ and for this he has the countenance of many ancient versions. See ch. Leviticus 22:20.Exodus 28:38.... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN YE REAP THE HARVEST OF YOUR LAND— Those who consider this humane law, and several others of the same sort in the Mosaic dispensation, will evidently discern that the great Author of them endeavoured to inculcate a high spirit of humanity and benevolence; and consequently that those professors o... [ Continue Reading ]
YE SHALL NOT STEAL— Theft, whose parent generally is covetousness, is here forbidden, with its certain concomitants, fraud, lying, perjury, deceit, and inhumanity.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE WAGES OF HIM THAT IS HIRED— This, with the law in the following verse, as well as several others in this chapter, particularly those in the 32nd and 33rd verses, confirm what we have remarked in the note on Leviticus 19:9. See more respecting this law in Deuteronomy 24:15.... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT NOT CURSE THE DEAF, &C.— Though the humanity of these precepts renders them very reasonable and intelligible in the letter, yet many of the Jewish writers, no less than Christian expositors, understand them in a figurative sense, importing, that we should be careful not to injure those wh... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT NOT RESPECT THE PERSON OF THE POOR— See Exodus 23:6.... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT NOT GO UP AND DOWN AS A TALE-BEARER— This hateful practice is discountenanced in the strongest manner in the New Testament, and is, in every respect, contrary to that love which dwells with pleasure on the virtues of others, but draws a vail over their faults and imperfections; for _love... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT NOT HATE THY BROTHER IN THINE HEART, &C.— See Luke 17:3 which plainly shews the meaning and connexion of this precept: _Thou shalt not hate,—but shalt on every account rebuke;_ and in this connexion the marginal translation of our English Bibles appears most just: for he is, in some measu... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT NOT AVENGE, &C.— See Romans 12:19. Matthew 7:12 from which we learn how we are to love our neighbour as ourself. Here, indeed, we have the whole of the former precepts in a word; for love will make us honest, true, just, tender, kind, jealous for our neighbour's good, and as sincerely des... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN YE SHALL COME INTO THE LAND, &C.— Though a reason for this law may, with great propriety, be drawn from nature itself, which dictates that the fruit of trees is not proper for use till the period here mentioned, yet it was, most probably, given in opposition to those practices of idolaters, who... [ Continue Reading ]
HOLY, TO PRAISE THE LORD WITHAL— Houbigant has it, _the fruit shall be holy, and consecrated to the Lord._ See Deuteronomy 12:18.... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT IT MAY YIELD UNTO YOU THE INCREASE THEREOF— The Vulgate and Houbigant read it, _ye shall eat the fruit of it, gathering in its increase._... [ Continue Reading ]
NOR OBSERVE TIMES— This should certainly be read, _nor augur_ or _divine by clouds;_ which is well known to have been a general practice among the heathens. That this is the precise meaning of the original word, see Parkhurst on עונן.... [ Continue Reading ]
YE SHALL NOT ROUND THE CORNERS OF YOUR HEADS, &C.— i.e. "Ye shall not cut off the hair from the _corners,_ namely, from the temples and forepart of the head, nor from the _extremities_ of your beards, towards the ear." Some think that this was in opposition to the superstitious tonsure of the wander... [ Continue Reading ]
YE SHALL NOT MAKE ANY CUTTINGS, &C.— The Egyptians, and many other idolaters, did this when they mourned for their friends; defiling their bodies with slashes and cuttings, as some say, to express the extremity of grief; as others, to pacify the infernal spirits, and propitiate them for the dead. Se... [ Continue Reading ]
REGARD NOT THEM THAT HAVE FAMILIAR SPIRITS— The word האבת _haobot,_ rendered _familiar spirits,_ signifies _conjurers, pythos;_ persons, says Parkhurst, who pretended to give prophetic answers, when inspired and inflated by the light and air. Virgil has described a prophetess of this kind, AEneid 6... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT RISE UP BEFORE THE HOARY HEAD— The equity and excellence of this law must strike every person who hears it, and give a high idea of the wisdom and goodness of the Jewish Lawgiver. It is, indeed, one of the plainest dictates of nature to reverence our superiors in age; and we find scarcely... [ Continue Reading ]
IF A STRANGER SOJOURN WITH THEE— The reason subjoined, Leviticus 19:34 for this humanity to strangers, _for ye were strangers,_ &c. evidently proves that _strangers_ in general, not _proselytes_ only to the Jewish religion, are here meant. The narrow-minded principles which the Jews in future times... [ Continue Reading ]
YE SHALL DO NO UNRIGHTEOUSNESS IN JUDGMENT, &C.— i.e. "Ye shall conduct yourselves through life, and especially in all your commerce and dealings, by the strictest rules of exact justice." It is to be observed, that, to prevent all fraud in weights and measures, the standard of them was kept in the... [ Continue Reading ]