XXIII. (1-19) The “miscellaneous laws” are here continued. From Exodus 23:1 to Exodus 23:9 no kind of sequence in the laws can be traced; from Exodus 23:10 to the first clause of Exodus 23:19 there is, on the contrary, a certain connection, since the laws enunciated are concerned with ceremonial ob... [ Continue Reading ]
Thou shalt not raise a false report. — The LXX. and Vulg. Translate, “Thou shalt not _receive_ a false report” — _i.e.,_ give it credit, accept it as true, and act upon it. This meaning accords well with the succeeding clause, which forbids our giving support to the false testimony of others. In bot... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT NOT FOLLOW A MULTITUDE TO DO EVIL... — It is perhaps true that the offence especially condemned is joining with a majority in an unrighteous judgment; but the words of the precept extend much further than this, and forbid our being carried away by numbers or popularity in any case. _Vox p... [ Continue Reading ]
NEITHER SHALT THOU COUNTENANCE A POOR MAN IN HIS CAUSE. — We must not “pervert judgment” either in favour of the rich or of the poor. Justice must hold her scales even, and be proof equally against a paltry fear of the rich and a weak compassion for the indigent. The cause alone is to be considered,... [ Continue Reading ]
THINE ENEMY’S OX. — The general duty of stopping stray animals and restoring them to friendly owners, expressly taught in Deuteronomy 22:1, is here implied as if admitted on all hands. The legislator extends this duty to cases where the owner is our personal enemy. It was not generally recognised in... [ Continue Reading ]
IF THOU SEE THE ASS OF HIM THAT HATETH THEE... — The sense is clear, but the words are greatly disputed. If a man sees his enemy’s ass prostrate under its burthen, he is to help to raise it up. In this case he owes a double duty — (1) to his enemy, and (2) to the suffering animal. Geddes’ emendation... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT NOT WREST THE JUDGMENT OF THY POOR. — If we are not to favour the poor man in a court of justice on account of his poverty (Exodus 23:3), much less are we to treat him with disfavour. (Comp. Deuteronomy 24:17; Deuteronomy 27:19; Jeremiah 5:28, &c.)... [ Continue Reading ]
KEEP THEE FAR FROM A FALSE MATTER. — A false _accusation_ seems to be intended. If we make one it may result in an innocent man’s death, and we shall be murderers; God will then assuredly hold us guilty.... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT TAKE NO GIFT — i.e., no bribe. Corruption has been always rife in the East, and the pure administration of justice is almost unknown there. Signal punishments by wise rulers have sometimes checked the inveterate evil (Herod. v. 25). But it recurs again and again — “Naturam expellas furca,... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT NOT OPPRESS A STRANGER. — See Note on Exodus 22:21. The repetition of the law indicates the strong inclination of the Hebrew people to ill-use strangers, and the anxiety of the legislator to check their inclination.... [ Continue Reading ]
CEREMONIAL LAWS. (10, 11) SIX YEARS... THE SEVENTH YEAR. — The Sabbatical year which is here commanded was an institution wholly unknown to any nation but the Hebrews. It is most extraordinary that any legislator should have been able to induce a people to accept such a law. _Prima facie,_ it seemed... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT THE POOR OF THY PEOPLE MAY EAT. — For fuller particulars see Leviticus 25:1. The owner was to have no larger part of the seventh year’s produce than any one else. He was to take his share with the hireling, the stranger, and even the cattle, which during this year were to browse where they plea... [ Continue Reading ]
The law of the weekly Sabbath is here repeated in conjunction with that of the Sabbatical year, to mark the intimate connection between the two, which were parts of one and the same system — a system which culminated in the Jubilee year (Leviticus 25:8). Nothing is added to the requirements of the f... [ Continue Reading ]
BE CIRCUMSPECT. — Rather, _take heed._ The verb used is a very common one. MAKE NO MENTION OF THE NAME OF OTHER GODS. — The Jewish commentators understand _swearing_ by the name of other gods to be the thing here forbidden, and so the Vulg., _“per nomen exterorum deorum non jurabitis.”_ But the word... [ Continue Reading ]
(14-17) The first great festival — the Passover festival — had been already instituted (Exodus 12:3; Exodus 13:3). It pleased the Divine Legislator at this time to add to that festival two others, and to make all three equally obligatory. There is some reason to suppose that, in germ, the “feast of... [ Continue Reading ]
THE FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD. — See the Notes on Exodus 12:15. IN THE TIME APPOINTED OF THE MONTH ABIB. — From the 14th day of the month Abib (or Nisan) to the 21st day. (See Exo. Xii. 18, 13:4-7.) NONE SHALL APPEAR BEFORE ME EMPTY. — Viewed religiously, the festivals were annual national thanks-g... [ Continue Reading ]
THE FEAST OF HARVEST. — It was calculated that the grain-harvest would be completed fifty days after it had begun. On this fiftieth day (Pentecost) the second festival was to commence by the offering of two loaves made of the new wheat just gathered in. On the other offerings commanded, see Leviticu... [ Continue Reading ]
THREE TIMES IN THE YEAR. — The terms of this verse, as compared with Exodus 23:14, limit the observance of the three festivals to the males, but add the important requirement of personal attendance at a given place. By “all thy males” we must understand all of full age and not incapacitated by infir... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT NOT OFFER THE BLOOD OF MY SACRIFICE WITH LEAVENED BREAD. — Some regard this prohibition as extending to all sacrifices; but the majority of commentators limit it to the sacrifice of the Paschal lamb, which was the only sacrifice as yet expressly instituted by Jehovah. According to modern... [ Continue Reading ]
THE FIRST OF THE FIRSTFRUITS — _i.e.,_ the _very_ first that ripen. There was a natural tendency to “delay” the offering (Exodus 22:29) until a considerable part of the harvest had been got in. True gratitude makes a return for benefits received as soon as it, can. “_Bis dat qui cito dat.”_ THE HOU... [ Continue Reading ]
I SEND AN ANGEL BEFORE THEE. — Kalisch considers Moses to have been the “angel” or “messenger;” others understand one of the created angelic host. But most commentators see in the promise the first mention of the “Angel of the Covenant,” who is reasonably identified with the Second Person of the Hol... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PROMISES OF GOD TO ISRAEL, IF THE COVENANT IS KEPT. (20-33) The Book of the Covenant terminates, very appropriately, with a series of promises. God is “the rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” He chooses to “reward men after their works,” and to set before them “the recompense of the rewa... [ Continue Reading ]
MY NAME IS IN HIM. — God and His Name are in Scripture almost convertible terms. He is never said to set His Name in a man.... [ Continue Reading ]
AN ADVERSARY UNTO THINE ADVERSARIES. — Rather, _an afflictor of thy afflictors._... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL CUT THEM OFF. — Or, _cut them down — i.e.,_ make them cease to be nations, not exterminate them utterly. Jebusites, Hittites, and others continued to inhabit Canaan, and were probably absorbed ultimately into the Hebrew population, having become full proselytes.... [ Continue Reading ]
NOR DO AFTER THEIR WORKS. — The Canaanitish nations were not merely idolaters, they were corrupt, profligate, and depraved. All the abominations mentioned in Leviticus 18:6 were practised widely among them before they were dispossessed of their territory (Leviticus 18:24). No doubt the idolatry and... [ Continue Reading ]
HE SHALL BLESS THY BREAD, AND THY WATER — i.e., all the food, whether meat or drink, on which they subsisted. It is God’s blessing which makes food healthful to us. TAKE SICKNESS AWAY. — Half the sicknesses from which men suffer are directly caused by sin, and would disappear if men led godly, righ... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE SHALL NOTHING CAST THEIR YOUNG, NOR BE BARREN. — Abortions, untimely births, and barrenness, when they exceeded a certain average amount, were always reckoned in the ancient world among the signs of God’s disfavour, and special expiatory rites were devised for checking them. Conversely, when s... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL SEND HORNETS. — Heb., _the hornet._ Comp. Joshua 24:12, where “the hornet” is said to have been sent. No doubt hornets might be so numerous as to become an intolerable plague, and induce a nation to quit its country and seek another (see Bochart, _Hierozoic._ iv. 13). But as we have no histor... [ Continue Reading ]
THE BEAST OF THE FIELD. — Comp. 2 Kings 17:25, where we find that this result followed the deportation of the Samaritans by the Assyrians.... [ Continue Reading ]
THY BOUNDS. — Those whose highest notion of prophecy identifies it with advanced human foresight naturally object to Moses having foretold the vast extent of empire which did not take place till the days of David and Solomon. It is impossible, however, to understand this passage in any other way tha... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT MAKE NO COVENANT WITH THEM — _i.e.,_ no treaty of peace; no arrangement by which one part of the land shall be thine and another theirs. (Comp. Exodus 34:12.) NOR WITH THEIR GODS. — It was customary at the time for treaties between nations to contain an acknowledgment by each of the othe... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY SHALL not DWELL IN THY LAND. — Individuals might remain if they became proselytes, as Urijah the Hittite, Araunah the Jebusite, &c.; and the Gibeonites remained _en masse,_ but in a servile condition. What was forbidden was the co-existence of friendly but independent heathen communities with I... [ Continue Reading ]