Deuteronomy 17:2

_IF THERE BE FOUND AMONG YOU, WITHIN ANY OF THY GATES WHICH THE LORD THY GOD GIVETH THEE, MAN OR WOMAN, THAT HATH WROUGHT WICKEDNESS IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD THY GOD, IN TRANSGRESSING HIS COVENANT,_ Man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness. The grand object contemplated by God in choosing Israel was to preserve the knowledge and worship of Himself; and hence, idolatry of any kind, whether of the heavenly bodies or in some grosser form, is called 'a transgression of his covenant.' No rank nor sex could palliate this crime. Every reported case, even a flying rumour of the perpetration of so heinous an offence, was to be judicially examined; and if proved by the testimony of competent witnesses-not a single witness, however, for this provision against a hasty and unjust verdict, deemed one of the wisest arrangements of modern legislation, was incorporated in the statutes of the Mosaic co...

2._If there be found among you. _The same punishment is here decreed against idolaters, to which apostates had been before condemned; and thus either transgression is declared a capital crime. Hence we gather that it is accounted before God no less weighty a sin to violate His worship by gross and impure superstitions, than openly and professedly to fall away from religion altogether. Thus in Ezekiel 20:39, He bids farewell to the Jews, and as it were emancipates them, that they may go every one after his idols, when they are no longer contented with Him alone. Whilst God, however, is so rigid an exactor of punishment, He would not have judgment pronounced precipitately. These are tokens of severity, that a woman as well as a man is to be slain; that the whole people should unite in stoning them; that the evil should be removed from the midst of the land, lest the abomination should

1-7 No creature which had any blemish was to be offered in sacrifice to God. We are thus called to remember the perfect, pure, and spotless sacrifice of Christ, and reminded to serve God with the best of our abilities, time, and possession, or our pretended obedience will be hateful to him. So great a punishment as death, so remarkable a death as stoning, must be inflicted on the Jewish idolater. Let all who in our day set up idols in their hearts, remember how God punished this crime in Israel....

Compare Deuteronomy 13:1 ff. Here special reference is made to the legal forms to be adopted, Deuteronomy 17:5. The sentence was to be carried into effect at “the gates” (compare Genesis 19:1 note) of the town in which the crime was committed; because, as “all the people” were to take a part, an open space would be requisite for the execution. Note the typical and prophetical aspect of the injunction; compare Acts 7:58; Hebrews 13:12....

EXPOSITION SACRIFICES TO BE OF ANIMALS UNBLEMISHED. IDOLATERS TO BE SOUGHT OUT, CONVICTED, AND PUT TO DEATH. THE HIGHER JUDICIAL COURT AT THE SANCTUARY. ELECTION DUTY OF A KING. DEUTERONOMY 17:1 Not only was the setting up of idols an offence to be punished by the judge, but also all profanation of the service of Jehovah, such as the offering in sacrifice of any animal, bullock or sheep, tha

IF THERE BE FOUND AMONG YOU, WITHIN ANY OF THY GATES WHICH THE LORD THY GOD GIVETH THEE,.... In any of their cities in the land of Canaan: MAN OR WOMAN THAT HATH WROUGHT WICKEDNESS IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD THY GOD: as all that is wrought is in the sight of the omniscient God; here it means not any kind of wickedness, for there is none lives without committing sin of one sort or another, all which is known to God the searcher of hearts, but such wickedness as is after described: IN TRANSGRESSING HIS COVENANT; that is, his law, and particularly the first table of it, which respects divine worship, and which is in the nature of a marriage contract or covenant; which, as that is transgressed by adultery committed by either party, so the covenant between God and Israel was transgressed by idolatry, which is spiritual adultery, and going a whoring after other gods, as it follows:...

13. JUSTICE AND THE CHOICE OF A KING Chapter S 16:18-17:20 _ 1. Appointment of judges and their instruction (Deuteronomy 16:18; Deuteronomy 17:1)_ 2. The higher court at the place He chooses (Deuteronomy 17:8) 3. The choice and right of the king (Deuteronomy 17:14) This chapter leads us upon new ground. The obligations of the religious life of Israel were stated in the first part of chapter 16 and now the government of the people in the land is commanded. “Just as in its religious worship the Israelitish nation was to show itself to be the holy nation of Jehovah,

DEUTERONOMY 16:21- DEUTERONOMY 17:7. LAWS DEMANDING PURE WORSHIP AND SUITABLE SACRIFICES. This breaks the connexion; its proper place is probably between Deuteronomy 12 and Deuteronomy 13. DEUTERONOMY 17:1. See Leviticus 22:17 *. ox: Heb. means any head of large cattle, bull, cow, calf. sheep: Heb. means any head of small cattle, ram, ewe, lamb, goat, kid. Deuteronomy 17:2 probably preceded ch. 13 with which it has close affinities....

MAN. Hebrew. _'ish_. App-14. WICKEDNESS. Hebrew. _ra'a._ App-44. TRANSGRESSING. Hebrew. _'abar._ App-44....

Deuteronomy 16:21 to Deuteronomy 17:7. Isolated Group of Laws on Worship This group of laws against heathen symbols and blemished sacrifices and the worship of other gods all of them abominations to, or hated by, Jehovah is quite isolated, between two sets of laws on judicial procedure, Deuteronomy 16:18-20 and Deuteronomy 17:8 ff.; and we have seen reasons (above p. 173) for supposing that the whole group originally stood between Deuteronomy 12:29-31 and...