Deuteronomy 22:6

_IF A BIRD'S NEST CHANCE TO BE BEFORE THEE IN THE WAY IN ANY TREE, OR ON THE GROUND, WHETHER THEY BE YOUNG ONES, OR EGGS, AND THE DAM SITTING UPON THE YOUNG, OR UPON THE EGGS, THOU SHALT NOT TAKE THE DAM WITH THE YOUNG:_ If a bird's nest chance to be before thee. This is a beautiful instance of the humanizing spirit of the Mosaic law in checking a tendency to wanton destructiveness, and encouraging a spirit of kind and compassionate tenderness to the tiniest creatures. But there was wisdom as well as humanity in the precept; for, as birds are well known to serve important uses in the economy of nature, the extirpation of a species, whether of edible or ravenous birds, must in any country be productive of serious evils. Palestine, in particular, was situated in a climate which produced poisonous snakes and scorpions, and between deserts and mountains from which it would have been overrun...

Since by this precept God instructed His people in the, law of kindness, it is a Supplement to the Sixth Commandment. Regard was had, indeed, to the preservation of the breed; but, besides, when birds are sitting, as being very lean, it is certain that they are not wholesome food; still there is no question but that it was God’s intention to accustom His people to study humanity. For, if there be one drop of compassion in us, it will never enter into our minds to kill an unhappy little bird, which so burns either with the desire of offspring, or with love towards its little ones, as to be heedless of its life, and to prefer endangering itself to the desertion of its eggs, or its brood. Wherefore, it is not to be doubted but that in this elementary lesson, God prohibited His people from savageness and cruelty....

5-12 God's providence extends itself to the smallest affairs, and his precepts do so, that even in them we may be in the fear of the Lord, as we are under his eye and care. Yet the tendency of these laws, which seem little, is such, that being found among the things of God's law, they are to be accounted great things. If we would prove ourselves to be God's people, we must have respect to his will and to his glory, and not to the vain fashions of the world. Even in putting on our garments, as in eating or in drinking, all must be done with a serious regard to preserve our own and others' purity in heart and actions. Our eye should be single, our heart simple, and our behaviour all of a piece....

These precepts are designed to cultivate a spirit of humanity. Compare Deuteronomy 25:4; Leviticus 22:28; and 1 Corinthians 9:9. Deuteronomy 22:8 The roofs of houses in Palestine were flat and used for various purposes. Compare Jos 2:6; 2 Samuel 11:2; Acts 10:9, etc. A battlement was almost a necessary protection. It was to be, according to the ra

EXPOSITION REGULATIONS REGARDING CATTLE STRAYED OR THINGS LOST, THE APPAREL OF THE SEXES, THE TAKING OF BIRDS, AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF HOUSES. CONFUSIONS TO BE AVOIDED. FRINGES TO BE MADE ON VESTMENTS. PUNISHMENT OF WIFE-SLANDER, ADULTERY, RAPE, FORNICATION, INCEST....

IF A BIRD'S NEST CHANCE TO BE BEFORE THEE IN ANY TREE, OR ON THE GROUND,.... Which are the usual places in which birds build their nests; and this, as Jarchi observes, excepts such nests that are prepared, that is, that are purposely made for fowls kept at home; and with which agrees the Jewish canon, which says t "the letting go (the dam out of) the nest is not used but of a fowl, and it is not used but of what is not prepared; what is that which is not prepared? such as geese and hens, whose nest is in an orchard; but if their nest is in the house, and so doves kept at home, a man is free from letting (the dam) go;'' that is, he is not obliged to let it go; and this is to be understood of clean birds only; so the Targum of Jonathan, "the nests of clean birds;'' agreeably to the same canons and the explanation of them u, "an unclean bird is free from letting go; so an unclean bird,...

18. AGAINST INHUMANITY AND DIFFERENT VIOLATIONS, False Testimony and Sins of Adultery CHAPTER 22 _ 1. Laws against inhumanity (Deuteronomy 22:1)_ 2. Concerning false testimony (Deuteronomy 22:13) 3. Sins of adultery (Deuteronomy 22:22) Laws on the second table are now more fully expounded by Moses. The love to the neighbor is to be expressed by guarding and preserving that which is his property. The strayed and fallen animal belonging to another had to be helped. To leave them in that condition would have been a violation of the law “love thy neighbor as thyself” as well as an act of inhumanity. Another interesting law is the one which forbids woma

See Exodus 23:4 f.* (JE) and Leviticus 6:1 * (P), and _cf._ CH. §§ 9- 13. Deuteronomy 22:5. Peculiar to Dt. In one of the rites of Canaanite, Phœ nician, and Syrian heathenism the sexes changed dresses (see references in Driver). Deuteronomy 22:6_ f_. Respect for parenthood, so prominent in Dt. (Deuteronomy 21:18, _cf. Deuteronomy 5:16_) is the probable source of this law (peculiar to Dt.)....

YOUNG.. special various reading called _Sevir_ (App-34) reads "their laying nest": i.e. before all the eggs are laid....

Of Sparing the Mother-bird. Peculiar to D. No reason of ritual such as we found from Deuteronomy 14:21 is traceable here. The motive may be prudence; had it been kindness to animals (as in Deuteronomy 25:4, and H. Leviticus 22:27 f.) we should have expected an injunction not to take the whole brood. Either D or possibly a later editor has in Deuteronomy 22:7 added the same inducement which is attached to the Fifth Commandment, as if reverence for motherhood were the motive. Steuern."s idea that this was suggested by Deuteronomy 24