Deuteronomy 27:16

_CURSED BE HE THAT SETTETH LIGHT BY HIS FATHER OR HIS MOTHER. AND ALL THE PEOPLE SHALL SAY, AMEN._ Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother. To this day every Jew, as well as Mussulman, who passes the tomb of Absalom, in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, casts a stone at it, repeating along with the act the words of this malediction. These blessings and curses, attendant on disobedience to the divine will, which had been revealed as a law from heaven, be it observed, are given in the form of a declaration, not a wish, as the words should be rendered, 'Cursed is he,' and not "Cursed be he." The physical character and appearance of these remarkable mountains did not determine the choice of which should be the mount of blessing and which that of cursing. х_ `EEYBAAL_ (H5858), indeed, is derived by Gesenius from 'aabal, to strip a tree of its leaves, as if it were a bare, r...

16._Cursed be he that setteth light by his father_. What follows refers to the Second Table of the Law; and, first, He pronounces those cursed who should be undutiful ( _impii_) to their parents; for the word קלל, _kalal_, (201) which means to despise, as well as to curse, is put in opposition to the honor which, by the Fifth Commandment, is due to our father and mother. Then He mentions such thefts as generally escape the knowledge of men; as also, He only adverts to those acts of fornication which are anxiously concealed on account of their filthiness. To have connection with a beast, with one’s mother-in-law, or step-mother, or sister, is so unnatural and detestable a crime, that it is generally concealed more carefully. But God admonishes us that, whatever modes of concealment the sinner shall adopt, they will profit him nothing, but that, when He shall at leng

11-26 The six tribes appointed for blessing, were all children of the free women, for to such the promise belongs, Galatians 4:31. Levi is here among the rest. Ministers should apply to themselves the blessing and curse they preach to others, and by faith set their own Amen to it. And they must not only allure people to their duty with the promises of a blessing, but awe them with the threatenings of a curse, by declaring that a curse would be upon those who do such things. To each of the curses the people were to say, Amen. It professed their faith, that these, and the like curses, were real declarations of the wrath of God against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, not one jot of which shall fall to the ground. It was acknowledging the equity of these curses. Those who do such things deserve to fall, and lie under the curse. Lest those who were guilty of other sins, not here...

Verse Deuteronomy 27:16. _SETTETH LIGHT BY HIS FATHER OR HIS MOTHER._] Exodus 20:12, Exodus 20:12....

Compare Joshua 8:32. The solemnity was apparently designed only for the single occasion on which it actually took place. Deuteronomy 27:12, Deuteronomy 27:13 The tribes appointed to stand on Gerizim to bless the people all sprang from the two wives of Jacob, Leah and Rachel. All the four tribes which sprang from the handmaids Zilpah and Bilhah are located on Ebal. But in order, as it would seem, to effect an equal division, two tribes are added to the latter from the descendants of the wives, that of Reuben, probably because he forfeited his primogeniture...

PART III.—THIRD DISCOURSE OF MOSES. THE COVENANT RENEWED. CHAPTERS 27-30. EXPOSITION Deuteronomy 27:1. INSTRUCTIONS AS TO THE PUBLISHING OF THE LAW IN CANAAN. HAVING set forth the laws and rights of Israel with special reference to the settlement of the people in Canaan, Hoses proceeds to dwell more particularly on the sanctions by which obedience to the Divine institute was enforced. Before entering on these, however, he gives some instructions regarding the setting up and proclamation of the Law when the

CURSED [BE] HE THAT SETTETH LIGHT BY HIS FATHER, OR HIS MOTHER,.... That secretly despises them in his heart, and by looks and gestures mocks at them in a private manner, unseen by others, Proverbs 30:17; for if he publicly cursed them, that was cognizable by the civil magistrate, and he was to be put to death, Leviticus 20:9. This follows next, as in the order of the ten commands, to that which respects the fear and worship of God; honouring parents being next to the glorifying of God, the Father of all: AND ALL THE PEOPLE SHALL SAY AMEN; applaud the righteous sentence, saying, "so let it be"....

23. THE MEMORIAL OF THE LAW AT MOUNT EBAL; GERIZIM AND EBAL CHAPTER 27 _ 1. The memorial to be set up in the land (Deuteronomy 27:1)_ 2. Gerizim and Ebal (Deuteronomy 27:9) Little comment is needed on this chapter. The memorial stones were to be set up on Mount Ebal. Upon that mountain the curses of the law were to be uttered. The blessings were to be pronounced upon Mount Gerizim. However, on Gerizim were no stones with the law written upon it. How strikingly this illustrates the true ministration of the law! It cannot give blessing, but it must curse man. “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them” ...

SETTETH LIGHT. Compare Exodus 21:17; Leviticus 19:3....

Appointment of the Levites to Curse According to 11 13 both a blessing and a curse were to be pronounced, here we have only curses, twelve in number. There _Levi_was one of six tribes appointed to bless; here _the Levites_, in religious distinction from all the other tribes, are to pronounce the curses. Further, the 12 curses are not confined to sins dealt with in the Code of D; the objects of only 7 are forbidden in D, of 6 in E, Exodus 20:2-23, of 1 in J, Exodus 34, and of as many as Deuteronomy 27:9 in H, Leviticus 17-26. The inferences are reasonable that this passage is not from the same hand as the preceding (i.e. not from E) and not from D. The inclusion of so many sins forbidden only in H does not