Leviticus 17:7

_AND THEY SHALL NO MORE OFFER THEIR SACRIFICES UNTO DEVILS, AFTER WHOM THEY HAVE GONE A WHORING. THIS SHALL BE A STATUTE FOR EVER UNTO THEM THROUGHOUT THEIR GENERATIONS._ Devils, х_ LAS`IYRIM_ (H8163)] - goats. The Septuagint has tois mataiois, vanities, non-entities-an unhappy translation, which entirely destroys the allusion contained in the word, which, meaning hairy, rough, describes the actual figure of the animals worshipped. Herodotus says that Pan was represented with the 'face and legs of a goat.' No Egyptian god is really represented in this way ('Ancient Egypt.' vol. 1:, p. 260); but the goat, according to some Egyptologers, was the symbol and representative of Khem, the Pan of the Egyptians (Wilkingon, in Rawlinson's 'Herodotus,' b. 2:, ch. 42:, note 7; and ch. 46:, note 4; also Bunson's 'Egypt,' vol i., p. 374). Gesenius renders the term used here wood-demons;' and our tran...

1-9 All the cattle killed by the Israelites, while in the wilderness, were to be presented before the door of the tabernacle, and the flesh to be returned to the offerer, to be eaten as a peace-offering, according to the law. When they entered Canaan, this only continued in respect of sacrifices. The spiritual sacrifices we are now to offer, are not confined to any one place. We have now no temple or altar that sanctifies the gift; nor does the gospel unity rest only in one place, but in one heart, and the unity of the Spirit. Christ is our Altar, and the true Tabernacle; in him God dwells among men. It is in him that our sacrifices are acceptable to God, and in him only. To set up other mediators, or other altars, or other expiatory sacrifices, is, in effect, to set up other gods. And though God will graciously accept our family offerings, we must not therefore neglect attending at the...

Verse Leviticus 17:7. _THEY SHALL NO MORE OFFER THEIR SACRIFICES UNTO_ _DEVILS_] They shall not sacrifice לשעירים _lasseirim_, to the _hairy ones_, to _goats_. The famous heathen god, _Pan_, was represented as having the posteriors, horns, and ears of a goat; and the _Mendesians_, a people of Egypt, had a deity which they worshipped under this form. Herodotus says that all goats were worshipped in Egypt, but the _he-goat_ particularly. It appears also that the different ape and monkey species were objects of superstitious worship; and from these sprang, not only _Mendes_ and _Jupiter Ammon_, who was worshipped under the figure of a _ram_, but also _Pan_ and the _Sileni_, with the innumerable herd of those imaginary beings, _satyrs, dryads, hamadryads_, c. c., all _woodland_ gods, and held in venerat...

Every domesticated animal that was slain for food was a sort of peace-offering Leviticus 17:5. This law could only be kept as long as the children of Israel dwelt in their camp in the wilderness. The restriction was removed before they settled in the holy land, where their numbers and diffusion over the country would have rendered its strict observance impossible. See Deuteronomy 12:15, Deuteronomy 12:20. Leviticus 17:4 BLOOD SHALL BE IMPUTED UNTO THAT MAN - i. e. he has incurred guilt in shedding blood in an unlawful manner....

EXPOSITION This chapter finds its natural place here as the supplement of all that has gone before. The first part of the book contains the institution or regulation of the sacrificial system (chapters 1-7). This chapter, therefore, which gives injunctions as to the place where all sacrifices are to be offered, might well, as Knobel has remarked, have taken its place as Leviticus 8:1. The second part contains the institution of the hereditary priesthood (chapters 8-10). This chapter, therefore, which forbids for the future all offering of sacrifices in the open fields, and commands that they shall be brought "unto _the priest, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation," _would still more fitly find its place after Leviticus 10:1. But the first two sections of the third

AND THEY SHALL NO MORE OFFER THEIR SACRIFICES UNTO DEVILS,.... As it seems they had done, which was monstrously shocking, and especially by a people that had the knowledge of the true God. Such shocking idolatry has been committed, and still is among the Indians, both East and West: when Columbus discovered Hispaniola, and entered it, he found the inhabitants worshippers of images they called Zemes, which were in the likeness of painted devils, which they took to be the mediators and messengers of the great God, the only one, eternal, omnipotent, and invisible a; and so at Calecut and Pego in the East Indies, and in other parts thereof, they sacrifice to the devil b: one can hardly think the Israelites would give into such gross idolatry as this; wherefore by "devils" may be meant idols in general; for if men do not worship God and Christ, let them worship what they will, it is only wors...

2. THE TESTIMONY CONCERNING THE BLOOD CHAPTER 17 _ 1. Concerning slain animals (Leviticus 17:1)_ 2. Concerning the eating of blood (Leviticus 17:10) This chapter needs little comment. Everything in this chapter speaks of the sanctity of the blood, what great value God, to whom life belongs, places upon the blood and with what jealous care He watches over it. The center of all is verse 11: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” Every slain animal had to bear witness to this fact. Even the hunter had to pour out the blood and cover it with dust. No blood was to be eaten. But in the New Testament we are commanded to eat spiritu

ALL SLAUGHTER MUST BE SACRIFICIAL, _i.e._ at the sanctuary (_cf._ Deuteronomy 12:2 ff., 2 Kings 23:8; Jeremiah 7:18). All slaughter had originally this sacrificial character, among the Hebrews, as among other pastoral and some agricultural peoples; animals were practically never killed except for sacrifice. Then, any other kind of slaughter easily came to be regarded as impious. To Hindus, there is no greater crime than slaughtering an ox (_cf._ Manu, v. 31), and to-day, except among outcastes, sacrifices of animals are a thing of the past. The abolition of sacrifices in the country (the open field, Leviticus 17:5),

NO MORE: implies that they had done so in Egypt to the goat image "Pan". Compare Joshua 24:14.Ezekiel 20:7; Ezekiel 23:3, &c, and especially 2 Chronicles 11:15. OFFER. slay in sacrifice. Hebrew zabac _h_. App-43. DEVILS. Hebrew. _sa'ir._ (Only here and 2 Chronicles 11:15, "devils". In Isaiah 13:21; Isaiah 34:14 rendered "saty

THE -LAW OF HOLINESS 1 [53] " [53] It should be noted that the -Law of Holiness" denoted by His sometimes used to mean the _whole_of chs. 17 26, sometimes the old laws embedded in these chs., and sometimes again these laws together with their hortatory settings. The leading features of this code, the probable date of its compilation, and an explanation of its origin and development, are discussed in _Introd_. The Law of Holiness, pp. 22 ff., and in App. I, pp. 167 ff. It is there shewn that laws drawn from various sources have been collected by an editor (R h [54]), and this collection has been revised by a later writer (R p [55]). The analysis of the separate Chapter s which follows will shew their composite character; in drawing the distinction between R h [56] and R p [57] the inferences that these represent two stages in the composition of the code will be further illustrated; with...