Moderation in Punishments. : DEUTERONOMY, XXV. not bough it after 2 Heb., after thee. Levirate Marriages. should seem vile unto thee. b (4) Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn. 3 (20) When thou beatest thine olive tree, 1 Heb, thou shalt with many stripes, then thy brother ithou shalt not go over the boughs again it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow. (21) When thou gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt not glean it 2afterward it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow. (22) And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt: Cor. 9.9; 1 Tim. him to wife, and perform the duty of an therefore I command thee to do this thing. a 2 Cor. 11. 24. 5. 18. c Matt. 22, 24; Mark 28. (5) If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to husband's brother unto her. (6) And it shall be, that the firstborn which she 3 Heb., thresheth. beareth shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name be not put out of Israel. (7) And if the man 12. 19; Luke 20. like not to take his brother's wife, then let his brother's wife go up to the gate unto the elders, and say, "My husband's 4 Or, next wins brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel, he will not perform the duty of my husband's CHAPTER XXV.—(1) If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment, that the judges may judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked. (2) And it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his fault, by a cer- or, next kins- brother. (8) Then the elders of his city tain number. (3) a Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these a Ruth 4. 7. man. man's wife. occurs repeatedly in the Pentateuch, but not elsewhere. It is not the language which would naturally suggest itself to the prophets of later times. XXV. Verses 1-3. HUMANITY IN PUNISHMENTS. (1) They shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked.—“I will not justify the wicked" (Exod. xxiii. 7). "He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord" (Prov. xvii. 15). It should be noticed that justify is here used forensically, not meaning to make righteous, but to treat as righteous. Those who object to this sense in St. Paul's Epistles, will find it hard to put any other sense upon the word in the rest of Holy Scripture. (2) If the wicked man be worthy to be beaten.-Literally, a son of beating, or of Haccoth, according to the Hebrew. The treatise called Maccôth, in the Talmud, describes the infliction of the punishment in later times, when "of the Jews five times" St. Paul "received forty stripes save one." The details have been described by Canon Farrar in an appendix to his Life of St. Paul. Shall cause him to lie down.-The Talmud interprets the position as not sitting nor standing, nor exactly lying, but with the body inclined. Before his face. This is interpreted as on the front of his body. The thirty-nine stripes were given thirteen on one shoulder, thirteen on the other, and thirteen on the breast. (3) Forty stripes.-The Talmud says that they considered first what a man could bear, and flogged him according to their estimate. In some cases, if the whole punishment could not be administered at once, it was divided. It is contemplated as possibly fatal, however. shall call him, and speak unto him: and if he stand to it, and say, I like not to take her; (9) then shall his brother's Lest thy brother should seem vile unto thee. The punishment was not considered to be any degradation, after it had been inflicted. It was inflicted in the synagogue, and the law was read meanwhile from Deut. xxviii. 58, 59, with one or two other passages. (4) Thou shalt not muzzle the ox.-We have a comment on these words from St. Paul in two places (1 Cor. ix. 9, and 1 Tim. v. 18). It is not only written for the sake of the oxen, but to prove that the "labourer is worthy of his hire;"" they that preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel." Verses 5-10. LEVIRATE MARRIAGES. (5) If brethren dwell together.-This law is made the subject of a whole treatise in the Talmud, called Yebâmoth. The object of the law was held to be attained if the family of the dead man was perpetuated, and did not become extinct. And therefore the marriage specified was not necessarily between the brother and the brother's wife, but might be between other_representatives of the two persons in question. (See Ruth iv.) The law is older than Moses. We first hear of it in the household of Judah the son of Jacob (Gen. xxxviii. 8). The violation of the law then was punished with death, not with disgrace only. But that which makes the law most memorable, is the teaching elicited from the lips of our Saviour by the question which the Sadducees raised upon it (see marginal reference). It is worth while to observe that the law itself demands that in some sense there should be a resurrection. Boaz puts it thus (Ruth iv. 5), "to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance." Why should the name of the dead be kept up, if the dead has passed out of existence? We may well believe that this law was partly intended (like baptism for the dead, or like giving children the names of their Just Weights and Measures. DEUTERONOMY, XXVI. wife come unto him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face, and shall answer and say, So shall it be done unto that man that will not build up his brother's house. (10) And his name shall Amalek to be Destroyed. (17) a Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye were come forth out of Egypt; (18) how he met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary; be called in Israel, The house of him Heb., a stone and and he feared not God. (19) Therefore it that hath his shoe loosed. (11) When men strive together one with another, and the wife of the one draweth near for to deliver her husband out of the hand of him that smiteth him, and putteth forth her hand, and taketh him by the secrets: (12) then thou shalt cut off her hand, thine eye shall not pity her. (13) Thou shalt not have in thy bag 1divers weights, a great and a small. (14) Thou shalt not have in thine house 'divers measures, a great and a small. (15) But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have: that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. (16) For all that do such things, and all that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the LORD thy God. a stone. shall be, when the LORD thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under 2 Heb., an ephah heaven; thou shalt not forget it. and an ephah. a Ex. 17. 8. Verses 13-16. JUST WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. So Lev. xix. 35, 36. Among the laws of moral holiness comes the law of just weights and measures. (16) An abomination unto the Lord. So in Prov. xi. 1, "a false balance is abomination to the Lord." (See also Amos viii. 4-8.) The protection of the poor is the chief practical end in this; rich men can take care of themselves. Poor men are doubly robbed by short weight and measure, because they cannot protect themselves against it. The injustice tends to perpetuate their poverty. CHAPTER XXVI.-(1) And it shall be, when thou art come in unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and possessest it, and dwellest therein; (2) that thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which thou shalt bring of thy land that the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt put it in a basket, and shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place his name there. (3) And thou shalt go unto the priest faint and weary should stay behind at the water side. There the Amalekites appear to have found them and cruelly massacred them. (19) Thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek.-This decree was entrusted to Joshua in the first instance, as the "servant of the Book " (Exod. xvii. 14); here it is enjoined upon the nation of Israel. It was carried out in several stages: by Barak and Gideon (Judges v. 14, vi. 3, vii. 12, &c.), by Saul and Samuel (1 Sam. xv.), by David (1 Sam. xxvii. 8, 9, xxx. 17), by the Simeonites (1 Chron. iv. 42, 43), and lastly by Esther, who exterminated the Agagites in Haman's house. No doubt any remnant of Amalek in the Persian empire under Mordecai would have shared Haman's fate. XXVI. Verses 1-11. PRESENTATION OF THE FIRST FRUITS. (1) When thou art come in.- Rashi says they were not bound to the discharge of this duty until But the they had conquered and divided the land. state of things described in the Book of Joshua (chap. xxi. 43-45) would demand it. From the words of verse 11, "thou shalt rejoice," the Jews gather that the thanksgiving to be said over the firstfruits (in verses 510) must be said at some time between the close of the feast of unleavened bread on the twenty-first day of the first month (the "solemn assembly" of Deut. xvi. 8) and the Feast of Tabernacles. If firstfruits were presented between the Feast of Tabernacles and the Passover, this formula was not used (Rashi). (3) The priest that shall be in those days. -No mention is made of the Levite here. The priest Presentation of the First-fruits. DEUTERONOMY, XXVI. that shall be in those days, and say unto him, I profess this day unto the LORD thy God, that I am come unto the country which the LORD Sware unto our fathers for to give us. (4) And the priest shall take the basket out of thine hand, and set it down before the altar of the LORD thy God. (5) And thou shalt speak and say before the LORD thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous: (6) and the Egyptians evil entreated us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage: (7) and when we cried unto the LORD God of our fathers, the LORD heard our voice, and looked on our affliction, and our labour, and our oppression: (8) and the LORD brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders: (9) and he hath brought us into this a ch. 14. 28. (though of the tribe of Levi) has an office distinct from the Levite in the Book of Deuteronomy as much as in the rest of the Old Testament. I profess.-Literally, I declare. "To show that thou art not ungrateful for His goodness" (Rashi, from the Talmud). This day. The formula was only used once in the year. (4) The priest shall take the basket.-" To wave it. The priest put his hand under the hand of the owner, and waved it." (5) A Syrian ready to perish.-The reference is to Jacob, more especially when pursued by Laban, who would have taken from him his all, except for the Divine mercy and protection. We may also recall his danger from Esau (Gen. xxxi., xxxii.), from the Shechemites (xxxiv., xxxv.), and from the famine, until he heard of Joseph. (7) When we cried unto the Lord.-Samuel in his famous speech (1 Sam. xii. 8) takes up the language of this passage, "When Jacob was come into Egypt, and your fathers cried unto the Lord, then the Lord brought forth your fathers out of Egypt, and made them dwell in this place. (6-7) See Exod. ii. 25, iii. 9, and vi. 5, 6 for the source of this confession. (10) And thou shalt set it before the Lord thy God-i.e., take it up again after it was first waved by the priest, and hold it in the hand while making this confession, and then wave it once more. After this it would become the priest's. Verses 12-15. DECLARATION OF THE TITHE. (12) When thou hast made an end.-The time fixed for making the confession prescribed in verses 13 -15, according to Jewish usage, was the Passover-eve of the fourth year, i.e., the first feast after the comple The Tithe. place, and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey. (10) And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land, which thou, O LORD, hast given me. And thou shalt set it before the LORD thy God, and worship before the LORD thy God: (1) and thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the LORD thy God hath given unto thee, and unto thine house, thou, and the Levite, and the stranger that is among you. a (12) When thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithes of thine increase the third year, which is the year of tithing, and hast given it unto the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat within thy gates, and be filled; (13) then thou shalt say before the LORD thy God, I have brought away the hallowed things out of mine house, and also have given them unto the Levite, and unto the stranger, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all thy command tion of the year of tithing. It would seem that something was still to be gathered from the trees after the Feast of Tabernacles, and thus there would still be some produce untithed at that feast in any given year. But the tithe of the third year must be separated to the very last item before the Passover of the fourth. The third year, which is the year of tithing. -See chap. xiv. 28, 29. In the third and sixth years, the second tithe, which in other years was eaten by the owners (in kind or value) at Jerusalem, was given to the poor, and was called the poor's tithe. În Talmudical language, the Ma'aser âni took the place of Ma'aser sheni in these years. Thus the words " and hast given it unto the Levite," are applied to the first tithe, which was never omitted, and which is prescribed by Num. xviii. The words that follow, "the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow," are interpreted of the poor's tithe. The prescribed confession is not to be made until all the tithe has been given, both first and second, i.e., the annual tithe to the Levites, and the second, which was in these years devoted to the poor. That they may eat within thy gates, and be filled. The quantity with which they were to be satisfied was duly prescribed by the Jewish scribes! (13) Thou shalt say before the Lord thy God, I have brought away.-Literally, I have consumed, or burned out. It is the same strong word used so frequently in this book for "putting away" evil, and from which the name Taberah," burning," is derived. It is taken by Jewish commentators to include everything that could possibly be required as holy under any law, whether tithe, or firstfruit of trees not yet made common, or anything that from any cause had not been brought to Jerusalem during the three previous years. I... have given unto the Levite (the first tithe), and unto the stranger (the poor's tithe).-Rashi. Close of the DEUTERONOMY, XXVII. ments which thou hast commanded me: I have not transgressed thy commandments, neither have I forgotten them: (14) I have not eaten thereof in my mourning, neither have I taken away ought thereof for any unclean use, nor given ought thereof for the dead: but I a Isa. 63. 15. have hearkened to the voice of the LORD my God, and have done according to all that thou hast commanded me. (15) a Look down from thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless thy people Israel, and the land which thou hast given us, as thou swarest unto our fathers, a land that floweth with milk and honey. (16) This day the LORD thy God hath commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments: thou shalt therefore keep b ch. 7. 6. The According to all thy commandments—i.e., "giving everything in its due order" (Rashi). following words are also taken to refer to the details of the law respecting these matters. (14) I have not eaten thereof in my mourning." When I was clean and they were unclean, or when they were clean and I was unclean" (Rashi). The tomb or presence of a dead body made both persons and things unclean (Num. xix.). Neither have I taken away.-Literally, consumed any of them in uncleanness. Nor given ought thereof for (or to) the dead. -Rashi explains, "to provide for him a coffin or graveclothes." Another explanation, which is certainly possible, is, "I have not made any offering to an idol from them." "They joined themselves to Baal-peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead" (Ps. cvi. 28). I have hearkened. . . and have done according to all that thou hast commanded me.— A claim which might be truly made as to outward observances and requirements. I am therefore the more disposed to take the confession in these verses in its most literal sense, and to limit it to the particular things with which it was connected--the tithes and offerings. (15) Look down from thy holy habitation, from heaven. A phrase like this occurs frequently in Solomon's prayer; but there is a difference there in the Hebrew, which is less beautiful than in this place. The exact phrase is found in 2 Chron. xxx. 27. And in 2 Chron. xxxvi. 15, we have "His dwellingplace" applied to Jerusalem and the Temple. suggests that the thought here may be twofold. down from the dwelling-place of Thy holiness here below, and not only thence, but from thine own dwelling-place in heaven. This Look And bless thy people Israel, and the land (literally, the ground) which thou hast given us. "We have done what Thou hast decreed for us. Do Thou that which it rests with Thee to do" (Rashi). Verses 16-19. CLOSE OF THE EXHORTATION. (16) This day the Lord thy God hath commanded thee.-These words are not to be taken as part of the service described in the previous verses, but as the words of Moses in bringing his exhortation to a close. Rashi says, "Every day these commandments Exhortation. and do them with all thine heart, and with all thy soul. (17) Thou hast avouched the LORD this day to be thy God, and to walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and to hearken unto his voice: (18) and 'the LORD hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath promised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all his commandments; (19) and to make thee high above all nations which he hath made, in praise, and in name, and in honour; and that thou mayest be an holy people unto the LORD thy God, as he hath spoken. CHAPTER XXVII.-(1) And Moses with the elders of Israel commanded shall be new before thine eyes, as though on that very day thou hadst received them." Thou shalt therefore keep and do them.It is a beautiful thought that the form of this command (as of many others) makes it prophetic of its own fulfilment. "It is the voice from heaven blessing thee," says Rashi. (See also chap. xxx. 6, 8.) (17, 18) 1 hou hast avouched. and the Lord hath avouched. The Hebrew word is simply the ordinary word for "to say." "Thou hast said," and 'He hath said." There is no distinctive word for "to promise" in Hebrew. "To say " is sufficient. "Hath He said, and shall He not do it ?" Let your yea be yea, and your nay nay," like His. But Rashi says there is no exact parallel to this use of the verb in the Old Testament, except, perhaps, in Ps. xciv. 4, where it means, "they boast themselves." Let Israel boast in God, and God will boast Himself of them, as His peculiar people. (19) And to make thee high.-Literally, most high; Heb., 'Elyon, a well-known name of God. Here, and in chap. xxviii. 1, it is (prophetically and in the Divine purpose) applied to Israel. Thou shalt put my Name upon the children of Israel was the law of blessing for the priests (Num. vi. 27). 66 In praise, and in name, and in honour.-Perhaps, rather, to be a praise, and to be a name, and to be an honour, and to become a people of holiness to Jehovah. There is an allusion to this in Jer. xxxiii. 9,“ And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise, and an honour before all the nations of the earth;" and in Isa. lxii. 6, 7, "Ye that make mention of the name of the Lord, keep not silence, and give Him no rest, till He establish, and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.” But if, as some would have us believe, the Book of Deuteronomy draws these things from the prophets, rather than the prophets from Moses, how is it that there is not the faintest allusion in Deuteronomy to Jerusalem, which in the days of the prophets had become the centre of all these hopes? XXVII. THE LAW TO BE ESTABLISHED IN CANAAN AS (1) Moses with the elders.-Here joined in exhortation for the first time in this book. An Altar to be set up DEUTERONOMY, XXVII. on Mount Ebal. LORD thy God of whole stones: and thou shalt offer burnt offerings thereon unto the LORD thy God: (7) and thou shalt offer peace offerings, and shalt eat there, and rejoice before the LORD thy God. (8) And thou shalt write upon the stones all the words of this law very plainly. the people, saying, Keep all the commandments which I command you this day. (2) And it shall be on the day "when ye shall pass over Jordan unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, that thou shalt set thee up great stones, and plaister them with plaister: () and thou shalt write upon a Josh. 4. 1. them all the words of this law, when thou art passed over, that thou mayest go in unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, a land that floweth with milk and honey; as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee. (4) Therefore it shall be when ye be gone over Jordan, that ye shall set up these Ex. 20. 25; Josh. statutes, which I command thee this stones, which I command you this day, in mount Ebal, and thou shalt plaister them with plaister. (5) And there shalt thou build an altar unto the LORD thy God, an altar of stones: thou shalt not lift up any iron tool upon them. (6) Thou shalt build the altar of the b 8. 31. Keep.-Literally, to keep. Possibly we are intended to connect the two verses. In order to keep them, ye shall write them. Verses 2-4. THE DECALOGUE TO BE WRITTEN (2) Set . up great stones, and plaister them with plaister.-The idea is to make a smooth surface, on which the Law could be inscribed. "Plaister" only here and in Isa. xxxiii. 12; Amos ii. 2. In both those places it is rendered "lime." (3) Thou shalt write upon them all the words of this law, when thou art passed over, that thou mayest go in.-Again it is evident that the "going in" to the land and the "passing over" Jordan are not identical. The "Law of God" was to be set up in the heart of the country, as soon as Israel had entered it, in order that they might complete the conquest of it. It is abundantly clear that Israel's title to Canaan was dependent upon their maintaining the Law of Jehovah as the law of the land. For the fulfilment of this precept, see Josh. viii. 32— 35. The words of this verse are an additional reason for the view taken in the Note on that passage, that the Law was set up on Ebal immediately after the capture of Ai, without waiting for the completion of the conquest (as some suppose). (5) An altar of stones.-Rashi propounds the theory that these stones were taken from Jordan. But there is nothing to countenance this theory in the words of the text. (6) Burnt offerings.-The idea of these is the dedication of man's life to God. (7) Peace offerings—i.e., offerings for health, salvation, or deliverance already granted. On this occasion, the passage of Jordan, and the arrival of Israel in the heart of the country, would be good ground for thanksgiving before God. And shalt eat there, and rejoice.-The peace offerings were the only kind of which the worshipper (9) And Moses and the priests the Levites spake unto all Israel, saying, Take heed, and hearken, O Israel; this day thou art become the people of the LORD thy God. (10) Thou shalt therefore obey the voice of the LORD thy God, and do his commandments and his day. (11) And Moses charged the people the same day, saying, (12) These shall stand upon mount Gerizim to bless the people, when ye are come over Jordan; Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Joseph, and Benjamin: (13) and these and his family might partake. They were, therefore, the natural accompaniment of rejoicing and thanksgiving. (8) Thou shalt write upon the stones all the words of this law-i.e., the ten commandments. All else in the Law of Moses is but an application of the Decalogue to a particular people under particular circumstances. (See Notes on Josh. iii., viii. 32, for more upon the relation of the ten commandments to the conquest of Canaan.) Very plainly. See on chap. i. 5. Rashi says, "In seventy (i.e., in all) languages.' There is also an idea in the Talmud that when spoken from Sinai, the Law was spoken (or heard) in all languages at the same time. It is a strange refraction of the truth indicated at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was given. Men spake in every tongue the wonderful works of God. The foundation of Jerusalem has effects exactly opposite to the foundation of Babylon (Gen. xi.). (9) Moses and the priests. As in verse 1, "Moses and the elders." Take heed.-A word used nowhere else in the Old Testament. This day thou art become the people.-"Every day His commandments shall be before thine eyes, as though thou hadst that day entered into covenant with Him." It would seem that the passage of Jordan, which is the thing in view here, pledged Israel more completely to God's Law than even the covenant at Sinai did. He had gone farther with them, and given them a more distinct position. It became more necessary than ever that they should remember whose they were. (12, 13) These shall stand upon mount Gerizim to bless and these upon mount Ebal to curse.-The expressions "to bless " and " to curse" are misleading. It is not meant that six tribes were to bless, and six to curse their brethren. The phrase will be best understood by noticing the manner in which the ceremony was performed, according to Jewish tradition. According to the treatise Sotah, six |