26 72 Kings iv. 1. Ps. cix. 11. Isa. 1. 1.

your children fatherless. 25 If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an exactor, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury. If thou at all take thy neighbour's raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down: 27 for that is his covering, it only is his raiment for his skin: wherein shall he sleep? and it shall come to pass, when he crieth unto me, that I will hear; for I am gracious. 28 Thou shalt not revile God, nor curse the ruler of thy people. 29¶Thou shalt not delay to offer thy fulness and Num, xvii. thine outflowing: the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give 30 Likewise shalt thou do with thine oxen, and with thy sheep: seven days it shall be with his dam; on the eighth day thou shalt give it me. 31And ye shall be holy men unto me: neither shall ye eat any flesh that is torn of beasts in the field; ye shall cast it to the dogs. XXIII. 1 Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine

unto me.

We have a similar threat in Isa. ix. 17. 25-27.] Nor may the poor and needy be oppressed in lending or in withholding the pledge. On the not taking usury see on the general command, Lev. xxii. 35, ff.: and on the restoring the garment, the more detailed injunctions, Deut. xxiv. 10, ff. I am gracious, i. e. merciful, taking compassion on him. The word is rendered "gracious" always in the A. V., seeing that of the twelve times of its occurrence it is five times coupled with "merciful." 28.] Blasphemy of God and rebellious contempt of rulers come under the same category of crime fear thou Jehovah and the king, Prov. xxiv. 21; see also 1 Pet. ii. 17. Some have supposed that judges or magistrates are meant by Elohim here, and so A. V.; but, as before, it seems best to keep the name to its sacred and simple meaning where possible, and so the modern Hebraists, Gesenius, Knobel, Keil, Kalisch. Still less can the view of Josephus and some Jewish expositors be taken, that by this verse they were forbidden to speak evil of the gods of the nations. Such an idea was foreign to the Law, in which all those gods are but vanity: see ch. xxiii. 13. The punishment for blasphemy was death, Lev. xxiv. 11, ff. The reader will remember St. Paul's citation of the second of these prohibitions in Acts xxiii.

29. Deut. xxii. 9.

5. The word rendered ruler is commonly used in the law of the chiefs of the tribes, see Num. vii. 10, and throughout: sometimes of those of the divisions of the tribes, Num. iii. 24, ff.; but also of kings, 1 Kings xi. 34; Ezek. xii. 10, al. 29, 30.] Of the offering of first-fruits to God. The literal words are, Thou shalt not retard thy fulness and thy tear. This term fulness is used only in reff., and there in the same ambiguous sense as here. Although therefore it probably means first-fruits here, it is best not to render it by an explanation, but to be faithful. By thy tear is meant the first and choicest of the flowing of thine oil and wine. See on the matter, ch. xxiii. 19; Deut. xxvi. 2-4. On the last clause see ch. xiii. 2, 12, and more detail on Num. iii. 12.

30.] See on Lev. xxii. 27. 31.] The dedication of the first-born was but symbolic of the whole people being God's: see ch. iv. 22. On the injunction of the latter part of the verse see Lev. xvii. 15, where its ground, as preventing the incurring of uncleanness, is further stated. The Israelites were to be especially clean, as being God's peculiar people.

XXIII. 1-9.] Rules for social duties.

1.] The two clauses are closely connected: the first leads on to the second. A false report is literally a report of nothing

2

hand with the wicked to be a witness for violence.
¶ Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt
thou answer in a cause to decline after many to wrest
judgment: 3¶ Neither shalt thou give advantage to a poor
man in his cause. 4¶ If thou meet thine enemy's ox or
his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him
again. 5 If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying
under his burden, and wouldest forbear to loose it for him,
thou shalt surely loose it with him. 6 Thou shalt not wrest
the judgment of thy poor in his cause. 7 Keep thee far
from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay
thou not: for I will not justify the wicked. 8¶ And thou
shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth them that see, and
perverteth the matters of the righteous. 9 Also thou
¶
shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye know the heart of a
stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.

ness as we say of a false rumour, " there is
nothing in it." a witness for violence,
i. e. to bring about an oppressive act.
2.] It is disputed whether these verses are
addressed to magistrates or to ordinary
men. The latter seems the most probable,
as there is no indication of a special refer-
ence. If so, the law will mean that none
are to allow themselves, in giving testimony,
to be inclined to the popular side in neglect
of truth and justice. The word judgment
is not in the original, the verb being used
absolutely, but is rightly supplied: see ver.
6, where it is expressed. 3.] Literally,
adorn a poor man, i. e. give him additional
favour on account of his being poor. The
A. V. "countenance may express too
much, as if it meant that a poor man was
to be deterred from seeking justice. See
the same enjoined Lev. xix. 15. 4, 5.]
And not only such injustice, but lack of
kindly service owing to aversion to a per-
son is forbidden. The same is re-enacted
more at large in Deut. xxii. 1-4. As Bp.
Wordsworth observes, this precept is pre-
paratory to the evangelical command, "Love
your enemies," Matt. v. 43-45; Rom. xii.
19-21. There is some difficulty in ver. 5.
The verb rendered "help" in the A. V.
primarily signifies to loose (from bands or
chains), and hence, and most commonly, to
leave. Gesenius and some others (Keil,
e. g.) believe that the verb is used here first

6.]

in its ordinary, and secondly in its primary,
meaning: thou shalt forbear to leave it to
him (i. e. thou shalt not leave the animal
to him, to manage as he may), thou shalt
surely loose it (the ass) with him (i. e. help
thine enemy to free the animal from its
burden). But why should not the verb be
used both times in its primary sense? Why
should we not render," and wouldest forbear
to loose it for him, thou shalt surely loose
it with him?" Thus we need not have re-
course to two senses, and all seems easy,
and in accordance with the parallel, Deut.
xxii. 4. The other renderings may be scen
discussed in Kalisch, pp. 445-7.
Seems best to cohere with ver. 3, and vv. 4,
5 to be an insertion interrupting the con-
text. The command is the converse of that
in ver. 3,-the poor is not to be disad-
vantaged any more than advantaged on ac-
count of his poverty. 7.] States the
general principle of uprightness and equity,
on the motive of the unerring judgment of
the righteous God. 8.] The custom
of the East (and not of the East only) is to
approach witnesses and judges with presents
to win their favour. It is literally, blind-
eth the open (eyes), perverteth the mat-
ters (the cause) of the righteous, i. e.
turns aside the cause of the righteous from
its proper issue. See 1 Sam. viii. 3.
9.] This is not a simple repetition of ch.
xxii. 21. It is placed here in reference to

10 And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather
in the fruits thereof: 11 but the seventh year thou shalt
let it rest and lie still; that the poor of thy people may
eat and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat.
In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and
with thy oliveyard. 12 Six days thou shalt do thy work,
and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and
thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the
13 And in all things that I
stranger, may be refreshed.
have said unto you be circumspect: and make no mention
of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of
thy mouth. 14 Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto
me in the year. 15 Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened
bread (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I
commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib;
for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall ap-
pear before me empty :) 16 and the feast of harvest, the
firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field:

doing justice, as in Deut. xxiv. 17; xxvii.
19. And we have the former motive press-
ed home by the reminding them that they
knew the feelings of a stranger. He feels
himself, as Knobel observes, enough al-
ready oppressed by his situation as such.

10-19.] Laws about sacred times, of which the sabbatical year is the first mentioned. The former verses of the passage, 10-12, serve as a transition from what has gone before to what follows, resting the ordinance on the interests of the poor. Then with ver. 13 the context passes to a positive ordinance. On vv. 10, 11, see Lev. xxv. 2-7, where the same commands are given more in detail. 12.] The ground of the sabbatical year, the day of rest itself, is again enjoined, but now in strict reference to the context, not as a solemn ordinance to Jehovah, but with the motive of rest and refreshment (literally, breathing) to a man's cattle and dependents. 13.] The former clause serves as a solemn conclusion and caution regarding the rules which have preceded; the latter leads on to what follows, by enforcing loyalty to Jehovah alone and repudiation of all other gods. See on the form of this command, Psal. xvi. 4; Hosea ii. 17; Zech. xiii. 2.

a ch. xxxi. 17.

2 Sam. xvi.

14.

These ordinances are repeated, and several singular features in the present context recur in ch. xxxiv. 18-26. See also Num. xxviii. 18-31; Deut. xvi. 16, 17; and 2 Chron. viii, 13.

15.] To the recitation of what was commanded in ch. xii. 19, f. and ch. xiii. 6, f., is added the injunction, not to appear before God empty, i. e. to bring gifts according to God's bounty to each, Deut. xvi. 17. These gifts would be partly the passover lambs, of which a share was the Lord's (ver. 18), partly the thankofferings at the passover of which we read 2 Chron. xxx. 22. This order, not to appear before God empty, which is here attached to one feast only, belongs to all three in Deut. xvi. 16, 17. 16.] The second feast, called here the feast of harvest, is otherwise the feast of weeks (ch. xxxiv. 22; Deut. xvi. 16). It was to be kept fifty days after the waving of the sheaf of the first-fruits, Lev. xxiii. 15, f., and was hence called Pentecost, the fiftieth. The Jewish writer Philo calls it the feast of first-fruits.

The third feast is that of ingathering, the time of which, depending on the occurrence of harvest, is not here specified. But in Lev. xxiii. 34; Num. xxix. 12, it is fixed to the fifteenth day of the seventh 14-17.] Three yearly feasts ordained. month. Keil directs attention to the fact,

and the feast of ingathering, in the end of the year, when thou gatherest in thy labours out of the field. 17 Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord JEHOVAH. 18 Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my feast remain until the morning. 19 The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of JEHOVAH thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother's Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep

thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. 21 Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him. 22 For if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries. 23 For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off. 24 Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their † images. 25 And ye shall serve JEHO +or, pillars. VAH your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy bwater; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee. 26 There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil. 27 I will send my fear before thee, and will trouble all the ech. xiv. 24. people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee. 28 And I will send

and to be altogether beyond our powers. See notes on ch. iii. 2, and on the places there referred to; and, besides, ch. xxxii. 34; xxxiii. 2. In xxxiii. 14, 15 the expression is varied for "the Face of God" going with them. The visible method of the leading of this angel was by the pillar of fire and cloud: see ch. xiv. 19. 21.] He is no created angel, but a form of the Divine Presence, bearing the name of Jehovah, as in ch. xiii. 21, and clothed with His attributes, and indeed identified in action (ver. 22) with Him: for it is not said, "he will be an enemy," &c., but "I will be," as equivalent and (23) the way in which this will be shewn is by his going before thee, and his cutting off the nations. And (24, ff.) this obedience to him will be shewn by utter separation from those nations and their idolatry. Keil observes that these images were, strictly speaking, memorial pillars or engraved upright stones dedicated to their gods: and refers to 1 Kings xiv. 23, which On the breaking down commanded, see ch. xxxiv. 13; Num. xxxiii. 52; Deut. vii. 5, 25; xii. 2. 25, ff.] The temporal blessings which should follow serving Je

see.

hovah'their God.

ba..1;

XXX. 20; xxxiii. 16.

26.] See

28.]

bread and water, as in reff., for the chief nourishments of life. On the promise of immunity from sickness, see ch. xv. 26; and the opposite set forth, Lev. xxvi. 16; Deut. xxviii. 21, ff. Lev. xxvi. 9; Deut. xxviii. 11; XXX. 9. The latter clause implies that thy days shall not be cut short by accident or failure of strength, but shall fill up the allotted life of man. See a similar promise with regard to the days of the Messiah, Isa. lxv. 20. 27.] Literally, will give thine enemies' necks toward thee: see Psal. xviii. 40; xxi. 12; and compare Josh, vii. 8, 12. "The hornet," says Dr. Tristram, " is abundant in the Holy Land; the species are larger than ours: instances are on record in profane history, where hornets have multiplied to such a degree as to become a pest to the inhabitants. But it is probable here-considering that nothing is related of any such material allies of Israel, and that in reff. Josh., where the hornet is stated to have been sent, and to have driven out Sihon and Og, we know that they were otherwise overcome-that the word is metaphorically used of a panic, and means, as Augustine inter