surely be put to death: t they have, it is a wicked thing; and they shall wrought confusion; their blood shall be upon them. 13 u If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. 14 x And if a man take a wife and her mother, it is wickedness: they shall be burnt with fire, both he and they that there be no wickedness among you. 15 y And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and ye shall slay the beast. 16 And if a woman approach unto any beast, and lie down thereto, thou shalt kill the woman and the beast; they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. 17 z And if a man shall take his sister, his father's daughter, or his mother's daughter, and see her nakedness, and she see his nakedness: t ch. 19. 23. u ch. 18, 22. See Gen. 19. 5. Judg. 19. 22. Deut. 27. 23. y ch. 19. 23. z ch. 19. 9. Deut. 27. 22. 12. See on Lev. 18. 15. Deut. 23. 17. See x ch. 18. 17. Deut. 27. 21. Gen. 20. 12. 13. See on Lev. 18. 22. 14. See on Lev. 18. 17. They shall be burnt with fire. That is, after being stoned. See Note on Josh. 7. 15. 15, 16. See on Lev. 18. 23. 17. See on Lev. 18. 9. 18. See on Lev. 18. 19. 19. See on Lev. 18. 12. 20. See on Lev. 18. 14. 21. See on Lev. 18. 16.- - They shall be childless. This does not mean,' says Michaelis, 'that God would miraculously prevent the procreation of children from such a marriage; for God no where promises any continual miracle of this nature; but only that the children proceeding from it should not be put to their account in the public registers; so that in a civil sense they be cut off in the sight of their people: he hath uncovered his sister's nakedness; he shall bear his iniquity. 18 a And if a man shall lie with a woman having her sickness, and shall uncover her nakedness; he hath discovered her fountain, and she hath uncovered the fountain of her blood and both of them shall be cut off from among their people. 19 b And thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother's sister, nor of thy father's sister: c for he uncovereth his near kin: they shall bear their iniquity. 20 And if a man shall lie with his uncle's wife, he hath uncovered his uncle's nakedness: they shall bear their sin: they shall die childless. 21 e And if a man shall take his brother's wife, it is an unclean thing: he hath uncovered his brother's nakedness; they shall be childless. 22 ¶ Ye shall therefore keep all a ch. 18. 19. See eh. 15. 24. 13. c ch. 19. 6. d ch. 18. 14. would be childless. The bch. 18, 12, e ch. 18. 16. Heb. word ariri, unfruitful, has this meaning, and is applied to the case of a man who has children, but will not be heired by them. Thus in Jer. 22. 30, it is said of a king who certainly had children, though they did not receive his inherit ance, 'Inscribe this man as childless; for of his posterity none shall prosper, nor any sit upon the throne of David.' For the children of such a marriage would be ascribed to the deceased brother; and that, among the Israelites, where a man made so much of the honor of being called father, was a very sensible punishment. The LXX, Augustine, and Aben-Ezra, understood our text in this manner.'-Comment on L. of M. § 116. It must be admitted to be not a little remarkable, that God my fstatutes, and all my judgments, and do them: that the land whither I bring you to dwell therein, g spue you not out. 23 h And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nations which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and i therefore I abhorred them. 24 But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey: I am the LORD your God, which have separated you from other people. 25 m Ye shall therefore put dif f ch. 18. 26, and 19. 37. g ch. 18. 25, 28. h ch 18. 3, 24, 30. i ch. 18. 27. Deut. 9. 5. k Exod. 3. 17, and 6. 8. I ver. 26. Exod. 19. 5, and 33. 16. Deut. 7. 6, and 14. 2. 1 Kings 8. 53. m ch. 11. 47. Deut. 14. 4. should here threaten a punishment to be inflicted by his own special interposition, when in every other case mentioned he ordered it to be done by the agency of the magistrate. This gives considerable plausibility to the suggestion above quoted; viz. that their children should be bastardized; at the same time, we cannot perceive that the case allows of so much positiveness of tone as is evident in the language of Michaelis. Exhortations to Obedience. 23. They committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them. Heb. Da Ypx7 vâ-âkutz bâm, and I was vexed with them. Ainsworth; I am irked with them.' Chal. My Word abhorreth them.' The language employed has a fearful emphasis of import. It is much for the infinite Jehovah to say that he will punish men for their transgressions; but for him to say that he abhors them, that they are an offence and an abomination to him, is calculated not only to give us a most affecting idea of the hatefulness of their sin, but also of the degree of their punishment. For ference between clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean fowls and clean: n fowls and clean: " and ye shall not make your souls abominable by beast or by fowl, or by any manner of living thing that creepeth on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean. 26 And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine. 27 ¶ q A man also or a woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: r their blood shall be upon them. n ch. 11. 43. o ver. 7. ch. 19. 2. 1 Pet. 1. 16. P ver. 24. Tit. 2. 14. q ch. 19. 31. Exod 22. 18. Deut. 18. 10, 11. 1 Sam. 28. 7, 8. r ver. 9. when the emotion in the divine mind is abhorrence, what must be the action of the divine judgments? It will be seen that the great argument by which the peculiar people are urge to obedience is the fact that they had been separated by a kind of holy external sequestration from all other people, and they` were consequently in like manner to be separated by a pre-eminent sanctity of life, spirit, and demeanor. Their conduct was to correspond with their distinction, and if God says by the prophet (Is. 49. 2), 'Thou art my servant, 0 Israel, I will be glorious in thee,' they were so to govern their deportment as to verify the declaration. And surely when the Most High makes his people the depositaries of his glory, they have a motive to obedience than which it is impossible to conceive any stronger. CHAPTER XXI. Rules regulating the Priests' Mourning. As the two or three previous chapters contain a mass of general rules enjoining sanctity upon the people at large, we have here a special law pertaining CHAPTER XXI. ND the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto the priests the sons of Aaron, and say unto them, a There shall none be defiled for the dead among his people: a Ezek. 44. 25. to the priests. As it was their office to make atonement, and see to the general purity of the people, it was important that they should study the greatest degree of personal purity themselves. The special ministers of the Most High were to keep themselves at a distance from every thing that savored in the least of uncleanness in the estimation of the people, lest they should countenance that which they were set apart to prevent. 1. There shall none be defiled for the dead. Heb. 5 lenephesh; a term in repeated instances applied to a dead body. Gr. εν ταις ψυχαίς, for souls. The spirit of the passage forbids that any priest should assist at laying out a dead body, or preparing it for interment. This defilement was contracted not only by touching a dead body, but by coming into a tent or house where a dead body lay, by touching the grave, or by bearing the dead. In such a case they became legally polluted for the space of seven days, Num. 19. 11, 14, and consequently disqualified for the service of God, and interdicted from converse with their fellow Israelites. According to the Heb. canons, this effect followed if one came within four cubits, or six feet, of the dead. Of the reasons of this prohibition, it may not be possible to speak with assurance. Leclerc observes, 'Perhaps the chief reason why a human corpse was adjudged to be unclean was, because it speedily becomes putrid, especially in a hot climate; whence those who aspired to a special cleanness above others, abstained from any contact with it.' Bochart has collected a large mass of evidence to prove that the ancient Greeks and Romans held 2 But for his kin, that is near unto him, that is, for his mother, and for his father, and for his son, and for his daughter, and for his brother, 3 And for his sister a virgin, that is nigh unto him, which hath had that defilement was contracted from the same source. 2. But for his kin that is near unto him. Heb. ba apo Tablishëro hakkarob ëlauv, his remainder (of flesh) that is near unto him. See the import of this term explained in the Note on Lev. 18. 6. Compare also Ezek. 44. 25. The rule here laid down constitutes, of course, an exception to the general statute, founded upon a kind regard to the natural sympathies which grow out of the various tender relationships of life. It would have been an extreme privation for one of the priestly order to have been prohibited from paying the last offices of affection to a parent, a child, a brother, or sister. It is a beautiful exemplification of the great principle that God would have mercy and not sacrifice,' where the claims of both came in competition. The wife, it will be seen, is not expressly mentioned in this catalogue of kindred, but that she was included by implication, no one can doubt. And this, by the way, affords a strong confirmation of the principle we have before insisted upon in the interpretation of the marriage-laws, in Lev. 18., that the implied cases are equally forbidden with the express. The case of the prophet Ezekiel, ch. 24. 16-18, is here directly in point. It was no doubt in virtue of an express command, suspending for the time being the operation of this law, that he was forbidden to exhibit the usual signals of mourning for his deceased wife, which would otherwise have been lawful for him. 3. Which hath had no husband. Whereas, had she been married, it would have been the duty of the sur no husband for her may he be defiled. 4 But he shall not defile himself, being a chief man among his people, to profane himself. 5 b They shall not make baldness ch. 19. 27, 29. Deut. 14. 1. Ezek. 44. 20. viving husband to see to the performance of all the requisite rites at her burial, so that the priest her brother would have been excused. בעל בעמיו upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh. 6 They shall be holy unto their God, and not profane the name of their God: for the offerings of the c ch. 19. 21, and 19. 12. discussion. We on the whole prefer the interpretation suggested by Willet, and confirmed by Luther. 6. They shall not make baldness on | their heads, &c. This was enacted that they might not adopt the customs of the heathen, of whom it is said in the apocryphal book of Baruch, 6. 31, that 'their priests sit in their temples, with their clothes rent, and their heads, and beards shaven, and having nothing upon their heads; and they roar and cry before their gods, as men do at the feast where is dead.' See Note on Lev. 19. 27, 28. In ch. 19. 28, this is made a general law, not peculiar to the priests. They are here forbidden to do that which had already been prohibited to the people in general. There is a difference of opinion as to the interpretation of the text. Some think that it is to be understood generally, as interdicting the shaving of the beard. If thus understood, there seems an adequate reason for it in the contrary practice of the Egyptians, who did shave their beards; and its repetition to the priests may have been to show them that they were not exempted from the general 4. He shall not defile himself being a chief man among his people. Heb. baal beammauv, which (by supplying the probable ellipsis of for), may be rendered 'for a chief man.' Chal. rabba, a master. That is, he shall not thus defile himself for any one that is not near of kin to him, though the dead person were a chief or the chiefest man among his people, even the high priest himself. This is the version of the Vulg. Syr. and Arab., and is adopted by Ainsworth, Gill, Patrick, Dathe, Scott, A. Clarke, and others. The Gr. has strangely eğanıva, suddenly, which has probably arisen from some blunder in the reading of the original. As by baal signifies in general a lord, master, possessor, and is sometimes applied to 'master of a house,' the idea of Willet is not improbable, who thinks the meaning to be, that the priest, the master of the house, should mourn for none of the inmates except those mentioned above. Accordingly Luther renders it,' He shall not defile himself | law, as they might have been led to for any one who belongs to him. The marginal reading which Rosenmuller after Leclerc adopts, gives entirely another complexion to the passage; Being a husband among his people, he shall not defile himself (for his wife),' &c. This makes it an express prohibition of mourning for a wife, for which construction we can perceive no adequate grounds either in the nature of the case or the structure of the passage. But the matter is not of sufficient moment to warrant an extended critical conclude from having observed the peculiar scrupulosity of the Egyptian priests on this point, who, as we are informed by Herodotus, were particularly careful to shave all the hair off their bodies every third day. The other alternative is that which has the sanction of our translation, and by which it appears we are to understand the whiskers, or upper extremities of the beard. The object would then appear to be to keep them a distinct people from the Arabs, who either shaved their whis LORD made by fire, and d the bread of their God they do offer: therefore they shall be holy. 7 e They shall not take a wife d See ch. 3. 11. e Ezek. 44. 22. kers or cropped them short. We must not forget that it was one great object of many of the Mosaic laws to keep the Israelites separate from all the neigh boring nations; and, whether the Egyptians or the Arabs were in view, it is certain that a different fashion of the beard would have a more marked effect in assisting such a distinction than can be readily calculated by those who hold that appendage in light esteem. That such a distinction as we have mentioned did exist, is not only manifested by existing usages, but by ancient accounts. Mohammed perceived the effect of this distinction-for many Jews resided in Arabia in his time-and strictly enjoined that it should be kept up. According to the traditions, he used to clip his own whiskers; and frequently said, 'He who does not lessen his whiskers is not our ways:' and he expressly said that he inculcated this practice in opposition to the Jews, who were not accustomed to clip either their beards or whiskers. In these counter regulations we seem here to perceive the object of the apparently trivial injunction of the Hebrew legislator.'-Pict. Bib. 6. The offerings of the Lord made by fire and the bread of their God, do they that is a whore, or profane; neither shall they take a woman fput away from her husband: for he is holy unto his God. f See Deut. 24. 1, 2. people to the Most High, so the priests and Levites were in a manner separated from the rest of the Israelites with a like intent. Restrictions in respect to a Priest's marrying. 7. They shall not take a wife, &c. The two words in the original are 17 zonah, and 33 hallâlâh, of which the latter, rendered profane, signifies, according to the Jews, not so much one that had been profaned or dishonored, in which case it would not differ essentially from the preceding, as one who was born of such a marriage as was forbidden to the priests. For as it ap pears from v. 9, that a daughter might profane her father, so a parent, on the other hand, might profane a daughter, and so disqualify her from marrying a priest. The daughter of a widow by a high priest, for example, would come under this denomination (v. 14) and so also the daughter of a divorced woman, by the present verse. As the Gr., however, has ßeßnλwμevny, profaned, a sense quite as probable is, one that has been violated against her will, and that is not a voluntary prostitute, like the 20nah. The use of the epithet carries with it the striking implication that | אשר יהוה לחם אלהיהם .offer. Heb | |