Leviticus 19:19

Ye shall keep my statutes,.... Those which follow, and which are of a different sort from what are last mentioned, of a moral nature, and are planted in the heart, as Aben Ezra says; are agreeably to

Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed: neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee.

Ye shall keep my statutes; either, 1. My laws. So this is fitly premised, because otherwise some of the following commands might seem trifling, and obedience to them unnecessary. Or, 2. My ordinances, to wit, of nature; or the order which I have appointed in creatures, as the word is used 38:33 ; and therefore they shall not confound those things that I have distinguished, which were in some sort to reproach and correct my works, and which may seem to be done in some of the following instances. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: this was prohibited, partly, to restrain the curiosity and boldness of men, who might attempt to amend or change the works of God; partly, that by the restraints here laid even upon brute creatures men might be taught to abhor all unnatural and unlawful lusts; partly, to teach the Israelites to avoid mixtures with other nations, either in marriage or in religion; which also may be signified by the following prohibitions. See of this and the next .

Leviticus 19:19 Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed: neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee.Ver. 19. Ye shall keep my statutes.] Even these next following, though they may seem to be but minutula legis, not worth keeping. Thou shalt not let thy cattle.] The doctors of Douay, upon this text, Here all participation, say they, with heretics and schismatics is forbidden. Philip of Spain said he had rather have no subjects, than subjects of a diverse religion. Our King Edward VI told the Popish rebels of Devonshire, who fought for liberty of conscience, as they call it, that rather than he would yield to them, he would spend his own royal person, his crown, treasure, realm, and whole estate; whereof we assure you, said he, of our high honour. But now, alas! what secret and subtle projects and practices are there amongst us of this nation to bring in a universal, boundless, lawless, abominable and intolerable toleration, which - as the London ministers affirm in their "Testimony to the Truth of Jesus Christ," now newly published to the singular praise of their exemplary and seasonable zeal for God will prove a hideous and complexive evil of most dangerous and mischievous consequence, if ever, which God forbid, it shall be consented to by authority. England shall be swallowed up with sects, schisms, divisions, disorders, contentions, and confusions, and become an odious sink and commen receptacle of all the prodigious errors, lies, heresies, blasphemies, libertinism, and profanenesses in the world: so that Rome itself shall not be a more odious puddle and cage of all abomination and uncleanness. The godly shall sit down and lament us. The wicked shall rise up and insult over us. All the nations about us shall be amazed at us. All the reformed Churches shall be ashamed to own us. Thus, and much more to this purpose, write those worthy zealots, whose testimonial to the truth, coming by a providence to my hand, even whilst I was writing upon this chapter, I could not but here set my seal to it, and here insert this part of it, the whole being such as deserves to be written in letters of gold upon a table of marble, for the use of all posterity Neither shall a garment.] Hence the Jews at this day sow not a woollen garment with a linen thread: nor contrariwise. Act. and Mon., fol. 1189. The London Ministers’ Testimony, &c., Attested. Leo Moden.

(19) Ye shall keep my statutes—that is, the following ordinances, which though not of the same high moral nature as the precepts laid down in the preceding verses, are yet necessary to attain to holiness. The Holy God has made everything “after its kind” (Genesis 1:11-12; Genesis 1:21; Genesis 1:24-25, &c.), and has thus established a physical distinction in the order of His creation. For man to bring about a union of dissimilar things is to bring about a dissolution of the Divine laws and to act contrary to the ordinances of Him who is holy, and to whose holiness we are to attain. Cattle gender with a diverse kind.—Such commixtures would not only contravene the Divine order of things, but would lessen the abhorrence of the crime prohibited in Leviticus 18:22-23. The use, however, of animals produced from such mixtures was not forbidden. Hence we find that mules were largely employed by the Jews (2 Samuel 13:29; 2 Samuel 18:9; 1 Kings 1:33; 1 Kings 1:38; 1 Kings 10:25; 1 Kings 18:5; Ezra 2:66, &c.). These hybrids were either the issue of parents voluntarily coming together without the aid of the Israelites, or were imported from other countries. This law is binding upon the Jews to this day in every country where they happen to live, whether in Palestine or out of it. Not sow thy field with mingled seed.—According to the administrators of the law during the second Temple, the prohibition is only applicable to diverse seeds for human food, mixed together for the purpose of sowing them in the same field, as, for instance, wheat and barley, beans and lentils. These an Israelite must neither sow himself nor allow a non-Israelite to do it for him. Seeds of grain and seeds of trees, as well as seeds of different kinds of trees, may be sown together. The opening words of the parable, “A certain man had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard” (Luke 13:6), do not contravene this law. Seeds which were not intended for human food, such as of bitter herbs, or of vegetables intended for drugs, were exempted from this law, and like the hybrids of mixed parents, the seeds of herbs sown with diverse kinds were allowed to be used. Unlike the law, however, about the commixture of animals, which, as we have seen, is of universal application, the law about mixed seeds was only applicable to the Holy Land, since the command here is, “thou shalt not sow thy field” which these authorities maintain means “the fields of their inheritance in the promised land. Though trees are not mentioned here, the law was applied to grafting. Hence it was forbidden to graft an apple-tree on a citron-tree, or herbs into trees. The fruit, however, which grew upon the trees of such graftings was allowed to be eaten. The law about the diverse graftings is binding upon the Jews in every country and to all ages.

Verse 19. Gender with a diverse kind] These precepts taken literally seem to imply that they should not permit the horse and the she-ass, nor the he-ass and the cow, (as they do in the East,) to couple together; nor sow different kinds of seeds in the same field or garden; nor have garments of silk and woollen, cotton and silk, linen and wool, c. And if all these were forbidden, there must have been some moral reason for the prohibitions, because domestic economy required several of these mixtures, especially those which relate to seeds and clothing. With respect to heterogeneous mixtures among cattle, there is something very unnatural in it, and it was probably forbidden to prevent excitements to such unnatural lusts as those condemned in the preceding chapter, Leviticus 18:22-23. As to seeds, in many cases it would be very improper to sow different kinds in the same plot of ground. It would be improvident to sow oats and wheat together: the latter would be injured, the former ruined. The turnip and carrot would not succeed conjointly, where either of them separately would prosper and yield a good crop so we may say of many other kinds of seeds; and if this be all that is intended, the counsels are prudential agricultural maxims. As to different kinds of garments, such as the linsey woolsey, the prohibition here might be intended as much against pride and vanity as any thing else; for it is certain that both these articles may be so manufactured in conjunction as to minister to pride, though in general the linsey woolsey or drugget is the clothing of the poor. But we really do not know what the original word שעטנז shaatnez, which we translate linen and woollen, means: it is true that in Deuteronomy 22:11, where it is again used, it seems to be explained by the words immediately following, Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of linen and woollen together; but this may as well refer to a garment made up of a sort of patchwork differently coloured and arranged for pride and for show. A folly of this kind prevailed anciently in this very land, and I shall give a proof of it, taken from a sermon against luxury in dress, composed in the fourteenth century. "As to the first sinne in superfluitie of clothing, soche that maketh it so dere, to the harme of the peple, nat only the cost of enbrauderlng, the disguised endenting, or barring, ounding paling, winding or bending and semblable wast of clothe in vanite. But there is also the costlewe furring in their gounes, so moche pounsing of chesel, to make holes; so moche dagging with sheres foorth; with the superfluitie in length of the forsaied gounes, - to grete dammage of pore folke. - And more ouer - they shewe throughe disguising, in departing of ther hosen in white and red, semeth that halfe ther members were slain.

19–32. Miscellaneous precepts in reference to the various circumstances of every-day life.

Linen and woolen - The original word is found only here and in Deuteronomy 22:11, where it is rendered “of divers sorts.” It may denote such tissues as linsey woolsey.

19. Gender with a diverse kind — This would forbid the propagation of mules. Those mentioned in 2 Samuel 13:29; 2 Samuel 18:9, and in many other passages, were probably imported, as they evidently were in the reign of Solomon.