Deuteronomy 13
DOYLYChap. XIV. ver. 1. — ye shall not cut yourselves, &c.] God would not permit them to imitate the excessive lamentations and the frantick behaviour of the Gentiles Vol. I. shall eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat,
Deuteronomy 13:3
- — any abominable thing.] All meats, forbidden by God to be eaten, are called “abominable;” not merely because His prohibition made them so; but because the Gentile superstition had consecrated most of them to their gods. Bp. Patrick.
Deuteronomy 13:5
- — fallow deer, — pygarg, — wild ox, — chamois.] It cannot be ascertained what determinate kind of creatures each of these Hebrew names means. Bochart
Deuteronomy 13:6
- If thy brother, &c.] At the head of capital crimes under the Jewish law was placed idolatry. Not only the act itself, but every attempt to seduce men to it, and every mode of conduct which presupposed or obviously led to it. Against this offence the strictest rigour was exercised; no partiality for the dearest relative was to induce concealment; no dignity to silence accusation; no multitude of offenders to deter from punishment. This severity, whilst it conduced to preserve the allegiance due to the Supreme Jehovah, inseparably associated the feelings of detestation and abhorrence with the crime of idolatry, not with the persons of the Cananites; and proved to the Jews that they were commanded to exterminate the seven nations, not from any principle of personal resentment or national hostility, but merely as criminals condemned by God. Dr. Graves.
Deuteronomy 13:9
- — thou shalt surely kill him;] Thou shalt discover him, and bring him to condign punishment, which is death in this case, by the sentence of the magistrate: and “thine hand shall be first upon him;” namely, as the witness of his crime. Bp. Kidder. The criminal was to be stoned to death: and the accuser was to throw the first stone at him, together with the witnesses, ch. xvii. 7; to testify thereby his own piety and unshaken fidelity towards God. Bp. Patrick, Wogan.
Deuteronomy 13:11
- And all Israel shall hear and fear, &c.] God doth not punish merely for the sake of punishment. Even
Deuteronomy 13:13
- — the children of Belial.] So the most profligate wretches are called in Scripture, signifying lawless persons, who had no regard either to God or men. Bp. Patrick. Belial is a Hebrew word, implying a wicked worthless man; one resolved to endure no subjection; a rebel; one that cannot be controlled. In later writings, Belial denotes the devil. St. Paul says, 2 Cor. vi. 15, “What concord hath Christ with Belial?” Whence we infer, that in his time the Jews, under the name of Belial, commonly understood the devil by this term in the Old Testament. Calmet.
Deuteronomy 13:15
- Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants &c.] In this command we see, not only the rigour of the ancient law, but even a mercy, as well as justice, in the execution of the sentence. For although, at first view, it carry the appearance of extreme severity, yet considering, 1st, the state of the Jews, as a theocracy, or government under the immediate authority of God, all publick violation of the Divine law was such an open and direct act of rebellion against their rightful Lord and King, as by the common law of all nations is deemed a crime worthy of death. 2dly, If the total excision of Meats clean and unclean. Before CHRIST 1451.
Deuteronomy 13:21
- Ye shall not eat of any thing that dieth of itself.] What was allowed to an alien, was forbidden to the Hebrews, as an holy people, not because morally evil, or therefore unlawful on a moral account, but because it was unbecoming a people consecrated to the service of Jehovah. Hence, what the Hebrews were allowed for food, was of best esteem in common use; and what they were forbidden, was of least esteem, and reckoned too mean for a good table: and, as Dr. Spencer observes, these things continue so in the Eastern nations to the present times. Lowman.
— for thou art an holy people] See also Lev. xx. 26. Such passages as these put the moral intention of the distinction of meats out of dispute, and are indeed a
direct affirmation of it: the people of God were to avoid “unclean meats,” as a sign that He had separated them from unclean Gentiles to be “holy unto Himself.” Jones of Nayland.
— Thou shalt not seethe a kid &c.] See the note on Exod. xxiii. 19.
Some remains of this custom seem still to exist among the Arabs, instanced in their boiling a lamb in sour milk and water. Bp. Pococke.
Deuteronomy 13:22
- — tithe] This is meant of the second tithe. See ch. xii. 6. Bp. Kidder.
Deuteronomy 13:28
- At the end of three years &c.] At every third year’s end, either this same second tithe, or else another over and above it, was to be kept and spent at home, for entertaining and feasting the poor of the town, in which the owner dwelt, and the Levites belonging to it. And this practice, so highly promotive of charity, love, and good neighbourhood, God pro-