Deuteronomy 23

Deuteronomy 23:2

Open thine hand wide - That is, deal bountifully and liberally with him.

Deuteronomy 23:3

Beware - Suppress the first risings of such uncharitableness. It be sin - That is, it be charged upon thee as a sin.

Deuteronomy 23:4

Thine heart shall not be grieved - That is, thou shalt give, not only with an open hand, but with a willing and chearful mind, without which thy very charity is uncharitable, and not accepted by God.

Deuteronomy 23:5

The poor shall never cease - God by his providence will so order it, partly for the punishment of your disobedience, and partly for the trial and exercise of your obedience to him and charity to your brother.

Deuteronomy 23:6

If thy brother be sold - Either by himself, or his parents, or as a criminal. Six years - To be computed from the beginning of his servitude, which is every where limited to the space of six years.

Deuteronomy 23:9

The Lord redeemed thee - And brought thee out with riches, which because they would not, God gave thee as a just recompense for thy service; and therefore thou shalt follow his example, and send out thy servant furnished with all convenient provisions.

Deuteronomy 23:11

For ever - All the time of his life, or, at least, ’till the year of jubilee. Likewise - That is, either dismiss her with plenty, or engage her to perpetual servitude, in the same manner and by the same rites.

Deuteronomy 23:13

All the firstling males thou shalt sanctify - Giving them to God on the eighth day. And thou shalt do no work with the female firstlings of the cow, nor shear those of the sheep. Even these must be offered to God as peace - offerings, or used in a religious feast.

Deuteronomy 23:14

Year by year - Namely, in the solemn feasts which returned upon them every year.

Deuteronomy 23:19

Observe the month of Abib - Or of new fruits, which answers to part of March and part of April, and was by a special order from God made the beginning of their year, in remembrance of their deliverance out of Egypt. By night - In the night Pharaoh was forced to give them leave to depart, and accordingly they made preparation for their departure, and in the morning they perfected the work.

Deuteronomy 23:20

The passover - That is, the feast of the passover, and so the place may be rendered, thou shalt therefore observe the feast of the passover unto the Lord thy God, with sheep, and with oxen, as is prescribed, Numbers 28:18, &c.

Deuteronomy 23:21

With it - Or, in it, that is, during the time of the feast of the passover. Bread of affliction - Bread which is not usual nor pleasant, to put thee in mind both of thy miseries endured in Egypt; and of thy hasty coming out of it, which allowed thee no time to leaven or prepare thy bread.

Deuteronomy 23:22

Any of the flesh - That is, of the passover properly so called.

Deuteronomy 23:23

Of thy gates - That is, of thy cities.

Deuteronomy 23:24

There - Namely, in the court of the tabernacle or temple. This he prescribed, partly that this great work might be done with more solemnity in such manner as God required; partly, because it was not only a sacrament, but also a sacrifice, and because here was the sprinkling of blood, which is the essential part of a sacrifice; and partly to design the place where Christ, the true passover or lamb of God, was to be slain. At the season - About the time you were preparing yourselves for it.

Deuteronomy 23:25

In the morning - The morning after the seventh day. Thy tents - That is, thy dwellings, which he calls tents, as respecting their present state, and to put them in mind afterwards when they were settled in better habitations, that there was a time when they dwelt in tents.