Leviticus · Chapter 26

V. 1. An image-Or pillar, that is, to worship it, or bow down to it, as it follows. Otherwise this was not simply prohibited, being practised by holy men, both before and after this law.

Verse 1. Ye shall make you no idols] See Clarke’s note on “Exodus 20:4”, and see Clarke’s notes on “Genesis 28:18”; “Genesis 28:19”, concerning consecrated stones. Not only idolatry in general is forbidden here, but also the superstitious use of innocent and lawful things. Probably the stones or pillars which were first set up, and anointed by holy men in commemoration of signal interpositions of God in their behalf, were afterward abused to idolatrous and superstitious purposes, and therefore prohibited. This we know was the case with the brazen serpent, 2 Kings 18:4.

Verses 1, 2. The substance of their religious laws are here recapitulated in two chief articles, on which all the rest very much depended; and God, by Moses, inculcates upon them, 1st, A careful abhorrence of all idolatrous worship, especially that of image-worship of every kind, which had often been forbidden before; and, 2d, An exact celebration of the sabbath, and all other religious festivals; and a punctual regard to God’s worship, according to the stated ordinances to be observed in the tabernacle service; and all this as a means to preserve them from the corruptions and superstitions of the rest of the world.

Ye shall make no idols — Hebrew, µlyla elilim, things of naught; the same word which occurs Leviticus 19:4. Nor graven image — lsp, phesel; which signifies any image hewn out of wood or stone. These images, being consecrated by certain ceremonies, were conceived to be shrines or mansions of some deity, and upon that account were worshipped by the Gentiles. A standing image — These were a kind of rude stones or pillars which the heathen erected to their gods, and to which they paid divine honours. Any image of stone — tykvm ˆba, Eben mashchith; stone of figure, device, or portraiture; or figured stone, or stone of picture, as we read in the margin; like those in use among the Egyptians, which were full of hieroglyphics, expressing some fancied perfections of their gods. Some, without any authority from the original, would render the words, a stone set up. The simply setting up pillars, or even images, was not prohibited; but only the setting them up to worship them. Reverence my sanctuary — By purging and preserving it from all uncleanness, by approaching to it, and managing all the services of it with reverence, and in such manner only as God hath appointed.

Verse 1. Neither set up any image of stone, any large sightly stone. The druids were apt to bring or roll large stones from afar, as at Stone-henge, at Shap in Westmoreland; at Stanton Drew, near Bristol; and at Abury, Wilts. These were ancient temples, approached by serpentine walks, and seats of idolatry of Sabian origin.

IDOLATRY, THE SABBATH, AND THE SANCTUARY, 1, 2.

1. Standing image — The matstsebah was a pillar or statue of stone or wood. It was used in the worship of Baal. The tendency of the Hebrews toward idolatry may be inferred from the vast variety of terms used in their literature to signify idols. There are twenty-one Hebrew words rendered in English by idol or image. Four of these are found in this verse. I am the Lord — The word “I” is emphatic in the Hebrew. Jehovah could tolerate no rival, for he alone is self-existent, eternal, supreme. The pagan god of one nation could allow the existence of another cultus in another nation: Jesus Christ was not complimented when the Roman senate decreed him a statue in the Pantheon. He must dethrone all rivals, because he is “God over all, blessed forever.”

V. 2. My sanctuary-By purging and preserving it from all uncleanness, by approaching to it and managing all the services of it with reverence, and in such manner only as God hath appointed.

Verses 1, 2. The substance of their religious laws are here recapitulated in two chief articles, on which all the rest very much depended; and God, by Moses, inculcates upon them, 1st, A careful abhorrence of all idolatrous worship, especially that of image-worship of every kind, which had often been forbidden before; and, 2d, An exact celebration of the sabbath, and all other religious festivals; and a punctual regard to God’s worship, according to the stated ordinances to be observed in the tabernacle service; and all this as a means to preserve them from the corruptions and superstitions of the rest of the world.

Ye shall make no idols — Hebrew, µlyla elilim, things of naught; the same word which occurs Leviticus 19:4. Nor graven image — lsp, phesel; which signifies any image hewn out of wood or stone. These images, being consecrated by certain ceremonies, were conceived to be shrines or mansions of some deity, and upon that account were worshipped by the Gentiles. A standing image — These were a kind of rude stones or pillars which the heathen erected to their gods, and to which they paid divine honours. Any image of stone — tykvm ˆba, Eben mashchith; stone of figure, device, or portraiture; or figured stone, or stone of picture, as we read in the margin; like those in use among the Egyptians, which were full of hieroglyphics, expressing some fancied perfections of their gods. Some, without any authority from the original, would render the words, a stone set up. The simply setting up pillars, or even images, was not prohibited; but only the setting them up to worship them. Reverence my sanctuary — By purging and preserving it from all uncleanness, by approaching to it, and managing all the services of it with reverence, and in such manner only as God hath appointed.

2. Sabbaths… sanctuary — The intimate connexion between the sanctuary and the sabbath is here very beautifully expressed. It rebukes all indolent use of the sabbath at home, and the modern, fashionable, professed worship of God in roving the fields and forests, vainly attempting to look through nature up to nature’s God. The God which a sinful Jew imperatively needed was best worshipped through the bleeding bird, the bleeding beast, and sprinkling priest; and the God most needed by the sinning Gentile is seen in the Lamb of God, whose Gospel is preached in our modern sanctuaries on the Lord’s day. There is no sin, except idolatry, against which the Hebrews were so frequently and earnestly warned as against sabbath breaking. The sabbath was intended to be an ever-recurring symbol of the heavenly rest. To despise it is to contemn heaven itself.

Verse 3. If ye walk in my statutes] For the meaning of this and similar words used in the law, See Clarke’s note on “Leviticus 26:15”.

Verses 3, 4. If ye walk in my statutes, &c. — In reward of their obedience, God promises them temporal prosperity in every instance that could render a nation happy. And, first, he assures them they should have fruitful seasons, here expressed by giving them rain in due time — Because, in Canaan and Syria, they were wont to have hardly any rain but at two stated seasons; in the end of autumn, at seed-time; and in spring, before harvest; termed the former and latter rain, Jeremiah 5:24; without which, the year was quite barren. For God did not place his people in a land where there were such rivers as the Nile to water it, and render it fruitful; but in a land which depended wholly upon the rain of heaven, the key whereof God kept in his own hand, that so he might the more effectually oblige them to obedience, in which their happiness consisted.

BLESSINGS PROMISED TO OBEDIENCE, 3-13.

3. Walk in my statutes — Mosaism was not mere ritualism, but a power which directed the conduct, shaped the character, and sanctified the heart. It aimed at inward as well as outward holiness. This is the end of all God’s statutes. The original statute signifies that which is absolutely fixed, a decree. Commandments signify acts definitely pointed out. The former is used to designate codes of law, the latter, specific precepts.

V. 4. Rain-Therefore God placed them not in a land where there were such rivers as the Nile, to water it and make it fruitful, but in a land which depended wholly upon the rain of heaven, the key whereof God kept in his own hand, that so he might the more effectually oblige them to obedience, in which their happiness consisted.

Verse 4. Rain in due season] What in Scripture is called the early and the latter rain. The first fell in Palestine at the commencement of spring, and the latter in autumn.-Calmet.

Verses 3, 4. If ye walk in my statutes, &c. — In reward of their obedience, God promises them temporal prosperity in every instance that could render a nation happy. And, first, he assures them they should have fruitful seasons, here expressed by giving them rain in due time — Because, in Canaan and Syria, they were wont to have hardly any rain but at two stated seasons; in the end of autumn, at seed-time; and in spring, before harvest; termed the former and latter rain, Jeremiah 5:24; without which, the year was quite barren. For God did not place his people in a land where there were such rivers as the Nile to water it, and render it fruitful; but in a land which depended wholly upon the rain of heaven, the key whereof God kept in his own hand, that so he might the more effectually oblige them to obedience, in which their happiness consisted.

4. Rain in due season — When the moral character of men influences the course of nature, the personality of God and his interest in human affairs are indubitably demonstrated. See verse 19, note. A God who sways his scepter over the physical world in the interest of his moral government is especially offensive to the depraved heart.

V. 5. The vintage-That is, you shall have so plentiful an harvest, that you shall not be able to thresh out your corn in a little time, but that work will last till the vintage.

Verse 5. Your threshing shall reach unto the vintage] According to Pliny, Hist. Nat., l. xviii., c. 18, the Egyptians reaped their barley six months, and their oats seven months, after seed time; for they sowed all their grain about the end of summer, when the overflowings of the Nile had ceased. It was nearly the same in Judæa: they sowed their corn and barley towards the end of autumn, and about the month of October; and they began their barley-harvest after the passover, about the middle of March; and in one month or six weeks after, about pentecost, they began that of their wheat. After their wheat-harvest their vintage commenced. Moses here leads the Hebrews to hope, if they continued faithful to God, that between their harvest and vintage, and between their vintage and seed-time, there should be no interval, so great should the abundance be; and these promises would appear to them the more impressive, as they had just now come out of a country where the inhabitants were obliged to remain for nearly three months shut up within their cities, because the Nile had then inundated the whole country. See Calmet.

“This is a nervous and beautiful promise of such entire plenty of corn and wine, that before they could have reaped and threshed out their corn the vintage should be ready, and before they could have pressed out their wine it would be time to sow again. The Prophet Amos, Amos 9:13 expresses the same blessing in the same manner: The ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who soweth seed.”-Dodd.

Verse 5. Threshing shall reach unto the vintage, &c. — That is, you shall have such plenty of corn, that before you shall have reaped and threshed it out, the vintage will be ready; and before you shall have pressed out your wine it will be time to sow again. Thus they should scarcely have time enough to receive one blessing before another came upon them. A similar promise is made Amos 9:13; The ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed.

5. Threshing — The cereals of constant mention are wheat and barley, and more rarely rye and millet. Wheat was ripe at the pentecost, called also “the feast of harvest, the first fruits of thy labors.” The fifty days included the period of grain harvest, commencing with the offering of the first sheaf of the barley harvest in the passover, in April, and ending with that of the two first loaves made from the wheat harvest. So abundant would be the harvest that six months, from mid Nisan to mid Tisri, would be occupied in gathering the produce of the soil; first the harvesting and threshing of the grain and then the vintage, which would be prolonged till sowing time, about the autumnal equinox. See Amos 9:13, note. “The threshing comes between the reaping and the treading of grapes. Reaping is done in April, May, and June, and the vintage is in September and October. Hence the harvest, according to the promise, is to be so abundant that it will take several months to tread out the grain. And here, again, actual experience suggested the language of the prophecy. In very abundant seasons I have seen the threshing actually prolonged until October. Take the three promises together, and they spread over the entire year of the husbandman.” — Dr. W.M. Thomson.

V. 6. The sword-That is, war, as the sword is oft taken. It shall not enter into it, nor have passage through it, much less shall your land be made the seat of war.

Verse 6. I will give peace in the land, &c. — As God promises to bless them with plenty, so also to protect them in the secure enjoyment of it. None shall make you afraid — You shall be kept from the invasions of enemies from abroad, and from the annoyance of man and beast at home. A very beautiful and striking picture this of national tranquillity.

6. I will give peace in the land — If obedient to Jehovah, the Hebrews were never to suffer the horrors of a hostile invasion or of a civil war. Exemption from the latter would be a natural consequence of submission to Jehovah, the theocratic head of Israel. By his overruling providence he would dispose all surrounding nations to maintain peaceful relations with his people. Indeed, their very unity would make them too formidable to be attacked. Only nations weakened by internal strifes invite invasion. Perpetual peace and security of life and property are inestimable blessings, which no tribe of men has yet enjoyed. Evil beasts were to be exterminated, not by miracle, but by the agency of the people, as the Canaanites were driven out “little by little” by God, lest the balance of natural forces should be disturbed. See Exodus xxiii, 30.

BLESSINGS PROMISED TO OBEDIENCE, 3-13.

3. Walk in my statutes — Mosaism was not mere ritualism, but a power which directed the conduct, shaped the character, and sanctified the heart. It aimed at inward as well as outward holiness. This is the end of all God’s statutes. The original statute signifies that which is absolutely fixed, a decree. Commandments signify acts definitely pointed out. The former is used to designate codes of law, the latter, specific precepts.

V. 8. Five-A small number; a certain number for an uncertain.

Verses 8, 9. Five of you shall chase a hundred — A proverbial expression, signifying that a small number of them should be an over-match for many of their enemies. I will establish my covenant — Will actually perform all that I have promised in my covenant made with you.

Ver. 8. Ten thousand, or a multitude shall be put to flight. This was done by Gideon; also by Jonathan and his armour bearer. Judges 7:1 Samuel 14.

8. Five… shall chase a hundred — So great would be the prestige of the Hebrew name that a panic would seize the myriads of their foes on the battle field when confronted by a household of Israelites. This was true of the Canaanites when the spies visited Jericho, (see Joshua 2:9-11, note,) and of the hosts of Midian who decamped in confusion before Gideon and his select band of three hundred men. See also 2 Samuel 23:8, 18; 1 Chronicles 11. 18. Many are the parallel instances in Christian history in which hosts of foes to Christ have been overcome by simple faith in him exercised by a few believers. A hundred… ten thousand — The ratio of efficiency increases with the number. Of five, each one routs twenty; of a hundred, each puts to flight a hundred. At this rate an aggressive Christianity would soon conquer the whole world. By the sword — They would not be delivered from foreign wars, but they would conquer the enemy in his own country, since the sword should not go through their land.

V. 9. Establish my covenant-That is, actually perform all that I have promised in my covenant made with you.

Verses 8, 9. Five of you shall chase a hundred — A proverbial expression, signifying that a small number of them should be an over-match for many of their enemies. I will establish my covenant — Will actually perform all that I have promised in my covenant made with you.

9. I will have respect — I will favourably regard you. Multiply — Rapid increase in population, especially with Oriental nations, is a manifest proof of the divine favour. Virtue promotes health and wealth. These conduce to a multiplication of the people, so long as luxury and its attendant vices are avoided. It is a sign of national decay when marriages and births relatively diminish. Establish my covenant — Confirm the covenant already made with Abraham.

V. 10. Bring forth-Or, cast out, throw them away as having no occasion to spend them, or give them to the poor, or even to your cattle, that you may make way for the new corn, which also is so plentiful, that of itself it will fill up your barns.

10. Eat old store — Literally, the old grown old. Each crop shall be so abundant that it will last till the new is fully ripened; and so great will be the overplus in the garner that they should bring forth the old to make room for the new harvest. What a glowing picture of material prosperity is this! But still greater blessings of a spiritual nature are to follow.

V. 11. I will set-As I have placed it, so I will continue it among you, and not remove it from you, as once I did upon your miscarriage, Exodus 33:7.

Verse 11. I will set my tabernacle among you] This and the following verse contain the grand promise of the Gospel dispensation, viz. the presence, manifestation, and indwelling of God in human nature, and his constant in dwelling in the souls of his followers. So John 1:14 the WORD was made flesh, kai eskhnwsen en hmin, and MADE HIS TABERNACLE among us. And to this promise of the law St. Paul evidently refers, 2 Corinthians 6:16-18 and 2 Corinthians 7:1

Verses 11-13. I will set my tabernacle among you — To crown all their blessings, God promises that his special presence, whereof the tabernacle was a symbol, should abide with them. I will walk among you — As I have hitherto done, both by my pillar of cloud and fire, and by my tabernacle, which have walked or gone along with you in all your journeys, and stayed among you in all your stations, to protect, conduct, instruct, and comfort you. And I will own you for that peculiar people which I have singled out of mankind, to bless you here, and to save you hereafter. Made you go upright — With heads lifted up, not pressed down with a yoke. It denotes their liberty, security, confidence, and glory.

11. My tabernacle among you — The highest possible honour and the richest source of blessings are found in the manifested and abiding presence of the gracious Jehovah in the midst of Israel, guiding their journeyings, forgiving their sins, and shielding them from their enemies by his outflashing glory. Exodus 14:24. But still greater blessings are here prefigured for the obedient in these latter days which have seen God tabernacling in the humanity of Jesus Christ, (John 1:14, note,) “in whom,” says Paul, “ye also are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.” Ephesians 2:22. Christian privilege in this life culminates in the fulfilment of this wonderful promise of Christ, “we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” John 14:23. Greater only in external manifestations of glory will be the bliss of the saints in the new Jerusalem, when a great voice from heaven will say, “Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them.” Revelation 21:3. Abhor — Thrust you away.

V. 12. I will walk among you-As I have hitherto done, both by my pillar of cloud and fire, and by my tabernacle, which have walked or gone along with you in all your journeys, and staid among you in all your stations, to protect, conduct, instruct, and comfort you. And I will own you for that peculiar people which I have singled out of mankind, to bless you here and to save you hereafter.

Verses 11-13. I will set my tabernacle among you — To crown all their blessings, God promises that his special presence, whereof the tabernacle was a symbol, should abide with them. I will walk among you — As I have hitherto done, both by my pillar of cloud and fire, and by my tabernacle, which have walked or gone along with you in all your journeys, and stayed among you in all your stations, to protect, conduct, instruct, and comfort you. And I will own you for that peculiar people which I have singled out of mankind, to bless you here, and to save you hereafter. Made you go upright — With heads lifted up, not pressed down with a yoke. It denotes their liberty, security, confidence, and glory.

12. I will walk among you — Here is implied the intimacy of delighted companionship, as Enoch walked with God. Thus Jehovah desired to walk with Israel, and thus he would have walked if the nation had cleaved unto the Lord. “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” And be your God — Guidance, protection, sustenance, illumination, sanctification, present and eternal gladness and glory lie in these four short words. Ye shall be my people — Dignity, honour, sonship, and heirship are wrapped up in this promise. “All things are yours, and ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.”

V. 13. Upright-With heads lifted up, not pressed down with a yoke. It notes their liberty, security, confidence and glory.

Verses 11-13. I will set my tabernacle among you — To crown all their blessings, God promises that his special presence, whereof the tabernacle was a symbol, should abide with them. I will walk among you — As I have hitherto done, both by my pillar of cloud and fire, and by my tabernacle, which have walked or gone along with you in all your journeys, and stayed among you in all your stations, to protect, conduct, instruct, and comfort you. And I will own you for that peculiar people which I have singled out of mankind, to bless you here, and to save you hereafter. Made you go upright — With heads lifted up, not pressed down with a yoke. It denotes their liberty, security, confidence, and glory.

13. Made you go upright — The crushing yoke bowed the wearer to the earth, and assimilated him to the beast of burden often his yoke-fellow. Emancipation gave to him the erect form, and repeated the miracle of creation,

Os homini sublime dedit, coelumque tueri

Jussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus. — Ovid. To man he gave an upturned face,

And bade him scan the heavenly space,

And view, with countenance erect,

The firmament with stars bedecked.

“God will have no slavery of a social kind. He is against all bonds and restrictions that keep down the true aspirations of the human soul. God has always proceeded upon the principle of enlargement and the inheritance of liberty.” — Joseph Parker.

Verse 14. If ye will not hearken, &c. — If, notwithstanding these great promises, which were designed to work upon their gratitude and obedience, they should generally become transgressors of his laws, God threatens that they should be visited with as extraordinary plagues; with poverty and vexation at home, and alarms of war and destruction from foreign enemies, such as would dispirit and rob them of all true comfort, even in the land of promise.

THREATENINGS AGAINST DISOBEDIENCE, 14-39.

Law is necessary to government. But we can no more have law without penalty than we can have a coin without a reverse side. Accountability implies free agents, with intelligence sufficient to apprehend the consequences of actions in the form of rewards and punishments distinctly announced beforehand. The seasonableness and the clearness of this announcement enhance the guiltiness of transgression and intensify the punishment. This graphic portrayal of the issues of disobedience leaves rebellious Israel without excuse. “This graduated advance of the judgments of God is so depicted in the following passage that four times in succession new and multiplied punishments are announced: 1) Utter barrenness in their land, that is to say, one heavier punishment, verses 18-20; 2) the extermination of their cattle by beasts of prey, and childlessness — two punishments, verses 21-22; 3) war, plague, and famine — three punishments, verses 23-26; 4) the destruction of all idolatrous abominations, the overthrow of their towns and holy places, the devastation of the land, and the dispersion of the people among the heathen — four punishments — which would bring the Israelites to the verge of destruction, verses 27-33. These divine threats embrace the whole of Israel’s future.” — Keil and Delitzsch.

14. Not hearken… not do — A refusal to give undivided attention and earnest heed to the law of God by the proper use of our perceptive and reflective powers is as culpable as wilful disobedience, inasmuch as it implies a disregard of the divine authority. The most solemn and frequent injunction of Christ was this, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” It is worthy of remark that the process of apostasy begins with sins of omission, and in the next verse ends with sins of commission.

V. 15. Break my covenant-Break your part of that covenant made between me and you, and thereby discharge me from the blessings promised on my part.

Verse 15. If ye shall despise my statutes-abhor my judgments] As these words, and others of a similar import, which point out different properties of the revelation of God, are frequently occurring, I Judge it best to take a general view of them, once for all, in this place, and show how they differ among themselves, and what property of the Divine law each points out.

1. STATUTES. tqj chukkoth, from qj chak, to mark out, define, &c. This term seems to signify the things which God has defined, marked, and traced out, that men might have a perfect copy of pure conduct always before their eyes, to teach them how they might walk so as to please him in all things, which they could not do without such instruction as God gives in his word, and the help which he affords by his Spirit.

2. JUDGMENTS. µycpv shephatim, from cpv shaphat, to distinguish, regulate, and determine; meaning those things which God has determined that men shall pursue, by which their whole conduct shall be regulated, making the proper distinction between virtue and vice, good and evil, right and wrong, justice and injustice; in a word, between what is proper to be done, and what is proper to be left undone.

3. COMMANDMENTS. twxm mitsvoth, from hwx tsavah, to command, ordain, and appoint, as a legislator. This term is properly applied to those parts of the law which contain the obligation the people are under to act according to the statutes, judgments, &c., already established, and which prohibit them by penal sanctions from acting contrary to the laws.

4. COVENANT. tyrb berith, from rb bar, to clear, cleanse, or purify; because the covenant, the whole system of revelation given to the Jews, was intended to separate them from all the people of the earth, and to make them holy. Berith also signifies the covenant-sacrifice, which prefigured the atonement made by Christ for the sin of the world, by which he purifies believers unto himself, and makes them a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Besides those four, we may add the following, from other places of Scripture.

5. TESTIMONIES. twd[ edoth, from d[ ad, beyond, farther, besides; because the whole ritual law referred to something farther on or beyond the Jewish dispensation, even to that sacrifice which in the fulness of time was to be offered for the sins of men. Thus all the sacrifices, &c., of the Mosaic law referred to Christ, and bore testimony to him who was to come.

6. ORDINANCES. twrmvm mishmaroth, from rmv shamar, to guard, keep safe, watch over; those parts of Divine revelation which exhorted men to watch their ways, keep their hearts, and promised them, in consequence, the continual protection and blessing of God their Maker.

7. PRECEPTS. µydwqp pikkudim, from dqp pakad, to overlook, take care or notice of, to visit; a very expressive character of the Divine testimonies, the overseers of a man’s conduct, those who stand by and look on to see whether he acts according to the commands of his Master; also the visiters, because God’s precepts are suited to all the circumstances of human life; some are applicable in adversity, others in prosperity; some in times of temptation and sadness, others in seasons of spiritual joy and exultation, &c., &c. Thus they may be said to overlook and visit man in all times, places, and circumstances.

8. TRUTH. tma emeth, from אם am, to support, sustain, confirm; because God is immutable who has promised, threatened, commanded, and therefore all his promises, threatenings, commandments, &c., are unalterable and eternal. Error and falsity promise to direct and sustain, but they fail. God’s word is supported by his own faithfulness, and it supports and confirms them who conscientiously believe it.

9. RIGHTEOUSNESS. hqdx tsedakah, from qdx which, though not used as a verb in the Hebrew Bible, seems to convey, from its use as a noun, the idea of giving just weight or good measure, see Leviticus 19:36. This is one of the characters which is attributed to the revelation God makes of himself; (see Psalm 119:137-144;) and by this the impartiality of the Divine testimonies is pointed out. God gives to all their due, and his word distributes to every man according to his state, circumstances, talents, graces, &c.; to none too much, to none too little, to all enough.

10. WORD of JEHOVAH. hwhy rbd debar Yehovah, from rbd, dabar, to drive, lead, bring forward, hence to bring forward, or utter one’s sentiments; so the word of God is what God has brought forth to man from his own mind and counsel; it is a perfect similitude of his own righteousness, holiness, goodness, and truth. This Divine law is sometimes expressed by:-

11. hrma imrah, speech or word, variously modified from rma amar, to branch out, because of the interesting details into which the word of God enters in order to instruct man and make him wise unto salvation, or, as the apostle expresses it, “God, who at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake unto the fathers by the prophets,” polumerwv kai polutropwv, in many distinct parcels, and by various tropes or figures; a curious and elegant description of Divine revelation; Hebrews 1:1.

12. All these collectively are termed the LAW hrwt torah, or hwhy trwt torath Yehovah, the law of the Lord, from hry yarah, to direct, set straight and true, as stones in a building, to teach and instruct, because this whole system of Divine revelation is calculated to direct men to the attainment of present and eternal felicity, to set them right in their notions concerning the supreme God, to order and adjust them in the several departments of civil and religious society, and thus to teach and instruct them in the knowledge of themselves, and in the true knowledge of God. Thus those who receive the truth become the city of the living God-the temple of the Most High, built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit. To complete this description of the word law, See Clarke’s note on “Exodus 12:49”, where other properties of the law of God are specified.

Verse 15. Break my covenant — That is, your part of the covenant made between me and you, and thereby discharge me from giving you the blessings promised on my part.

15. Despise my statutes — In all deliberate rejection of God’s law, there is the offensive element of pride lifting itself above the divine wisdom and majesty. All wilful sin contemns Jehovah. Herein is the very essence of its turpitude. The following judgments are not for single transgressions, but for an inward contempt of all the divine commandments, breaking out in presumptuous and incorrigible rebellion against Jehovah, who had openly set his name in Israel. Break my covenant — The successive clauses of this verse are in the form of a climax, rising step by step till the culminating sin is reached — a violation of that solemn compact whose seal was upon the person of every male, and which was pregnant with blessings, to the seed of Abraham. This would be national suicide. “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself.”

V. 16. That shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart-Two remarkable effects of this distemper, when it continues long. It eminently weakens the sight, and sinks the spirit. All chronical diseases are here included in the consumption, all acute in the burning ague or fever.

Verse 16. I will even appoint over you terror, &c.] How dreadful is this curse! A whole train of evils are here personified and appointed to be the governors of a disobedient people. Terror is to be one of their keepers. How awful a state! to be continually under the influence of dismay, feeling indescribable evils, and fearing worse! Consumption, tpjv shachepheth, generally allowed to be some kind of atrophy or marasmus, by which the flesh was consumed, and the whole body dried up by raging fever through lack of sustenance. See Clarke’s note on “Leviticus 11:16”. How circumstantially were all these threatenings fulfilled in this disobedient and rebellious people! Let a deist read over this chapter and compare it with the state of the Jews since the days of Vespasian, and then let him doubt the authenticity of this word if he can.

Verse 16. I will appoint over you terror — The original word, hlhb, behalah, properly signifies a sudden and grievous consternation, and may be intended to denote that slavish fear, pusillanimity, and dejection which are consequent on the loss of confidence in God, and the testimony of a good conscience. Consumption — The word tpjv, shachpeth, thus rendered here, and Deuteronomy 28:22, is of very uncertain signification. In the Septuagint it is translated ywran, psoran, a scab, scall, the itch, or some cutaneous eruption, perhaps the small pox, or some such grievous complaint. The burning ague (or fever, as the word tjdq, kaddachath evidently signifies) that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart — Two remarkable effects of this distemper, when it continues long. It eminently weakens the sight, and sinks the spirits. All chronical diseases are here included in the consumption, all acute in the burning ague or fever.

16. Appoint over you — This is the very verb used to indicate that Potiphar made Joseph overseer in his house. Genesis 39:5. They who throw off allegiance to Jehovah will fall under the dominion of the ministers of his vengeance who, as the satraps of the rejected king, shall rule these rebels with the utmost rigour till they sue for pardon and peace. Terror — Appalling fear, ever present by day and by night — a state of the utmost insecurity and alarm, of which the subjects of a stable and strong government in time of peace have no conception. Consumption — Emaciation naturally results from terror. Many a culprit, carrying a guilty secret in his bosom, has been wasted to a skeleton. The burning ague — Rather, the burning of fever. See R.V. When a tide of fire courses through the veins, the helpless victim realizes that he is under the rod of Omnipotence. Consume the eyes — The eye is the organ of grief. When sunken, it indicates extreme and long-continued suffering. Sorrow of heart — Causing the soul to grieve. The entire being, soul and body, shall be the vehicle of anguish. Ye shall sow… in vain — The insecurity of the people in some portions of the Holy Land, especially east of the Jordan, even now destroys the motive to activity in agriculture and turns the fertile plains into a desert.

17. I will set my face — By direct interposition, in addition to those ministers of his wrath, will Jehovah vindicate his broken covenant and punish his refractory people. Ye shall flee — So great is the contrast in war between those obedient to God and the disobedient, that instead of one chasing a thousand, a thousand godless Hebrews shall flee when not even one enemy pursues.

Ver. 18. Seven times. This phrase, often used in the scriptures, signifies the visiting of the long accumulated load of guilt upon a hardened people.

18. Seven times more — Seven typifies perfection. The chastisement will be complete. The resources of Jehovah are infinite, and he has the cycles of eternity for their development. For your sins — National sins are punished in this world, because nations do not exist after death. Individual sinners are reserved unto the day of judgment to be punished.

V. 19. The pride of your power-That is, your strength of which you are proud, your numerous and united forces, your kingdom, yea, your ark and sanctuary. I will make your heaven as iron-The heavens shall yield you no rain, nor the earth fruits.

Verses 19, 20. The pride of your power — That is, your strength, of which you are proud, your numerous and united forces, your kingdom, yea, your ark and sanctuary. I will make your heaven as iron — The heavens shall yield you no rain, nor the earth, fruits. Your strength shall be spent in vain — In ploughing, and sowing, and tilling the ground.

19, 20. Pride of… power — The conceit of national puissance, which is so unlike the spirit of dependence and humility, must be eradicated by painful methods. Heaven as iron — The rain promised to the obedient shall be withheld from the disobedient. See verse 4, note. Earth as brass — Through lack of water the fields will be as void of herbage as if metallic. They shall yield no increase under the divine curse, in amazing contrast to the plethoric garners promised in verses 4 and 5. In respect to spiritual good, the same contrast exists now between those who distrust and those who fully believe the promise of the Father respecting the gift of the Holy Ghost.

V. 20. In vain-in plowing, and sowing, and tilling the ground.

Verses 19, 20. The pride of your power — That is, your strength, of which you are proud, your numerous and united forces, your kingdom, yea, your ark and sanctuary. I will make your heaven as iron — The heavens shall yield you no rain, nor the earth, fruits. Your strength shall be spent in vain — In ploughing, and sowing, and tilling the ground.

19, 20. Pride of… power — The conceit of national puissance, which is so unlike the spirit of dependence and humility, must be eradicated by painful methods. Heaven as iron — The rain promised to the obedient shall be withheld from the disobedient. See verse 4, note. Earth as brass — Through lack of water the fields will be as void of herbage as if metallic. They shall yield no increase under the divine curse, in amazing contrast to the plethoric garners promised in verses 4 and 5. In respect to spiritual good, the same contrast exists now between those who distrust and those who fully believe the promise of the Father respecting the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Verse 21. If ye walk contrary to me — Hebrews yrq, keri, from hrq, karah, it happened. If ye walk with me by accident, or chance, or, as it happens. The ancient versions, however, favour our translation: according to which rendering, the word implies contumacy, or continuing to rebel against God after he should chastise them for their sins, Job 15:25. The Jews follow the other sense, and expound it of those who, when they are afflicted by God, look on their sufferings as casual and contingent things, rather than as divine chastisements, to correct, amend, and bring them to repentance. Seven times more plagues — I will visit your obstinate impenitence with new and more grievous plagues.

21. Walk contrary unto me — Literally, go into encounter with me. Sin against the divine law is collision with the divine Person. Hence pantheism, in teaching the impersonality of God, destroys the sense of the guilt of sin. Plagues — Smitings. Not merely natural consequences of disobedience, but positive inflictions. The more aggravated the sin, the more severe the chastisement, though even then not equal to the demerit of their transgression. According to your sins — All this is spoken of temporal inflictions, else the nation had perished. See Psalm 130:3.

Verse 22. I will also send wild beasts among you] God fulfilled these threatenings at different times. He sent fiery SERPENTS among them, Numbers 21:6; LIONS, 2 Kings 17:25; BEARS, 2 Kings 2:24, and threatened them with total desolation, so that their land should be overrun with wild beasts, &c., see Ezekiel 5:17. “Spiritually,” says Mr. Ainsworth, “these are wicked rulers and tyrants that kill and spoil, Proverbs 28:15; Daniel 7:3-6; Psalm 80:13; and false prophets that devour souls, Matthew 7:15; Revelation 13:1, &c. So the prophet, speaking of their punishment by tyrants, says: A LION out of the forest shall slay them; a WOLF of the evening shall spoil them; a LEOPARD shall watch over their cities; every one that goeth out thence shall be torn to pieces, because their transgressions be many. And of their prophets it is said: O Israel, thy prophets are like FOXES in the deserts, Ezekiel 13:4; Jeremiah 8:17; 15:3.”

Ver. 22. Wild beasts shall rob you of your children. The LXX have omitted children, probably because they understood them to be included in the destruction of the people and the cattle. Though their commission be special here; yet there are physical causes for the irruptions of wild beasts. Cold drives the wolf from the northern region in quest of food, and thirst in the droughty summers attracts the lion to the river.

22. Wild beasts — As the promise includes the extinction of destructive beasts out of the land, so the threatening includes their multiplication and their importation from surrounding countries, as the following words imply. I will send — Before the invention of fire arms wild beasts frequently became a great scourge by their enormous increase. Rob you of your children — So frequently are children destroyed by wild beasts in India that the English government in their mortality reports in the census tables have a column for the enumeration of the “wolf-eaten” children. A disturbance of “the balance of the power,” by a diminution of men and an increase of wolves, would become a calamity of gigantic dimensions. Your highways shall be desolate — There can be no more impressive description of national decay than the disuse and desolation of the thoroughfares through which commerce and social intercourse have ceased to move their busy feet, by reason of the decrease of population, the decline of business, the perils of travel, (see Judges 5:6, note,) and the absence of worshippers going up to the place of worship. Lamentations 1:4.

23. If ye will not be reformed — The natural evil, or suffering, entailed in this world by moral evil, or sin, is corrective and not strictly penal. In this life it is of the nature of a purgative in its design; in the life to come it is a punishment, not for the amendment of the convict but for the conservation of the moral order of the universe, and hence a blessing when thus broadly viewed.

Verse 24. I will walk contrary to you — Hebrews I will walk with you by chance; an Hebraism, importing that God would seem to leave their affairs in apparent disorder, as if they were no more the objects of his providential care. To those who regard not the operation of God’s hands, he appears unconcerned about human affairs; but those who have spiritual discernment, and understand the secret ways of providence, will see reason to believe that there is a spirit within, full of eyes, which guides and directs the wheels of that vast machine, even where others discern nothing but irregularity and confusion.

THREATENINGS AGAINST DISOBEDIENCE, 14-39.

Law is necessary to government. But we can no more have law without penalty than we can have a coin without a reverse side. Accountability implies free agents, with intelligence sufficient to apprehend the consequences of actions in the form of rewards and punishments distinctly announced beforehand. The seasonableness and the clearness of this announcement enhance the guiltiness of transgression and intensify the punishment. This graphic portrayal of the issues of disobedience leaves rebellious Israel without excuse. “This graduated advance of the judgments of God is so depicted in the following passage that four times in succession new and multiplied punishments are announced: 1) Utter barrenness in their land, that is to say, one heavier punishment, verses 18-20; 2) the extermination of their cattle by beasts of prey, and childlessness — two punishments, verses 21-22; 3) war, plague, and famine — three punishments, verses 23-26; 4) the destruction of all idolatrous abominations, the overthrow of their towns and holy places, the devastation of the land, and the dispersion of the people among the heathen — four punishments — which would bring the Israelites to the verge of destruction, verses 27-33. These divine threats embrace the whole of Israel’s future.” — Keil and Delitzsch.

14. Not hearken… not do — A refusal to give undivided attention and earnest heed to the law of God by the proper use of our perceptive and reflective powers is as culpable as wilful disobedience, inasmuch as it implies a disregard of the divine authority. The most solemn and frequent injunction of Christ was this, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” It is worthy of remark that the process of apostasy begins with sins of omission, and in the next verse ends with sins of commission.

V. 25. The quarrel of my covenant-That is, my quarrel with you for your breach of your covenant made with me.

Verse 25. To avenge the quarrel of my covenant — That is, my quarrel with you for your breach of your covenant made with me. When you are gathered — Hebrews And ye shall be gathered into your cities, &c.; that is, you shall not dare to abide in the country, but shall be forced to flee from the sword of your enemies into your fortified towns, and leave your villages a prey to them.

25. Avenge the quarrel of my covenant — Literally, avenging the covenant of vengeance. The R.V., “Execute the vengeance of the covenant.” This was a punishment inflicted for breaking the covenant, and it was graduated, in severity, to the richness of covenant blessings forfeited by apostasy. “It may be reverently said that God does not deal carelessly with his own covenants. He does not throw them away, and take no further heed of their operation. In the sense of looking after his word and observing its issues he may be described in Old Testament language as a ‘jealous God.’” — Joseph Parker. The Abrahamic covenant is here personified as a friend of God claiming vindication against the neglect and abuse of godless men. Sin changes the covenant of grace into the covenant of vengeance, and the love of the Saviour into “the wrath of the Lamb.” Revelation 6:16.

V. 26. When I have broken the staff of your bread-By sending a famine or scarcity of bread, which is the staff and support of man’s present life. Ten women-That is, ten or many families, for the women took care for the bread and food of all the family. By weight-This is a sign and consequence both of a famine, and of the baking of the bread of several families together in one oven, wherein each family took care to weigh their bread, and to receive the same proportion which they put in.

Verse 26. Ten women shall bake your bread in one oven] Though in general every family in the East bakes its own bread, yet there are some public bakehouses where the bread of several families is baked at a certain price. Moses here foretells that the desolation should be so great and the want so pressing that there should be many idle hands to be employed, many mouths to be fed, and very little for each: Ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, &c.

Verse 26. When I have broken the staff of your bread — By sending a famine, or scarcity of bread, which is the staff and support of man’s present life. Ten women — That is, ten or many families, for the women took care for the bread and food of all the family. By weight — This is a sign and consequence both of a famine, and of the baking of the bread of several families together in one oven, wherein each family took care to weigh their bread, and to receive the same proportion which they put in.

26. The staff of bread — Bread is called “the staff of life,” because it is man’s chief sustenance. By famine this staff is broken. Ten women… one oven — The oven which commonly was sufficient for the use of one woman will hold the diminutive loaves of ten. By weight — So severe shall be the famine that wretchedly small rations shall be weighed out by the ounce. Hunger shall be aggravated and shall not be satisfied. In the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans many of the rich sold all they had for one measure of wheat, and the poor gave all their possessions for a measure of barley. Then shutting themselves up in the inmost rooms of their house they ate it, some without grinding, others made bread, and snatched it out of the fire half-baked, in their haste to banish the gnawings of hunger. Children pulled the morsels that their fathers were eating out of their very mouths, and so did the mothers to their infants.

THREATENINGS AGAINST DISOBEDIENCE, 14-39.

Law is necessary to government. But we can no more have law without penalty than we can have a coin without a reverse side. Accountability implies free agents, with intelligence sufficient to apprehend the consequences of actions in the form of rewards and punishments distinctly announced beforehand. The seasonableness and the clearness of this announcement enhance the guiltiness of transgression and intensify the punishment. This graphic portrayal of the issues of disobedience leaves rebellious Israel without excuse. “This graduated advance of the judgments of God is so depicted in the following passage that four times in succession new and multiplied punishments are announced: 1) Utter barrenness in their land, that is to say, one heavier punishment, verses 18-20; 2) the extermination of their cattle by beasts of prey, and childlessness — two punishments, verses 21-22; 3) war, plague, and famine — three punishments, verses 23-26; 4) the destruction of all idolatrous abominations, the overthrow of their towns and holy places, the devastation of the land, and the dispersion of the people among the heathen — four punishments — which would bring the Israelites to the verge of destruction, verses 27-33. These divine threats embrace the whole of Israel’s future.” — Keil and Delitzsch.

14. Not hearken… not do — A refusal to give undivided attention and earnest heed to the law of God by the proper use of our perceptive and reflective powers is as culpable as wilful disobedience, inasmuch as it implies a disregard of the divine authority. The most solemn and frequent injunction of Christ was this, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” It is worthy of remark that the process of apostasy begins with sins of omission, and in the next verse ends with sins of commission.

Verse 28. I will walk contrary to you in fury, &c. — Your obstinate contempt of my laws shall be punished with new and more grievous plagues; which was fulfilled in their captivity in the days of Manasseh, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah. For these latter calamities were at least seven times greater, both for extent and duration, than the former which they suffered from the Philistines and neighbouring nations.

28. In fury — Hebrews, in the heat of encountering. Fury, as implying a perturbed and excited malevolence, is not predicable of Jehovah. Yet as a species of anthropomorphism, to convey in a vivid manner the intense activity of the divine justice against impenitent and defiant Israel, it is admissible. Even I — This seems to imply the direct interposition of the divine hand without the employment of secondary causes. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

V. 29. The flesh of your sons-Through extreme hunger. See Lamentations 4:10.

Verse 29. Ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, &c.] This was literally fulfilled at the siege of Jerusalem. Josephus, WARS of the Jews, book vii., chap. ii., gives us a particular instance in dreadful detail of a woman named Mary, who, in the extremity of the famine during the siege, killed her sucking child, roasted, and had eaten part of it when discovered by the soldiers! See this threatened, Jeremiah 19:9.

Verse 29. Ye shall eat the flesh of your sons — Through extreme hunger. This is the very utmost calamity that could come upon a people. See it described at large, and in the most lively colours, Deuteronomy 28:53-

57. It was fulfilled, first in the siege of Samaria, 2 Kings 6:29; next in the siege of Jerusalem before the Babylonish captivity, Lamentations 4:10; and finally, in the last destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans.

Ver. 29. Eat the flesh of your sons. This calamity came upon them when Benhadad besieged Samaria, 2 Kings 6; when the Babylonians besieged Jerusalem, Lamentations 4:10; and when the Romans also besieged it, as is most lamentably recorded by Josephus.

29. Ye shall eat the flesh of your sons — This awful prediction was literally fulfilled in the siege of Jerusalem by Titus and the Roman army. Mary of Perea, a woman of high birth and great wealth, was so maddened by hunger that she killed, roasted, and ate one half of her sucking child. See Josephus, book vi, chap. 3:4.

V. 30. High places-In which you will sacrifice after the manner of the Heathens. The carcases of your idols-So he calls them, either to signify that their idols how specious soever or glorious in their eyes, were in truth but lifeless and contemptible carcases; or to shew that their idols should be so far from helping them, that they should be thrown down and broken with them, and both should lie together in a forlorn and loathsome state.

Verse 30. Your high places — In which you will sacrifice after the manner of the heathen. And cut down your images — µkynmj, chamanechem; some would translate this, your temples of the sun; from hmj, chammah, heat, or the sun. But although they worshipped the host of heaven, 2 Kings 17:16; and 2 Chronicles 33:3-5; and we read of altars dedicated to them, and of horses and chariots of the sun, 2 Kings 23:11; it does not appear that they ever had any temples dedicated to the sun, unless the chariots of the sun might be so called, which some have understood to be domus vel sacella facta instar curruum, little chapels made after the form of chariots. Buxtorf renders the word, translated images in this verse, subdiales statuæ, statues placed in the open air, and exposed to the sun; and quotes R. Salomon as describing them to be images which they placed on the roofs of their houses, and termed µynmj, chammanim. Carcasses of your idols — Hebrews your dung-hill idols, from llg galal, dung. Le Clerc understands it of those animals which the Israelites had worshipped, in imitation of the Egyptians; and is of opinion, that God here threatens, that if ever they relapsed into that beastly idolatry, their carcasses should be shamefully exposed in the streets with the carcasses of their idols. But the word carcasses may signify the ruins of their idols in general; the broken pieces of their images. Or this word may be made use of to signify that their idols, how specious soever, or glorious in their eyes, were in truth but lifeless and contemptible carcasses, and should be so far from helping them, that they should be thrown down and broken with them, and both should lie together in a forlorn and loathsome state. See a similar threatening, Ezekiel 6:4, 5-13; and Jeremiah 8:1, 2. It was in part fulfilled by Josiah, 2 Chronicles 34:5; and 2 Kings 23:20.

30. I will destroy your high places — These were probably artificial eminences on which idol worshippers set up the statues of their gods. Images — These were sun-pillars or sun-statues, standing on the altars of Baal. Your carcasses shall be denied decent sepulture, and shall share the shame of your dethroned idols.

V. 31. Sanctuaries-God’s sanctuary, called sanctuaries here, as also Psalm 73:17 74:7 Jeremiah 51:51 Ezekiel 28:18, because there were divers apartments in it, each of which was a sanctuary, or, which is all one, an holy place, as they are severally called. And yours emphatically, not mine, for I disown and abhor it, and all the services you do in it, because you have defiled it. I will not smell-Not own or accept them. Your sweet odours-Either of the incense, or of your sacrifices, which when offered with faith and obedience, are sweet and acceptable to me.

Verse 31. Your sanctuaries into desolation — The sanctuary of God, though but one, is expressed in the plural number here, as it is also Psalm 73:17; and 84:7; Jeremiah 51:51; and Ezekiel 28:18; because there were divers apartments in it, each of which was a sanctuary, or holy place. God vouchsafes not to call it his own, but theirs, to show that by their wickedness it would be polluted and rendered unworthy of him, and that therefore he would disown and abhor it, and all the services which they should perform in it; which was most awfully fulfilled. The savour of your sweet odours — The incense made of several sweet spices, which was daily offered to God in the sanctuary. These, though when offered to God with faith and obedience they were sweet and acceptable to him, he here threatens he will not smell, or accept, as being presented in hypocrisy and unbelief. The expression is metaphorical, and signifies that neither their prayers nor sacrifices should be accepted.

31. I will make your cities waste — Palestine is filled with ruined cities. Says Porter, in his Giant Cities of Bashan: “Every opening to the right and left revealed ruins; now a tomb in a quiet nook; now a temple in a lonely forest glade; now a shapeless and nameless heap of stones and fallen columns; and now, through a long green vista, the shattered walls and towers of an ancient city. The country is filled with ruins. In every direction to which the eye turns, in every spot on which it rests, ruins are visible — so truly, so wonderfully, have the prophecies been fulfilled. Every view we got in Bashan was an ocular demonstration of the literal fulfilment of the curse pronounced on the land by Moses more than three thousand years ago. One day I climbed a peak which commands the sea of Galilee and the Jordan valley up to the waters of Merom. I was able to distinguish, by the aid of a glass, in a region thirty miles long by ten wide, every spot celebrated in sacred history. My eye swept the sea from north to south, from east to west; not a single sail, not a solitary boat, was there. My eye swept the great Jordan valley, the little plains, the glens, the mountain sides from base to summit — not a city, not a village, not a house, not a sign of settled habitation was there, except a few huts at Magdala and the shattered houses of Tiberias. Desolation keeps unbroken sabbath in Galilee now. Nature has lavished on the country some of her choicest gifts — a rich soil, a genial climate — but the curse of Heaven has come upon it because of the sin of man.” Keith, after enumerating a large number of celebrated cities in the Holy Land lying in utter desolation, exclaims: “How marvellously are the predictions of their desolation verified, when, in general, nothing but ruined ruins form the most distinguished remnants of the cities of Israel; and when the multitude of its towns are almost all left, with many a vestige to testify of their number, but without a mark to tell their name.” Your sanctuaries — By the use of the plural number there may be an implied reference to idolatrous temples, but it is more probable that the future sanctuary cities, Bethel, Shiloh, and Jerusalem, are proleptically referred to, including the numerous synagogues scattered over the land. I will not smell the savour — In other words, “I will not smell with pleasure, 1 will not enjoy, the savour of your sweet odours.” Only the penitent, obedient, and devout heart can please God or appropriate spiritual good. The mere mechanical performance of sacrifice and burning of incense, dissevered from the appropriate state of the moral and religious sensibilities, is a solemn mockery and abomination. See Introductory notes 7 and 8. Isaiah 1:11-15.

V. 32. Who dwell therein-Having driven you out and possessed your places.

Verses 32, 33. Your enemies which dwell therein — Having driven you out, and possessed your places; shall be astonished at it — A strong expression, to denote the dreadfulness of their calamity, at which their very enemies should stand amazed. A sword after you — The sword shall follow you into strange lands, and you shall have no rest there.

32. Desolation — “When Elisha came up the defile from Jericho to Bethel, forests clothed the surrounding heights, (2 Kings 2:24;) now there is not a tree. Vineyards then covered the terraced sides of glen and hill, from base to summit. They have all disappeared. Cities and fortresses, in the days of Israel’s power, crowned every peak and studded every ridge; shapeless mounds now mark their desolated sites.” — Porter. A fact still more remarkable is, the discovery of cities in Bashan with houses as perfect as if finished only yesterday, and yet without an inhabitant. Porter, from the battlements of the castle of Scalah, “counted thirty towns and villages, many of them almost as perfect as when they were built, and yet for more than five centuries there has not been a single inhabitant in one of them.” Your enemies… shall be astonished — Not only are the Bedouins, who occasionally encamp in these cities of eastern Palestine, astonished at their utter solitude, but “the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall (do) say when they see the plagues of that land… even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath. the Lord done thus unto this land? What meaneth the heat of this great anger?” Deuteronomy 29:22-24.

V. 33. After you-The sword shall follow you into strange lands, and you shall have no rest there.

Verses 32, 33. Your enemies which dwell therein — Having driven you out, and possessed your places; shall be astonished at it — A strong expression, to denote the dreadfulness of their calamity, at which their very enemies should stand amazed. A sword after you — The sword shall follow you into strange lands, and you shall have no rest there.

33. I will scatter you — This admonitory prophecy looks beyond the captivity of Israel in Babylon, its first fulfilment, to that world-wide dispersion which began at the destruction of Jerusalem and continues to this day, a miracle of national life perpetuated in spite of all opposing forces and destructive agencies, a people “scattered and peeled,” dwelling in every nation, yet resisting absorption and assimilation. “THE DISPERSION” was the general title applied to those Jews who remained in foreign countries after the return from Babylon, during the period of the second temple. Most of them were in bondage, and shut out from the full privileges of the chosen race. John 7:35; James 1:1, notes. There are legends pointing to settlements of Jews in Arabia, Ethiopia and Abyssinia. At the beginning of the Christian era the “dispersion” was divided into three great sections — the Babylonian, the Syrian, and the Egyptian. For the breadth of the dispersion, see Acts 2:9-11, note. Its influence on the rapid promulgation of Christianity can scarcely be overrated. The course of apostolic preaching follows, in a regular progress, the line of Jewish settlements. Thus the wickedness of Israel was overruled for the furtherance of the Gospel.

V. 34. The land shall enjoy her sabbaths-It shall enjoy those sabbatical years of rest from tillage, which you through covetousness would not give it.

Verse 34. Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths] This Houbigant observes to be a historical truth.-“From Saul to the Babylonish captivity are numbered about four hundred and ninety years, during which period there were seventy Sabbaths of years; for 7, multiplied by 70, make 490. Now the Babylonish captivity lasted seventy years, and during that time the land of Israel rested. Therefore the land rested just as many years in the Babylonish captivity, as it should have rested Sabbaths if the Jews had observed the laws relative to the Sabbaths of the land.” This is a most remarkable fact, and deserves to be particularly noticed, as a most literal fulfilment of the prophetic declaration in this verse: Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies’ land.

May it not be argued from this that the law concerning the Sabbatical year was observed till Saul’s time, as it is only after this period the land enjoyed its rest in the seventy years’ captivity? And if that breach of the law was thus punished, may it not be presumed it had been fulfilled till then, or else the captivity would have lasted longer, i.e., till the land had enjoyed all its rests, of which it had ever been thus deprived?

Verse 34. The land shall enjoy her sabbaths — It shall enjoy those sabbatical years of rest from tillage, which you, through covetousness, would not give it: a most seasonable warning this. Jeremiah complains, that in his time they had contemned the ordinance of God respecting the septennial sabbaths, and had not given their servants liberty, (Jeremiah 34:17,) and gives this as one cause of their being delivered to slavery, Lamentations 1:3. And this is expressly mentioned as a principal reason of their seventy years captivity, 2 Chronicles 36:21.

34. Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths — The sabbatical years are here referred to. Probably from the death of Joshua to the time of the Babylonish captivity, seventy of the years of rest had been neglected. During the seventy years in Babylon the land of Canaan had a period of rest equivalent to the number of which it had been defrauded by the disobedience of the Hebrews.

35. Because it did not rest — The divine government has its compensations. What it does not receive as a willing offering it extorts in the form of penalty. The riches gained by unlawfully tilling the soil during these sabbatic years were wasted in the captivity, and the despised law received its due in one payment.

Verse 36. The sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them — A very significant phrase, importing that they should sink into a state of the most slavish fear and despicable cowardice.

36. The sound of a shaken leaf — The Hebrew is more poetical, the voice of a driven leaf. “So wrong doing is never blessed. Even when men appear to succeed and to save themselves alive, their success is partial, and may only create an opportunity for further divine judgment. Do not suppose that men are successful simply because they are living. A man may have escaped the sea only to die a more terrible death on land. Marvellous are the judicial resources of God. We have an indication here of a law to whose subtle force many men can testify. Fear takes away all power, and turns the most dauntless soldier into a coward.” — Joseph Parker. No expression could more vividly portray the perpetual terror, the distressing alarm, of the poor captives. In the lands of their enemies — In the Orient, outside of the Hebrew theocracy, slaves had no civil rights. Even under Roman law the master with impunity could chop up his slaves into mince meat for his fish ponds if he should choose. After the return from Babylon four different dynasties obtained the supremacy of the land of Canaan. The dominion of Persia was from 536 to 333 B.C.; of Greece, from 333 to 167 B.C.; of the Asmoneans, from 167 to 63 B.C.; of the Herods under Rome, from 40 B.C., to 70 A.D.

V. 37. When none pursueth-Your guilt and fear causing you to imagine that they do pursue when indeed they do not.

THREATENINGS AGAINST DISOBEDIENCE, 14-39.

Law is necessary to government. But we can no more have law without penalty than we can have a coin without a reverse side. Accountability implies free agents, with intelligence sufficient to apprehend the consequences of actions in the form of rewards and punishments distinctly announced beforehand. The seasonableness and the clearness of this announcement enhance the guiltiness of transgression and intensify the punishment. This graphic portrayal of the issues of disobedience leaves rebellious Israel without excuse. “This graduated advance of the judgments of God is so depicted in the following passage that four times in succession new and multiplied punishments are announced: 1) Utter barrenness in their land, that is to say, one heavier punishment, verses 18-20; 2) the extermination of their cattle by beasts of prey, and childlessness — two punishments, verses 21-22; 3) war, plague, and famine — three punishments, verses 23-26; 4) the destruction of all idolatrous abominations, the overthrow of their towns and holy places, the devastation of the land, and the dispersion of the people among the heathen — four punishments — which would bring the Israelites to the verge of destruction, verses 27-33. These divine threats embrace the whole of Israel’s future.” — Keil and Delitzsch.

14. Not hearken… not do — A refusal to give undivided attention and earnest heed to the law of God by the proper use of our perceptive and reflective powers is as culpable as wilful disobedience, inasmuch as it implies a disregard of the divine authority. The most solemn and frequent injunction of Christ was this, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” It is worthy of remark that the process of apostasy begins with sins of omission, and in the next verse ends with sins of commission.

Verse 38. The land of your enemies shall eat you up.] Does this refer to the total loss of the ten tribes? These are so completely swallowed up in some enemies’ land, that nothing concerning their existence or place of residence remains but mere conjecture.

38. Ye shall perish among the heathen — Says Josephus, in Wars of the Jews: “The number of those that were carried captive during this whole war was ninety-seven thousand, and the number that perished during the whole siege one million one hundred thousand, the greater part of whom were, indeed, of the same nation with the citizens of Jerusalem, but not belonging to the city itself; for they were come up from all the country to the feast of unleavened bread and were on a sudden shut up by an army.” So many were led away into captivity that the slave markets of the world were glutted, and, in exact accordance with prophecy, there was no man to buy them. Deuteronomy 28:68.

V. 39. Pine away-Be consumed and melt away by degrees through diseases, oppressions, griefs, and manifold miseries.

Verse 39. Shall pine away — Shall languish out the remainder of their days in bitter grief, and sad reflections upon the miseries which their own and their fathers’ complicated guilt has brought upon them; and hereby shall be consumed and melt away.

39. In the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine — For ten points of difference between the natural consequences of the parents’ sins and their punishment, see Exodus 20:5, note.

V. 40. If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they have trespassed against me-That is, with their prevarication with me and defection from me to idolatry, which by way of eminency he calls their trespass: and that also they have walked contrary to me, Leviticus 26:41, and that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies-That is, that they are not come into these calamities by chance, nor by the misfortune of war, but by my just judgment upon them. And, if then their uncircumcised, that is, impure, carnal, profane, and impenitent hearts be humbled, that is, subdued, purged, reformed: if to this confession they add sincere humiliation and reformation, I will do what follows.

MERCY AFTER JUDGMENTS — ISRAEL NOT UTTERLY DESTROYED, 40-46.

40. If they shall confess — Confession implies conviction of sin and sincere repentance. David said, “I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.” And the iniquity of their fathers — So far as they had endorsed the iniquity of their fathers, by approving and imitating it, they were in a modified sense guilty. Thus must we reprint not only of our actual sins but abhor their source, the poison stung into our nature by the transgression of our first parents. By so doing we obtain, through faith in Jesus Christ, not only justification from our personal sins, but the still greater blessing of entire sanctification from that corrupt state of heart which is technically called sin.

V. 41. If they accept of-The meaning is, if they sincerely acknowledge the righteousness of God and their own wickedness, and patiently submit to his correcting hand; if with David they are ready to say, it is good for them that they are afflicted, that they may learn God’s statutes, and yield obedience to them for the future, which is a good evidence of true repentance.

Verse 41. If they accept of — The meaning is, if they sincerely acknowledge the righteousness of God and their own wickedness, and patiently submit to his correcting hand; if, with David, they are ready to say, It is good for us that we are afflicted, that we may learn God’s statutes — And yield obedience to them for the future, which is a good evidence of true repentance.

41. And that… I have brought — Their captivity should be ascribed not merely to natural causes, after the style of the modern deist, but to the direct interposition of the personal God whose law had been broken. Uncircumcised hearts — Circumcision — “the putting away the filthiness of the flesh” — symbolizes the cleansing of the spiritual being through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Romans 2:29, note. Till this is accomplished, the people of God are uncircumcised in heart, and are very often in humiliating captivity to the world. For the entire Hebrew nation was in a true and vastly important sense a typical people, whose history is full of spiritual lessons to the Christian Church. Accept of the punishment — Recognise its justice and their own ill desert. The Hebrew verb ratsah is here used figuratively, and signifies to pay off, as a debt, and not, as Drs. Keil and Murphy render it, to enjoy.

V. 42. I will remember my covenant-So as to make good all that I have promised in it. For words of knowledge or remembrance in scripture, commonly denote affection and kindness. I will remember the land-Which now seems to be forgotten and despised, as if I had never chosen it to be the peculiar place of my presence and blessing.

Verse 42. I will remember my covenant — So as to make good all that I have promised in it. For words of knowledge or remembrance, in Scripture, commonly denote affection and kindness. I will remember the land — Which now seems to be forgotten and despised, as if I had never chosen it to be the peculiar place of my presence and blessing.

42. Will I remember — Memory cannot be properly predicated of the Omniscient — one with whom there is no succession of thoughts and no past nor future. He will surely bring to pass that which he has promised in the covenant with the patriarchs. Strictly speaking, God’s covenant with Abraham respecting the greatness of his seed was quite unconditional, except circumcision, and it amounts to a promise or an act of mere favour. See Galatians 3:15, 16, where epaggelia, promise, and diaqhkh, covenant, are used as synonymes.

MERCY AFTER JUDGMENTS — ISRAEL NOT UTTERLY DESTROYED, 40-46.

40. If they shall confess — Confession implies conviction of sin and sincere repentance. David said, “I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.” And the iniquity of their fathers — So far as they had endorsed the iniquity of their fathers, by approving and imitating it, they were in a modified sense guilty. Thus must we reprint not only of our actual sins but abhor their source, the poison stung into our nature by the transgression of our first parents. By so doing we obtain, through faith in Jesus Christ, not only justification from our personal sins, but the still greater blessing of entire sanctification from that corrupt state of heart which is technically called sin.

V. 44. For I am the Lord their God-Therefore neither the desperateness of their condition, nor the greatness of their sins, shall make me wholly make void my covenant with them and their ancestors, but I will in due time remember them for good, and for my covenant’s sake return to them in mercy. From this place the Jews take great comfort, and assure themselves of deliverance out of their present servitude and misery. And from this, and such other places, St. Paul concludes, that the Israelitish nation, tho’ then rejected and ruined, should be gathered again and restored.

Verse 44. Neither will I abhor them to destroy them utterly] Though God has literally fulfilled all his threatenings upon this people in dispossessing them of their land, destroying their polity, overturning their city, demolishing their temple, and scattering themselves over the face of the whole earth; yet he has, in his providence, strangely preserved them as a distinct people, and in very considerable numbers also. He still remembers the covenant of their ancestors, and in his providence and grace he has some very important design in their favour. All Israel shall yet be saved, and, with the Gentiles, they shall all be restored to his favour; and under Christ Jesus, the great Shepherd; become, with them, one grand everlasting fold.

Verse 44. For I am the Lord their God — Therefore neither the desperateness of their condition, nor the greatness of their sins, shall cause me wholly to make void my covenant with them and their ancestors, but I will in due time remember them for good, and for my covenant’s sake return to them in mercy. From this place the Jews take great comfort, and assure themselves of deliverance out of their present servitude and misery. And from this, and such other places, St. Paul concludes that the Israelitish nation, though then rejected and ruined, should be gathered again and restored.

44. Neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly — The purpose of Jehovah embraced the ultimate conversion to the Lord Jesus of that generation of Jews who should be on the earth when the fulness of the Gentiles has been brought to Christ. Towards this end the marvellous continuance of the Jews in their world-wide dispersion manifestly looks. See Luke 21:24; Romans 11:25, 26, notes. After the fulness of the Gentiles has been brought into the kingdom of Christ, so strong will be the faith of the Church that an era of great spiritual illumination will come, in which the seed of Abraham will be as powerfully converted as was Saul of Tarsus.

45. The covenant of their ancestors included certain earthly blessings of a national character, the trusteeship of the oracles of God, the adoption as his first-born, the glory, and the promises. All spiritual blessings in Christ are theirs, also, on condition of accepting him as their Messiah, and special providential care over Israel till that time. This promise is now in process of fulfilment in a most marvellous manner. The Jews have existed as a nation without a country and without a king more than eighteen centuries, resisting absorption into the nations among which they have been scattered, and assimilation to their character and faith.

V. 46. These are the laws which the Lord made between him and the children of Israel-Hereby his communion with his church is kept up. He manifests not only his dominion over them, but his favour to them, by giving them his law. And they manifest not only their holy fear, but their holy love by the observance of it. And thus it is made between them rather as a covenant than as a law: for he draws them with the cords of a man.

Verse 46. These are the statutes, and judgments, &c.] See Clarke on “Leviticus 26:15”. This verse appears to be the proper concluding verse of the whole book; and I rather think that the 27th chapter originally followed the 25th. As the law was anciently written upon skins of parchment, sheep or goat skins, pasted or stitched together, and all rolled up in one roll, the matter being written in columns, one of those columns might have been very easily displaced, and thus whole chapters might have been readily interchanged.—It is likely that this might have been the case in the present instance. Others endeavour to solve this difficulty, by supposing that the 27th chapter was added after the book had been finished; and therefore there is apparently a double conclusion, one at the end of the 26th and the other at the end of the 27th chapter. However the above may have been, all the ancient versions agree in concluding both the chapters in nearly the same way; yet the 26th chapter must be allowed to be by far the most natural conclusion of the book.

THE most important points in this chapter have already been particularly noticed in the notes; and to those on the 15th, 34th, and 44th verses, the reader is especially referred. How unwilling is God to cast off his people! and yet how sure is their rejection if they refuse to obey and live to him! No nation has ever been so signally elected as the Jews; and yet no nation has ever been so signally and so awfully reprobated. O Britain, be not high-minded, but fear! Behold here the goodness and severity of God! LEVITICUS

Verse 46. These are the statutes, &c. — This may reasonably refer to the whole body of laws contained in the preceding history from Exodus 20. And then the sense will be, that from that period to this, we have a complete detail of all the laws, with the promises and threatenings annexed to them, that were at that time delivered from God to the Israelites, at mount Sinai, by the ministry of Moses. Between him and the children of Israel — Hereby his communion with his church is kept up. He manifests not only his dominion over them, but his favour to them, by giving them his law. And they manifest not only their holy fear, but their holy love, by the observance of it. And thus it is made between them rather as a covenant than as a law: for he draws them with the cords of a man.

46. In mount Sinai — The whole Sinaitic peninsula is thus designated. It is not necessary to suppose that the whole of the ceremonial law was delivered on the summit of the mount where the decalogue was received. By the hand of Moses — Says Dr. Green, in his reply to W. Robertson Smith: “The Mosaic origin of the Levitical laws is abundantly declared by the formulas with which they are introduced, and which occur over and over again: The LORD spake unto Moses, or the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron; and the formulas by which they are often followed, for example, Leviticus 7:37, 38; 23:44; 27:34.”

CONCLUDING NOTE.

Kant remarks, that all the consequences arising from the transgression or observance of the divine commands are in Mosaisms limited to the present world. From this fact he infers that Judaism contains no religious belief, since we cannot conceive of a religion without faith in a future life. This is but the repetition of an old Mohammedan objection, that the Pentateuch which we now have could not have God for its author because there is not found in it any thing which pertains to eternal realities, as paradise, gehenna, and the last judgment. Hence the suggestion that this chapter was forged by the Jews. Bishop Warburton’s Reply is unsatisfactory. The substance of it is, that a religion which was not founded on the doctrine of immortality and the promise of eternal life must have been supported by the extraordinary providence of God, since, on the low level of Naturalism, civil government could not be supported without a religion teaching a future state of rewards and punishments. De Wette audaciously calls the Mosaic doctrine of retribution “a national delusion,” which rendered Israel vastly unhappy by engendering a gloomy view of life and destroying the fair harmony of man with the world, in which the Greek appears so nobly. J.D. Michaelis makes a fatal concession to the destructive rationalists and deists when he justifies the omission of the doctrine of future rewards and punishments on the ground that the whole Mosaic law was merely a civil institution. A much better reason for the omission of this doctrine in its fully developed form is, the fact that there is a progressive development of religious truth in the Old Testament as in the New. Israel in the wilderness was not ripe for this advanced doctrine. The notion of God’s holiness and justice must first be planted in the mind before faith in immortality could take root for any salutary purpose. Yet we find hints and germs of this doctrine of a future state of rewards and punishments scattered through the Pentateuch in the elevated position assigned to MAN, created the last and standing at the head of creation, wearing the image of God, who is a Spirit, and the object of his special care, to whom he reveals himself and styles himself their God; a relationship which is not cancelled by death, and which Christ teaches us involves the immortality of the soul. Matthew 22:31,

32. A hope of immortality, that is full of meaning, involving victory over death, is thus laid in the fellowship of man with God, the everliving. The imperishableness of this fellowship is felt to be sure, because God’s eternity secures the everlasting well-being of his people. “To him who has an eternal value for God an eternal existence is made sure.” — Oehler. The translation of Enoch also clearly involves this doctrine in its germinal form, and the doctrine of temporal retribution is a manifest preparation for it. Yet it must be admitted that there is an entire omission of the eternal consequences of unforgiven sin, which the experience of the gospel ministry shows is a powerful motive to repentance. Yet the dispensation of Mosaism is good, as far as it goes, just as each day’s work in the creation was pronounced good, though all was imperfect till the close of the sixth day. Says Hengstenberg: “It may be shown how a consideration of the Egyptian superstition, in which a false doctrine of immortality occupies so conspicuous a place, was first of all a motive to leave this field uncultivated, on which the best doctrine was exposed to be grossly misunderstood, and to be satisfied with laying a foundation for the true faith in immortality. It may be shown, that for the present the whole attention of the people was to be directed to temporal retribution, in order that when this had taken root, the faith in future retribution might spontaneously spring up. But the deficiencies of the Pentateuch in reference to the doctrine of immortality are not of a kind to endanger its character as a record of divine revelation.” The visible and temporal judgments of the Old Testament present impressive historical proof of Jehovah’s moral reign over the nations, which may be the necessary preparation of mankind to appreciate the New Testament revelation of retributions in the unseen and future world. It must be borne in mind that these are not suited to a theocratic government of men in this world. A temporal government must be upheld by temporal sanctions. The theocracy was national and temporal. Moses was well acquainted with the Egyptian doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and the future judgment followed by rewards and punishments, yet he did not incorporate them into the law since they belong to the sphere of theology rather than of legislation. It is to be noted that when Mosaism teaches that piety brings happiness and godlessness misery, this does not justify the inference that every misfortune springs from a sin and that every piece of good fortune springs from righteousness. For God sometimes shows patience towards the wicked, and spares them for the sake of the righteous, (Genesis 15:16; 28:26,) while the righteous are proved and purified by affliction, as in the history of Joseph. Earthly benefits of themselves do not make up life. The idea that a godless man possessing abundant external good things is really to be felicitated, cannot be entertained from the moral standpoint of Mosaism. Only the gracious presence of Jehovah can confer happiness. See verse 11, note. “A morality which rests on the basis of faith in the (national) elective grace and providential faithfulness of the covenant of God, and whose doctrine of good culminates in the prominence assigned to fellowship with God, cannot surely be accused of gross sensuous Eudaemonism — a false charge against the ethics of the Old Testament.” — Oehler.