Deuteronomy 19:1--22:8
destroys <03772> [hath cut.]
dispossess <03423> [succeedest. Heb. inheritest, or possessest.]
apart .... three cities <07969 05892 0914> [separate three cities.]
Unquestionably in imitation of these cities, the heathen had their {asyla,} and the Roman Catholics their privileged altars: and similar traditions seem to obtain in many barbarous nations, for "the North American Indian nations have most of them either a house or town of refuge, which is a sure asylum to protect a manslayer, or the unfortunate captive, if he once enter it. In almost every Indian nation, there are several towns, which are called old beloved, ancient, holy, or white towns, (white being their fixed emblem of peace, friendship, prosperity, happiness, purity, etc.) They seem to have been formerly towns of refuge; for it is not in the memory of the oldest people that human blood was shed in them."
pertaining <07523> [the slayer.]
<08032 08543> [in time past. Heb. from yesterday the third day.]
ax head <01270> [head. Heb. iron.]
wood ........... tree ......... handle <06086> [helve. Heb. wood. lighteth. Heb. findeth. he shall flee.]
avenger <01350> [the avenger.]
kill <05315 05221> [slay him. Heb. smite him in life. not worthy.]
accident <08032 08543> [in time past. Heb. from yesterday the third day.]
careful <08104> [If thou shalt.]
add <03254> [then shalt thou.]
person <0376> [But if any.]
him <05315> [mortally. Heb. in life.]
<05869> [Thine eye.]
purge <01197> [but thou.]
encroach <05253> [shalt not remove.]
Before the extensive use of fences, landed property was marked out by stones or posts, set up so as to ascertain the divisions of family estates. It was easy to remove one of these landmarks, and set it in a different place; and thus a dishonest man might enlarge his own estate by contracting that of his neighbour. Hence it was a matter of considerable importance to prevent this crime among the Israelites; among whom, removing them would be equivalent to forging, altering, destroying, or concealing the title-deeds of an estate among us. Accordingly, by the Mosaic law, it was not only prohibited in the commandment against covetousness, but we find a particular curse expressly annexed to it in ch. 27:17. Josephus considers this law a general prohibition, intended not only to protect private property, but also to preserve the boundaries of kingdoms and countries inviolable.
<06310> [at the mouth.]
false witness <05707 02555> [a false witness.]
crime <05627> [that which is wrong. or, falling away.]
thoroughly <03190> [diligent.]
do ......... do <06213> [Then shall.]
purge <01197> [so shalt.]
principle .......... eye .... eye <05869> [thine eye.]
life .... life <05315> [life shall.]
go <03318> [goest out.]
chariotry <05483> [horses.]
Lord <03068> [the Lord.]
fainthearted <03824> [let not.]
fainthearted <07401> [faint. Heb. be tender. tremble. Heb. make haste.]
terrified <06206> [be ye terrified.]
fight <03898> [to fight.]
officers <07860> [the officers.]
dedicated ............... dedicate <02596> [dedicated.]
benefited ................ benefit <02490 03212> [eaten of it. Heb. made it common.]
die <04191> [lest he die.]
engaged .... woman <0802 0781> [betrothed a wife.]
It was customary among the Jews to contract matrimony, espouse, or betroth, and for a considerable time to leave the parties in the houses of the respective parents; and when the bridegroom had made proper preparations, then the bride was brought home to his house, and the marriage consummated. The provisions in this verse refer to a case of this kind; though the Jews extend it to him who had newly consummated his marriage, and even to him who had married his brother's wife. It was deemed a peculiar hardship for a person to be obliged to go to battle, who had left a house unfinished, newly purchased land half tilled, or a wife with whom he had just contracted marriage.
die <04191> [lest he die.]
afraid <03373> [fearful.]
fellow <0251> [lest his brethren's.]
make ....... fearful <04549> [faint. Heb. melt.]
lead ... troops <07218 05971> [to lead the people. Heb. to be in the head of the people.]
offer it ... of <07121> [then proclaim.]
slaves <04522> [tributaries.]
kill <05221> [thou shalt smite.]
women <0802> [the women.]
spoil .... take <0962 0398> [take unto thyself. Heb. spoil. thou shalt eat.]
utterly annihilate them <02763> [thou shalt.]
Hittites <02850> [the Hittites.]
chop down .............. cut ... down <07843 03772> [thou shalt not.]
trees ................ tree <06086> [for the tree, etc. or, for, O man, the tree of the field is to be employed in the siege.]
The original is exceedingly difficult. The LXX. has it, "Is the tree in the field a man, to enter the trench before thee?" The Latin Vulgate: "For it is a tree, and not a man, neither can it increase the number of those who war against thee;" Onkelos, "For the tree of the field is not as a man, that it should come against thee in the siege;" and to the same purpose the Arabic, Philo, and Josephus who say, "If trees could speak, they would cry out, that it is unjust that they, who were no cause of the war, should suffer the miseries of it." However rendered, the sense is sufficiently clear: and it is a merciful provision to spare all the fruit trees for the support of both the besieged and besiegers.
<0935> [to employ, etc. Heb. to go from before thee.]
build <01129> [thou shalt build.]
falls <03381> [be subdued. Heb. come down.]
herd <01241> [an.]
wadi ... flowing water .............. wadi <05158 0386> [a rough valley.]
As the word {nachal} signifies both a torrent, and the valley or glen through which it flows, {nachal aithan} may be rendered a rapid torrent. Many torrents in Judea are dry during a great part of the year; when not only their banks but their beds may be ploughed, and yield a crop. Hence there is no impropriety in specifying that such a place should be one that "is neither cared nor sown;" while the circumstance that the elders were to wash their hands over the heifer, whose head had been struck off into the stream, confirms this interpretation. The spot of ground where this sacrifice was made must be uncultivated, because it was considered as a sacrifice for the atonement of murder, and, consequently, would pollute the land.
break the ... neck <06202> [shall strike.]
Lord <03068> [for them.]
<06310> [by their word.]
<06310> [word. Heb. mouth.]
wash ... hands <03027 07364> [wash their hands.]
Washing the hands was anciently a symbolical action, denoting that the person was innocent of the crime in question.
accountable ....... innocent <05414 05355> [lay not.]
people .................... person <05971> [unto thy people. Heb. in the midst.]
purge <01197> [shalt thou.]
do <06213> [when thou shalt.]
out <03318> [thou goest.]
wish <02836> [desire.]
take <03947> [that.]
shave <01548> [and she shall.]
This was in token of renouncing her religion, and becoming a proselyte to that of the Jews. This is still a custom in the East: when a Christian turns Mohammedan, his head is shaved, and he is carried through the city, crying, {la eelah eela allah wemochammed resoolu 'llahee,} "There is no God but the God, and Mohammed is the prophet of God."
nails <06856 06213> [pare her nails. or, suffer to grow. Heb. make, or dress.]
{W‰ƒsethah eth tzipparneyha,} "and she shall make her nails;" i.e., probably neither paring nor letting them grow, but dressing or beautifying them as the Eastern women still do by tinging them with the leaves of an odoriferous plant called {alhenna,} which Hasselquist (p. 246) informs us, "grows in India and in upper and lower Egypt, flowering from May to August. The leaves are pulverized and made into a paste with water: they bind this paste on the nails of their hands and feet, and keep it on all night. This gives them a deep yellow, which is greatly admired by Eastern nations. The colour lasts for three or four weeks before there is occasion to renew it. The custom is so ancient in Egypt, that I have seen the nails of mummies dyed in this manner."
lamenting <01058> [and bewail.]
let ... go .......... sell ...... take advantage <07971 04376 06014> [thou shalt.]
have ... humiliated <0834 06031> [because thou.]
two wives <0802 08147> [two wives.]
give <05414> [by giving.]
has <04672> [that he hath. Heb. that is found with him. the beginning.]
right <04941> [the right.]
stubborn <05637> [have a stubborn.]
attention <06963 08085> [obey the voice.]
discipline <03256> [when they.]
attention <08085> [will not.]
bring <03318> [and bring.]
attention <08085> [he will not.]
glutton <02151> [he is a glutton.]
<0582> [all the men.]
purge <01197> [so shalt thou.]
Israel <03478> [all Israel.]
punishable by death <04941 04194> [worthy of death. Heb. of the judgment of death.]
The Hebrews understand this not of putting to death by hanging, but of hanging a man up after he was stoned to death; which was done more ignominiously of some heinous malefactors. We have the examples of Rechab and Baanah, who, for murdering Ish-bosheth, were slain by David's commandment, their hand and feet cut off, and then hanged up.
[See also]
So in Nu 25:4, we read, "And the Lord said unto Moses, Take all the heads (chief men) of the people, and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel." Among the Romans, in after ages, they hanged, or rather fastened to the tree ALIVE; and such was the cruel death of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. .# 19:6 22:26 1Sa 26:16 Mt 26:66 Ac 23:29 25:11,25 26:31
hang <08518> [thou hang.]
exposed ...... cursed ... God ............ God <07045 0430 08518> [he that is hanged is accursed of God. Heb. the curse of God.]
That is, it is the highest degree of reproach that can attach to a man, and proclaims him under the curse of God as much as any external punishment can. They that see him thus hanging between heaven and earth, will conclude him abandoned of both, and unworthy of either. Bp. Patrick observes, that this passage is applied to the death of Christ; not only because he bare our sins and was exposed to shame, as these malefactors were that were accursed of God, but because he was in the evening taken down from the cursed tree and buried, (and that by the particular care of the Jews, with an eye to this law, Joh 19:31,) in token, that now the guilt being removed, the law was satisfied, as it was when the malefactors had hanged till sun-set: it demanded no more. Then he, and those that are his, ceased to be a curse. And as the land of Israel was pure and clean when the body was buried, so the church is washed and cleansed by the complete satisfaction which Christ thus made.
land <0127> [thy land.]
see ............... return ... without fail <07200 07725> [Thou shalt.]
ignore ..... return ... without fail <05956 07725> [hide thyself.]
return <07725> [thou shalt restore.]
help ... get <06965> [thou shalt surely.]
woman ...... clothing ......... women's <0802 03627> [woman shall not.]
offensive <08441> [abomination.]
chicks ....... bird <0667> [young ones.]
take <03947> [thou shalt not]
be sure ... let .... go <07971> [But thou shalt.]
The extirpation of any species of birds, whether edible or birds of prey, is often attended with serious consequences, and is always productive of evil; to prevent which was the object of this law. Palestine is situated in a climate producing poisonous snakes and scorpions, and between deserts and mountains, from which it would be inundated by them, as well as with immense swarms of flies, locusts, and mice, if the birds which feed upon them were extirpated. In a moral point of view, it may have been intended to inculcate a spirit of mercy and kindness, and to prevent the exercise of cruelty even towards a sparrow; for he who is guilty of such cruelty will, if circumstances be favourable, be cruel to his fellow-creatures.
well <03190> [that it may.]
long <0748> [thou mayest.]
construct <06213> [then thou shalt.]
The eastern houses being built with flat roofs, which were used for various purposed, as walking, sleeping, etc., it was therefore necessary to have a sort of battlement, or balustrade, to prevent accidents, by people falling off.
roof <01406> [thy roof.]
avoid <07760> [thou bring.]
