some other places, to be taken in a general thou hast sown, and the increase of thy meaning, and denotes any fertile tilled field; vineyards, become sacred.

and is equivalent to (see Rem. on Rosen. Ne devota sit plenitudo sementis, Lev. ii. 14); or that the precept goes to forbid i. e., quidquid in agro aut vinea creverit; ne the sowing of seeds of any kind in a vine- talis mixtura fructuum sancta fiat, i. e., ne yard, amongst the vines; and this, indeed, sacro fisco addicatur proventus talis agri aut seems inferable from what follows: "lest ye vineæ. profane the whole crop."

Ver. 11.

Rosen. hic est ager cultus. Locus e pr den No3 o'ngie

parall. Lev. xix. 19 habet , vertit ita quoque Syrus. Vocem hanc significationem hic habere, apparet etiam ex eo, quod vinea, uti vulgo solent vertere, Hebræis non seri ( quod h. 1. legitur), sed plantari (, cf. Gen. ix. 20) dicitur. With divers seeds, &c.

Pool. With divers seeds; either, 1. With divers kinds of seed mixed and sowed together between the rows of vines in thy

dabn

לא

οὐκ ἐνδύσῃ κίβδηλον, ἔρια καὶ λίνον ἐν τῷ av.

Au. Ver.-11 Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woollen and linen together.

See notes on Lev. xix. 19.

Ver. 12.

גְדִלִים תַּעֲשֶׂה לָךְ עַל־אַרְבַּע כַּנְפוֹת vineyard; which was forbidden to be done

Au. Ver.-12 Thou shalt make thee fringes [Numbers xv. 38] upon the four quarters [Heb., wings] of thy vesture, wherewith thou coverest thyself.

Thou shalt make thee fringes, &c. So Pool, Patrick, Rosen., Gesen.

in the field, Lev. xix. 19, and here in the vineyard. Or, 2. With any kind of seed differing from that of the vine, which would στρεπτὰ ποιήσεις σεαυτῷ ἐπὶ τῶν τεσσάρων produce either herbs, or corn, or fruit- κρασπέδων τῶν περιβολαίων σου, ἃ ἐὰν περιbearing trees, whose fruit might be mingled Bán év avtoîs. with the fruit of the vines. Now this and the two following precepts, though in themselves small and trivial, are given according to that time and state of the church, for documents or instructions in greater matters, and particularly to commend to them simplicity and sincerity in all their carriages Bp. Horsley.-Rather, “Thou shalt make towards God and men, and to forbid all thee tassels, upon the four corners of thy mixture of their inventions with God's in- covering, wherewith thou coverest thyself." stitutions, in doctrine or worship. The fruit Covering, i.e., the blanket or coverlid of the of thy seed, Heb., the fulness of thy seed, bed. So Houbigant understands this text. i. e., that seed when it is ripe and full. See It is quite different from the precept about Exod. xxii. 29; Numb. xviii. 27. Defiled; fringes on the garments, Numb. xv. 38. either, 1. Naturally corrupted or marred, Houb.-Lemniscos facies tibi ad quatuor whilst one seed draws away the fat and oras tegminis tui. Hæc aliis verbis internourishment of the earth from the other, pretamur, quam iis, quibus utebamur ad and so both are starved and spoiled. Or Num. xv. 38, quia Hebraica verba alia et rather, 2. Legally and morally, as being alia utrobique leguntur, ut facile credas, prohibited by God's law, and thereby made aliam nunc rem imperari; et postquam unclean; as, on the contrary, things are vetitum fuit, allegorico sermone, ne viri ac sanctified by God's word allowing and ap- mulieres contra naturæ usum commisceproving them, 1 Tim. iv. 5. Heb., be sanc-antur, nunc legem concludi præcepto eo, ut tified, or, be as a sanctified thing, by an quisque ad quatuor oras stragulæ, quâ ellipsis of the particle as, i. c., unlawful for lectulus tegitur, addat lemniscos, quibus the owner's use, as things sanctified were. admoneatur de castitate nocte servandâ, Or, sanctifying is put for polluting, by a quia flagitia mox velita noctis sunt et tenefigure called euphemismus, which is frequent brarum. in Scripture, as when blessing is put for cursing, as Job ii. 9, and in other authors, as when they use sacred for execrable. Booth.-Lest the crop of thy seed which

Ged., Booth.-12 Thou shalt make strings for [Geddes, affix tie-strings to] the four corners of thy bed-covering, with which thou coverest thyself.

Tie-strings.-, or rather, as it is in fifteen MSS., by LXX very properly rendered σтрeñτа, and by Vulg., funiculos. These strings or ribbons were, I conceive, to tie the coverlet to the bed-posts: which might be deemed the more necessary, as a whole family often slept in one chamber, on different beds, and these only covered with a single rug. See Harmer's Observations.Geddes.

Gesen. tantummodo in plur. D, m. fila intorta, opus tortile, v. rad., No. I.

5

He hath given occasions of speech. Prof. Lee., (a) Action. (b) An action: either, [1] A noble action, or [2] A wicked action. [2] Ezek. xx. 43; xxiv. 14; Zeph. iii. 11, &c. ribby at Dig, ascribed actions to her which have no existence except in his words, Deut. xxii. 14, 17.

Shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city.

Bp. Patrick.-Though such tokens of virginity, as are commonly understood by these words, might always be found in those countries (being very consonant to the opi

(Chald. 1973, filum funis, Syr. Po cin-nion of the chiefest Arabian physicians, as sh??, Po, cinni plexi, Arab. J, habena e loris plexa). Usurpatur 1) de peniculamentis () ex lege in oris vestium faciendis, Deut. xxii. 12. 2) de corollis pensilibus (Festons) in capitulis columnarum, 1 Reg.

جدول

con

Syr. flexuosus. Arab. J, torsio. Plattings not unlike chain-work. So 1 Kings vii. 17, ninthe nego ch, in con. with. Comp. Deut. xxii. 12. Iterum non occ. Gesenius makes it equivalent to the French Feston: for which I can discover no good grounds.

Rosen.-, funiculi, i.e., fimbria funiculis (Franzen) constans, 1 Reg. vii. 17; Num. xv. 38., Facere tibi licet. ie, In quatuor alis, sive extremitatibus vestimenti tui. Conf. Jes. xi. 12. Tunica Hebræorum videtur fuisse fissa a fronte et a tergo, unde nata quatuor extrema sive quatuor alæ.

בְּתוּלֵי בְתִּי

νῦν οὗτος ἐπιτίθησιν αὐτῇ προφασιστικούς λόγους, λέγων. οὐχ εὕρηκα τῇ θυγατρί σου παρθένια. καὶ ταῦτα τὰ παρθένια τῆς θυγατρός μου. καὶ ἀναπτύξουσι τὸ ἱμάτιον ἐναντίον τῆς γερουσίας τῆς πόλεως.

Mr. Selden observes out of Avicenna, and of the Africans and other people at this day, as many authors testify, see Joh. Geusius De Victimis Humanis, par. i., cap. 9, and par. ii., cap. 2, and Wierus L. Medicarum Observationum, sect. De Hymene), especially in such virgins as the Jews say were here meant, who were under thirteen years of age; and though all that some physicians and lawyers in these parts of the world have said to the contrary is of no consideration : yet there are weighty reasons to incline us to think, that no man of common sense would bring such an action against his wife, wherein he was sure to be cast, whether his cause was right or wrong, if these were the evidences whereby it was to be tried. For if he accused her falsely, he knew her friends were able to produce the sheet wherein they lay when they were married, with such tokens upon it as would disprove him, and render him guilty of defamation. And if he had a just ground to accuse her, because he knew they could produce no such tokens; yet this was no proof she had been vitiated since she was espoused to him; for she might have been corrupted before; and then he could not attain his end, which was to be rid of her, not by way of divorce (for

then he must have given her a dowry, which he was desirous to save), but by having her put to death as an adulteress, which ver. 21 shows to be the present case. Such evident reasons as these have constrained the Jews to understand these words, not according to the very letter of them, but figuratively, of Au. Ver.-17 And, lo, he hath given such witnesses produced by her parents, as occasions of speech against her, saying, I convinced the other of falsity so found not thy daughter a maid; and yet dently, that they made it appear as plainly these are the tokens of my daughter's vir- as a piece of cloth that is unfolded, and laid ginity. And they shall spread the cloth before men's eyes to view it. And they before the elders of the city. think the Hebrew word simlah, which we

evi

translate the cloth, favours this exposition; | dent from Exod. xii. 48; Lev. xxii. 18; for it never signifies a sheet, or linen cloth Numb. ix. 14; xv. 15), it were absurd to (which is wont to be called sadin, Judges think that any of the Israelites, for such a xiv. 12; Prov. xxxi. 24), but such cloth as natural or involuntary defect, should be shut men's garments are made of, which com-out from all God's ordinances; nor so that monly is woollen, not linen. And so it is they were to be put out of the muster-roll of used in this book, Deut. x. 18, and in this God's people, or to lose the privileges very chapter, ver. 5. So that the sense is, common to all Israelites, to wit, the benefit "They shall produce evident proofs, and of the year of release or jubilee, which it lay them before the court, like a piece of is not probable the Israelites were to forfeit cloth, which is spread for all that please to merely for this unculpable imperfection; look upon it." Whether this be the truth or but either, 1. That they should not be not, I will not dispute, but refer the reader incorporated into the body of Israel by to Mr. Selden, lib. iii. Uxor. Hebr., cap. 1, 2. marriage [so Bishop Patrick]; for so Dr. A. Clarke.-They shall spread the this phrase may seem to have been undercloth, &c.] A usage of this kind argues a stood by the whole congregation of Israel, roughness of manners which would ill com- Neh. xiii. 1-3, 23-25; although at that port with the refinement of European ideas time the government was in part in the on so delicate a subject. Attempts have hands of such persons as are here menbeen made to show that the law here is to be tioned, ver. 3, or of their children, seeing it understood metaphorically; but they so per- is apparent from Ezra x. that many priests fectly fail to establish anything like pro- and Levites and other officers and rulers of bability, that it would be wasting my own Israel were married to strange women, whose and my reader's time to detail them. A issue are by this law excluded from all share custom similar to that above is observed in the government, and for that, among among the Mohammedans to the present day. other reasons, Nehemiah separated them from Israel by virtue of the law here following. Or, 2. That they should not be admitted to honours and offices either in the church or commonwealth of Israel; and so

CHAP. XXIII. Au. Ver. 1; Heb. 2.

the congregation of the Lord doth not here

οὐκ εἰσελεύσεται θλαδίας, οὐδὲ ἀποκεκομ- signify, as commonly it doth, the body of μένος εἰς ἐκκλησίαν κυρίου.

Au. Ver. 1 He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD.

Wounded, &c.

the people, but the society of the elders or rulers of the people, who, as they represent the whole congregation, and act in their name, and for their service and good, so they are sometimes called by the name of the congregation, as Numb. xxxv. 12, 24, 25; Josh. xx. 6, 9; 1 Kings viii. 5, compared with ver. 1-3; and 1 Chron. xiii. 1, 2, 4; xxix. 1, 10, 20, compared with 1 Chron. xxviii. 1; xxix. 6; and of the conRosen.— pi ng 239, Mutilus congregation of God, as it is in the Hebrew of tritione aut abscissione testiculi. Videtur Psal. lxxxii. 1. Howsoever, seeing they are duplex fuisse ratio reddendi hominem gene-oft called the congregation, they may very rationi ineptum, vel testiculorum contritione, well be called in a special manner the convel eorum exsectione. Saltem hoc fiebat vervecibus, vid. Lev. xxii. 24.

Pool.-Heb., wounded by compression, or attrition, or contusion, to wit, of the stones, which was the course the Gentiles took with infants to make them eunuchs.

gregation of the Lord, because they were appointed by God, and act in his name and

Shall not enter into the congregation of the stead, and for his work and service, and did Lord.

also oft assemble near the tabernacle, where Pool.—This phrase cannot be understood God was eminently present. Add to this, so that they might not come into the church, that the Hebrew word kahal generally sigor holy assemblies, to worship God, to pray, nifies a congregation or company of men met or hear, &c., because proselytes of any together; and therefore this cannot so connation, being admitted to common churchveniently be meant of all the body of the privileges, no less than the Jews (as is evi-people, which could never meet in one

place, but of the chief rulers, which fre- on the other side, though they were unfit for quently did so. Nor is it strange that marriage, yet it appears by many instances eunuchs are excluded from government, in history, that they were not unfit for partly because such persons are commonly government, nor wanted courage for the observed to want that courage which is greatest undertakings. I need only refer the necessary for a governor, Exod. xviii. 21; reader for this to Xenophon's Cyropædia, and partly because as such persons ordi- lib. vii. narily were despicable, so the office and authority in their hands was likely to be exposed to the same contempt.

They that follow allegorical senses free themselves from all these difficulties (see Filesacus, lib. i. Selectorum, pp. 169, 185). But one cannot think that Moses intended any of those things; though such pious use may be made of his words.

Bp. Patrick.-Shall not enter into the congregation.] The meaning of this law is, either to forbid the Israelites to marry with such persons, or not to admit them to bear Bp. Horsley.-1 Shall not enter into the any office in the Jewish commonwealth. congregation of the Lord. He could not be The Hebrew doctors generally take it in the permitted to partake of the passover, or to first sense; see Selden, De Jure Nat. et make any offering, or enjoy any of the Gent, lib. v., cap. 16, and so do a great privileges civil or religious of a native Jew. many among Christian writers. And there This is certainly the true force of not being is an eminent example of the use of this permitted to enter into the congregation of phrase in this sense, Neh. xiii. 1—3. But Jehovah here and in the two following some think it was superfluous to forbid this, verses, notwithstanding that the Jewish because none would marry with such persons lawyers expounded the expression in a more as were incapable to perform the marriage confined sense. But such a person, I supduty; and therefore they follow the second pose, was admitted as a proselyte of the gate it being certain that the Hebrew to pray in the outer court. word kahal, congregation, signifies, in many places, not the whole body of the people of i. e., non habebitur Israelita, nec nomen Israel, but the great assembly of elders, cjus in censualibus libris scribetur. Ejusinto which no such person was to be ad- modi homini non licebat ducere Israëlitidem. mmitted; because they were unfit for govern- "Tum demum peregrinus habebatur civis ment, eunuchs being observed generally to Hebræus, ut more Romano loquamur, cum Thus Simeon De Muis, and Israëlitidem duxerat, aut ei ducere licebat, others, who seem to have great reason on non prius. Quare et Jonathan vertit: Non their side. Yet it is so plain that "the con- est idoneus, qui est castratus, et cui abscissus gregation of the Lord," in the following est nervus, ad ducendam uxorem ex coetu part of this chapter, signifies the people of Jove."--Cleric. Israel, who might not marry with the persons mentioned, ver. 2, 3, 8, that I can

sense,

want courage.

Rosen. Non ingrediatur in coetum Jovæ,

Heb., Ver. 3; Au. Ver. 2.

3

: לֹא־יָבֹא מַנְזֵר בִּקְהַל יְהוָה גַּם not but think it ought to be so interpreted

2 οὐκ εἰσελεύσεται ἐκ πόρνης εἰς ἐκκλησίαν Kupiov.

his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the LORD.

here. For though such marriages were useless and unprofitable, as Maimonides speaks, yet they made a distinction between those who were made eunuchs by God (that is, born so) and those made by men: and j Au. Ver. 2 A bastard shall not enter this law, they say, is not to be understood into the congregation of the LORD; even to of the former, but only of the latter. Some of which, it is certain, were left in such a condition, that they were desirous of marriage, as appears by the constitution of the Prof. Lee.-, masc.-plur. non occ. Emperor Leo, who did not think it super- Probably compd. of 1+2+1, 77, fluous to forbid marriage with them. For it contr. 2. Of a foreign people: or, if the appears by it, that some women choose such vowels of the last member are to be attended husbands. See also Ecclus. xxx. 20, but to, p, of a bordering, neighbouring, especially the book ascribed to St. Basil, De people: hence, not of true Hebrew descent: Vera Virginitate, tom. i., p. 719, &c. And (a) A foreigner, or (b) Bastard. (a) Zech,

A bastard.

mamzer.

our eioedevoetai eis ékkλnoíav kupiov kai ews εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα.

Au. Ver.-3 An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the LORD for ever.

Enter into the congregation of the LORD. See notes on verse 1.

For ever.

Bp. Patrick.-A bastard.] The Hebrews do not understand by the word mamzer, one that was begotten in simple fornication, out of the state of marriage, but one that was begotten of such persons as the law forbade them to marry, or lie withal, under pain of being cut off; viz., those mentioned in the eighteenth of Leviticus [so Bp. Horsley]. They only except this single case, if a man lay with a menstruous woman, and begat a child of her at that time, it was not a See Seld., lib. De Succession. in Bona Defunct., cap. 3, and lib. v. De Jure Nat. et Gent., cap. 16, and Wagenseil lately, in his very learned annotation upon Mischna Sot, cap. 4, sect. 1, where he observes, out of a MS. which he calls very precious (EtzHachajim in Hilcoth Nidda), that mamzer, whether male or female, was excluded from the congregation of the Lord. And they were mamzers who were born of any woman whom the law prohibited them to have as it is expressed, without any mention of the knowledge of; whether it was by violence or by consent, by error or advisedly, it made no difference.

Even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation. That is, never, as the Hebrew doctors expound it.

Pool.-For ever; so it seems to note the immutability and perpetuity of this law, that it should be inviolably observed in all succeeding ages, and not dispensed with for any merit in the persons, or any pretence whatsoever. But why then should this clause be added only here, seeing the foregoing laws are as inviolable as this? It seems therefore to extend the duration of this exclusion of them from the congregation of the LORD beyond what was said at first, and to be added by way of aggravation, even to their tenth generation shall they not enter— never enter, yea, even for ever, i. e., they shall

tenth generation, Neh. xiii. 1, that they shall not come into the congregation of God for ever.

Kennicott.-If an Ammonite or Moabite were not to enter into the congregation of the Lord, till the tenth generation; then they were to enter after the tenth generaRosen.—3 vulgo interpretantur spu- tion: and if so, then they were not excluded rium, ex scorto publico seu prostibulo for ever-as the text here now affirms. On natum, vel intelligitur, uti vult Clericus, the contrary, if they were not to enter for natus ex illegitima uxore, qualis erat per-ever, the clause concerning the tenth geneegrina mulier, quam Hebræus forte com- ration cannot here be genuine. The solution pressisset, nec tamen duxisset. Ex C. B. Michaëlis sententia, relata ex ejus Annotatis MSS. a filio in Jure Mos., p. ii., p. 135 not., voce, h. 1. generatim designatur doyerns, ut Zach. ix. 6, adeo ut Ammonitæ et bable from the context, is made certain Moabitæ vs. 4, species vel insignior sint from a MS. of undoubted authority, which Toù, vel plane rois contra dis- was in use about 2,200 years ago. For tinguantur, utpote cognati Israelitis, posteris Nehemiah says (xiii. 1): "On that day Abrahami, cujus nepotem ex fratre, Lotum, they read in the book of Moses; and conditorem gentis habuerant. Sic igitur therein was found written, that the Ammonidem foret qui ., Ne ite and the Moabite should not come into decima quidem ab eo ætas, i. e., numquam, the congregation of God for ever."—For the vs. 4, 7; Neh. xiii. 1.

seems to be this-that the seven words, expressing the tenth generation, are here taken in and improperly repeated from the verse preceding. And what is thus pro

preceding remarks on this verse, which are curious and decisive, the reader is indebted to a very learned and very worthy prelate, my friend, Bishop Barrington.

Heb., Ver. 12; Au. Ver. 11.

της και την ip το 19