the sword and your wives shall be widows and your children fatherless Here the Hebrew Doctors cry out Measure for Measure as R. Levi observes for he threatens that the Wives of those that afflicted them should be Widows and their Children fatherless and find none to take pity upon them For with the Measure that men mete withal others shall mete to them If a woman as he goes on shall afflict them she shall die and her husband shall marry another wife which shall afflict her children Ver. 25. If thou lend money to any of â—ny people That is to an Israelite That is poor by thoes By a poor Man they do not understand one that goes a begging but one in such want that he is more to be pitied than those who have the confidence to beg in the Streets The foundation of this Precept as the before mentioned R. 〈◊〉 observes was to fix in them the great vertue of Mercy Kindness and Clemency whereby poor People being helpt in this way of lending them Money gratis might recover again to a better condition by the goodness of God to them Thou shalt not be as an usurer to him Neither domineer over him nor make him pray and intreat and wait long as if he were a Slave nor exact any thing for the use of the Money Neither shalt thou lay upon him usury Not make him find Sureties Or as some of them interpret it this is a Precept requiring all Israelites to have no hand in letting out Money to Usury either by writing the Bonds or by being a Witness to them or by being bound with others for the Interest of the Money for the word they observe is in the Plural Number Ye shall not put upon him Vsury Which Law concerning Usury is fully handled by Mr. Selden L. VI. de Jure N. G. c. 9 10. where he shows that some Usury was forbidden by the Law and other by the Decrees of their Wise men The Law forbad them to contract to receive back again any Sum of Money more than they lent But it was further required by their Wise men that they should not receive any Gift before hand to induce them to lend nor any thing afterward by way of Gratuity or to express their Thankfulness Yet this last was permitted in the Lone of Orphans Money as Maimonides saith And what was thus forbidden to be done to an Israelite was permitted to be done to a Gentile Nay some will have that to be an affirmative Precept which we read XXIII Dent. 20. obliging them to take Usury of a Gentile if they lent any Money to him But that Maimonides contradicts And there are those who think this Law only forbad them to take Usury of a poor Israelite but not of a rich it being unreasonable that he should increase his Wealth by the use of his Neighbour's Money and he have no profit thereof Ver. 26. If thou at all take thy neighbours raiment His Coverlid as we speak or Bed-clothes For it is plain by what follows he speaks of that which was to keep him from the cold in the Night To pledge As a Security for the payment of the Money which he lent him Thou shalt deliver it to him by that the Sun goeth down This shows that he speaks of a poor Man which is more fully declared XXIV Deut. 12 13. Ver. 27. For that is his covering only c. It was contrary to Humanity to keep from him the only thing he had to keep him warm in his Bed for it was in effect to kill him And it shall come to pass when he crieth unto me that I will hear him Punish thee for thy barbarous Cruelty v. 23. and besides the Hebrew Doctors say he was to be beaten by order of the Court of Judgment For I am gracious And would have you like my self Ver. 28. Thou shalt not revile the gods i. e. The Judges as no doubt it is to be interpreted See Mr. Selden L. II. de Jure Nat. Gent. c. 13. p. 268. And the Hebrew Doctors give this reason for it because it tends to terrifie them from doing Justice and exposes them to the contempt and hatred of the People whom it also inclines to Sedition But many of them See him c. 1. p. 9. will have another Precept contained in this That they Blaspheme not the Name of the most High Some few also among whom is Philo fancy it to be a Command not to revile the Gods that other People worship though they be false ones And so Julian the Apostate took it who is confuted by St. Cyril as Mr. Selden there observes Nor curse the ruler of thy people That is either the Prince of Israel or the President of the great Sanhedrim So R. Levi Barzelonita Praecept LXXVII The intention of the Scripture is to admonish us of our Duty to him who is the Prince of the Empire of Israel with respect both to the Dominion of the Kingdom and of the Law as his words are it being a great Crime to speak evil of him by whose care all Differences were composed c. If any Man was guilty of this Crime he was to be scourged three times and if he were the Son of a Prince he had four Scourgings And that very justly for Heathens themselves reckoned this among the greatest Offences It was one of the Laws of Charondas as Hen. Stephanus observes in his Fontes Rivis Juris Civilis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let these be reckoned the greatest Crimes Contompt of the Gods and voluntary abuse of Parents disrespect to Rulers and Laws and voluntary dishonour of Justice In like manner Zalenous ordains that next after the Gods and Daemons and Heroes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Parents and the Laws and Rulers should be equally had in honour And Plato thought those that would not be subject to them were unsufferable because they had the Spirit of the old Titans who would have pull'd the Gods out of their Thrones 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ver. 29. Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruit c. The Hebrews will have this to be a direction for the bringing unto God in due order those things which were to be offered to him As first the Trumah which was the first Oblation that was made out of the Corn when it was newly thrashed out which was to be they say a fiftieth part which was given to the Priest Then the first Tithe which was given to the Levites and the second Tithe which the Possessors eat at Jerusalem when the Tabernacle was setled there This order they say God here requires them not to invert by offering that last which should have been first So R. Levi of Barcelona Praecept LXXVIII But from what follows it seems to relate only to the First-fruits of their Harvest and of their Vintage which they were bound to bring as soon as they were ripe and it was the Portion of the Priests See XVIII Deut.
Rephidim toward that part of the Mountain called Horeb upon their murmuring for want of Water XVII 5 6. But seem to have returned thither to fight with Amalek v. 8. And then they were led by God to this other side of the Mountain which is called the Wilderness of Sinai There Israel encamped before the Mount For the glorious Cloud having led them hither rested upon the Mount as appears from the words following Ver. 3. And Moses went up unto God Whose glorious Majesty appeared upon the Mount And the LORD called unto him out of the Mountain Or rather for the LORD called to him out of the Mountain where the Divine Glory rested unto which he would not have presumed to go if the LORD had not called to him to come up thither Which was upon the second day of the third Month. Thus shalt thou say to the House of Jacob and tell the Children of Israel There was some reason sure for calling them by these two names the House of Jacob and the Children of Israel which perhaps was to put them in mind that they who had lately been as low as Jacob when he went to Padan-Aram were now grown as great as God made him when he came from thence and was called Israel Ver. 4. You have seen There needs no proof for you your selves are witnesses What I did unto the Egyptians Smote them with divers sore Plagues and at last drowned them and their Chariots in the Red Sea And how I bare you on Eagles wings Kept you so safe and placed you so far out of the reach of your Enemies as if you had been borne up on high by an Eagle Which are observed to carry their young ones not in their feet as other Birds were wont to do but on their Wings and to soar so high and with so swift a motion that none can pursue them much less touch them Bochartus hath observed all the Properties ascribed to the Eagle with respect to which Interpreters have thought God's care of his People to be here compared with that Bird Hierozoic P. II. L. II. c. 5. But after all he judiciously concludes that Moses best explains his own meaning in his famous Song XXXII Deut. 11. where the Eagles fluttering about her Nest and making a noise to stir up her young ones to leave their dirty Nest and try their Wings represents the many means God had used to rouze up the drooping Spirits of the Israelites when they lay miserably oppressed under a cruel Servitude and incourage them to aspire after Liberty and to obey those whom he sent to deliver them And brought you unto my self And by that means brought you hither to live under my Government For this was the very Foundation of his peculiar Empire over them that he had ransom'd and redeemed them out of Slvery by a mighty Hand and stretched out Arm as he speaks XIII 3. IV Deut. 34. so as he had not delivered any other Nation and thereby by made them his own after an extraordinary manner peculiar to them alone This Joshua also recals to their mind when he was near his Death and renewed this Covenant of God with them XXIV 5 6 c. Ver. 5. Now therefore Having wonderfully delivered them and supported them in a miraculous manner by Bread from Heaven and Water out of a Rock he now proceeds to instruct them in their Duty as Greg. Nyssen observes L. de Vita Mosis p. 172. If you will obey my voice indeed c. If you will sincerely obey me as your King and Governour and keep the Covenant I intend to make with you then you shall be mine above all the People of the Earth whose LORD I am as well as yours but you shall be my peculiar Inheritance in which I will establish my Kingdom and Priesthood with such Laws as shall not only distinguish you from all other Nations but make you to excel them This is the sense of this verse and the following A peculiar treasure unto me i. e. Very dear to me and consequently I will take a singular care of you as Kings do of those things which they lay up in their Treasury So the Hebrew word Segullah signifies Which Origen proves they really were notwithstanding all the Calumnies of Celsus their Laws being so profitable and they being so early taught to know God to believe the Immortality of the Soul and the Rewards and Punishments in the Life to come and bred up to a contempt of Divination with which Mankind had been abused as proceeding rather from wicked Daemons than from any Excellent Nature and to seek for the knowledge of future things in Souls which by an extraordinary degree of Purity were rendred capable to receive the Spirit of God L. V. contra Celsum p. 260. And this the Author of Sepher Cosri happily expresses when he saith Our peculiar Blessings consist in the conjunction of Minds with God by Prophecy and that which is annexed to it that is as Muscatus explains it the Gift of the Spirit of God And therefore he doth not say in the Law if you will obey my voice I will bring you after Death into Gardens of Pleasure but ye shall be to me a People and I will be to you a God Pars I. Sect. 109. For all the Earth is mine Which made it the greater honour that he bare such a special love to them Ver. 6. And ye shall be unto me a Kingdom of Priests An honourable or a Divine Kingdom not like worldly Kingdoms which are defended by Arms but supported by Piety Or a Princely People that should rule over their Enemies For the same word signifies both Priests and Princes and in the first times of the World none was thought fit to be a Priest but he who was a King or the Chief of the Family as we see in Melchizedek and Jethro That God was peculiarly the King of this People I observed above III. 10. and here he expresly owns this peculiar Dominion over them by saying Ye shall be to me a Kingdom And one reason perhaps why he saith they shall be a Kingdom of Priests is because they were governed while they continued a Theocracy by the High Priest as the prime Minister under God who in all weighty Causes consulted God what was to be done and accordingly they ordered their Affairs XXVIII 30. XXVIII Numb 21. Which is the reason why God commands Moses to make such Garments for Aaron as should be for glory and beauty or for honour and glory as we read v. 2. of that Chapter i.e. to make him appear great like a Prince for they were really Royal Garments And for his Sons also he was to make Bonnets of the like kind for honour and glory v. 40. they being in the form of the Tiarae which Kings wore and are joyned in Scripture with Crowns XXIX Job 14. III Isa 23 c. Whence Philo says in his Book de Sacerd. Honoribus that the Law manifestly
eat lest they should make the Beds dirty on which they lay leaning But Bochart hath demonstrated that this Custom was not so ancient but that in Moses his time and after they sat at their Tables as we do now of which there are many Instances in the Book of Genesis and elsewhere And therefore it is more likely the Jews were wont to go without Shoes when they were in Egypt for anciently Men did so and that being an hot Country there was no need of them And besides they were so oppressed that they may well be supposed to want many such Conveniencies of Life But now God commands them to put on Shoes being to travel a long Journey See his Hierozoicon P. I. L. 2. c. 50. p. 508. And your Staff in your hand Still the Posture of Travellers who never went without a Staff both to support them in slippery places and to defend them against Assaults XXXII Gen. 10. They seem now to have eaten the Lamb leaning on their Staves and therefore stood all the time as Men ready to depart But these were things peculiar only to that Pasover which they kept in Egypt afterwards they were not tied to them Ye shall eat it in haste As Men expecting every moment to begin their Journey This was the Foundation of many of the Laws about the Passover as Maimonides observes P. III. More Nev. c. 46. It is the LORD 's Passover To be kept in memory of his wonderful Mercy in sparing the Israelites when he destroyed the Egyptians and delivering them from their cruel Bondage Ver. 12. For I will pass through the Land of Egypt this Night See XI 4. And will smite all the First-born c. A most grievous Judgment all Children being very dear to their Parents especially their First-born and those more especially who are their only Children as it is likely they were to many in Egypt It was the forer Plague also because no Man's Children were spared that he might comfort his Neighbours but they were all at the same time bewailing their loss It is not certain by what sort of Death they were smitten but it was sudden and extinguisht them all in the same moment And against all the Gods of Egypt I will execute Judgment And so Moses tells us he did XXXIII Numb 4. From whence it appears that the Egyptians were Idolaters in Moses his days and the Jewish Doctors will have it that all their Idols were destroyed this Night So Jonathan in his Paraphrase Their molten Images were dissolved and melted down their Images of Stone were dasht in pieces their Images made of Earth were crumbled into bits and their Wooden ones reduced to Ashes Of the truth of which we cannot be assured though we meet with it not only in Pirke Elieser c. 48. but in the Author of Dibre hajamim c. or The Life and Death of Moses whose words are these All the First-born both of Man and Beast were smitten the Images also and Pictures destroyed whereupon the Jews borrowing Gold Silver and Garments of the Egyptians they went away laden with Riches according to what God said to Abraham XV Gen. 14. That Nation whom they shall serve will I judge and afterward shall they come out with great Substance This the Heathen seem to have understood for this Story reached them as if they had carried away the Gold and Silver and Garments of the Egyptian Idols For so Trogus reports it in Justin L. XXXVI c. 2. that when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt Sacra Aegyptiorum furto abstulit he stole away the Holy Things of the Egyptians which he makes the reason why Pharaoh pursued them Artapanus also in Eusebius saith that most of their Temples were overthrown by an Earthquake L. IX Praepar Evang. c. 27. There are those who by Elohim understand nothing but their Princes or Judges the great Men of the Kingdom upon whom the Judgment of God was now executed But another place in this Book XX. 23. plainly determines it to signifie Images I am the LORD There is no other God but me as he had said he would make both the Israelites and Pharaoh also to know X. 2. XI 7. Ver. 13. And the Blood shall be to you for a Token Or a Sign by which the Israelites were assured of Safety and Deliverance from the destroying Angel Of which Token if we may believe Epiphanius there was a Memorial preserved even among the Egyptians themselves though they were ignorant of the Original of their own Rites For at the Aequinox which was the time of the Passover they mark't their Cattle and their Trees and one another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with red Oker or some such thing which they fancied would be a Preservative to them And when I see the Blood Wheresoever my Angel finds this Blood upon the Door-posts I will pass over you c. Here is the reason of the Name of Pesach as the Hebrews call it or Pischa or Pascha as it is called by the Chaldees because God ordered his Angel to pass over or pass by the Children of Israel and not to smite any body in their Families when he smote every First-born of the Egyptians v. 23. Ver. 14. And this day shall be unto you for a memorial To preserve in mind God's wonderful Works which he made to be remembred CXI Psal 4. that is ordered and disposed things in such a manner that they should not be forgotten particularly by instituting a Festival Solemnity upon this day as it here follows And you shall keep it a Feast to the LORD c. Called the Feast of the Passover the Rites of which are all manifestly contrived to preserve a Memory of the Benefits they now received An Ordinance for ever To the end of that Oeconomy For it often signifies only a long Duration as XV Deut. 17. And here imports no more but that they should keep this Ordinance not only now but when they came into the Land of Canaan Ver. 15. Seven days shall ye eat unleavend Bread The seven days following the Feast of the Passover were observed as a distinct Festival and called The Feast of unleavened Bread v. 17. because no Bread that had any leaven in it might be eaten all that time Which the Jews expound thus Not that they were bound to eat unleavened Bread all those seven days which was necessary only on that Night when the Passover was killed but only not to eat leavened Bread That was utterly unlawful but they might eat Rice or parched Corn or any such thing See Petavius in Epiphan Haeres LXX N. XI At their march indeed out of Egypt they were forced to eat unleavened Bread having none else to eat not only for seven days but for a whole month that is from the fifteenth of the first Month to the fifteenth and sixteenth of the next when God gave them Manna and Quails XVI 1 12 13. But necessity as I said compelled them to this they having