35 shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt I [am] the LORD your God. Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, 36 in weight, or in measure. Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I [am] the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt. 37 "Therefore shall ye observe all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: I [am] the LORD, your sovereign, who have a right to your obedience, and am able to make you happy, and richly reward your constancy and fidelity. W REFLECTION. E learn hence to be thankful that we are delivered from the burden of ceremonial precepts, and to be more careful in practising the moral ones. Let us ever remember what a great stress is laid upon them in the New Testament; and earnestly pray, that God would write them upon our hearts, and make us willing and obedient, to his glory, and our everlasting joy. 1 2 CHAP. XX. of giving seed to Molech; of wizards; of cursing parents, &c. A ND the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever [he be] of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth [any]' of his seed unto Molech, (see ch xviii. 21.) he shall surely be put to death: the people of 3 the land shall stone him with stones. And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people; because he hath given of his seed unto Molech, to 4 defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name. And if the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes from the man, when he giveth of his seed unto Molech, 5 and kill him not: Then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off by some awful judgment, and all that go a whoring after him, to commit whoredom with Molech, from among their people. 6 And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, (see ch. xix. 31.) I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people. Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy for I [am] 8 the LORD your God. And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them I [am] the LORD which sanctify you, separate you 10 From the rest of the world, and give you my Spirit and grace to make you holy. For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood [shall be] upon him. And the man that committeth adultery with [another] man's wife, [even he] that committeth adultery with his eighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. 11 And the man that lieth with his father's wife hath uncovered his father's nakedness: both of them shall surely be put 12 to death; their blood [shall be] upon them. And if a man lie with his daughter in law, both of them shall surely be put to death: they have wrought confusion; their blood [shall be] upon them. 13 14 15 If a man also lie with mankind, as he fieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination they shall surely be put to death; their blood [shall be] upon them. And if a man take a wife and her mother, it [is] wickedness they shall be burnt with fire, both he and they; that there be no wickedness among you. And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to 16 death and ye shall slay the beast. And if a woman approach unto any beast, and lie down thereto, thou shalt kill the woman and the beast: they shall surely be put to death; their blood [shall be] upon them. 17 And if a man shall take his sister, his father's daughter, or his mother's daughter, and see her nakedness, and she see his nakedness; it [is] a wicked thing: and they shall be cut off in the sight of their people: he hath uncovered his sister's 18 nakedness; he shall bear his iniquity. And if a man shall lie with a woman having her sickness, and shall uncover her nakedness; he hath discovered her fountain, and she hath uncovered the fountain of her blood and both of them shall be cut off from among their people. 19 And thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother's sister, nor of thy father's sister: for he uncovereth his near 20 kin they shall bear their iniquity. And if a man shall lie with his uncle's wife, he hath uncovered his uncle's nakedness they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless. 21 And if a man shall take his brother's wife, it [is] an unclean thing he hath uncovered his brother's nakedness; they shall be childless. 22 Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: that the land, whither I bring you to 23 dwell therein, spue you not out. And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred 24 them. But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey: I [am] the LORD your God, which 25 have separated you from [other] people. Ye shall therefore put difference between clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean fowls and clean: and ye shall not make your souls abominable by beast, or by fowl, or by any manner of living thing that creepeth on the ground, which I have separated 26 from you as unclean. And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD [am] holy, and have severed you from [other] people, that ye should be mine. 27 1 A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood [shall be] upon them. A CHAP. XXI. Of the priests' mourning, and marriages. ND the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto the priests the sons of Aaron, to the inferior priests, and say unto them, There shall none be defiled for the dead among his people, by attending a funeral, or assisting at it: (hereby people contracted a defilement of seven days. Num. xix. 14, 16.) 2 But for his kin, that is near unto him, [that is,] for his mother, and for his father, and for his son, and for his daughter, and 3 for his brother, And for his sister a virgin, that is nigh unto him, which hath had no husband; for her may he be defiled; 4 it is his duty to bury and mourn for such near kindred. [But] he shall not defile himself, [being] a chief man among his people, since he is one in a more eminent station than any of the people, to profane himself, make himself as a common person 5 and unclean, and so unfit to execute his office. They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh. 6 They shall be holy unto their God, always ready for his service; and not profane the name of their God, not disparage his service by making it give way to such slight occasions: for the offerings of the LORD made by fire, [and] the bread of their God, they do offer therefore they shall be holy. They shall not take a wife [that is] a whore, or profane; neither shall they take a woman put away from her husband: 8 for he [is] holy unto his God. Thou shalt sanctify him therefore for he offereth the bread of thy God: he shall be holy unto thee: for I the LORD, which sanctify you [am] holy. 9 And the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the whore, she profaneth her father, exposes his per son and office to contempt: she shall be burnt with fire. 10 And [he that is] the high priest among his brethren, upon whose head the anointing oil was poured, and that is consecrated to put on the garments, shall not uncover his head, nor rend his clothes, shall not put off his mitre, to put on a mourning habit, but continue in the exercise of his office; 1.1 Neither shall he go in to any dead body, nor defile himself 12 for his father, or for his mother; Neither shall he go out of the sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary of his God; for the 13 14 And he shall take a wife in her virginity. A widow, or a divorced woman, or profane, [or] an harlot, these shall he not take: but he shall take a virgin of his own people, of 15 some of the tribes of Israel, (Ezek. xliv. 22.) to wife. Neither shall he profane his seed among his people, shall not render his sons unfit for the priestly office, by marrying any here forbidden for 1 the LORD do sanctify him. 16 17 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron, saying, Whosoever [he be] of thy seed in their generations that hath [any] blemish, let him not approach to 18 offer the bread of his God. For whatsoever man [he be] that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superflu19 ous, Or a man that is broken footed, or broken handed, Or 20 crook backed, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, 21 or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken; No man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the LORD made by fire: he hath a blemish; he shall not come nigh to offer the bread 22 of his God. He shall eat the bread of his God, [both] of the most holy, and of the holy : involuntary weaknesses debar not 23 from benefit by ordinances. Only he shall not go in unto the veil, nor come nigh unto the altar, because he hath a blemish; that he profane not my sanctuaries: for I the LORD 24 do sanctify them. And Moses told [it] unto Aaron, and to his sons, and unto all the children of Israel. This may teach all christians, especially ministers, what purity and perfection of heart and life they should labour after; and that notorious blemishes, either in the mind of conversation, render a man unfit for the ministerial office. 2 A CHAP. XXII. When the priests are to abstain from holy things. ND the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, that they separate themselves from the holy things of the children of Israel, when they are under any defilement, and that they profane not my holy name [in those things] which they hallow unto me: I [am] the 3 LORD. Say unto them, Whosoever [he be] of all your seed among your generations, that goeth unto the holy things, to eat of, or touch the sacrifices, which the children of Israel hallow unto the LORD, having his uncleanness upon him, that soul shall be cut off from my presence: I [am] the LORD. 4 What man soever of the seed of Aaron [is] a leper, or hath a running issue; he shall not eat of the holy things, until he be clean. And whoso toucheth any thing [that is] unclean 5 [by] the dead, or a man whose seed goeth from him; Or whosoever toucheth any creeping thing that is dead, whereby he may be made unclean, or a man of whom he may take 6 uncleanness, whatsoever uncleanness he hath; The soul which hath touched any such shall be unclean until even, and shall not eat of the holy things, unless he wash his flesh with 7 water. And when the sun is down, he shall be clean, and shall afterward eat of the holy things; because it [is] his food. 8 That which dieth of itself, or is torn [with beasts,] he shall 9 not eat to defile himself therewith: I [am] the LORD. They shall therefore keep mine ordinance, lest they bear sin for it, and die therefore, if they profane it: I the LORD do sanctify them. 10 There shall no stranger eat [of] the holy thing a sojourner of the priest, or an hired servant, shall not eat [of] 11 the holy thing. But if the priest buy [any] soul with his money, he shall eat of it, and he that is born in his house : 12 they shall eat of his meat. If the priest's daughter also be [married] unto a stranger, she may not eat of an offering of 13 the holy things. But if the priest's daughter be a widow, or divorced, and have no child, and is returned unto her father's house, as in her youth, she shall eat of her father's meat: but there shall no stranger eat thereof. 14 And if a man eat [of] the holy thing unwittingly, then he shall put the fifth [part] thereof unto it, and shall give [it] unto the priest with the holy thing, that is, with the value of it. 15 And they, whether priests or people, shall not profane the holy things of the children of Israel, which they offer unto the 16 LORD; Or suffer them to bear the iniquity of trespass, when they eat their holy things; that is, the priests shall not suffer the people to incur any guilt in these respects: for I the LORD do sanctify them. |