Leviticus 17 commentary

All the cattle killed by the Israelites, while in the wilderness, were to be presented before the door of the tabernacle, and the flesh to be returned to the offerer, to be eaten as a peace-offering, according to the law. When they entered Canaan, this only continued in respect of sacrifices. The spiritual sacrifices we are now to offer, are not confined to any one place. We have now no temple or altar that sanctifies the gift; nor does the gospel unity rest only in one place, but in one heart, and the unity of the Spirit. Christ is our Altar, and the true Tabernacle; in him God dwells among men. It is in him that our sacrifices are acceptable to God, and in him only. To set up other mediators, or other altars, or other expiatory sacrifices, is, in effect, to set up other gods. And though God will graciously accept our family offerings, we must not therefore neglect attending at the tabernacle.

Here is a confirmation of the law against eating blood. They must eat no blood. But this law was ceremonial, and is now no longer in force; the coming of the substance does away the shadow. The blood of beasts is no longer the ransom, but Christ's blood only; therefore there is not now the reason for abstaining there then was. The blood is now allowed for the nourishment of our bodies; it is no longer appointed to make an atonement for the soul. Now the blood of Christ makes atonement really and effectually; to that, therefore, we must have regard, and not consider it as a common thing, or treat it with indifference.

10. And whatsoever make there be of the house of Israel. God here not only condemns to death whosoever shall have polluted themselves by eating of blood, but declares that He will Himself take vengeance on them, though they may escape from the hands of the judges; for He not only prescribes to the judges what it is right for them to do, but asserts for Himself the office of inflicting the punishment. For, if we consider the intention of the Law, is there anything to surprise us in this; for although it be not consistent that the blood of a brute should be compensated for by the death of a man, still we must remember that this mode of instruction “Hanc paedagogiam.” — Lat. “Ceste doctrine puerile.” — Fr. was necessary for a rude people, lest they should speedily lapse into barbarism. But, lest they should complain that no use remained for the blood, He reminds them that since it was given for atonement, they would be very ungrateful if they were not content with so great a blessing; and surely, since it was the price they were to pay for appeasing God, this was an employment of it far to be preferred to food. If, then, they desired to exchange into ordinary food the blood, which was destined to the altar for the reconciliation of God, Moses indirectly reproves their ingratitude; for when God took away the right of eating it, He left them something better, which should have abundantly satisfied them. But we have elsewhere See on Exodus 12:21, ante vol. 1 p. 221. seen in what manner blood atones for souls, i e., in a sacramental manner, upon which it must be observed that what properly belongs to Christ is thus transferred by metonomy to figures and symbols, yet in such a way that the similitude should neither be empty nor inefficacious; for in so far as the fathers apprehended Christ in the external sacrifices, atonement was truly exhibited in them. In this passage also, I do not understand “the strangers” to be all such visitors as may have journeyed amongst them on matters of business, but those who had devoted themselves to the worship of God; for many foreigners, abandoning their superstitions, were circumcised, and it behooved that such as these should be expressly laid under the bonds of the Law, lest, if it had not referred to them, they should have withdrawn themselves from obeying it. This point must, therefore, be briefly adverted to, lest we should suppose that heathen sojourners were prohibited from the eating of blood, whereas they were allowed to buy for food See on Deuteronomy 14:21, ante vol. 2, p. 69. even flesh that had been torn by beasts.

Since, however, the Patriarchs before the Law had abstained from blood, and its prohibition had no reference to the First Table or the legal service, hence it came to pass that when the Apostles abrogated the ceremonial law, they did not dare to allow immediately the free eating of blood, lest great scandal should arise from this new and unwonted thing. (Acts 15:20.) Wherefore, lest so trifling a matter should cause deadly schisms in the Churches, they commanded the Gentiles not to eat of blood; adding as the reason, that those who were accustomed to read the writings of Moses, would be disturbed at this innovation; yet this was only observed for a short period, as we gather from Paul. There is no reference here in the Latin, but the Fr. is, “comme il se peut recueillir par ce que Sainct Paul en escrit aux Corinthiens;” as may be gathered from what St. Paul writes respecting it to the Corinthians. In C.’s Commentary on the Acts, 15:28, he says, “We know that this law was foredone by Paul, so soon as the tumult and contention was once ended, when he teacheth that nothing is unclean, (Romans 14:14,)and when he granteth liberty to eat all manner of meats, yea, even such as were sacrificed to idols. (1 Corinthians 10:25.)” — C. Society’s edit., vol. 2, p. 79. Tertullian, Apol., cap. 9, speaks as follows; “Erubescat error vester Christianis, qui ne animalium quidem sanguinem in epulis esculentas habemus, qui propterea quoque suffocatis et morticinis abstinemus, ne quo modo sanguine contaminemur, vel intra viscera sepulto.” See Bingham, book 17 ch. 5 sec. 20 “But on the other hand, because it was the custom of the Catholic Church, almost to the time of St. Austin, to abstain from eating of blood, in compliance with the rule given by the Apostles to the Gentile converts; therefore, by the most ancient laws of the Church, all clergymen were obliged to abstain from it under pain of degradation. This is evident from the Apostolical Canons, and those of Gangra, and the second Council of Orleans, and the Council of Trullo. But as this was looked upon by some only as a temporary injunction, so it appears from St. Austin that it was of no force in the African Church. (Contra Faust., lib. 32, c. 13.) He that would see more about it may consult Curcellaeus, who has written a large dissertation upon the subject.” It was, not without superstition and misplaced zeal;. retained by some even to the days of Tertullian.

The Political Supplements of the Sixth Commandment

Leviticus 24

Leviticus 24:17, 19-22

17. And he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death.

17. Qui percusserit animam hominis, morte moriatur.

19. And if a man cause a blemish in his neighbor; as he hath done, so shall it be done to him;

19. Vir qui intulerit maculam proximo suo, secundum quod fecit sic fiat ei.

20. Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him wain

20. Fracturam pro fractura, oculum pro oculo, dentem pro dente: sicut intulerit maculam hominis, sic inferetur ei.

21. And he that killeth a beast, he shall restore it; and he that killeth a man, he shall be put to death.

21. Qui percusserit animal reddet illud: qui vero percusserit hominem, moriatur.

22. Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for one of your own country: for I am the Lord your God.

22. Judicium unum erit vobis, sicut peregrinus sic et indigena erit: quia ego Jehova Deus vester.

CHAPTER 17

Le 17:1-16. Blood of Beasts Must Be Offered at the Tabernacle Door.

3-4. What man ... killeth an ox--The Israelites, like other people living in the desert, would not make much use of animal food; and when they did kill a lamb or a kid for food, it would almost always be, as in Abraham's entertainment of the angels [Ge 18:7], an occasion of a feast, to be eaten in company. This was what was done with the peace offerings, and accordingly it is here enacted, that the same course shall be followed in slaughtering the animals as in the case of those offerings, namely, that they should be killed publicly, and after being devoted to God, partaken of by the offerers. This law, it is obvious, could only be observable in the wilderness while the people were encamped within an accessible distance from the tabernacle. The reason for it is to be found in the strong addictedness of the Israelites to idolatry at the time of their departure from Egypt; and as it would have been easy for any by killing an animal to sacrifice privately to a favorite object of worship, a strict prohibition was made against their slaughtering at home. (See on De 12:15).

5. To the end that the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices, which they offer in the open field--"They" is supposed by some commentators to refer to the Egyptians, so that the verse will stand thus: "the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices which they (the Egyptians) offer in the open field." The law is thought to have been directed against those whose Egyptian habits led them to imitate this idolatrous practice.

7. they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils--literally, "goats." The prohibition evidently alludes to the worship of the hirei-footed kind, such as Pan, Faunus, and Saturn, whose recognized symbol was a goat. This was a form of idolatry enthusiastically practised by the Egyptians, particularly in the nome or province of Mendes. Pan was supposed especially to preside over mountainous and desert regions, and it was while they were in the wilderness that the Israelites seem to have been powerfully influenced by a feeling to propitiate this idol. Moreover, the ceremonies observed in this idolatrous worship were extremely licentious and obscene, and the gross impurity of the rites gives great point and significance to the expression of Moses, "they have gone a-whoring."

8-9. Whatsoever man ... offereth ... And bringeth it not unto the door of the tabernacle--Before the promulgation of the law, men worshipped wherever they pleased or pitched their tents. But after that event the rites of religion could be acceptably performed only at the appointed place of worship. This restriction with respect to place was necessary as a preventive of idolatry; for it prohibited the Israelites, when at a distance, from repairing to the altars of the heathen, which were commonly in groves or fields.

10. I will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people--The face of God is often used in Scripture to denote His anger (Psa 34:16; Re 6:16; Eze 38:18). The manner in which God's face would be set against such an offender was, that if the crime were public and known, he was condemned to death; if it were secret, vengeance would overtake him. (See on Ge 9:4). But the practice against which the law is here pointed was an idolatrous rite. The Zabians, or worshippers of the heavenly host, were accustomed, in sacrificing animals, to pour out the blood and eat a part of the flesh at the place where the blood was poured out (and sometimes the blood itself) believing that by means of it, friendship, brotherhood, and familiarity were contracted between the worshippers and the deities. They, moreover, supposed that the blood was very beneficial in obtaining for them a vision of the demon during their sleep, and a revelation of future events. The prohibition against eating blood, viewed in the light of this historic commentary and unconnected with the peculiar terms in which it is expressed, seems to have been levelled against idolatrous practices, as is still further evident from Eze 33:25, 26; 1Co 10:20, 21.

11. the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls--God, as the sovereign author and proprietor of nature, reserved the blood to Himself and allowed men only one use of it--in the way of sacrifices.

13-14. whatsoever man ... hunteth--It was customary with heathen sportsmen, when they killed any game or venison, to pour out the blood as a libation to the god of the chase. The Israelites, on the contrary, were enjoined, instead of leaving it exposed, to cover it with dust and, by this means, were effectually debarred from all the superstitious uses to which the heathen applied it.

15-16. every soul that eateth that which died of itself (Ex 22:31; Le 7:24; Ac 15:20),

be unclean until the even--that is, from the moment of his discovering his fault until the evening. This law, however, was binding only on an Israelite. (See De 14:21).

And bringeth it not unto the door - As sacrifice was ever deemed essential to true religion, it was necessary that it should be performed in such a way as to secure the great purpose of its institution. God alone could show how this should be done so as to be pleasing in his sight, and therefore he has given the most plain and particular directions concerning it. The Israelites, from their long residence in Egypt, an idolatrous country, had doubtless adopted many of their usages; and many portions of the Pentateuch seem to have been written merely to correct and bring them back to the purity of the Divine worship. That no blood should be offered to idols, God commands every animal used for food or sacrifice to be slain at the door of the tabernacle. While every animal was slain in this sacrificial way, even the daily food of the people must put them in mind of the necessity of a sacrifice for sin. Perhaps St. Paul had this circumstance in view when he said, Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God, 1Cor 10:31; and, Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. While the Israelites were encamped in the wilderness, it was comparatively easy to prevent all abuses of this Divine institution; and therefore they were all commanded to bring the oxen, sheep, and goats to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, that they might be slain there, and their blood sprinkled upon the altar of the Lord. But when they became settled in the promised land, and the distance, in many cases, rendered it impossible for them to bring the animals to be slain for domestic uses to the temple, they were permitted to pour out the blood in a sacrificial way unto God at their respective dwellings, and to cover it with the dust; see Lev 17:13, and Deu 12:20, Deu 12:21.

Blood shall be imputed unto that man - Having poured out the blood improperly, he shall be considered as guilty of murder, because that blood, had it been properly and sacrificially employed, might have made atonement for the life of a man.

They shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils - They shall not sacrifice לשעירים lasseirim, to the hairy ones, to goats. The famous heathen god, Pan, was represented as having the posteriors, horns, and ears of a goat; and the Mendesians, a people of Egypt, had a deity which they worshipped under this form. Herodotus says that all goats were worshipped in Egypt, but the he-goat particularly. It appears also that the different ape and monkey species were objects of superstitious worship; and from these sprang, not only Mendes and Jupiter Ammon, who was worshipped under the figure of a ram, but also Pan and the Sileni, with the innumerable herd of those imaginary beings, satyrs, dryads, hamadryads, etc. etc., all woodland gods, and held in veneration among the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans.

After whom they have gone a whoring - Though this term is frequently used to express idolatry, yet we are not to suppose that it is not to be taken in a literal sense in many places in Scripture, even where it is used in connection with idolatrous acts of worship. It is well known that Baal-Peor and Ashtaroth were worshipped with unclean rites; and that public prostitution formed a grand part of the worship of many deities among the Egyptians, Moabites, Canaanites, Greeks, and Romans. The great god of the two latter nations, Jupiter, was represented as the general corrupter of women; and of Venus, Flora, Priapus, and others, it is needless to speak. That there was public prostitution in the patriarchal times, see Clarke on Gen 38:21 (note). And that there was public prostitution of women to goats in Egypt, see Herodotus, lib. ii., c. 46, p. 108, edit. Gale, who gives a case of this abominable kind that took place in Egypt while he was in that country. See also many examples in Bochart, vol. ii., col. 641; and see Clarke's note on Lev 20:16.

For the life of the flesh is in the blood - This sentence, which contains a most important truth, had existed in the Mosaic writings for 3600 years before the attention of any philosopher was drawn to the subject. This is the more surprising, as the nations in which philosophy flourished were those which especially enjoyed the Divine oracles in their respective languages. That the blood actually possesses a living principle, and that the life of the whole body is derived from it, is a doctrine of Divine revelation, and a doctrine which the observations and experiments of the most accurate anatomists have served strongly to confirm. The proper circulation of this important fluid through the whole human system was first taught by Solomon in figurative language, Ecc 12:6; and discovered, as it is called, and demonstrated, by Dr. Harvey in 1628; though some Italian philosophers had the same notion a little before. This accurate anatomist was the first who fully revived the Mosaic notion of the vitality of the blood; which notion was afterward adopted by the justly celebrated Dr. John Hunter, professor of anatomy in London, and fully established by him by a great variety of strong reasoning and accurate experiments. To support this opinion Dr. Hunter proves: -

1. That the blood unites living parts in some circumstances as certainly as the yet recent juices of the branch of one tree unite with that of another; and he thinks that if either of these fluids were dead matter, they would act as stimuli, and no union would take place in the animal or vegetable kingdom; and he shows that in the nature of things there is not a more intimate connection between life and a solid than between life and a fluid.

2. He shows that the blood becomes vascular, like other living parts of the body; and he demonstrated this by a preparation in which vessels were clearly seen to arise from what had been a coagulum of blood; for those vessels opened into the stream of the circulating blood, which was in contiguity with this coagulated mass.

3. He proves that if blood be taken from the arm in the most intense cold that the human body can suffer, it will raise the thermometer to the same height as blood taken in the most sultry heat. This is a very powerful argument for the vitality of the blood, as it is well known that living bodies alone have the power of resisting great degrees of heat and cold, and of maintaining in almost every situation while in health that temperature which we distinguish by the name of animal heat.

4. He proves that blood is capable of being acted upon by a stimulus, as it coagulates on exposure to the air, as certainly as the cavities of the abdomen and thorax become inflamed from the same cause. The more the blood is alive, i. e., the more the animal is in health, the sooner the blood coagulates on exposure; and the more it has lost of the living principle, as in cases of violent inflammation, the less sensible it is to the stimulus produced by being exposed, and coagulates more slowly.

5. He proves that the blood preserves life in different parts of the body. When the nerves going to any part are tied or cut, the part becomes paralytic, and loses all power of motion, but it does not mortify. But let the artery be cut, and then the part dies and mortification ensues. It must therefore be the vital principle of the blood that keeps the part alive; nor does it appear that this fact can be accounted for on any other principle.

6. He thinks this vitality farther proved from the case of a person who was brought to St. George's hospital for a simple fracture of the os humeri, and who died about a month after. As the bones had not united, he injected the arm, and thus found that the coagulated blood which filled the cavity between the extremities of the fractured bones was become vascular, and in some places very much so, which vessels, had it been dead matter, it never could have produced.

This system has been opposed, and arguments have been adduced to prove that the principle of vitality exists not in the blood but in the nervous system. But every argument on this ground appears to be done away by the simple consideration that the whole nervous system, as well as every other part of the body, is originally derived from the blood; for is it not from the blood of the mother that the fetus has its being and nourishment in the womb? Do not all the nerves, as well as the brain, etc., originate from that alone? And if it be not vital can it give the principle of vitality to something else, which then exclusively (though the effect of a cause) becomes the principle of vitality to all the solids and fluids of the body? This seems absurd. That the human being proceeded originally from the blood admits of no doubt; and it is natural and reasonable to suppose that as it was the cause under God which generated all the other parts of the body, so it still continues to be the principle of life, and by it alone all the wastes of the system are repaired. Two points relative to this subject are strongly asserted in Divine revelation, one by Moses, the other by St. Paul.

1. Moses says, The Life of the flesh is in the Blood, Lev 17:11. This has been proved by the most indisputable facts.

2. St. Paul says, God hath made of One Blood all nations of men, Act 17:26. And this is demonstrated, not only from there being only one pair from whom all the nations of men have been derived, but also from the fact that every human being, from the first-born of Eve to the present hour, has been formed out of and supported by the mother's blood; and that from the agency of this fluid the human body, after being born into the world, has its increment and support.

The reason given by God for the law against eating blood is perfectly conclusive: I will set my face against that soul that eateth blood - for the Life (נפש nephesh) of the flesh is in the Blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar, to make an atonement for your souls (נפשתיכם naphshotheychem, your Lives): for it is the blood (because it is the Life, נפש nephesh) that maketh an atonement for the soul (בנפש bannephesh, for the life; for the word is the same in all these cases). By transgression a man forfeits his Life to Divine justice, and he must die, did not mercy provide him a substitute. The life of a beast is appointed and accepted by God as a substitute for the sinner's life (in reference to the life of Christ, which was to be given for the life of the world); but as this life is in the Blood, and as the blood is the grand principle of vitality, therefore the blood is to be poured out upon the altar: and thus the life of the beast becomes a substitute for the life of the man.

And it is well worthy of being remarked, that Christ not only died for sinners, but our redemption is everywhere attributed to his Blood, and the shedding of that blood; and that on the altar of the cross, this might make an atonement for the lives and souls of men, he not only bowed his head, and gave up the ghost, but his side was opened, the pericardium and the heart evidently pierced, that the vital fluid might be poured out from the very seat of life, and that thus the blood, which is the life, should be poured out to make an atonement for the life of the soul. The doctrine of Moses and Paul proves the truth of the doctrine of Harvey and Hunter; and the reasonings and experiments of Harvey and Hunter illustrate and confirm the doctrine of Moses and Paul - Here then is a farther proof of the truth and authority of Divine revelation. See Clarke's note on Gen 9:4; Dr. J. Corrie's Essay on the Vitality of the Blood; and the article Blood, in the Encyclopaedias.

Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh - Independently of the moral reasons given above, we may add,

1. That blood, being highly alkalescent, especially in hot climates, is subject to speedy putrefaction.

2. That it affords a gross nutriment, being very difficult of digestion, so much so that bull's blood was used in ancient times as poison, "Its extreme viscidity rendering it totally indigestible by the powers of the human stomach."

3. It is allowed that when blood was used in this country in great quantities, the scurvy was more frequent than at other times.

4. It appears from history that those nations who lived most on it were very fierce, savage, and barbarous, such as the Scythians, Tartars, Arabs of the desert, the Scandinavians, etc., etc., some of whom drank the blood of their enemies, making cups of their sculls!

That which died of itself, or that which was torn - Because, in both cases, the blood was retained in the body; hence the council at Jerusalem forbade things strangled as well as blood, because in such beasts the blood was coagulated in the veins and arteries. See Act 15:28-29. Every thing considered, surely there is as little propriety in eating of blood as there is necessity to do it. They who will do otherwise must bear their iniquity. If blood eating be no offense, then they have no sin to answer for. The principal subjects of this chapter have been already so amply handled in the notes, that there is no need to add any thing by way of reflection or improvement.

That killeth - Not for common use, for such beasts might be killed by any person or in any place but for sacrifice. In the camp, or out of the camp - That is, anywhere.

The tabernacle - This was appointed in opposition to the Heathens, who sacrificed in all places; to cut off occasions of idolatry; to prevent the people's usurpation of the priest's office, and to signify that God would accept of no sacrifices but through Christ and in the Church; (of both which the tabernacle was a type.) But though men were tied to this law, God was free to dispense with his own law, which he did sometimes to the prophets, as 1Sam 7:9, 11:15. He hath shed blood - He shall be punished as a murderer. The reason is, because he shed that blood, which, though not man's blood, yet was precious, being sacred and appropriated to God, and typically the price by which men's lives were ransomed.

They offer - The Israelites, before the building of the tabernacle, did so, from which they are now restrained. Peace - offerings - He nameth not these exclusively from others, as appears from the reason of the law, and from Lev 17:8,9, but because in these the temptation was more common in regard of their frequency, and more powerful, because part of these belonged to the offerer, and the pretence was more plausible, because their sanctity was of a lower degree than others, these being only called holy, and allowed in part to the people, whereas the others are called most holy, and were wholly appropriated either to God, or to the priests.

Upon the altar - This verse contains a reason of the foregoing law, because of God's propriety in the blood and fat, wherewith also God was well pleased, and the people reconciled. And these two parts only are mentioned, as the most eminent, and peculiar, though other parts also were reserved for God.

Unto devils - So they did, not directly or intentionally, but by construction and consequence, because the devil is the author of idolatry, and is eminently served, and honoured by it. And as the Egyptians were notorious for their idolatry, so the Israelites were infected with their leaven, Jos 24:14, Eze 20:7, 23:2,3. A whoring - Idolatry, especially in God's people, is commonly called whoredom, because it is a violation of that covenant by which they were peculiarly betrothed or married to God.

I will set my face - I will be an enemy to him, and execute vengeance upon him immediately; because such persons probably would do this in private, so that the magistrate could not know nor punish it. Write that man undone, for ever undone, against whom God sets his face.

Is in the blood - Depends upon the blood, is preserved and nourished by it. The blood maketh atonement - Typically, and in respect of the blood of Christ which it represented, by which the atonement is really made. So the reason is double; because this was eating up the ransom of their own lives, which in construction was the destroying of themselves. because it was ingratitude and irreverence towards that sacred blood of Christ which they ought to have in continual veneration.

That eateth - Through ignorance or inadvertency; for if it was done knowingly, it was more severely punished. A stranger - Who is a proselyte to the Jewish religion: other strangers were allowed to eat such things, Deu 14:21, out of which the blood was either not drawn at all, or not regularly.

His iniquity - The punishment of it, and therefore must offer a sacrifice for it.

3 What man soever there be of the house of Israel, that killeth an oxe, or lamb, or goat in the camp , or that killeth it, out of the camp ,

Not for common use or eating, for such beasts might be killed by any person or in any place, but for sacrifice, as manifestly appears both from ver. 4. where that is expressed, and from the reason of this law, which is peculiar to sacrifices, ver. 5. and from Deut. 12. 5, 15. 21.

In Canaan the city answered to the camp, and so it forbids any mans doing this either in the city or in the country.

In Canaan the city answered to the camp, and so it forbids any mans doing this either in the city or in the country.

4 And bringeth it not unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, to offer an offering unto the LORD before the tabernacle of the LORD, blood shall be imputed unto that man : he hath shed blood, and that man shall be cut off from among his people :

This was appointed, partly in opposition to the heathens, who sacrificed in all places; partly to cut off occasions of Idolatry; partly to prevent the peoples usurpation of the Priests office; and partly to signify, that God would accept of no sacrifices but through Christ and in the Church; (of both which the Tabernacle was a type. See Heb. 9. 11.) and according to his own prescript. But though men were tyed to this law, God was free to dispense with his own law, which he did sometimes to the Prophets, as 1 Sam. 7. 9. and 11. 15. &c. and afterwards more fully and generally in the days of the Messiah, Mal. 1. 11. Ioh. 4. 21, 24.

He shall be esteemed and punished as a murderer both by God and by men, See Isa. 66. 3. The reason is, because he sned that blood which though not mans blood, yet was as pretious, being sacred and appropriated to God, and typically the price by which mens lives were ransomed.

By death, either by the hand of God, in case men do not know it or neglect to punish it, or by men, if the fact was publick and evident.

5 To the end that the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices, which they offer in the open field, even that they may bring them unto the LORD, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation unto the priest, and offer them for peace-offerings unto the LORD.

Either 1. the Egyptians and other idolatrous nations, which commonly sacrificed to Idols or Devils in fields or any places: who are not here named but may be designed by the particle they, in way of contempt, as if they were not worthy to be named, as that particle is used, Luk. 14. 24. and 19. 27. Ioh. 7. 11. and 8. 10. Or rather, 2. the Israelites now mentioned, and plainly understood in the following they, who before the building of the Tabernacle, took the same liberty herein which the Gentiles did▪ from which they are now restrained.

He nameth these not exclusively to others, as appears from the reason of the law, and from ver. 8, 9. but especially, because in these the temptation was more common in regard of their frequency, and more powerful, because part of these belonged to the offerer, and the pretence was more plausible, because their sanctity was something of a lower degree than others, these being onely called holy, and allowed in part to the people, when the other are called most holy, and were wholly appropriated either to God, or to the Priests.

6 And the priests shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar of the LORD, at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and burn the fat for a sweet savour unto the LORD.

This verse contains a reason of the foregoing law, because of Gods propriety in the blood and fat, wherewith also God was well pleased, and the people reconciled. And these two parts onely are mentioned, as the most eminent, and peculiar, though other parts also were reserved for God.

Marginal references: Exod. 29. 18. chap. 4. 31.

7 And they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils , after whom they have gone a whoring : This shall be a statute for ever unto them throughout their generations.

So they did not directly or intentionally, but by construction and consequence, because the Devil is the author of idolatry, and is eminently served, pleased and honoured by it. And as the Egyptians were notorious for their Idolatry, as appears by the testimony of Scripture, and of all antient writers, so the Israelites were infected with their leaven, Ios. 24. 14. Ezek. 20. 7. and 23. 2, 3. And the name of Devils is commonly given in Scripture to Idols, yea even to those which seemed most innocent▪ as to Ieroboams Calves, 2 Chron. 11. 15. by which he and the people designed and professed to worship the true God, as is manifest from the nature of the thing, and from many places of Scripture, and the worshippers of Idols are esteemed and called worshippers of Devils. See Deut. 32. 17. Psal. 106. 37. 1 Cor. 10. 20. Rev. 9. 20. The Hebrew word rendred Devils signifies goats, either because goats were eminently worshipped by the Egyptians, as Herodotus, Strabo, and others note, and diverse of the Idols of the Heathens were of that or a like form, or because the Devil did oft appear to the Heathens in that shape, as their own authours note.

For Idolatry, especially in Gods people, is commonly called [illegible: 1 word] ▪ as Ezek. 16. 16, 26. & 23. 8, 19, 21, &c. and that justly, because it is a violation of that covenant by which they were peculiarly betrothed or married to God. See Hos. 2. 19, 18, 19.

10 And whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, that eateth any manner of blood, I will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people.

(i. e.) I will be an enemy to him, and execute vengeance upon him immediately, because such persons probably would do this in private so as the Magistrate could not know nor punish it. See this or the like phrase, Lev. 20. 3. and 26. 17. Ier. 3. 12. Ezek. 14. 8.

Marginal references: Gen. 9. 4. chap. 7. 26. & 19. 26. Deut. 12. 16▪ & 15. 23. 1 Sam. 14. 33. Ezek. 44. 7.; Jer. 44. 11.

11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood , and I have given it to you upon the altar, to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul ▪

(i. e.) Of living creatures.

(i. e.) It depends upon the blood, is preserved and nourished by it, and is extinguished when the blood is gone. And this law was given to the Iews, an hard-hearted people, as they are oft said to be, that by this restraint from the blood of brute creatures they might be wrought to the greater abhorrency of taking away the life of a man.

Typically, and in respect of the blood of Christ which it represented, by which the atonement is really made, Heb. 9. 12. So the reason is double; 1 because this was the eating up of the price or ransom of their own lives, which in construction was the destroying of themselves. 2 because this was ingratitude and irreverence towards that sacred blood of Christ which they ought to have in continual venerution.

Marginal references: Heb. soul.

13 And whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, which hunteth and catcheth any beast or fowl that may be eaten, he shall even pour out the blood thereof, and cover it with dust ,

He instanceth in this kind, either because persons much given to that exercise are commonly too licentious, and being in haste might easily transgress, or because some might think the former prohibition did reach onely to the blood of such creatures as were offered to God in sacrifice.

Partly to beget an honourable respect unto the blood even of beasts, and much more of men; partly least the beasts should lick it up, and by tasting the sweetness of it be made more fierce and cruel to devour and destroy others; and partly as a license from God upon this condition giving them a right to kill and eat such creatures, without any fear of the blood being imputed to them; for as the not▪ covering of the blood portends the punishment which the sin of blood-shedding calls for, Iob 16. 18. Ezek. 24. [illegible: 1+ letters], 8. so covering it notes impunity.

Marginal references: Heb. that hunteth any hunting.; chap. 7. 26.

15 And every soul that eateth that which died of it self, or that which was torn with beasts, (whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger ) he shall both wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean untill the even: then shall he be clean.

To wit, through ignorance or inadverrency, as appears by the sleightness of the punishment, for if it was done knowingly, it was a presumptuous sin against an express law here and Deut. 14. 21. and therefore more severely punished.

Understand of the Proselytes, either of the Proselytes of the gate, who were obliged to observe the precepts of Noah, whereof this was one, or of the Proselytes of righteousness, or converts to the Jewish Religion: for other strangers were allowed to eat such things, Deut. 14. 21.

Marginal references: Exod. 22. 3[illegible: 1+ letters] Ezek. 44. 31.; Heb. a [illegible: 1 word] ▪; chap. 22. 8.

16 But if he wash them not, nor bathe his flesh, then he shall bear his iniquity .

(i. e.) The punishment of it, and therefore must offer a sacrifice for it. See Levit. 5. 1, 2, &c. and 7. 18.

Lev 17:1-2

The directions are given to “Aaron and his sons, and all the children of Israel,” because they were not only binding upon the nation generally, but upon the priesthood also; whereas the instructions in ch. 18-20 are addressed to “the children of Israel,” or “the whole congregation” (Lev 18:2; Lev 19:2; Lev 20:2), just as special laws are laid down for the priests in ch. 20 and 21 with reference to the circumstances mentioned there.

Lev 17:3-7

Whoever of the house of Israel slaughtered an ox, sheep, or goat, either within or outside the camp, without bringing the animal to the tabernacle, to offer a sacrifice therefrom to the Lord, “blood was to be reckoned to him;” that is to say, as the following expression, “he hath shed blood,” shows, such slaughtering was to be reckoned as the shedding of blood, or blood-guiltiness, and punished with extermination (see Gen 17:14). The severity of this prohibition required some explanation, and this is given in the reason assigned in Lev 17:5-7, viz., “that the Israelites may bring their slain-offerings, which they slay in the open field, before the door of the tabernacle, as peace-offerings to Jehovah,” and “no more offer their sacrifices to the שׂעירים, after whom they go a whoring” (Lev 17:7). This reason presupposes that the custom of dedicating the slain animals as sacrifices to some deity, to which a portion of them was offered, was then widely spread among the Israelites. It had probably been adopted from the Egyptians; though this is not expressly stated by ancient writers: Herodotus (i. 132) and Strabo (xv. 732) simply mentioning it as a Persian custom, whilst the law book of Manu ascribes it to the Indians. To root out this idolatrous custom from among the Israelites, they were commanded to slay every animal before the tabernacle, as a sacrificial gift to Jehovah, and to bring the slain-offerings, which they would have slain in the open field, to the priest at the tabernacle, as shelamim (praise-offerings and thank-offerings), that he might sprinkle the blood upon the altar, and burn the fat as a sweet-smelling savour for Jehovah (see Lev 3:2-5). “The face of the field” (Lev 17:5, as in Lev 14:7, Lev 14:53): the open field, in distinction from the enclosed space of the court of Jehovah’s dwelling. “The altar of Jehovah” is spoken of in Lev 17:6 instead of “the altar” only (Lev 1:5; Lev 11:15, etc.), on account of the contrast drawn between it and the altars upon which they offered sacrifice to Seirim. שׂעירים, literally goats, is here used to signify daemones (Vulg.), “field-devils” (Luther), demons, like the שׂדים in Deu 32:17, who were supposed to inhabit the desert (Isa 13:21; Isa 34:14), and whose pernicious influence they sought to avert by sacrifices. The Israelites had brought this superstition, and the idolatry to which it gave rise, from Egypt. The Seirim were the gods whom the Israelites worshipped and went a whoring after in Egypt (Jos 24:14; Eze 20:7; Eze 23:3, Eze 23:8, Eze 23:19, Eze 23:21, Eze 23:27). Both the thing and the name were derived from the Egyptians, who worshipped goats as gods (Josephus c. Ap. 2, 7), particularly Pan, who was represented in the form of a goat, a personification of the male and fertilizing principle in nature, whom they called Mendes and reckoned among the eight leading gods, and to whom they had built a splendid and celebrated temple in Thmuis, the capital of the Mendesian Nomos in Lower Egypt, and erected statues in the temples in all directions (cf. Herod. 2, 42, 46; Strabo, xvii. 802; Diod. Sic. i. 18). The expression “a statute for ever” refers to the principle of the law, that sacrifices were to be offered to Jehovah alone, and not to the law that every animal was to be slain before the tabernacle, which was afterwards repealed by Moses, when they were about to enter Canaan, where it could no longer be carried out (Deu 12:15).

Lev 17:8-16

To this there are appended three laws, which are kindred in their nature, and which were binding not only upon the Israelites, but also upon the foreigners who dwelt in the midst of them. Lev 17:8-12

Lev 17:8, Lev 17:9 contain the command, that whoever offered a burnt-offering of slain-offering, and did not bring it to the tabernacle to prepare it for Jehovah there, was to be exterminated; a command which involved the prohibition of sacrifice in any other place whatever, and was given, as the further extension of this law in Deut 12 clearly proves, for the purpose of suppressing the disposition to offer sacrifice to other gods, as well as in other places. In Lev 17:10-14 the prohibition of the eating of blood is repeated, and ordered to be observed on pain of extermination; it is also extended to the strangers in Israel; and after a more precise explanation of the reason for the law, is supplemented by instructions for the disposal of the blood of edible game. God threatens that He will inflict the punishment Himself, because the eating of blood was a transgression of the law which might easily escape the notice of the authorities. “To set one’s face against:” i.e., to judge. The reason for the command in Lev 17:11, “For the soul of the flesh (the soul which gives life to the flesh) is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar, to make an atonement for your souls,” is not a double one, viz., (1) because the blood contained the soul of the animal, and (2) because God had set apart the blood, as the medium of expiation for the human soul, for the altar, i.e., to be sprinkled upon the altar. The first reason simply forms the foundation for the second: God appointed the blood for the altar, as containing the soul of the animal, to be the medium of expiation for the souls of men, and therefore prohibited its being used as food. “For the blood it expiates by virtue of the soul,” not “the soul” itself. בּ with כּפּר has only a local or instrumental signification (Lev 6:23; Lev 16:17, Lev 16:27; also Lev 7:7; Exo 29:33; Num 5:8). Accordingly, it was not the blood as such, but the blood as the vehicle of the soul, which possessed expiatory virtue; because the animal soul was offered to God upon the altar as a substitute for the human soul. Hence every bleeding sacrifice had an expiatory force, though without being an expiatory sacrifice in the strict sense of the word.

Directions Concerning Sacrifices. (b. c. 1490.)

1 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 2 Speak unto Aaron, and unto his sons, and unto all the children of Israel, and say unto them; This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded, saying, 3 What man soever there be of the house of Israel, that killeth an ox, or lamb, or goat, in the camp, or that killeth it out of the camp, 4 And bringeth it not unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, to offer an offering unto the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord ; blood shall be imputed unto that man; he hath shed blood; and that man shall be cut off from among his people: 5 To the end that the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices, which they offer in the open field, even that they may bring them unto the Lord , unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, unto the priest, and offer them for peace offerings unto the Lord . 6 And the priest shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar of the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and burn the fat for a sweet savour unto the Lord . 7 And they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils, after whom they have gone a whoring. This shall be a statute for ever unto them throughout their generations. 8 And thou shalt say unto them, Whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers which sojourn among you, that offereth a burnt offering or sacrifice, 9 And bringeth it not unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, to offer it unto the Lord ; even that man shall be cut off from among his people.

This statute obliged all the people of Israel to bring all their sacrifices to God's altar, to be offered there. And as to this matter we must consider,

I. How it stood before. 1. It was allowed to all people to build altars, and offer sacrifices to God, where they pleased. Wherever Abraham had a tent he built an altar, and every master of a family was a priest to his own family, as Job i. 5. 2. This liberty had been an occasion of idolatry. When every man was his own priest, and had an altar of his own, by degrees, as they became vain in their imaginations, they invented gods of their own, and offered their sacrifices unto demons, v. 7. The word signifies rough or hairy goats, because it is probable that in the shape the evil spirits often appeared to them, to invite their sacrifices and to signify their acceptance of them. For the devil, ever since he became a revolter from God and a rebel against him, has set up for a rival with him, and coveted to have divine honours paid him: he had the impudence to solicit our blessed Saviour to fall down and worship him. The Israelites themselves had learned in Egypt to sacrifice to demons. And some of them, it should seem, practised it even since the God of Israel had so gloriously appeared for them, and with them. They are said to go a whoring after these demons; for it was such a breach of their covenant with God as adultery is of the marriage covenant: and they were as strongly addicted to their idolatrous worships, and as hard to be reclaimed from them, as those that have given themselves over to fornication, to work all uncleanness with greediness; and therefore it is with reference to this that God calls himself a jealous God.

II. How this law settled it. 1. Some think that the children of Israel were by this law forbidden, while they were in the wilderness, to kill any beef, or mutton, or veal, or lamb, or goat, even for their common eating, but at the door of the tabernacle, where the blood and the fat were to be offered to God upon the altar, and the flesh to be returned back to the offerer to be eaten as a peace-offering, according to the law. And the statute is so worded (v. 3, 4) as to favour this opinion, for it speaks generally of killing any ox, or lamb, or goat. The learned Dr. Cudworth puts this sense upon it, and thinks that while they had their tabernacle so near them in the midst of their camp they ate no flesh but what had first been offered to God, but that when they were entering Canaan this constitution was altered (Deut. xii. 21), and they were allowed to kill their beasts of the flock and herd at home, as well as the roebuck and the hart; only thrice a year they were to see God at his tabernacle, and to eat and drink before him there. And it is probable that in the wilderness they did not eat much flesh but that of their peace-offerings, preserving what cattle they had, for breed, against they came to Canaan; therefore they murmured for flesh, being weary of manna; and Moses on that occasion speaks as if they were very sparing of the flocks and the herds, Num. xi. 4, 22. Yet it is hard to construe this as a temporary law, when it is expressly said to be a statute for ever (v. 7); and therefore, 2. It should seem rather to forbid only the killing of beasts for sacrifice any where but at God's altar. They must not offer sacrifice, as they had done, in the open field (v. 5), no, not to the true God, but it must be brought to the priest, to be offered on the altar of the Lord: and the solemnity they had lately witnessed, of consecrating both the priests and the altar, would serve for a good reason why they should confine themselves to both these that God had so signally appointed and owned. This law obliged not only the Israelites themselves, but the proselytes or strangers that were circumcised and sojourned among them, who were in danger of retaining an affection to their old ways of worship. If any should transgress this law, and offer sacrifice any where but at the tabernacle, (1.) The guilt was great: Blood shall be imputed to that man; he hath shed blood, v. 4. Though it was but a beast he had killed, yet, killing it otherwise than God had appointed, he was looked upon as a murderer. It is by the divine grant that we have the liberty to kill the inferior creatures, to the benefit of which we are not entitled, unless we submit to the limitations of it, which are that it be not done either with cruelty or with superstition, Gen. ix. 3, 4. Nor was there ever any greater abuse done to the inferior creatures than when they were made either false gods or sacrifices to false gods, to which the apostle perhaps has special reference when he speaks of the vanity and bondage of corruption to which the creature was made subject, Rom. viii. 20, 21, and compare ch. i. 23, 25. Idolatrous sacrifices were looked upon, not only as adultery, but as murder: he that offereth them is as if he slew a man, Isa. lxvi. 3. (2.) The punishment should be severe: That man shall be cut off from among his people. Either the magistrate must do it if it were manifest and notorious, or, if not, God would take the work into his own hands, and the offender should be cut off by some immediate stroke of divine justice. The reasons why God thus strictly ordered all their sacrifices to be offered at one place were, [1.] For the preventing of idolatry and superstition. That sacrifices might be offered to God, and according to the rule, and without innovations, they must always be offered by the hands of the priests, who were servants in God's house, and under the eye of the high priest, who was ruler of the house, and took care to see every thing done according to God's ordinance. [2.] For the securing of the honour of God's temple and altar, the peculiar dignity of which would be endangered if they might offer their sacrifices any where else as well as there. [3.] For the preserving of unity and brotherly love among the Israelites, that meeting all at one altar, as all the children of the family meet daily at one table, they might live and love as brethren, and be as one man, of one mind in the Lord.

III. How this law was observed. 1. While the Israelites kept their integrity they had a tender and very jealous regard to this law, as appears by their zeal against the altar which was erected by the two tribes and a half, which they would by no means have left standing if they had not been satisfied that it was never designed, nor should ever be used, for sacrifice or offering, Josh. xxii. 12, &c. 2. The breach of this law was for many ages the scandalous and incurable corruption of the Jewish church, witness that complaint which so often occurs in the history even of the good kings, Howbeit the high places were not taken away; and it was an inlet to the grossest idolatries. 3. Yet this law was, in extraordinary cases, dispensed with. Gideon's sacrifice (Judg. vi. 26), Manoah's (Judg. xiii. 19), Samuel's (1 Sam. vii. 9; ix. 13; xi. 15), David's (2 Sam. xxiv. 18), and Elijah's (1 Kings xviii. 23), were accepted, though not offered at the usual place: but these were all either ordered by angels or offered by prophets; and some think that after the desolation of Shiloh, and before the building of the temple, while the ark and altar were unsettled, it was more allowable to offer sacrifice elsewhere.

IV. How the matter stands now, and what use we are to make of this law. 1. It is certain that the spiritual sacrifices we are now to offer are not confined to any one place. Our Saviour has made this clear (John iv. 21), and the apostle (1 Tim. ii. 8), according to the prophecy, that in every place incense should be offered, Mal. i. 11. We have now no temple nor altar that sanctifies the gift, nor does the gospel unity lie in one place, but in one heart, and the unity of the spirit. 2. Christ is our altar, and the true tabernacle (Heb. viii. 2; xiii. 10); in him God dwells among us, and it is in him that our sacrifices are acceptable to God, and in him only, 1 Pet. ii. 5. To set up other mediators, or other altars, or other expiatory sacrifices, is, in effect, to set up other gods. He is the centre of unity, in whom all God's Israel meet. 3. Yet we are to have respect to the public worship of God, not forsaking the assemblies of his people, Heb. x. 25. The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob, and so should we; see Ezek. xx. 40. Though God will graciously accept our family offerings, we must not therefore neglect the door of the tabernacle.

The Eating of Blood Forbidden. (b. c. 1490.)

10 And whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, that eateth any manner of blood; I will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people. 11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. 12 Therefore I said unto the children of Israel, No soul of you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger that sojourneth among you eat blood. 13 And whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, which hunteth and catcheth any beast or fowl that may be eaten; he shall even pour out the blood thereof, and cover it with dust. 14 For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof: therefore I said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh: for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof: whosoever eateth it shall be cut off. 15 And every soul that eateth that which died of itself, or that which was torn with beasts, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger, he shall both wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even: then shall he be clean. 16 But if he wash them not, nor bathe his flesh; then he shall bear his iniquity.

We have here, I. A repetition and confirmation of the law against eating blood. We have met with this prohibition twice before in the levitical law (ch. iii. 17; vii. 26), besides the place it had in the precepts of Noah, Gen. ix. 4. But here, 1. The prohibition is repeated again and again, and reference had to the former laws to this purport (v. 12): I said to the children of Israel, No soul of you shall eat blood; and again (v. 14), You shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh. A great stress is laid upon it, as a law which has more in it than at first view one would think. 2. It is made binding, not only on the house of Israel, but on the strangers that sojourned among them (v. 10), which perhaps was one reason why it was thought advisable, for a time, to forbid blood to the Gentile converts, Acts xv. 29. 3. The penalty annexed to this law is very severe (v. 10): I will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood, if he do it presumptuously, and will cut him off; and again (v. 14), He shall be cut off. Note, God's wrath will be the sinner's ruin. Write that man undone, for ever undone, against whom God sets his face; for what creature is able to confront the Creator? 4. A reason is given for this law (v. 11): because it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul; and therefore it was appointed to make atonement with, because the life of the flesh is the blood. The sinner deserved to die; therefore the sacrifice must die. Now, the blood being so the life that ordinarily beasts were killed for man's use by the drawing out of all their blood, God appointed the sprinkling or pouring out of the blood of the sacrifice upon the altar to signify that the life of the sacrifice was given to God instead of the sinner's life, and as a ransom or counter-price for it; therefore without shedding of blood there was no remission, Heb. ix. 22. For this reason they must eat no blood, and, (1.) It was then a very good reason; for God would by this means preserve the honour of that way of atonement which he had instituted, and keep up in the minds of the people a reverent regard to it. The blood of the covenant being then a sensible object, no blood must be either eaten or trodden under foot as a common thing, as they must have no ointment nor perfume like that which God ordered them to make for himself. But, (2.) This reason is now superseded, which intimates that the law itself was ceremonial, and is now no longer in force: the blood of Christ who has come (and we are to look for no other) is that alone which makes atonement for the soul, and of which the blood of the sacrifices was an imperfect type: the coming of the substance supersedes the shadow. The blood of beasts is no longer the ransom, but Christ's blood only; and therefore there is not now that reason for abstaining from blood which there was then, and we cannot suppose it was the will of God that the law should survive the reason of it. The blood, provided it be so prepared as not to be unwholesome, is now allowed for the nourishment of our bodies, because it is no longer appointed to make an atonement for the soul. (3.) Yet it has still useful significancy. The life is in the blood; it is the vehicle of the animal spirits, and God would have his people to regard the life even of their beasts, and not to be cruel and hard-hearted, not to take delight in any thing that is barbarous. They must not be a blood-thirsty people. The blood then made atonement figuratively, now the blood of Christ makes atonement really and effectually; to this therefore we must have a reverent regard, and not use it as a common thing, for he will set his face against those that do so, and they shall be cut off, Heb. x. 29.

II. Some other precepts are here given as appendages to this law, and hedges about it, 1. They must cover the blood of that which they took in hunting, v. 13. They must not only not eat it, but must give it a decent burial, in token of some mystery which they must believe lay hidden in this constitution. The Jews look upon this as a very weighty precept and appoint that the blood should be covered with these words, Blessed be he that hath sanctified us by his precepts, and commanded us to cover blood. 2. They must not eat that which died of itself or was torn of beasts (v. 15), for the blood was either not at all, or not regularly, drawn out of them. God would have them to be curious in their diet, not with the curiosity that gratifies the sensual appetite, but with that which checks and restrains it. God would not have his children to eat every thing that came in their way with greediness, but to consider diligently what was before them, that they might learn in other things to ask questions for conscience' sake. Those that flew upon the spoiled sinned, 1 Sam. xiv. 32, 33. If a man did, through ignorance or inconsideration, eat the flesh of any beast not duly slain, he must wash himself and his clothes, else he bore his iniquity, v. 15, 16. The pollution was ceremonial, so was the purification from it; but if a man slighted the prescribed method of cleansing, or would not submit, he thereby contracted moral guilt. See the nature of a remedial law: he that obeys it has the benefit of it; he that does not, not only remains under his former guilt, but adds to that guilt of contemning the provisions made by divine grace for his relief, and sins against the remedy.

CHAP. XVII.

ANd Iehovah said unto Moses, saying. Speake unto Aaron, and unto his sonnes, and unto all the sonnes of Israel; and say unto them: This is the thing, which Iehovah hath commanded, saying. Every man of the house of Israel; that killeth an Oxe, or Lamb, or Goat, in the Camp; or that killeth it out of the Camp: And bringeth it not, unto the doore of the Tent of the congregation; to offer an oblation to Iehovah, before the Tabernacle of Iehovah: blood shal be imputed unto that man, he hath shed blood; and that man, shall bee cut off, from among his people. To the end that the sonnes of Israel may bring, their sacrifices, which they sacrifice, on the face of the field; even that they may bring them unto Iehovah, unto the doore of the Tent of the congregation, unto the Priest; and sacrifice them, for sacrifices of Peace-offrings, unto Iehovah. And the Priest shall sprinkle the blood, upon the Altar of Iehovah; at the doore, of the Tent of the congregation: and burn the fat, for a [illegible: 1 letter]avour of rest, unto Iehovah. And they shall not sacrifice any more, their sacrifices, unto Divels; after whom, they have gone-awhoring: This shall be unto them, a statute for ever, throughout their generations. And thou shalt say unto them; Every man, of the house of Israel; or of the stranger which sojourneth among you: that shal offer a Burntoffring, or a sacrifice: And shal not bring it, unto the doore of the Tent of the congregation; to doe it, unto Iehovah: even that man, shall be cut-off, from his peoples.

And every man, of the house of Israel; or of the stranger, that sojourneth among them; that shall eat, any blood: I will even set my face, against the soule that eateth blood; and will cut it off, from among the people thereof. For the soule of the flesh, it is in the blood: and I have given it to you, upon the Altar; to make-atonement, for your soules: for it is the blood, that maketh-atonement for the soule. Therefore have I said, unto the sons of Israel; no soule of you, shal eat blood: and the stranger, that sojourneth among you, shall not eat blood.

And every man, of the sonnes of Israel; or of the stranger, that sojourneth among them; which shall hunt a hunting of wilde-beast, or of fowle, that may be eaten: he shal even pour-out, the blood thereof; and cover it, with dust. For it is the soule of all flesh; the blood thereof it is for the soule thereof: and I have said unto the sonnes of Israel; ye shall not eat, the blood of any flesh: for the soule of all flesh, it is the blood therof; who-soever eateth it, shall be cut-off.

And every soule, that shall eat a carkasse, and a torne-thing; whether it be an home-borne person, or a stranger: hee shall both wash his clothes, and bathe (his flesh) in water, and be uncleane untill the evening, and then hee shall be cleane. And if hee wash them not, and bathe not his flesh: then hee shall beare, his iniquitie.

Annotations. HIs sonnes] the Priests; for they were the sacrificers for the people; therefore this Law is first directed unto them, then unto all the people. And as the extraordinary sanctification of the Church was appointed in chap. 16. so the ordinary and daily sanctification of all and every one is here taught; and how after their purification from all their sinnes, they should be carefull to serve the Lord in newnesse of life, in that place, and after that manner which he prescribed. the thing] Hebr. the word. Every man] or, Any man, who-soever. Hebrew, man man, of the house of Israel; whereunto the Greeke addeth, or of the Proselytes that are adjoyned unto you: and so Moses addeth in verse 8. Targum Ionathan explaineth it, yong man or old: and so in verse 10. and 13. killeth an Oxe] or a Bull, meaning for sacrifice to God, verse 4. 5. for this law concerneth holy things, sanctified, and meet for the Altar, which might not bee killed, nor offred (as v. 8.) but in the Lords Court. This is often and instantly commanded, Deut. 12. 5. 6. 13. 14. 26. 27. & 14. 23. 26. & 15. 19. 20. The Hebrew canons say, He that killeth holy things out of the court (of the Sanctuarie) although he offer them not; if he doe it presumptuously, is guilty of cutting-off, Lev. 17. 3. 4. If he kill in ignorance, hee is to bring the Sin-offring appointed, Maim. in Magnaseh hakorbanoth, (or treat of offring sacrif.) c. 18. s. 3. Hereby Israel was taught to serve God in Christ only: for he is the true Tabernacle, Heb. 9. 11. in whom God dwelleth amōg men, & by whom al our service and sacrifices are sanctified and made acceptable unto God in his church: [illegible: 1 letter]o that none can come unto the Father but by him▪ Ioh. 14. 6. and he is the doore of the sheepe, Ioh. 10. 7. 9. The Tabernacle also figured the Church, where God requireth his worship to be performed by all his people: 1 Tim. 3. 15. Rev. 21. 3. Eph. 2. 20. 21. 22. Act. 2. 47. And so it is written, For in mine holy mountaine, in the mountaine of the height of Israel, saith the Lord God, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in the land serve me: there will I accept them; and there will I require your offrings, and the first fruits of your oblations, with all your holy things. Ezek. 20. 40. in the Camp] which is described in Numb. 2. answerable wherto the city Ierusalem was, in the ages following: as is noted on Exod. 40. 33. Vers. 4. blood] that is, murder: for such corruption of Gods worship, is hatefull unto him as blood-shed. So in Esa. 66. 3. he saith, He that killeth an oxe, is as if he slew a man. So the Hebrewes; as Sol. Iarchi here saith, As if hee shed the blood of man, for which he is guilty of his life. he hath shed blood] Targum Ionathan explaineth it thus, And it shall be to him, as if he had shed innocent blood. [illegible: 1 letter]ut-off] in Chaldee, destroyed: so the Greeke, that soule shall be destroyed. Vers. 5. the face of the field] that is, the open field: see the notes on Levit. 14. 7. As the heathens, so the Israelites (before the making of the Sanctuary,) sacrificed every where in the fields, high places and mountaines. The Hebrewes say, Before the Tabernacle was set up, the high places were lawfull; and the service was by the Firstborne: after the Tabernacle was erected, high places were unlawfull, and the service (was performed) by the Priests. Thalmud Bab. in Zebachim, chap. 14. Here Israel is restrained to the Tabernacle, but the other nations were not so, but might sacrifice other where, as did Iob and his friends, Iob 1. 5. and 42. 8. 9. And in the Hebrew canons it is said; He that killeth the holy things of the heathens, without (the Sanctuarie,) is guilty: likewise [illegible: 1 letter]e that offreth them without. But it is lawfull for the heathens to offer burnt offrings unto God, in every place; and he himselfe may offer in an high place which hee hath builded. But it is unlawfull (for a Iew) to helpe him, &c. for loe we are forbidden to offer without (the Court.) And it is lawfull to teach them, and to learne them how they may offer unto the name of the Blessed (God.) Maim. in Maaseh hakorbanoth, chap. 19. sect. 16. The same liberty which the nations had before the Law, wee have now againe spiritually under the Gospell, Iohn 4. 21.—24. which God foretold, saying, My name shall be great among the nations, and in every place incense shall be offred unto my name, and a pure offring, Mal. 1. 11. unto the doore] that is, into the courtyard: see the notes on Levit. 8. 3. of the congregation] or, of assemblie: in Greeke, of the testimonie: so in verse 9. Verse 6. a savour of rest] in Greeke, a savour of sweet smel: which the Chaldee expoundeth, to be accepted with favour before the Lord. Of these words and rites, see Levit. 1. 9. Ver[illegible: 1 letter] ▪ 7. unto divels] as all Iewes and Gentiles did▪ which sacrificed not by faith in Christ, and in such sort and place, as God approved of. Deut. 32. 17. 1 Cor. 10. 20. and as they had done when they made the golden calfe, Exod. 32. at which time, they sacrificed unto the idol, Act. 7. 41. and so unto the divell; as Ieroboams idols are also called Divels, 2 Chron. 11. 15. and Antichrists likewise. Revel. 9. 20. Divels are in Hebrew named here Seghnirim, that is, rough and rugged as hairy goats; because in such shape they sometime appeared, like Sa[illegible: 1 letter]yres: Esa. 34. 14. or of their hortour and terro[illegible: 2 letters] which they cause unto men▪ for so the word originally signifieth. The Chaldee calleth them Shedin of their wasting and destroying the creatures: which name Moses after giveth them in Deut. 32. 17. The Greeke translateth, unto Vaine things. gone a-whoring] the Chaldee expoundeth it, erred, or committed idolatrie: which sinne is often called whoredome or fornication: (see the notes on Exodus 20. 5. and 34. 15. Levit. 20. 5. 6. Deut. 31. 16.) because it violateth the covenant betweene God and his people, which is called mariage, Hosea 2. 2. 19, 20. and 3. 1. Vers. 8. stranger] or sojourner, in Greeke a proselyte: meaning a heathen joyned to the Iewes religion and church: so after in vers. 10. and 13. shall offer] as the sacrifice might not be killed, vers. 3. so neither might it be offred out of the Sanct[illegible: 1 letter]ary, though it were killed therein. Whereupon the Hebrewes say, He that killeth the holy things, and offreth them out of (the Sanctuarie,) is twise guiltie▪ once for killing, and once for offring. If he kill within, and offer without, he is guilty for offring: likewise if hee kill without, and offer within; he is guilty for killing▪ M[illegible: 2 letters] mony in Maaseh hakorbanoth, chap. 18. sect. 5. And Sol. Iarchi (on Levit. 17.) saith, the Law speaketh of offring a Burnt-offring, to shew that a man is guiltie for burning the pieces (of the Sacrifice) without the campe, as is hee that killeth it without: that if one kill, and another offer, both of them are guilty. [illegible: 1 word] sacrifice] to weet, of Peace-offrings; as the Chaldee explaineth it. As by the doctrine of our Saviour, in Matth. 23. 19. the Altar sanctified the gift: so the Hebrewes understand this Law, for sacrifices offred by fire, and upon an altar without; saying: Hee that offreth without, is not guilty, till he offer upon [illegible: 1 span] tar which he hath made without: but if hee offer [illegible: 1 span] Rocke or on a stone, he is free, [to weet,] from the judgment of death;] for it is not called Korban (an offring) except it be on an Altar, yea though it be without: as it is written. (in Gen. 8. 20.) And Noe built an [illegible: 1 word] ▪ Maim. in Maas. hakorbanoth, chap. 19. sect. 1. Vers. 9. doore of Tent] and so in ages following, to the doore of the House or Temple, that is, in the courtyard. And if the Tabernacleor Temple should haply bee burnt, (as it was by the Babylonians, 2 King. 25. 9.) yet was it lawfull to offer in the courtyard upon the altar, as Ezra did after their returne, Ezr. 3. 3. 4. 5. 6. So the Hebrewes say, Who so killeth holy things at this time, and offreth th[illegible: 2 letters] out of the Court, is guilty: because it is meet he [illegible: 1 word] offer within. For loe it is lawfull to offer, although that be no house. Because the first holinesse sanct[illegible: 1 letter]fieth f[illegible: 1 letter] that time present, and for the time to come. Mai[illegible: 1 span] i[illegible: 1 letter] M[illegible: 2 letters]s. [illegible: 1 letter]akorb. chap. 19. sect. 15. It figured, that our service unto God, must bee by faith in Christ, and in the communion of his Church; as before is shewed on verse 2. to doe it] that is, to offer it: see the notes on Exod. 10. 25. cut-off] in Greeke, that soule shall be destroyed; as in v. 4. Vers. 10. every man] Hebr. man man; which Ionathan expoundeth yong man or old man: as in vers. 3. and 13. the stranger] in Greeke, or of the proselytes adjoyned unto you. This Law therefore seemeth not to binde the heathens, any more then the sonner, of sacrificing, vers. 5. so in v. 12. & 13. any blood] to weet, of fowle or beast, as is explained in Leviticus 7. 26. and this at his common table: for as the former lawes were for sanctifying the people in their holy things; so these which follow are for their civill conversation. Whereas it is said, it maketh atonement for the soule, (verse 11.) left any should thinke he is not guilty save for the blood of holy things, the scripture saith any blood. Chazkuni on Leviticus 17. will set] Hebr. will give my face, which the Chaldee expoundeth my anger: and so face is often used for anger; which appeareth in the countenance: as, I will appease his face, Gen. 32. 20. and, the face of the Lord hath divided them, Lam. 4. 16, and; I will not cause my face to fall upon you, Ier. 3. 12. and the face of the Lord, is upon them that doe evill, 1 Pet. 3. 12. and many the like. the soule] which the Chaldee expoundeth the man. See the notes on Gen. 12. 5. cut it off] that is, destroy him, as the Chaldee and Greeke translateth. The Hebrewes say, He that eateth so much as an olive of blood, presumptuously, is guilty of cutting-off: if ignorantly, he is to bring the Sin-offring appointed. And the thing is plaine by the law, that hee is not guilty, but for all blood of cattell, beasts and birds onely, whether they be uncleane or cleane, Leviticus 7. 26. But the blood of fishes, and of Locusts, and of creeping things, and the blood of man, they are not guilty for them, by the name of blood. The blood therefore of cleane fishes, and locusts, is lawfull to be eaten or drunke. And the blood of uncleane locusts and fishes is unlawfull, because it is the j[illegible: 1 letter]yce of their bodies. Mans blood is unlawfull, by the doctrine of the scribes, if it be separated (from the body:) but one may swallow downe the blood of his teeth, without prohibition. Maimony in treat. of Forbidden [illegible: 1 word], chap. 6. sect. 1. 2. Verse 11. the soule,] that is, the life: see Gen. 9. 4. So in Targum Ionathan it is expounded here, and in verse 13. the life of the soule. of the flesh] the Gr. addeth, of all flesh; & so Moses speaketh in v. 14. is in the blood] the Greeke saith, is the blood thereof; as in verse 14. which blood is figuratively called the life, because the seat thereof is in the blood, as Moses here sheweth: so that if the blood be gone, the life is gone with it, as daily experience confirmeth. Hereupon David saith, What profit is in my blood? Psal. 30. 10. that is, in my life: and the shedding of blood, is the taking away of ones life, Gen. 9. 6. Chazkuni explaineth it thus, For the soule of the flesh, 1. of every creature, it hangeth in the blood; and therefore I have given it to make a [illegible: 1 span]nt for the soule of man: the soule commeth and maketh [illegible: 1 span]ment for the soule. have given it] to weet, the blood, and so the life or soule of the beast, to make atonement for your soules; that is, to be the expiation and ransome for your life or soule: in figure of Christ, whose blood was to be shed for the remission of sinnes, Matth. 26. 28. through which he should make peace, Colos. 1. 20. and men have redemption, Ephes. 1. 7. who was to give his soule (or life) for a ransome for many, Matth. 20. 28. And this is the cause why God forbiddeth all blood, that men might be kept in faith and reverend exspectation of the blood of Christ, which being once shed, should spiritually be given unto his people for to drinke by faith, unto the life and salvation of their soules, Ioh. 6. 53. 54. 55. And to teach the people not to ascribe the worke of their salvation unto themselves or their owne workes, but unto Christ onely, was this prohibition of blood: and the like was for the fat of all such beasts, as had the fat burned on the Altar, which therefore might not be eaten of men. See the notes on Leviti[illegible: 1 letter]us 3. 17. and 7. 25. 26. it is the blood] not of buls and goats, (save onely in shadow,) for it is unpossible that such blood should take away sinnes, Heb. 10. 4. but the blood of Christ is it that maketh atonement, and cleanseth from all sinne: Hebrewes 9. 12. and 10. 19. 1 Iohn 1. 7. And as the Apostle saith, without shedding of blood is no remission, Hebrewes 9. 22. so the Hebrew doctors, from these words of Moses, say, There is no remission of sins, but by blood; as it is written, For it is blood that maketh-atonement for the soule. Talmud in Ioma c. 1. Vers. 12. Therefore] in Greeke, For this cause. Although other reasons may be rendred of the forbidding of blood, as to restraine men from crueltie, or from communion with idolaters, (for the Magi, or wise men of Chaldea, used to eat blood, when they conve[illegible: 1 letter]sed with Divels, and by them foretold things to come, whereas otherwise the Chaldaeans eschewed blood as an uncleane thing, as Maimony sheweth in Moreh nebuchim:) yet the maine, if not the onely cause is here given of God, to be the use of blood upon the Altar, for their atonement; which was meerely figurative, and which had the end and accomplishment in Christ. Colos. 2. 16. 17. And besides the former signification; as the not eating of the flesh of such sacrifices as had their blood caried into the holy place, signified that they which cleaved to the rudiments of Moses Law, should have no portion in Christ, (as is shewed on Levit. 6. 30. from Heb. 13. 10.—13.) so the not eating of blood, which made stonement for the soules of men, seemeth also to signifie, that they which cleaved unto the legall sacrifices, should not eat, that is, not have communion, benefit or nourishment to their soules: but they which come unto Christ by faith, doe eat the flesh and drinke the blood (in spirit and truth,) by which their atonement is made with God. Ioh. 6. Matth. 26. compared with Heb. 13. 10. &c. And as the way into the Holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first Tabernacle was yet standing, Heb. 9. 8. so the communion with that blood whereby atonement for sins was made, was not yet fully manifested, while as the outward Tabernacle and figurative sacrifices therein, were in use. Verse 13. hunt a hunting,] and so take it by hunting. This law for wild-beasts caught by hunting, concerneth tame beasts also, as touching the slaying of them: as is said in Deut. 12. 21. thou shalt kill of thy herd and of thy flocke, &c. and thou shalt eat. And as it is said in Deut. 15. 22. of the blemished firstlings, which were to be eaten in their cities, as the Roe-bucke, and as the Hart, From which words the Hebrewes say, Here thou art taught, that the wilde beast and the tame, are alike in this businesse of killing, &c. Maimony in Shechitah (or treat. of Killing beasts:) chap. 1. sect. 1. that may be eaten] or which is usually eaten: which Targum Ionathan expoundeth. that is lawfull to be eaten. he shall even poure-out] or, then shall hee shed the blood thereof: so that no flesh of beast or bird might bee eaten in Israel, unlesse the blood were orderly let out, and the flesh cleansed of it. And when the people in a warre, flying upon the spoile, slew cattell on the ground, and did eat the flesh not puri fied from the blood, they sinned against the Lord; till Saul tooke order for the more lawfull killing of them, 1 Sam. 14. 32. 33. 34. Of this point, the Hebrewes have these rules. It is commanded, that who so will eat the flesh of any cattell, wild beast, or fowle; it be slaine, and afterward eaten. He that slayeth, blesseth God first, who sanctifieth us by his commandements, and hath given a charge concerning the slaying. And it is unlawfull to eat of that which is slaine, all the while that it doth tremble. And who so eateth thereof, before the soule (the life) bee gone out, transgresseth. Fishes and Locusts, there is no need to slay them: but the catching of them, maketh them lawfull. Behold hee saith (in Numb. 11. 22.) Shall the flockes and the herds be slaine for them to suffice them? or shall all the fishes of the sea be gathered for them? The gathering of the fish, is as the fleying of the beasts. So of the Locusts, there is mentioned their gathering onely, Esa. 33. 4. that if any of them dye in the water, they may be eaten, yea it is lawfull to eat them alive. The place where the beast must be slaine, is the necke. The instrument to slay it with, may be any knife of metall, or of stone, or of glasse and the like cutting things, which are sharpe, and have no gap in them. It is lawfull to slay in all places without the court (of the Sanctuarie,) for within the court, they slay but the holy things of the altar onely: common beasts or fowles, may not bee slaine within the court: Deut. 12. 14. 15. So that which is slaine out of the place (which God hath chosen) is lawfull to be eaten in any of the gates: but hee that slayeth common things within the court, that flesh is unlawfull to bee used; but they bury it. Any man may slay, as the deafe, or the foole, or the childe, &c. if others looke that it bee slaine lawfully: but if a knife fall of it selfe, and slay, though it be after the manner of slaying, yet it is unlawfull; for it is said THOV SHALT KILL. (Deut. 12. 21.) so it must be slaine by mankinde. Hee that slayeth a beast in the name of a sacrifice for a vow, or a sin-offring which he oweth; it is unlawfull to be eaten: &c. Maim. in Shecbitah, [illegible: 1 word] 1. and 2. &c. The taking of beasts and birds by hunting, may signifie the converting of sinners by the preaching of the Gospell; as the catching of fishes, is applied to the catching of men, Luk. 5. 9. 10. And as Peter when hee was called to preach the word unto, and communicate with the Gentiles, was bidden in a vision to kill beasts, and eat, Act. 10. 12. 13. 28. so this Law for killing of beasts and burying their blood, seemeth to figure out the mortifying of sinners by the word of God, and burying of the old man & naturall sinfull life; after which, communion with them is lawfull. Rom. 6. 2. 3. 4. cover it with dust] the Greeke translateth, earth shall cover it. The covering of blood is in use (they say) both within the land of Israel, and without the land: of common beasts, but not of the sanctified. Thalmud in Cholin, c. 6. This taught a reverend regard which they should have of the soule or life of the beast, which was in the blood: that it should bee buried with a kinde of honour; for buriall is honourable, Eccles. 6. 3. It also shewed the lawfulnesse of killing these creatures for food; that their blood being covered, should not be imputed unto them of God: as appeareth by the contrary, Iob 16. 18. O earth, cover not thou my blood; and Ezek. 24. 7. 8. Her blood is in the midst of her; see set it upon the top of a Rocke, shee poured it not upon the ground, to cover it with dust: that it might cause hot-wrath to come up to take vengeance, &c. where blood not covered, signifieth a crying to God for vengeance. The Hebrewes performed this charge carefully; for in their canons it is said; Wee are commanded to cover the blood of the cleane beast or cleane fowle that is slaine, Leviticus 17. 13. Therefore wee are bound to blesse before the covering of [illegible: 1 word] Blessed art thou O Lord our God, King eternall, which hath sanctified us by his commandements, and give us a charge to cover the blood. Hee that killeth fowle and many sorts of wilde beasts in one place: blesse[illegible: 1 letter] with one blessing for them all, and maketh one cov[illegible: 1 span] of all (their blood.) If the blood bee mixt with water, if there be in it the appearance of blood, it ought to bee covered: otherwise, it is free: &c. If the blood for suncke into the ground, yet if the signe (or marke) th[illegible: 1 span] of may be discerned; it ought to be covered. Wee are not found to cover any blood, but of the slaine beast which is lawfull to be eaten; as is said (in Levit. 17. 13.) THAT MAY BE EATEN: &c. Wherewith must it be[illegible: 1 span] red? With any kinde of dust, as earth, lime, chalke, [illegible: 1 word] or other like rubbish that is small as powder: but not [illegible: 1 word] a basket, or a stone, or thicke dung &c which are [illegible: 1 word] kinde of dust. It may be covered with embers, or [illegible: 2 words] any sort. Hee that slayeth must lay dust unde[illegible: 1 span] and after that slay, and after that cover it with [illegible: 1 word]: and he that slayeth, he must cover it. And if bee haue not couered it, and seeth it afterward, hee is bound to cover it: for this is a commandement by it selfe, and dependeth not upon the slaying onely. And hee may not cover it with his foot, but with his hand, or with the knife, or with an instrument (or vessel,) lest this rite gro[illegible: 1 letter] into a contempt, and so the commandement concer[illegible: 1 span] [illegible: 1 word] be contemned. For the honour is not to the commandment it selfe, but to the blessed (God) which commanded it; who hath delivered us from groping in dark[illegible: 1 span] and hath ordained us a Lampe, to make straight the things that are crooked, and a Light to teach the [illegible: 1 word] of righteousnes: and so it is said, (in Psal. 129. 105.) Thy word is a Lamp unto my foot, and a light unto [illegible: 1 word] path. Maimony in Shechitah, chap. 14. sect. 1. &c. Vers. 14. the soule] that is, the life: as Ionathan expounds it, the life of the soule. for the soule] Heb. in the soule. In is often in stead of For: but some here keepe the usuall signification, and change the order; as Chazkuni interprets it, in the blood thereof is the soule thereof. But Iarchi thus, the blood is to it in [illegible: 1 word] of the soule, for the soule hangeth in it. the blood of any flesh] to weet, of beasts or birds, not any of their blood, Lev. 7. 26. So not onely that which commeth out in the slaying of the beast, but that remaineth within in the heart or other parts, is unlawfull to be eaten. The blood which is the juyce (of of the beast) and the blood of the members, as the blood of the milt, and the blood of the kidneyes, and the blood of the stones, and the blood that is gathered in the heart, and the blood that is found in the liver; who so eateth of them is not to be cut off, but is beaten: for it is said, yee shall not eat, any blood. Of that for which a man is to bee cut off, he saith, FOR THE SOVLE OF THE FLESH IS IN THE BLOOD: he is not guilty of cutting off, but for the blood wherein the soule (or life) goeth out. Maimony in treat. of Forbidden meates, chap. 6. sect. 4. is the blood] figuratively spoken, for is in the blood, as verse 11. Vers. 15. every soule] that is, as the Chaldee translateth, every man: as verse 10. a carkasse] to weet, that which died of it selfe, or is killed by an other thing, and is not orderly slaine: see Lev. 7. 24. Of this the Hebrewes say, Hee that eateth (presumptuously) so much as an olive of the flesh of any cattell that is dead, or wilde beast that is dead, or fowle that is dead, is to be beaten. And whatsoever is not killed so as is meet, loe that is a dead-carkasse. Nothing is forbidden by the name of a carkasse, but the sorts of cleane things onely; because they are fit to be slaine, and if they bee slaine, after a lawfull manner, they are lawfull to be eaten. But uncleane things, whose slaying availeth them not, whether they be duely slaine, or dye alone, or the flesh be cut off from them alive; who so eateth of them is not beaten as for a carkasse, or a torne thing; but as for eating of uncleane flesh. Who so eateth a cleane bird alive all of it; is beaten as for eating a carkasse. Who so eateth of the flesh of an untimely birth of a cleane beast, is beaten as for eating of a carkasse. And it is unlawfull to eat of any beast that is borne, untill the eight night (after,) Exodus 22. 30. for who so tarieth not eight daies for a beast, it is as an untimely-birth; though he is not beaten for that. The law forbiddeth a dead thing, and that is a carkasse: and forbiddeth that which inclineth to dye, though it be not already dead, and that is the torne thing. There is no difference in the death, whether it dye of it selfe alone, or whether it fall and dye, or whether it be strangled untill it dye, or that a wilde beast hath rent and killed it. Maimony in treat. of Forbidden meats, chap. 4. sect. 1. 2. 3. 4. 8. As the forbidding of uncleane meats, Levit. 11. spiritually forbid communion with wicked persons, Acts 10. 12. 28. so this prohibition of things not duely slaine, forbiddeth in mysterie, to have religious communion with such as are dead in their trespasses and sinnes; and which are not mortified by the worke of Gods word and spirit, Ephes. 2. 1. 2. 3. 2 Cor. 6. 16. 17. Colos. 2. 13. and 3. 5. By the former explanation out of Maimony it appeareth that the strangled thing forbidden by the Apostles unto the Gentiles together with blood, in Acts 15. 20. 29. was the carkasse or dead thing here spoken of, for the Law otherwise mentioneth not the strangled. And this compared with Deuteronomie 14. 21. where the Gentiles are permitted to eate such things; giveth light to the true meaning of that decree in Acts 15. and a torne thing] and is here for or, distinguishing and disjoyning it from the carkasse aforesaid. Any cleane beast or bird, which by other beast or fowle, or any other way, was torne or maimed, but not fully dead, is here meant: as is noted upon Exodus 22. 31. where this law is first given, and shewed to tend also unto sanctification. If it bee torne and dead, it is a carkasse (forementioned,) but this is a different precept, and so meaneth torne things yet living; as the Hebrewes observe. Maimony in Forbidden meats, chap. 4. sect. 6. Againe, The torne thing spoken of in the Law, is that which is inclining to die. And it is not called torne, but that the scripture speaketh by an instance; as that a Lion or the like, hath torne it and broken it, and it is not yet dead. And there are other sicknesses (or diseases) which if they happen unto it, it is accounted torne. Maimony in Shechitah, chap. 5. sect. 1. 2. These beasts torne, or inclining to death; figured such persons as the Apostle likeneth unto naturall bruit beasts made to bee taken [for a prey] and destroyed, which shall bee corrupted (or utterly-perish) in their own corruption: 2 Pet. 2. 12. Where the Greeke words eis halosin, that is, for a prey, or to be taken: seeme to expresse the Hebrew terephah, the torne thing here mentioned: as in Iob 24. 5. the Hebrew latareph, for a prey; is turned in Greeke eis halosin, by Aquila an ancient interpreter. So that the eating of such, that is the communion with them, is by this law forbidden: such flesh was to be cast unto the dogge: Exodus 22. 31. home borne] the naturall Israelite. or a stranger] of the Proselytes, as the Greeke translateth: that is, heathens converted to the faith the Church of Israel. For if they were not joyned Proselytes, the strangers in Israel might eat these things; as Moses sheweth in Deuteronomie 14. 21. saying of the dead thing (or carkasse,) thou shalt give it unto the stranger that is in thy gates, (which the Chaldee there expoundeth the uncircumcised inhabitant,) that hee may eat it. For the scripture mentioneth three sorts of strangers, open Idolaters, which might not dwell in the land of Israel: others that practised not Idolatrie, but yeelded to some chiefe grounds of true religion, and such might dwell in the gates or cities of Israel: and the third sort converts or proselytes, which were bound to all the Law, as the Iewes themselves; and such are spoken of throughout this chapter. Of all these three sorts, see the annotations on Exodus 12. 43. 45. 48. his flesh] or, as the Greeke translateth, his body: which supply is here added from the next verse, where Moses expresseth it. the evening] the end of the day, and beginning of a new. This washing and bathing, figured a renewing by repentance and faith in Christ to remission of sinnes, with sanctification by the spirit, 1 Cor. 6. 11. Rev. 1. 5. Heb. 10. 22. See the notes on Levit. 15. Vers. 16. his flesh] his body with water, saith the Grecke version: so Paul speaketh of our bodies washed with pure water, Heb. 10. 22. It figured their cleansing by repentance, as Iohn said, I baptise you with water unto repentance, Matth. 3. 11. his iniquitie] that is, his guiltinesse, and his punishment. See the notes on Gen. 19. 15.