Matthew Poole and continuators on Deuteronomy 26:14

14 I have not eaten thereof in my mourning , neither have I taken away ought thereof for any unclean use , nor given ought thereof for the dead : but I have hearkened to the voice of the LORD my God, and have done according to all that thou hast commanded me.

(i. e.) Either 1. in my funeral solemnities for the dead. But this falls in with the last branch. Or 2. in my distress or poverty, or upon pretence of my own want, in which case men are tempted and inclined to fall upon sacred or forbidden things. Or 3. in sorrow, or grieving that I was to give away so much of my profits to the poor, but I have chearfully eaten and feasted with them, as I was obliged to do. For though it be taken for granted by some learned Expositours from Deut. 14. 28, 29. that the owner was not to eat any part of the third years tithe; but to give it all away to the stranger and fatherless, &c. the contrary seems to me more probable from that very place, where it is said, thou shalt lay it up within thy gates, and then it follows, that the Levite, stranger, &c. shall come, to wit, to thy gates, and shall eat, to wit, there, as is expressed Deut. 26. 12. that they may not eat within thy gates, and be filled. Which implies, that these tithes, or some part of them were eaten in the owners gates or dwelling, with holy rejoycing and feasting, wherein it is most probable the owner had his share, though it be not there expressed, because it was evident in it self from the foregoing passage Deut. 14. 23, &c. where the owner is allowed and commanded to eat those tithes together with the Levites. And howsoever somethink the third years tithes ver. 28. were not the same with those ver. 23. yet it cannot with any colour of reason be thought that those tithes which were to be eaten not onely by the Levites, but also by the strangers ver. 29. were more sacred than those that were to be eaten by none but the Levites and the owners, ve[illegible: 1+ letters]. 23, 27. or that the owner might eat of the one, and not of the other.

(i. e.) For any common use, the words common and unclean being oft indifferently used one for the other, or for any other use than that which thou hast appointed, which would have been a pollution of them.

(i. e.) For any funeral pomp or service or feast, for the Iews used to send in provisions to feast with the nearest relations of the party deceased, of which see Ier. 16. 7. Ezek. 24. 17▪ Hos. 9. 4. and in that case both the guests and food were legally polluted, Numb. 19. 11, 14. and therefore the use of these tithes in such cases had been a double fault, both the defiling of sacred food, and the imploying of those provisions upon sorrowful occasions which by Gods express command were to be eaten with rejoycing, Deut. 14. 26. and 26. 11.