The Year of Remission: (1) of Debts Every seventh year Israel shall make Remission or Release (1). Creditors shall cancel their loans to fellow-Israelites it is the Lord's Remission but not those to foreigners (2 f.). But there shall be no need for this law if Israel keep God's commandments, for th... [ Continue Reading ]
_At the end of seven years_ So Heb. That is, in the seventh year, as is clearly put in Deuteronomy 15:12 (cp. Jeremiah 34:14): see also Deuteronomy 14:28. _a release_ or _remission_, Heb. _shemiṭṭah_from _shamaṭ_, to _let drop_(2 Kings 9:33; _let her drop_) or _lapse_: Exodus 23:11, _thou shalt let... [ Continue Reading ]
_And this is the manner of the release_ Lit. _the word_or _law_(or as we might say _text) of_: cp. Deuteronomy 19:4 R.V. _this is the case of_. The following clause is a citation of an older law, as we see further from its phrasing. _every creditor_ Lit. _every owner_(_ba-al_cp. Exodus 22:14) _of a... [ Continue Reading ]
_foreigner nokrî_distinct not only from _neighbour_- or _brother-Israelite_, but also from _gçr_the foreign client or settler in Israel (Deuteronomy 14:21).... [ Continue Reading ]
_Howbeit there shall be no poor with thee_ Dillm. etc. transl.: _should be no poor_. But this is not a correct rendering of the Heb. which uses the positive form of the vb.; and it weakens the writer's confident emphasis on his ideal. He is stating not so much what _should be_as what _shall be, if o... [ Continue Reading ]
_to observe to do_ See on Deuteronomy 5:1. _all this commandment_, etc.] See on Deuteronomy 5:31; Deuteronomy 8:1.... [ Continue Reading ]
_will bless thee_ Heb. is stronger, _shall have blessed thee_. _thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow_ Heb. _shalt take, but shalt not give, pledges_; cp. 8, Deuteronomy 24:10-13. This promise of a large foreign commerce, repeated Deuteronomy 28:12 f. (with the contrast in 43... [ Continue Reading ]
_with thee a poor man, one of thy brethren_ Heb. _in thee_as in Deuteronomy 15:4; _poor_, better _needy_. _in any of thy gates_ or _townships_; see on Deuteronomy 12:12. _harden thine heart_ See on Deuteronomy 2:30; cp. 1 John 3:17.... [ Continue Reading ]
One of the most beautiful as it is one of the most characteristic passages in the laws of D: illustrating not only the humane spirit, and the practical thoughtfulness of this code, but its extension of the Law to the thoughts and interests of the heart: cp. Deuteronomy 5:21.... [ Continue Reading ]
_lend him_ See on Deuteronomy 15:6.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Beware be on guard with respect to thyself_; see on Deuteronomy 4:9. _a base thought in thine heart_ Lit. _a word_or _thing in thine heart, baseness,_or _worthlessness: beliya-al_; see on Deuteronomy 13:13 (14). _thine eye be evil cruel_or _grudging_, Deuteronomy 28:54; Deuteronomy 28:56; the opp... [ Continue Reading ]
_thine heart shall not be grieved_, etc.] _God loveth a cheerful giver_(2 Corinthians 9:7). _puttest thine hand unto_ See on Deuteronomy 12:7.... [ Continue Reading ]
_For the poor shall never cease_, etc.] See introd. note. _to thy needy, and to thy poor_ Two of the three Hebrew synonyms for poor. The first is a passive form, _forced, afflicted_, then _wretched_, whether under persecution, poverty or exile, arid so also _subdued, mild, meek_. The second is the... [ Continue Reading ]
The Year of Remission: (2) of Slaves If a Hebrew, man or woman, serves as a slave for six years, in the seventh he shall not only go free but be liberally equipped from his owner's property; as Israel was a slave and redeemed by God (Deuteronomy 15:12-15). If, however, the slave elects to remain wi... [ Continue Reading ]
_thy brother_ See on Deuteronomy 15:2. _an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman_ E, Exodus 21:2, _an Hebrew slave_. In O.T. _Hebrew_is used either when foreigners are speaking of Israelites, or in order to distinguish Israelites from foreigners. Here the Heb. gives only the adj. masc. and fem., _Hebrew_an... [ Continue Reading ]
_empty_ In Pent. only in E (Genesis 31:42; Exodus 3:21; Exodus 23:15), J (Exodus 34:20) and D (here, and Deuteronomy 16:16).... [ Continue Reading ]
Peculiar to D and characteristic of its philanthropy.... [ Continue Reading ]
_thou shalt furnish him liberally_ Lit. make-him-a-necklace (with emphatic repetition of the vb.). In this metaphor is the idea of _loading_or that of _ornamenting_(embellishing, equipping) the governing one? Probably both are combined; the metaphor rising from the primitive custom of hoarding the f... [ Continue Reading ]
The motive characteristic of D, Deuteronomy 5:15; Deuteronomy 16:12; Deuteronomy 24:18; Deuteronomy 24:22: cp. Deuteronomy 10:19.... [ Continue Reading ]
_And it shall be, if he say unto thee_ E, Exodus 21:5, more simply _And if the slave say_. _I will not go out from thee_ E, _I will not go out free_. On _go out_, cp. Deuteronomy 13:13. _because he loveth thee and thine house_ On the treatment of slaves see introd. note.... [ Continue Reading ]
_thou shalt take an awl_ Lit. _a borer_, only here and in Exodus 21:6. _and thrust it through his ear_ Lit. _set_, or _give, it_; E, _bore_or _pierce his ear. His ear_because it is the organ of obedience. Cp. Psalms 40:6, _mine ears thou hast opened_; Isaiah 50:4 f., _morning by morning he wakeneth... [ Continue Reading ]
_It shall not_ BE HARD IN THINE EYE] See on Deuteronomy 15:9. How well this legislator knew the hearts of his people may be seen from Jeremiah 34:8 ff. _for to the double of the hire of an hireling hath he served thee_ Jewish commentators inferred from this that the hired servant served only for th... [ Continue Reading ]
_firstling_ Heb. _bekôr_, firstborn both of men (e.g. Deuteronomy 21:15 f., Exodus 11:5) and of animals; either collectively or of the individual firstling. The root meaning is _to break_; and _bekôr_is defined (Exodus 13:2; Exodus 34:19) as that which _openeth_, or _cleaveth, the womb_. It covers,... [ Continue Reading ]
Of Firstlings All male firstlings of herd and flock are to be sanctified to Jehovah; those of the ox shall not work nor those of the sheep be shorn; their flesh shall be eaten before the Lord by the offerer and his household at the One Altar year by year (Deuteronomy 15:9 f.). A blemished firstling... [ Continue Reading ]
_thou shalt eat it before the Lord thy God_ See on Deuteronomy 12:7; Deuteronomy 12:12; Deuteronomy 12:18. _year by year_ At one of the feasts, probably the Passover, hence the place of this law of firstlings; in D immediately before that on the Passover, in Exodus 34:19 immediately after that on u... [ Continue Reading ]
_any blemish_ See on Deuteronomy 17:1. _Thou shalt not sacrifice it_, i.e. at the one altar where alone sacrifice was now lawful; but... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou shalt eat it within thy gates_ as an ordinary meal without rites; see on Deuteronomy 12:21.... [ Continue Reading ]
See on Deuteronomy 12:23.... [ Continue Reading ]