Of the Expiation of an Untraced Murder If a slain man be found in the open country and his slayer is not known the elders of the nearest town shall take a heifer not yet wrought with to an uncultivated valley with a stream and break its neck (Deuteronomy 21:1-4); and priests shall attend (Deuterono... [ Continue Reading ]
_If one be found_ So Deuteronomy 17:2; Deuteronomy 24:7, also Sg. passages. _which the Lord thy God_ IS TO GIVE _thee_ see on Deuteronomy 19:14. _lying_ Heb. _falling_but with perfect sense, _fallen_, cp. Numbers 24:4; Judges 3:25; Judges 5:27. _in the field sadeh_, as in Deuteronomy 22:25;... [ Continue Reading ]
_thy elders and thy judges_ The combination is remarkable, and recent commentators take one or the other as secondary. Steuern. retains _elders_(see introd. note), but Berth. and Marti are right in taking this as editorial since D does not elsewhere speak of the elders of the whole nation as P does.... [ Continue Reading ]
_and it shall be_, etc.] Lit. _and it shall be_as regards _the city which … that the elders of that city shall take_, etc. Similar construction in Deuteronomy 12:11; Deuteronomy 18:19. _an heifer of the herd_ 1 Samuel 16:2; Genesis 15:9 (_a three year old_) for sacrifice. _which hath not been wroug... [ Continue Reading ]
_the elders of that city_ Luc. omits. _a valley with running water_ i.e. with a perennial brook, cp. Amos 5:24 (and see Driver's note here). The running water is usually explained as meant to carry off the blood, but no blood is mentioned; unless it was so in the original law (see introd. note). Th... [ Continue Reading ]
_the priests the sons of Levi shall come near_ The same vb as of _the priest_in Deuteronomy 20:2, R.V. _approach_. The appearance of the priests is remarkable, for they have nothing else to do in the ceremony. They have been introduced, then, either by D or, since they are not designated by D's usua... [ Continue Reading ]
_wash their hands_ thus disowning their own and their community's guilt. Psalms 26:6; Psalms 73:13; Matthew 27:24. _over the heifer_ As representing the murderer or the murder?... [ Continue Reading ]
_answer_ TESTIFY, as in Deuteronomy 5:20 (9th Comm.), and Deuteronomy 19:16.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Forgive_ the meaning of this technical term, _kipper_, is usually taken either from the Ar. form = _to cover_, or the Syr. = to _wipe_away, the latter being also its meaning in Assyr. (Zimmern in _KAT_3 [144], 601, 650). See Driver's note here. [144] _Die Keilinschriften und das AIte Testament_, 3... [ Continue Reading ]
_So shalt thou put away_ Heb. _and thou, thou shalt put away_, an emphatic variation of the formula with which D usually closes similar laws (see Deuteronomy 13:5, (6), Deuteronomy 19:13, etc.), as if he only now resumed his own words. _when thou shalt do_, etc.] To make the construction right we s... [ Continue Reading ]
_When thou goest forth_, etc.] see on Deuteronomy 20:1. Read _enemy_(sing.) because of the following: _and the Lord thy God delivereth_ HIM _into thine hands_(see on Deuteronomy 1:27); AND THOU TAKEST CAPTIVES FROM HIM (lit. _capturest his captives_).... [ Continue Reading ]
Of Marriage with a Captive of War If a woman taken in war is desired for a wife (Deuteronomy 21:11 f.), she may be brought home, but the marriage shall not take place till she has shaved her hair, pared her nails, put away her former garments, and mourned her parents for a month (Deuteronomy 21:12... [ Continue Reading ]
_the captives_ Sam. _his_. _hast a desire unto her_ Heb. _ḥashaḳ_, see on Deuteronomy 7:7. _and wouldest take her_ So Sam. LXX. Heb. omits _her_.... [ Continue Reading ]
_to thine house_ Lit. _to the midst of thy household_. _shave her head, and pare her nails_ Heb. _make_or _dress her nails_(2 Samuel 19:24 with _feet_and _beard_). Berth. thinks these duties are part of the following mourning, the cutting off of hair being a mourning rite (Deuteronomy 14:1, _Ethn.... [ Continue Reading ]
_a full month_ Lit. _a month of days_, a usual period of mourning, Deuteronomy 34:8; Numbers 20:29, etc., cp. Genesis 50:3. Contrast Mohammed's practice above. _be her husband_ Heb. _a ba-al to her_; so Deuteronomy 24:1, R.V. _marrieth_.... [ Continue Reading ]
_let her go_ Lit. _dismiss_, the term for divorce, the right of which was the husband's alone, but in this case is qualified by the following. _whither she will_ Lit. _according to her desire_; therefore rather AS _she will_, as full mistress of herself; cp. Jeremiah 34:16 of freed slaves. _thou s... [ Continue Reading ]
_If a man have two wives_ Cp. Jacob, Genesis 29:16 ff., Elkanah, 1 Samuel 1:2. _hated_ The extreme case, but covering others such as Jacob's Genesis 29:30 f.... [ Continue Reading ]
Of the right of the Firstborn If a man have two sons by different wives, one loved and one hated, and his firstborn is the son of the latter, he must not give the firstborn's double portion to the son of the favourite. Not in the direct address nor with any of D's characteristic phrases; possibly t... [ Continue Reading ]
_in the day that he causeth his sons to inherit_ When he makes his will, Genesis 24:36; Genesis 25:5; cp. 2 Samuel 17:23; 2 Kings 20:1. _before_ in preference to (see on Deuteronomy 5:7), R.V. margin is improbable.... [ Continue Reading ]
_acknowledge_ Grätz by adding one consonant reads, _make him the first-born_. _a double portion_ Heb. _mouth_or _mouthful, of two_, only here and 2 Kings 2:9; Zechariah 13:8; cp. _hand_or _handful_, Genesis 43:34. _beginning of his strength_ Genesis 49:3. AND HIS IS _the right of the firstborn_ S... [ Continue Reading ]
_If a man have_ See introd. to Deuteronomy 21:15. _stubborn and rebellious_ Jeremiah 5:23; Psalms 78:8. _father or … mother_ Mark the equality of the parents, as in the next _v_., the Fifth Comm. and in E, Exodus 21:15; Exodus 21:17; also in the Babylonian laws cited above. _chasten_ see on Deute... [ Continue Reading ]
Of a Disobedient Son If a man have a son, who, in spite of his parents" rebuke, fails to obey them (Deuteronomy 21:18), they shall bring him forth to the gate, and state the case to the elders of the town (Deuteronomy 21:19 f.), and the townsmen shall stone him to death, so shall evil be put out of... [ Continue Reading ]
_lay hold_ Deuteronomy 22:28; cp. Deuteronomy 9:17. _Bring out_, Deuteronomy 17:5, _q.v._, Deuteronomy 22:21; Deuteronomy 22:24. _Elders of his city_, see on Deuteronomy 19:12 and Deuteronomy 16:18. _Gate of his place_, as the local seat of judgement,... [ Continue Reading ]
_elders_ Sam. LXX, _men_. _riotous liver_ Better, PRODIGAL, lit. one who _lavishes_or _squanders_, Proverbs 23:20 (with _flesh_, a glutton) and 21, parallel to _drunkard_as here; Deuteronomy 28:7: _a companion of prodigals shameth his father_.... [ Continue Reading ]
_stone_ Heb. _ragam_as in Ar.; only here in D, which elsewhere has _saḳal_, see on Deuteronomy 13:10 (11), but found in JE (Joshua 7:25), H (Leviticus 20:2; Leviticus 20:27) and P (Numbers 14:10, etc.). _put away_, etc.] see on Deuteronomy 13:5 (6). _all Israel shall hear_, etc.] see on Deuteronomy... [ Continue Reading ]
f. Of the Exposed Corpse of a Criminal A corpse exposed after execution shall be buried before night; cursed of God it must not be left to defile the land. In the Sg. address and closing with a deuteronomic formula. Hanging (or impalement? see below) was not the form of the criminal's death but wa... [ Continue Reading ]
_for_ THE THING HANGED _is accursed of God_ lit. _a curse of God_. This was the meaning of such exposure of the corpse after execution. God's wrath was heaped upon it; or it became doubly unclean and therefore terribly charged with infection to its surroundings. The LXX version of these words: κεκατ... [ Continue Reading ]