Chapter 21

1
Ps 5:6, Ps 9:12; Prov 28:17; Isa 26:21; Acts 28:4


2
Deut 16:18-19; Rom 13:3-4


3
an Num 19:2; Jer 31:18; Matt 11:28-30; Phil 2:8


4
a rough valley As the word nachal signifies both a torrent, and the valley or glen through which it flows, nachal aithan may be rendered a rapid torrent. Many torrents in Judea are dry during a great part of the year; when not only their banks but their beds may be ploughed, and yield a crop. Hence there is no impropriety in specifying that such a place should be one that "is neither cared nor sown;" while the circumstance that the elders were to wash their hands over the heifer, whose head had been struck off into the stream, confirms this interpretation. The spot of ground where this sacrifice was made must be uncultivated, because it was considered as a sacrifice for the atonement of murder, and, consequently, would pollute the land.

shall strike 1Pet 2:21-24, 1Pet 3:18


5
for them Deut 10:8, Deut 18:5; Num 6:22-27; 1Chr 23:13

by their word Deut 17:8-12; Mal 2:7

word Heb. mouth


6
wash their hands Washing the hands was anciently a symbolical action, denoting that the person was innocent of the crime in question. Job 9:30; Ps 19:12, Ps 26:6, Ps 51:2, Ps 51:7, Ps 51:14, Ps 73:13; Jer 2:22; Matt 27:24-25; Heb 9:10


7
Num 5:19-28; 2Sam 16:8; Job 21:21-23, Job 21:31-34; Ps 7:3-4


8
lay not Num 35:33; 2Sam 3:28; 2Kgs 24:4; Ps 19:12; Jer 26:15; Ezek 23:3, Ezek 23:24-25; Jonah 1:14; Matt 23:35; 1Thess 2:15-16

unto thy people Heb. in the midst


9
shalt thou Deut 19:12-13

when thou shalt Deut 13:18; 2Kgs 10:30-31


10
thou goest Deut 20:10-16


11
desire Gen 6:2, Gen 12:14-15, Gen 29:18-20, Gen 34:3, Gen 34:8; Judg 14:2-3; Prov 6:25, Prov 31:10, Prov 31:30

that Num 31:18


12
and she shall This was in token of renouncing her religion, and becoming a proselyte to that of the Jews. This is still a custom in the East. When a Christian turns Mohammedan, his head is shaved, and he is carried through the city, crying, la eelah eela allah wemochammed resoolullahee, "There is no God but the God, and Mohammed is the prophet of God." 1Cor 11:6; Eph 4:22

pare her nails or, suffer to grow, Heb. make, or dress, Weâsethah eth tzipparneyha, "and she shall make her nails;" i.e., probably neither paring nor letting them grow, but dressing or beautifying them as the Eastern women still do by tinging them with the leaves of an odoriferous plant called alhenna, which Hasselquist (p. 246) informs us, "grows in India and in upper and lower Egypt, flowering from May to August. The leaves are pulverized and made into a paste with water. They bind this paste on the nails of their hands and feet, and keep it on all night. This gives them a deep yellow, which is greatly admired by Eastern nations. The colour lasts for three or four weeks before there is occasion to renew it. The custom is so ancient in Egypt, that I have seen the nails of mummies dyed in this manner."


13
and bewail Ps 45:10-11; Luke 14:26-27


14
thou shalt Exod 21:7-11

because thou Deut 22:19, Deut 22:24, Deut 22:29; Gen 34:2; Judg 19:24


15
two wives Gen 29:18, Gen 29:20, Gen 29:30-31, Gen 29:33; 1Sam 1:4-5


16
1Chr 5:2, 1Chr 26:10; 2Chr 11:19-22, 2Chr 21:3; Rom 8:29; Phil 4:8; Heb 12:16-17


17
by giving Gen 25:5-6, Gen 25:32, Gen 25:34; 1Chr 5:1-2

that he hath Heb. that is found with him

the beginning Gen 49:3; Ps 105:36

the right Gen 25:31-34


18
have a stubborn Prov 28:24, Prov 30:11, Prov 30:17; Isa 1:2

obey the voice Deut 27:16; Exod 20:12, Exod 21:15, Exod 21:17; Lev 19:3, Lev 21:9; Prov 15:5, Prov 20:20; Ezek 22:7

when they Deut 8:5; 2Sam 7:14; Prov 13:24, Prov 19:18, Prov 22:15, Prov 23:13-14, Prov 29:17; Heb 12:9-11

will not Isa 1:5; Jer 5:3, Jer 31:18; Ezek 24:13; Amos 4:11-12


19
and bring Deut 21:2, Deut 16:18, Deut 25:7; Zech 13:3


20
he will not Prov 29:17

he is a glutton Prov 19:26, Prov 20:1, Prov 23:19-21, Prov 23:29-35


21
all the men Deut 13:10-11, Deut 17:5; Lev 24:16

so shalt thou Deut 13:5, Deut 13:11, Deut 19:19-20, Deut 22:21, Deut 22:24

all Israel Deut 13:11


22
Josh 8:29, Josh 10:26; So in Num 25:4, we read, "And the Lord said unto Moses, Take all the heads (chief men) of the people, and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel." Among the Romans, in after ages, they hanged, or rather fastened to the tree ALIVE; and such was the cruel death of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Deut 19:6, Deut 22:26; 1Sam 26:16; Matt 26:66; Acts 23:29, Acts 25:11, Acts 25:25, Acts 26:31

worthy of death Heb. of the judgment of death, The Hebrews understand this not of putting to death by hanging, but of hanging a man up after he was stoned to death; which was done more ignominiously of some heinous malefactors. We have the examples of Rechab and Baanah, who, for murdering Ish-bosheth, were slain by David's commandment, their hand and feet cut off, and then hanged up. 2Sam 4:12

thou hang 2Sam 21:6, 2Sam 21:9; Luke 23:33; John 19:31-38


23
he that is hanged is accursed of God Heb. the curse of God, That is, it is the highest degree of reproach that can attach to a man, and proclaims him under the curse of God as much as any external punishment can. They that see him thus hanging between heaven and earth, will conclude him abandoned of both, and unworthy of either. Bp. Patrick observes, that this passage is applied to the death of Christ; not only because he bare our sins and was exposed to shame, as these malefactors were that were accursed of God, but because he was in the evening taken down from the cursed tree and buried (and that by the particular care of the Jews, with an eye to this law, John 19:31), in token, that now the guilt being removed, the law was satisfied, as it was when the malefactors had hanged till sun-set. It demanded no more. Then he, and those that are his, ceased to be a curse. And as the land of Israel was pure and clean when the body was buried, so the church is washed and cleansed by the complete satisfaction which Christ thus made. Deut 7:26; Num 25:4; Josh 7:12; 2Sam 21:6; Rom 9:3; Gal 3:13; 1Cor 16:22; 2Cor 5:21

thy land Lev 18:25; Num 35:33-34


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