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even so, while they are in the land of their enemies, I do not cast them away, nor do I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break My covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God. 45. But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt before the eyes of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the Lord.

46. These are the statutes and the judgments and

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then (after the confession of their sins) the Hebrews humble their hearts, then I will remember My covenant"; the Sept. omits x, the Vulgate renders is donec, Luther da wird sich ja ihr Herz demüthigen, Rosenm. usque dum, Maurer nisi forte, Knob. ob etwa, Keil oder vielmehr. D TN 137 is “they will pay the penalty of their iniquity" (see supra on ver. 34); some take here also in the sense of enjoying, and translate either "they will be well pleased with their sins" (Sept. εὐδοκήσουσι τὰς ἁμαρτίας αὐτῶν; Keil sie werden ihre Missethaten geniessen), or "they will take pleasure in the punishment they receive for their sins" (Luther sie werden sich die Strafe ihrer Missethat gefallen lassen); that is, as has been explained, "they will rejoice to have been so deeply humbled, and to have thus been brought to see the abyss of sin into which they had fallen" (Keil) - or "having repented, they shall have the blessing of chastisement" (Cook's Holy Bible) an idea which its advocates themselves describe as "bold" or "paradoxical", and which certainly appears too abstract (comp. Tobit XIII. 1—15). The Vulgate renders inaccurately tunc orabunt pro impietatibus suis.

On the irregular phrase "0", a construct state following after a

noun with a suffix, see Gramm. § LXXXVII. 11 (but in 2 Ki. XIII. 23, DT-IN-T 1; comp. Lev.XXVII. 12, 1; though some take the in

asparagog. "the covenant of Jacob"; comp. Gesen. Gramm. § 322. 2); and on for me (with dagesh in ), see Gramm. §§ XI. 4. b; LXII. 8. The emphatic conjunction pan (ver. 43) occurs, besides, only in Ezek. XIII. 10, and p p in Ezek. XXXVI. 3.

46. Here ended the collection of laws, which tradition or some learned historian assigned to the period, when the Hebrews were encamped in the regions of Mount Sinai; and here the Book of Leviticus was originally finished - "These are the statutes and the judgments and the laws, which the Lord made between Himself and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses". It was at the end of the Book that the compiler fitly placed the promise of rewards and the menace of punishments; and not to him is due the incongruity, that a new series of important laws, also purporting to have been revealed in the district of Horeb, was appended, and that the reviser then added another formula of conclusion (XXVII. 34), which not only rendered that of our chapter superfluous, but made it appear inappropriate. The term

the laws, which the Lord made between Himself and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.

"in Mount Sinai" () means not only the mountain itself, but also the localities near it, since many laws were communicated to Moses from the Tabernacle (see supra p. 539). The commands were intended to confirm the covenant concluded

between God and the Hebrews, or they formed a part of that covenant; and hence the expression "the laws which the Lord made between Himself

בינו ובין) "and the children of Israel aptly points to the chief ,(בני ישראל

object of the theocratic legislation.

X.

LAWS ON VOTIVE OFFERINGS AND

TITHES.

CHAPTER XXVII.

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SUMMARY. This appendix begins with the laws concerning votive offerings; viz. 1. If persons are dedicated or dedicate themselves to God by a vow (; vers. 1-8); 2. If animals are offered to God as vows (vers. 9-13), for which purpose, however, firstborn beasts are not available (vers. 26, 27); 3. If houses (vers. 14, 15), and 4. If fields are so sanctified (~; vers. 16-26); and 5. If men, animals, or hereditary fields are "devoted" () to God (vers. 28, 29). — Then follow precepts respecting the tithes both of vegetable produce and of the increase of flocks and herds (vers. 30-33). Another conclusion winds up the collection

of Sinaitic laws (ver. 34).

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1. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2. Speak

1. General Survey.

Vows so cient world. Being pronounced either

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naturally result from the same feelings and notions as sacrifices, that both are co-eval and nearly co-extensive. A vow was offered by the patriarch Jacob in these explicit words: "If God will be with me... and I return again to my father's house in peace, then this stone, which I have set for a monument, shall be a house of God; and of all that Thou wilt give me, I shall surely give the tenth part to Thee" (Gen. XXVIII. 20-22); and Vows were usual among nearly all the more civilised nations of the an

when dangers threaten, or when they have been successfully overcome, they correspond in meaning to holocausts, and still more to thank-offerings, one class of which is indeed called "vowofferings" (VII. 16; XXII. 18, 21; see notes in locc., and Comm. on Lev. I. p. 2; Num. XV. 3 sqq.; Deut. XII. 17, 18; 1 Sam. I. 21). Yet Hebrew legislators and moralists do not seem to have encouraged this form of religious service. Experience had probably taught them, how difficult it was for persons harassed by the ex

to the children of Israel, and say to them, When a man

citement of trouble and misfortune, to weigh their words with calmness, and not to utter vows which afterwards they might deeply regret, or perhaps regard with amazement; and the one instance of Jephthah, which seems to have been kept fresh in the memory of the people by annual celebrations, was sufficient to serve as a terrible warning. They insisted, therefore, that pledges should be given with the utmost caution. A proverb declared, "It is a snare for a man to be heedless in sacred things, and to consider only after the vow" (Prov. XX. 25); and the Preacher gives the most emphatic admonitions: "Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thy heart be hasty to utter anything before God; for God is in heaven and thou art upon earth; therefore let thy words be few" (Eccles. V. 1). But they were too conscientious and too earnest to permit trifling with holy promises once made, since they considered them no less solemn and binding than oaths; and they enjoined again and again: "When thou shalt vow a vow to the Lord thy God, thou shalt not be slow in paying it, for the Lord thy God will surely require it of thee, and it would be sin in thee" (Deut. XXIII. 22, 24; comp. Num. XXX. 3); or "When thou vowest a vow to God, defer not to pay it, for He has no pleasure in the wicked; . . better is it that thou

...

shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay" (Eccl. V. 3, 4). They seem to have had no reason to complain of want of zeal on the part of the people; for though instances of base evasion may have occurred (Mal. I. 14), vows were, as a rule, faithfully kept even under the most harrowing circumstances. When Jephthah saw his daughter,

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who had come out to meet him, he exclaimed, "I have opened my mouth to the Lord and I cannot go back" (b); and the maiden replied, "My father, thou hast opened thy mouth to the Lord, do to me according to that which has proceeded out of thy mouth"; upon which Jephthah "did with her according to his vow which he had vowed" (Judg. XI. 35, 36, 39; see Comm. on Lev. I. pp. 383-390; comp. also 2 Sam. XV. 7, 8; Ps. XXII. 26; LXVI. 13; LXXVI. 12; CXVI. 14, 18). Nevertheless the Deuteronomist, anxious to shield the people from guilt, expressly declared, "If you shall forbear to vow, it shall be no sin in you" (XXIII. 23). The levitical writers, on the other hand, were of opinion, that vows, in spite of inherent dangers and disadvantages, might prove an inestimable help in promoting both the spiritual and the material interests which they had at heart. For they had so fully developed the sacrificial system, and had so minutely prescribed offerings and rituals for every conceivable emergency, that they were glad to afford to the people means for the free exercise of piety and for satisfying spontaneous emotions and impulses. And they were naturally desirous of increasing in every possible manner the revenues of the Temple and of their own order. By enacting a series of laws on votive gifts, they might well hope to attain this twofold end most effectually: they introduced an element of liberty into the rigorous compulsion of the Law, and they opened a source of income which, considering the bias of their time, could not fail to prove most productive.

Means had been devised of mitigat

shall pronounce a vow, the persons shall be for the Lord

ing the baneful effects of heedless vows by expiatory sacrifices, which had then been worked out in their full depth. Therefore, a levitical code ordained, that rash pledges and protestations might be atoned for by a female lamb or goat killed as a sinoffering, or in cases of poverty by two turtle doves or two young pigeons, one presented as a sin-offering, the second as a holocaust (Lev. V. 4-10). And another ordinance, supplementing our law, prescribed that the vows of dependent persons, such as daughters, wives, or slaves, might be annulled by those who have authority over them, and who may be supposed to possess greater experience and superior judgment, by their fathers, husbands, or masters; and it was promised that God would pardon the imprudent utterances (Num. XXX. 3-17). And lastly, the duties of the Nazarite, who by a solemn vow bound himself "to keep aloof" from certain things, and to devote himself entirely to God, were accurately specified, and surrounded with all the solemnity which they could derive from sacrificial ceremonies (Num. VI. 1—21).

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As regards the spirit and date of our section, there can hardly be a doubt. When Jephthah made his vow to the effect, that the first who would meet him on his return "should belong to the Lord" ( he added as an explanation, "I will offer him up for a burnt-offering" (Hbw ımınıbynı, Judg. XI. 31). And when Hannah prayed for a child, "she vowed a vow, and said, O Lord of hosts, if Thou... wilt give to Thy handmaid a son, then I will give him to the Lord (mbur) all the days of his life, and then shall no razor come upon his head"; and

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vowing a person to God meant neither offering him up as a sacrifice, nor dedicating him to the service of the Temple, and much less selling him as a slave, but simply redeeming him by money in favour of the sacred treasury: so foreign were the two former alternatives to his mind, that he utterly ignored them, and stated the third as a matter of course and as the only one to be at all considered. For in his time, human sacrifices, offered from whatever motive, were deemed an abomination, since then even that stage of the practice which underlies the story of Isaac's intended sacrifice, had long been passed; and in his time, the Levites were exclusively the appointed ministers of the Temple; any Hebrew of another tribe arrogating to himself priestly or levitical functions, was held guilty of death, and believed to bring fearful disasters upon the whole community (see Comm. on Lev. I. pp. 401, 412, 583). During many long ages women also seem to have served at the common Sanctuary, and might therefore dedicate themselves to God in the same manner as men; but by the levitical constitution they were utterly excluded from sacred ministrations, not only on account of the excesses to which their presence might give rise, but especially because their

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