I have not eaten of it in my mourning, neither have I removed any of it while I was unclean, nor given of it for the dead. I have listened to the LORD my God’s voice. I have done according to all that you have commanded me.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 14. Mourning. It was then unlawful to taste what was set apart for the Lord, and even to touch a thing, at that time, would render it unclean. Osee 9:4. Others explain it thus: I have not eaten, how much soever I was distressed; or, I eat it with a cheerful heart. But these interpretations seem unnatural. Spencer (Rit. ii. 24,) thinks rather that the Jews thus disclaim having given any worship to Isis, whom the Egyptians invoked after the harvest, with mournful cries. Diod. Sic. i. About the same season of the year, lamentations were also made for the death of Adonis, (Marcel. xxii.) and for that of Osiris. Firminus.—The Phœnicians mourned in like manner for the desolate appearance of the earth, after the fruits were collected. The Egyptians thought that Isis had discovered fruits and corn, and therefore offered the first-fruits to her. But the Jews are here taught to refer all such favours to God alone, and they testify that they have taken no part in the superstitious rites of other nations, nor spent any thing in funerals. Hebrew “upon the dead;” Osiris, and so forth here styled uncleanness, by way of contempt. Calmet.