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“You shall not spread a false report. Don’t join your hand with the wicked to be a malicious witness.
Verse 1. Lie, by countenancing calumny. Judges must never do any thing which they know to be unjust, whatever the witnesses may assert. The person who speaks against his neighbour, would injure him, if he had an opportunity. Quintel.—Hebrew “Thou shalt not raise a false report.” Bible.
“You shall not follow a crowd to do evil. You shall not testify in court to side with a multitude to pervert justice.
You shall not favor a poor man in his cause.
Verse 3. Favour. Mercy would then be contrary to justice. Psalms 71:2. Saint Augustine q. 88.
“If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again.
If you see the donkey of him who hates you fallen down under his burden, don’t leave him. You shall surely help him with it.
“You shall not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits.
“Keep far from a false charge, and don’t kill the innocent and righteous; for I will not justify the wicked.
“You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds those who have sight and perverts the words of the righteous.
Verse 8. Bribes, which naturally induce the receiver to shew favour, and therefore cannot be too carefully avoided. The Athenians put to death those who bribed the judges, and required the latter to restore ten-fold. Calmet.
“You shall not oppress an alien, for you know the heart of an alien, since you were aliens in the land of Egypt.
Verse 9. The hearts. You have experienced what sorrow and misery they feel. Menochius.
“For six years you shall sow your land, and shall gather in its increase,
but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the animal of the field shall eat. In the same way, you shall deal with your vineyard and with your olive grove.
Verse 11. Year. Thus God was pleased to teach them to place entire confidence in him, and to compassionate the distress of the poor. Most people suppose, that the sabbatic year commenced in autumn; as otherwise the land would have remained without any harvest two years. This law began to be observed the 7th year after Josue crossed the Jordan. Jerusalem was thrice besieged during the sabbatic years. Jeremiah 34:8 1 Maccabees 6:51. See Josep. Ant. xii. 14. xiv. 28. God blessed the 6th year, so that it produced as much as three. Leviticus 25:21 Calmet.—On the feast of tabernacles, (in September) at the beginning of the 7th year, Deuteronomy was to be read aloud to all the people, the Hebrew slaves might obtain their liberty, and if a person could not restore what he had borrowed, it was to be remitted for ever. Deuteronomy 15 and 31:10. Tirinus.
“Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant, and the alien may be refreshed.
“Be careful to do all things that I have said to you; and don’t invoke the name of other gods or even let them be heard out of your mouth.
Verse 13. Name. Hence it is supposed, the Jews had given abusive titles to the idols; as they call Beelzebub the god-fly, and so forth No respect was to be shewn to them. Calmet.
“You shall observe a feast to me three times a year.
Verse 14. Three. Women are not here mentioned; but they are, Deuteronomy 31:12. Children under 13 were exempted from the obligation, according to the Caraites. Men from 20 to 60, not lawfully hindered, were bound to appear. Levit. 27:3.
You shall observe the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib (for in it you came out of Egypt), and no one shall appear before me empty.
Verse 15. Empty. But shalt offer something in sacrifice, and for the support of the Levites, freely. Deuteronomy 16:10. At the Passover, the first-fruits of barley were to be offered, as those of wheat would be ready at Pentecost. The third feast was that of tabernacles, at the conclusion of the civil year. Presents were to be made to God, in testimony of their submission to him; as they were to the kings of the east, by their subjects. Tavernier, Perse. iv. 16. See 1 Kennicott. 10:27. 1 Chronicles 18:2.—A sixtieth part of the fruits, at least, was carried to the temple. They consisted of wheat, barley, grapes, figs, apricots, olives, and dates. The king himself carried his basket, and when the solemn procession arrived at the temple, the Levites began to sing Psalms 29. I will extol thee, O Lord, and so forth After which, the people repeated the words of Deuteronomy 26:3.; and having given their baskets to the priests, (verse 4,) recited parts of the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th verses. Calmet.—God. Here the Septuagint add, “For when I shall have cast the Gentiles from before thy face, and extended thy limits.”
And the feast of harvest, the first fruits of your labors, which you sow in the field; and the feast of ingathering, at the end of the year, when you gather in your labors out of the field.
Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord GOD.
“You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread. The fat of my feast shall not remain all night until the morning.
Verse 18. Thou, and so forth This has a reference to the feast of the Passover, verse 15, (Onkelos) as well as the following verse. Calmet.
You shall bring the first of the first fruits of your ground into the house of the LORD your God. “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.
Verse 19. Dam. The paschal victim must not be so young as to be still suckled. The Sam. subjoins, “Because that would be like immolating an animal found dead, and the God of Jacob hates it.” Calmet.—Some imagine that this law alludes to a superstitious custom of the pagans, (Spencer Rit. ii. 8,) or it forbids eating animals while they are, as it were, all milk, not eight days old. Rivet.
“Behold, I send an angel before you, to keep you by the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.
Verse 20. Angel; my only son. Philo.—Saint Paul says, they tempted Jesus Christ, (1 Corinthians 10:9,) who is styled, the angel of the covenant. Malachi 3:1. Some apply this to Josue, others to S. Michael, who, from the cloud, conducted the army of Israel. Calmet.
Pay attention to him, and listen to his voice. Don’t provoke him, for he will not pardon your disobedience, for my name is in him.
Verse 21. Forgive. Dimittet, as well as the Hebrew and Sept., may signify, “he will not abandon.” Bible.—My name. Moses, Josue, and still more our Saviour, acted in the name and by the authority of God the Father.
But if you indeed listen to his voice, and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies, and an adversary to your adversaries.
For my angel shall go before you, and bring you in to the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Canaanite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite; and I will cut them off.
You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor follow their practices, but you shall utterly overthrow them and demolish their pillars.
You shall serve the LORD your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from among you.
Verse 25. Waters, or all things necessary for your sustenance.
No one will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will fulfill the number of your days.
Verse 26. Fruitless. Hebrew may also be, “miscarrying.”—Days. An untimely death was a judgment of God on the wicked, though sometimes he chooses to draw his elect quickly out of this dangerous world. Wisd. 4:11.
I will send my terror before you, and will confuse all the people to whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.
Verse 27. Destroy. Hebrew “fill with consternation.”
I will send the hornet before you, which will drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before you.
Verse 28. Hornets, or wasps. Wisd. 12:8. Josue (24:12,) assures us this was verified. Thus scorpions forced the Ethiopians to abandon their country, and flies and wasps drove away the Mysians and Phaselides. See Bochart iv. 13. The latter people were of Phœnician extraction, and probably fled before Josue. Most of the Chanaanites withdrew into Africa; some perhaps into America. Calmet.
I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate, and the animals of the field multiply against you.
Verse 29. Beasts. Herod the great killed many in hunting. Josep. Bel. i. 16. Two bears rushed upon the children, 4 Kennicott. 2:24. How much would they have increased in all the countries from the Euphrates to the Nile, had they been destitute of any other inhabitants but the Hebrews, ( Calmet.) many of whom perished in the desert!
Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and inherit the land.
I will set your border from the Red Sea even to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you.
You shall make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.
They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me, for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”
Verse 33. Scandal. If you have any society with these nations, it will turn to your ruin, which was but too literally manifested afterwards.