The uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant.”
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 14. Circumcised. Septuagint adds, “on the eighth day,” with the Sam. and many Latin copies. Calmet.—Destroyed, and so forth lose the privileges of the Hebrews, or be put to death, when he grows up and does not supply this defect. Saint Augustine reading on the eighth day, concluded that as a child of that age, could not, with reason, be put to death for an offense, in which he could have no share, the destruction here threatened is that of the soul, for transgression, in Adam, the original covenant, and dying in that state unclean, must be excluded from heaven, as people are now who die unbaptized. This difficult passage may, however, be explained as if the threat regarded the negligent parents. “He who shall not circumcise … shall be destroyed.” Syr. or, as the Hebrew may be rendered, “the male that doth not,” and so forth; in which case, he becomes guilty of a transgression, when he is arrived at the years sufficient to understand his duty, and does not fulfil it. Worthington.