Matthew Henry

so that he does not defile his offspring among his people, for I am the LORD who sanctifies him.”

“Some understand it as forbidding him to marry any of an inferior rank, which would be a disparagement to his family. Jehoiada indeed married of his own tribe, but then it was into the royal family, 2 Chron. xxii.”

by allowing the people to eat the sacred offerings and thus to bear the punishment for guilt. For I am the LORD who sanctifies them.”

“We must not only not suffer sin to lie upon our brother, but, if we can help it, we must not suffer it to come upon him.”

You must not present anything with a defect, because it will not be accepted on your behalf.

“According to this law great care was taken to search all the beasts that were brought to be sacrificed, that there might, to a certainty, be no blemish in them.”

“When an ox, a sheep, or a goat is born, it must remain with its mother for seven days.

“The Jews say, "It was because the sabbath sanctifies all things, and nothing should be offered to God till at least one sabbath had passed over it." It was in conformity to the law of circumcision, which children were to receive on the eighth day.”

On the first day you are to hold a sacred assembly; you are not to do any regular work.

“(1.) It is a holy convocation; that is, "If it lie within your reach, you shall sanctify it in a religious assembly: let as many as can come to the door of the tabernacle, and let others meet elsewhere for prayer, and praise, and the…”

On the day you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a year-old lamb without blemish as a burnt offering to the LORD,

“As the sacrifice of animals was generally attended with meat-offerings, so this sacrifice of corn was attended with a burnt-offering, that bread and flesh might be set together on God's table.”

“Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly announced by trumpet blasts.

“It was typical of the preaching of the gospel, by which joyful sound souls were to be called in to serve God and keep a spiritual feast to him.”

On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have gathered the produce of the land, you are to celebrate a feast to the LORD for seven days.

“And the worship of God under the New Testament is prophesied of under the notion of keeping the feast of tabernacles, Zech. xiv. For, [1.]”

On the first day you are to gather the fruit of majestic trees, the branches of palm trees, and the boughs of leafy trees and of willows of the brook.

“The tradition of the Jews is that they were to express their joy by dancing, and singing hymns of praise to God, with musical instruments: and not the common people only, but the wise men of Israel, and their elders, were to do it in…”

And you are to place pure frankincense near each row, so that it may serve as a memorial portion for the bread, an offering made by fire to the LORD.

“Thus a little was accepted as a humble acknowledgment, and all the loaves were consigned to the priests.”

Every Sabbath day the bread is to be set out before the LORD on behalf of the Israelites as a permanent covenant.

“Hence some infer that this show-bread, which was set on the table on the sabbath, was intended as a memorial of the manna wherewith they were fed in the wilderness.”

The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name with a curse. So they brought him to Moses.

“Neither he nor his father is named, but his mother only, who was an Israelite. This notice is taken of his parentage either, 1. To intimate what occasioned the quarrel he was engaged in.”

And you are to tell the Israelites, ‘If anyone curses his God, he shall bear the consequences of his sin.

“He that was put to death for blasphemy is said to bear his sin, in the punishment of it; no sacrifice being appointed, on the head of which the sin might be transferred, he himself was to bear it upon his own head, as a…”

Whoever kills an animal must make restitution—life for life. If anyone injures his neighbor, whatever he has done must be done to him: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth…

“And, it should seem, this is it that brings in these laws here, to show how equitable it was that strangers as well as Israelites should be punished for blasphemy, because strangers as well as Israelites were punishable for other crimes.”

But in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of complete rest for the land—a Sabbath to the LORD.

“And hence the Jews collect that vulgar tradition that after the world has stood six thousand years (a thousand years being to God as one day) it shall cease, and the eternal sabbath shall succeed--a weak foundation on which to build the fixing of that…”

And you shall count off seven Sabbaths of years—seven times seven years—so that the seven Sabbaths of years amount to forty-nine years.

“Seven sabbaths of weeks were reckoned from the passover to the feast of pentecost (or fiftieth day, for so pentecost signifies), and so seven sabbaths of years from one jubilee to another, and the seventh is called the fiftieth; and all this honour is put…”

Then you are to sound the horn far and wide on the tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement. You shall sound it throughout your land.

“The trumpet was sounded in the close of the day of atonement; thence the jubilee commenced, and very fitly; when they had been humbling and afflicting their souls for sin, then they were made to hear this voice of joy and gladness, Ps. xi.”

So you are to consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty in the land for all its inhabitants.

“This was typical of our redemption by Christ from the slavery of sin and Satan, and our restoration to the glorious liberty of the children of God.”

If you make a sale to your neighbor or a purchase from him, you must not take advantage of each other.

“In short, the buyer must not give less, nor the seller take more, than the just value of the thing, considered as necessarily returning at the year of jubilee.”

Then the land will yield its fruit, so that you can eat your fill and dwell in safety in the land.

“The word signifies both outward safety and inward security and confidence of spirit, that they should be quiet both from evil and from the fear of evil.”

If your brother becomes impoverished and sells some of his property, his nearest of kin may come and redeem what his brother has sold.

“The kinsman is called Goel, the redeemer ( Num. v. 8; 9 ), to whom belonged the right of redeeming the land.”

But the open pastureland around their cities may not be sold, for this is their permanent possession.

“Even the Egyptians took care to preserve the land of the priests, Gen. xlvii. And there is no less reason for the taking of the maintenance of the gospel ministry under the special protection of Christian governments.”

Do not take any interest or profit from him, but fear your God, that your countryman may live among you.

“And thus far this law binds still, but could never be thought binding where money is borrowed for purchase of lands, trade, or other improvements; for there it is reasonable that the lender share with the borrower in the profit.”

Then he and his children are to be released, and he may return to his clan and to the property of his fathers.

“This typified our redemption from the service of sin and Satan by the grace of God in Christ, whose truth makes us free, John vii.”

Because the Israelites are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt, they are not to be sold as slaves.

“God had redeemed them out of Egypt, and therefore they must never be exposed to sale as bondmen. The apostle applies this spiritually ( 1 Cor. vii.”