God himself therefore is their portion, without whom even heaven itself would not be a state of consummate blessedness to an immortal spirit.

THE jubilee was a wonderful institution, and was of very great service to the religion, freedom, and independence of the Jewish people, "The motive of this law," says Calmet, "was to prevent the rich from oppressing the poor, and reducing them to perpetual slavery; and that they should not get possession of all the lands by way of purchase, mortgage, or, lastly, usurpation. That debts should not be multiplied too much, lest thereby the poor should be entirely ruined; and that slaves should not continue always, they, their wives and children, in servitude. Besides, Moses intended to preserve, as much as possible, personal liberty, an equality of property, and the regular order of families, among the Hebrews. Lastly, he designed that the people should be strongly attached to their country, lands, and inheritances; that they should have an affection for them, and consider them as estates which descended to them from their ancestors which they were to leave to their posterity, without any fear of their going ultimately out of their families."

The Sabbath to be sanctified.

But this institution especially pointed out the redemption of man by Christ Jesus: 1. Through him, he who was in debt to God's justice had his debt discharged, and his sin forgiven. 2. He who sold himself for naught, who was a bond-slave of sin and Satan, regains his liberty and becomes a son of God through faith in his blood. 3. He who by transgression had forfeited all right and title to the kingdom of God, becomes an heir of God, and a joint heir with Christ. Heaven, his forfeited inheritance, is restored, for the kingdom of heaven is opened to all believers; and thus, redeemed from his debt, restored to his liberty, united to the heavenly family, and re-entitled to his inheritance, he goes on his way rejoicing, till he enters the paradise of his Maker, and is for ever with the Lord. Reader, hast thou applied for this redemption? Does not the trumpet of the jubilee, the glad tidings of salvation by Christ Jesus, sound in the land? Surely it does. Why then continue a bond-slave of sin, a child of wrath, and an heir of hell, when such a salvation is offered unto thee without money and without price? O suffer not this provision to be made ultimately in vain for thee! For what art thou advantaged if thou gain the whole world and lose thy soul?

CHAPTER XXVI.

Of

Of
Of

Idolatry forbidden, 1. The Sabbath to be sanctified, 2, 3. Promises to obedience, of fruitful fields, plentiful harvests, and vintage, 4, 5. `Of peace and security, 6. Discomfiture of their enemies, 7-9. abundance, 10. Of the Divine presence, 11-13. Threatenings against the disobedient, 14, 15. terror and dismay, 16. Their enemies shall prevail against them, 17, 18. Of barrenness, 19, 20. desolation by wild beasts, 21, 22. And if not humbled and reformed, worse evils shall be inflicted upon them, 23, 24. Their enemies shall prevail, and they shall be wasted by the pestilence, 25, 26. If they should still continue refractory, they shall be yet more sorely punished, 27, 28. The famine shall so increase that they shall be obliged to eat their own children, 29. Their carcasses shall be cast upon the carcasses of their idols, 30. Their cities shall be wasted, and the sanctuary desolated, 31; the land destroyed, 32, themselves scattered among their enemies, and pursued with utter confusion and distress, 33–39. If under these judgments they confess their sin and return to God, he will remember them in mercy, 40-43; visit them even in the land of their enemies, 44; and remember his covenant with their fathers, 45. The conclusion, stating these to be the judgments and laws which the Lord made between himself and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai, 46.

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b

a

YE shall make you no idols, rence my sanctuary: I am the nor graven image, neither LORD. rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the LORD your God.

с

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3 If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; 4 & Then I will give you rain in due season, hand the land shall yield her increase, and

2 Ye shall keep my Sabbaths, and reve- the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.

a Exod. xx. 4, 5; Deut. v. 8; xvi. 22; xxvii. 15; Psa. xcvii. 7. Or, pillar.- Or, figured stone.- d Heb. a stone of picture.- Chap. xix. 30.

NOTES ON CHAP. XXVÍ.

Verse 1. Ye shall make you no idols] See the note on Exod. xx. 4, and see the note on Gen. xxviii. 18, 19, concerning consecrated stones. Not only idolatry in general is forbidden here, but also the superstitious use of innocent and lawful things. Probably the stones or pillars which were first set up, and anointed by holy men in commemoration of signal interpositions

a

594

f Deut. xi. 13, 14, 15; xxviii. 1-14.-- Isa. xxx. 23; Ezek. xxxiv. 26; Joel ii. 23, 24.- h Psa. lxvii. 6; lxxxv. 12; Ezek. xxxiv. 27; xxxvi. 30; Zech. viii. 12.

of God in their behalf, were afterward abused to idolatrous and superstitious purposes, and therefore prohibited. This we know was the case with the brazen serpent, 2 Kings xviii. 4.

Verse 3. If ye walk in my statutes] For the meaning of this and similar words used in the law, see the note on ver. 15.

Verse 4. Rain in due season] What in Scripture ( 39 )

7 And ye shall chase your enemies, and they you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye shall fall before you by the sword. should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright.

Awful threatenings

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if your soul abhor my judgments, | eyes, and cause sorrow of heart; An. Exod. Isr. 2. so that ye will not do all my and h ye shall sow your seed in Abib or Nisan. commandments, but that ye break vain, for your enemies shall eat it. Abib or Nisan.

my covenant:

e

16 I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint a over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the

d Heb. upon you.Le Deut. xxviii. 65, 66, 67; xxxii. 25; Jer. xv. 8.- Deut. xxviii. 22. - 1 Sam. ii. 33. h Deut. xxviii. 33, 51; Job. xxxi. 8; Jer. v. 17; xii. 13; Mic. vi. 15.

act according to the statutes, judgments, &c., already established, and which prohibit them by penal sanctions from acting contrary to the laws.

4. COVENANT. berith, from bar, to clear, cleanse, or purify; because the covenant, the whole system of revelation given to the Jews, was intended to separate them from all the people of the earth, and to make them holy. Berith also signifies the covenant-sacrifice, which prefigured the atonement made by Christ for the sin of the world, by which he purifies believers unto himself, and makes them a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Besides those four, we may add the following, from other places of Scripture.

An. Exod. Isr. 2.

17 And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: 1they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you.

iChap. xvii. 10.—k Deut. xxviii. 25; Judg. ii. 14; Jer. xix. 7. Psa. cvi. 41.- m Ver. 36; Psa. liii. 5; Prov. xxviii. 1.

revelation God makes of himself; (see Psa. cxix ;) and by this the impartiality of the Divine testimonies is pointed out. God gives to all their due, and his word distributes to every man according to his state, circumstances, talents, graces, &c.; to none too much, to none too little, to all enough.

10. WORD of JEHOVAH. debar Yehovah, from dabar, to drive, lead, bring forward, hence to bring forward, or utter one's sentiments; so the word of God is what God has brought forth to man from his own mind and counsel; it is a perfect similitude of his own righteousness, holiness, goodness, and truth.

by

This Divine law is sometimes expressed

imrah, speech or word, variously modi

5. TESTIMONIES. My edoth, from y ad, beyond, 11. farther, besides; because the whole ritual law refer- fied from amar, to branch out, because of the red to something farther on or beyond the Jewish dis- interesting details into which the word of God enters pensation, even to that sacrifice which in the fulness in order to instruct man and make him wise unto salof time was to be offered for the sins of men. Thus vation, or, as the apostle expresses it, “God, who at all the sacrifices, &c., of the Mosaic law referred to sundry times, and in divers manners, spake unto the Christ, and bore testimony to him who was to come. fathers by the prophets,” πολυμερώς και πολυτρόπως, in 6. ORDINANCES. mishmaroth, from many distinct parcels, and by various tropes or figures; shamar, to guard, keep safe, watch over; those parts a curious and elegant description of Divine revelation; of Divine revelation which exhorted men to watch Heb. i. 1. their ways, keep their hearts, and promised them, in consequence, the continual protection and blessing of God their Maker.

7. PRECEPTS. Dp pikkudim, from po pakad, to overlook, take care or notice of, to visit; a very expressive character of the Divine testimonies, the overseers of a man's conduct, those who stand by and look on to see whether he acts according to the commands of his Master; also the visiters, because God's precepts are suited to all the circumstances of human life; some are applicable in adversity, others in prosperity; some in times of temptation and sadness, others in seasons of spiritual joy and exultation, &c., &c. Thus they may be said to overlook and visit man in all times, places, and circumstances.

12. All these collectively are termed the LAW,

torah, or minnin torath Yehovah, the law of the Lord, from n yarah, to direct, set straight and true, as stones in a building, to teach and instruct, because this whole system of Divine revelation is calculated to direct men to the attainment of present and eternal felicity, to set them right in their notions concerning the supreme God, to order and adjust them in the several departments of civil and religious society, and thus to teach and instruct them in the knowledge of themselves, and in the true knowledge of God. Thus those who receive the truth become the city of the living God-the temple of the Most High, built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit. To complete this description of the word law, see the note on Exod. xii. 49, where other properties of the law of God are specified.

8. TRUTH. Demeth, from DN am, to support, sustain, confirm; because God is immutable who has promised, threatened, commanded, and therefore all his Verse 16. I will even appoint over you terror, &c.] promises, threatenings, commandments, &c., are unal- How dreadful is this curse! A whole train of evils terable and eternal. Error and falsity promise to are here personified and appointed to be the governors direct and sustain, but they fail. God's word is sup-of a disobedient people. Terror is to be one of their ported by his own faithfulness, and it supports and confirms them who conscientiously believe it.

9. RIGHTEOUSNESS. p tsedakah, from pry, which, though not used as a verb in the Hebrew Bible, seems to convey, from its use as a noun, the idea of giving just weight or good measure, see chap. xix. 36. This is one of the characters which is attributed to the

keepers. How awful a state! to be continually under the influence of dismay, feeling indescribable evils, and fearing worse! Consumption, non shachepheth, generally allowed to be some kind of atrophy or marasmus, by which the flesh was consumed, and the whole body dried up by raging fever through lack of sustenance. See the note on chap. xi. 16. How cir

18 And if ye will not yet for An. Exod. Isr. 2. all this hearken unto me, then I Abib or Nisan. will punish you " seven times more for your sins.

20 And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits.

21. And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you, according to your sins.

22 I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and "your high ways shall be desolate. 23 And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me; 24 Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins.

1 Sam. ii. 5; Psa. cxix. 164; Prov. xxiv. 16.o Isa. xxv. 11; xxvi. 5; Ezek. vii. 24; xxx. 6.-P Deut. xxviii. 23. 4 Psa. cxxvii. 1; Isa. xlix. 4.———— Deut. xi. 17; xxviii. 18; Hag. i. 10. Or, at all adventures with me; and so ver. 24. Deut. xxxii. 24; 2 Kings xvii. 25; Ezek. v. 17; xiv. 15. Judg. v. 6; 2 Chron. xv. 5; Isa. xxxiii. 8; Lam. i. 4; Zech. vii. 14. Jer. ii. 30; v. 3; Amos iv. 6-12.- w 2 Sam. xxii. 27; Psa. xviii. 26.- - Ezek. v. 17; vi. 3; xiv. 17; xxix. 8; xxxiii. 2. Num. xiv. 12; Deut. xxviii. 21; Jer. xiv. 12; xxiv. 10; xxix. 17, 18; Amos iv. 10. Psa. cv. 16; Isa. iii. 1; Ezek. iv. 16; v. 16; xiv. 13.

cumstantially were all these threatenings fulfilled in this disobedient and rebellious people! Let a deist read over this chapter and compare it with the state of the Jews since the days of Vespasian, and then let him doubt the authenticity of this word if he can.

against the disobedient.

you; and ye shall be delivered
into the hand of the enemy.

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26 And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: anda ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.

27 And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me; 28 Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. 29 d And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat. 30 And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and 'cast your carcasses upon the carcasses of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you.

31

е

h And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours.

32 And I will bring the land into desolation and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it.

33 And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate,and your cities waste.

a Isa. ix. 20; Mic. vi. 14; Hag. i. 6.- b Ver. 21, 24.- Isa. lix. 18; lxiii. 3; lxvi. 15; Jer. xxi. 5; Ezek. v. 13, 15; viii. 18. Deut. xxviii. 53; 2 Kings vi. 29; Ezek. v. 10; Lam. iv. 10; Bar. ii. 3.2 Chron. xxxiv. 3, 4, 7; Isa. xxvii. 9; Ezek. vi. 3, 4, 5, 6, 13.12 Kings xxiii. 20; 2 Chron. xxxiv. 5.- Lev. xx. 23; Psa. lxxviii. 59; lxxxix. 38; Jer. xiv. 19.- h Neh. ii. 3; Jer. iv. 7; Ezek. vi. 6. -i Psa. Ixxiv. 7; Lam. i. 10; Ezek. ix. 6; xxi. 7.-k Jer. ix. 11; xxv. 11, 18.- 1Deut. xxviii. 37; 1 Kings. íx. 8; Jer. xviii. 16; xix. 8; Ezek. v. 15.- m Deut. iv. 27; xxviii. 64; Psa. xliv. 11; Jer. ix. 16; Ezek. xii. 15; xx. 23; xxii. 15; Zech. vii. 14.

And of their prophets it is said: 0 Israel, thy prophets are like Foxes in the deserts, Ezek. xiii. 4; Jer. viii. 17; xv. 3."

Verse 26. Ten women shall bake your bread in one oven] Though in general every family in the East bakes its own bread, yet there are some public bakehouses where the bread of several families is baked at a certain price. Moses here foretells that the deso

there should be many idle hands to be employed, many mouths to be fed, and very little for each: Ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, &c.

Verse 22. I will also send wild beasts among you] God fulfilled these threatenings at different times. He sent fiery SERPENTS among them, Num. xxi. 6; LIONS, 2 Kings xvii. 25; BEARS, 2 Kings ií. 24, and threaten-lation should be so great and the want so pressing that ed them with total desolation, so that their land should be overrun with wild beasts, &c., see Ezek. v. 17. "Spiritually," says Mr. Ainsworth, “these are wicked rulers and tyrants that kill and spoil, Prov. xxviii. 15; Dan. vii. 3-6; Psa. lxxx. 13; and false prophets that devour souls, Matt. vii. 15; Rev. xiii. 1, &c. So the prophet, speaking of their punishment by tyrants, says: A LION out of the forest shall slay them; a WOLF of the evening shall spoil them; a LEOPARD shall watch over their cities; every one that goeth out thence shall be torn to pieces, because their transgressions be many,

Verse 29. Ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, &c.] This was literally fulfilled at the siege of Jerusalem. Josephus, WARS of the Jews, book vii., chap. ii., gives us a particular instance in dreadful detail of a woman named Mary, who, in the extremity of the famine during the siege, killed her sucking child, roasted, and had eaten part of it when discovered by the soldiers! See this threatened, Jer. xix. 9.

Awful threatenings, with

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34 Then shall the land enjoy | unto them, and have brought them A. M. 2514. An. Exod. Isr. 2. her Sabbaths, as long as it lieth into the land of their enemies; An. Exod. Isr. 2. desolate, and ye be in your if then their uncircumcised Abib or Nisan. enemies' land; even then shall the land rest, hearts be humbled, and they then accept of and enjoy her Sabbaths. the punishment of their iniquity;

35 As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your Sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.

36 And upon them that are left alive of you, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chafe them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth.

37 And they shall fall, one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth: and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies.

38 And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. 39 And they that are left of you" shall pine away in their iniquity, in your enemies' lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.

40 If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me; 41 And that I also have walked contrary

2 Chron. xxxvi. 21. Ch. xxv. 2.- Ezek. xxi. 7, 12, 15. Ver. 17; Job xv. 21; Prov. xxviii. 1. Heb. driven. Isa, x. 4; see Judg. vii, 22; 1 Sam. xiv. 15,-16— Josh. vii. 12, 13; Judg. ii, 14. "Deut. iv. 27; xxviii. 64; Neh. i. 9; Jer. iii. 25; xxix. 12, 13; Ezek. iv. 17; vi. 9; xx. 43; xxiv. 23; xxxiii. 10; xxxvi, 31; Hos. v. 15; Zech. x. 9. Num, v. 7; 1 Kings viii. 33, 35, 47; Neh. ix. 2; Dan. ix. 3,4; Prov. xxviii. 13; Luke xv, 18; 1 John i. 9.

42 Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land. 43 The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her Sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes. 44 And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will 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, in the sight off the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the LORD.

46 These are the statutes, and judgments, and laws, which the LORD made between him and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai, by the hand of Moses.

Le

w See Jer. vi. 10; ix. 25, 26; Ezek. xliv. 7; Acts vii. 51; Rom. ii. 29; Col. ii. 11.- * 1 Kings xxi. 29; 2 Chron. xii. 6, 7, 12; xxxii. 26; xxxiii. 12, 13.- Exod. ii. 24; vi. 5; Psa. cvi. 45; Ezek. xvi. 60.- Psa. cxxxvi. 23.- Ver. 34, 35. Verse 15 Deut. iv. 31; 2 Kings xiii. 23; Rom. xi. 2. d Rom. xi. 28. Chap. xxii. 33; xxv. 38. Psa. xcviii. 2; Ezek. xx. 9, 14, 22.- Chapter xxvii. 34; Deut. vi. 1; xii. 1 ; xxxiii. 4; John i. 17. Chap. xxv. 1. presumed it had been fulfilled till then, or else the captivity would have lasted longer, i. e., till the land had enjoyed all its rests, of which it had ever been thus deprived?

Verse 38. The land of your enemies shall eat you up.] Does this refer to the total loss of the ten tribes? These are so completely swallowed up in some enemies' land, that nothing concerning their existence or place of residence remains but mere conjecture.

Verse 34. Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths] This Houbigant observes to be a historical truth."From Saul to the Babylonish captivity are numbered about four hundred and ninety years, during which period there were seventy Sabbaths of years; for 7, multiplied by 70, make 490. Now the Babylonish captivity lasted seventy years, and during that time the land of Israel rested. Therefore the land rested just as many years in the Babylonish captivity, as it should have rested Sabbaths if the Jews had observed the law relative to the Sabbaths of the land." This is a most remarkable fact, and deserves to be particu-threatenings upon this people, in dispossessing them larly noticed, as a most literal fulfilment of the prophetic declaration in this verse: Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies' land.

May it not be argued from this that the law concerning the Sabbatical year was observed till Saul's time, as it is only after this period the land enjoyed its rest in the seventy years' captivity? And if that breach of the law was thus punished, may it not be

Verse 44. Neither will I abhor them to destroy them utterly] Though God has literally fulfilled all his

of their land, destroying their polity, overturning their city, demolishing their temple, and scattering themselves over the face of the whole earth; yet he has, in his providence, strangely preserved them as a distinct people, and in very considerable numbers also. He still remembers the covenant of their ancestors, and in his providence and grace he has some very important design in their favour. All Israel shall yet be saved, and, with the Gentiles, they shall all be re