Bible Commentaries

Disfigurings for Mourning Forbidden. Clean and Unclean Meats specified

1. Practices connected with idolatry: see on Leviticus 19:27, Leviticus 19:28.

2. The foundation of the entire moral and ceremonial law is contained in this and the preceding verse. Israel is the people whom Jehovah has chosen and called His children. As such they must be holy: see intro. to Leviticus 17-26.

3-20. On the law of clean and unclean beasts, see Leviticus 1:1 and notes.

5. The pygarg is probably a kind of antelope. The exact meaning of the Hebrew word is doubtful, as it only occurs in this passage. As the chamois is unknown in Palestine, a species of wild mountain sheep is probably meant.

21. That dieth of itself] For the meaning of this prohibition see on Leviticus 17:10-16; On the prohibition to seethe a Md in its mother's milk see on Exodus 23:19.

22. The produce of the soil is to be tithed and the tithe eaten at the central sanctuary, except when this is inconvenient on account of distance (Deuteronomy 14:24), in which case the tithe is to be turned into money, and spent on a sacrificial feast to which the Levites are to be invited (Deuteronomy 14:25-27). Every third year the whole tithe is to be devoted to charity. According to the law in Numbers 18:21 the tithe is given to the Levites exclusively. It has been supposed that the tithe in Deuteronomy is a second tithe, different from that in Numbers, and made after the first, or Levite's tithe, has been deducted from the produce. But, as no mention is made of more tithes than one, the different destination of the tithes may be considered as indicating different stages of legislation. In later times, however, a distinction was made between the first and second tithes, the first being devoted to the Levites, and the second consumed by the offerer.