Verse 29
The first of thy ripe fruits - This offering was a public acknowledgment of the bounty and goodness of God, who had given them their proper seed time, the first and the latter rain, and the appointed weeks of harvest.
From the practice of the people of God the heathens borrowed a similar one, founded on the same reason. The following passage from Censorinus, De Die Natali, is beautiful, and worthy of the deepest attention: -
Illi enim (majores nostri) qui alimenta, patriam, lucem, se denique ipsos deorum dono habebant, ex omnibus aliquid diis sacrabant, magis adeo, ut se gratos approbarent, quam quod deos arbitrarentur hoc indigere. Itaque cum perceperant fruges, antequam vescerentur, Diis libare instituerunt: et cum agros atque urbes, deorum munera, possiderent, partem quandam templis sacellisque, ubi eos colerent, dicavere. "Our ancestors, who held their food, their country, the light, and all that they possessed, from the bounty of the gods, consecrated to them a part of all their property, rather as a token of their gratitude, than from a conviction that the gods needed any thing. Therefore as soon as the harvest was got in, before they had tasted of the fruits, they appointed libations to be made to the gods. And as they held their fields and cities as gifts from their gods, they consecrated a certain part for temples and shrines, where they might worship them."
Pliny is express on the same point, who attests that the Romans never tasted either their new corn or wine, till the priests had offered the First-Fruits to the gods. Acts ne degustabant quidem, novas fruges aut vina, antequam sacerdotes Primitias Libassent. Hist. Nat., lib. xviii., c. 2.
Horace bears the same testimony, and shows that his countrymen offered, not only their first-fruits, but the choicest of all their fruits, to the Lares or household gods; and he shows also the wickedness of those who sent these as presents to the rich, before the gods had been thus honored: -
Dulcia poma,
Et quoscumque feret cultus tibi fundus honores,
Ante Larem gustet venerabilior Lare dives.
Sat., lib. ii., s. v., ver. 12. "What your garden yields,
The choicest honors of your cultured fields,
To him be sacrificed, and let him taste,
Before your gods, the vegetable feast."
Dunkin.
And to the same purpose Tibullus, in one of the most beautiful of his elegies: -
Et quodcumque mihi pomum novus educat annus,
Libatum agricolae ponitur ante deo.
Flava Ceres, tibi sit nostro de rure corona
Spicea, quae templi pendeat ante fores.
Eleg., lib. i., eleg. i. ver. 13. "My grateful fruits, the earliest of the year,
Before the rural god shall daily wait.
From Ceres' gifts I'll cull each browner ear,
And hang a wheaten wreath before her gate."
Grainger.
The same subject he touches again in the fifth elegy of the same book, where he specifies the different offerings made for the produce of the fields, of the flocks, and of the vine, ver. 27: -
Illa deo sciet agricolae pro vitibus uvam,
Pro segete spicas, pro grege ferre dapem. "With pious care will load each rural shrine,
For ripen'd crops a golden sheaf assign,
Cates for my fold, rich clusters for my wine.
Id. - See Calmet.
These quotations will naturally recall to our memory the offerings of Cain and Abel, mentioned [Gen 4:3], [Gen 4:4].
The rejoicings at our harvest-home are distorted remains of that gratitude which our ancestors, with all the primitive inhabitants of the earth, expressed to God with appropriate signs and ceremonies. Is it not possible to restore, in some goodly form, a custom so pure, so edifying, and so becoming? There is a laudable custom, observed by some pious people, of dedicating a new house to God by prayer, etc., which cannot be too highly commended.
Verse 30
Seven days it shall be with his dam - For the mother's health it was necessary that the young one should suck so long; and prior to this time the process of nutrition in a young animal can scarcely be considered as completely formed. Among the Romans lambs were not considered as pure or clean before the eighth day; nor calves before the thirtieth: Pecoris faetus die octavo purus est, bovis trigesimo - Plin. Hist. Nat., lib. viii.
Verse 31
Neither shall ye eat - flesh - torn of beasts in the field - This has been supposed to be an ordinance against eating flesh cut off the animal while alive, and so the Syriac seems to have understood it. If we can credit Mr. Bruce, this is a frequent custom in Abyssinia; but human nature revolts from it. The reason of the prohibition against eating the flesh of animals that had been torn, or as we term it worried in the field, appears to have been simply this: That the people might not eat the blood, which in this case must be coagulated in the flesh; and the blood, being the life of the beast, and emblematical of the blood of the covenant, was ever to be held sacred, and was prohibited from the days of Noah. See Clarke's note on [Gen 9:4].
In the conclusion of this chapter we see the grand reason of all the ordinances and laws which it contains. No command was issued merely from the sovereignty of God. He gave them to the people as restraints on disorderly passions, and incentives to holiness; and hence he says, Ye shall be holy men unto me. Mere outward services could neither please him nor profit them; for from the very beginning of the world the end of the commandment was love out of a pure heart and good conscience, and faith unfeigned, [1Tim 1:5]. And without these accompaniments no set of religious duties, however punctually performed, could be pleasing in the sight of that God who seeks truth in the inward parts, and in whose eyes the faith that worketh by love is alone valuable. A holy heart and a holy, useful life God invariably requires in all his worshippers. Reader, how standest thou in his sight?
Introduction
Laws against evil-speaking, [Exo 23:1]. Against bad company, [Exo 23:2]. Against partiality, [Exo 23:3]. Laws commanding acts of kindness and humanity, [Exo 23:4], [Exo 23:5]. Against oppression, [Exo 23:6]. Against unrighteous decisions, [Exo 23:7]. Against bribery and corruption, [Exo 23:8]. Against unkindness to strangers, [Exo 23:9]. The ordinance concerning the Sabbatical year, [Exo 23:10], [Exo 23:11]. The Sabbath a day of rest, [Exo 23:12]. General directions concerning circumcision, etc., [Exo 23:13]. The three annual festivals, [Exo 23:14]. The feast of unleavened bread, [Exo 23:15]. The feast of harvest, and the feast of ingathering, [Exo 23:16]. All the males to appear before God thrice in a year, [Exo 23:17]. Different ordinances - no blood to be offered with leavened bread - no fat to be left till the next day - the first fruits to be brought to the house of God - and a kid not to be seethed in its mother's milk, [Exo 23:18], [Exo 23:19]. Description of the Angel of God, who was to lead the people into the promised land, and drive out the Amorites, etc., [Exo 23:20-23]. Idolatry to be avoided, and the images of idols destroyed, [Exo 23:24]. Different promises to obedience, [Exo 23:25-27]. Hornets shall be sent to drive out the Canaanites, etc., [Exo 23:28]. The ancient inhabitants to be driven out by little and little, and the reason why, [Exo 23:29], [Exo 23:30]. The boundaries of the promised land, [Exo 23:31]. No league or covenant to be made with the ancient inhabitants, who are all to be utterly expelled, [Exo 23:32], [Exo 23:33].
Verse 1
Thou shalt not raise a false report - Acting contrary to this precept is a sin against the ninth commandment. And the inventor and receiver of false and slanderous reports, are almost equally criminal. The word seems to refer to either, and our translators have very properly retained both senses, putting raise in the text, and receive in the margin. The original לא תשא lo tissa has been translated, thou shalt not publish. Were there no publishers of slander and calumny, there would be no receivers; and were there none to receive them, there would be none to raise them; and were there no raisers, receivers, nor propagators of calumny, lies, etc., society would be in peace.
Verse 2
Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil - Be singular. Singularity, if in the right, can never be criminal. So completely disgraceful is the way of sin, that if there were not a multitude walking in that way, who help to keep each other in countenance, every solitary sinner would be obliged to hide his head. But רבים rabbim, which we translate multitude, sometimes signifies the great, chiefs, or mighty ones; and is so understood by some eminent critics in this place: "Thou shalt not follow the example of the great or rich, who may so far disgrace their own character as to live without God in the world, and trample under foot his laws." It is supposed that these directions refer principally to matters which come under the eye of the civil magistrate; as if he had said, "Do not join with great men in condemning an innocent or righteous person, against whom they have conceived a prejudice on the account of his religion," etc.
Verse 3
Neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause - The word דל dal, which we translate poor man, is probably put here in opposition to רבים rabbim, the great, or noble men, in the preceding verse: if so, the meaning is, Thou shalt neither be influenced by the great to make an unrighteous decision, nor by the poverty or distress of the poor to give thy voice against the dictates of justice and truth. Hence the ancient maxim, Fiat Justitia, Ruat Coelum. "Let justice be done, though the heavens should be dissolved."