A Prophecy of Esau and Jacob

Deuteronomy 13

¹ “If there arise among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, — if there arise among you a prophet; a false prophet, a lying prophet, as the Targum of Jonathan says; one that pretends to be a true prophet, and to be sent of God, and to come from him with a message from him, a new revelation or doctrine, or in his name, to foretell things to come;

— Moses, foreseeing how liable the Israelites would be to be deluded by false prophets, who, under pretence of divine revelations, or communications of divine power, while indeed they were assisted by no other than wicked and infernal spirits, might foretel some future events;

— or work some wondrous and unaccountable things as demonstrations of their false doctrine, and thereby persuade others to join in their idolatrous worship, here proceeds to show how such pretenders to divine inspiration might be known, and lays down a law, according to which they were to be dealt with.

² and the sign or the wonder come to pass whereof he spoke unto thee, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods which thou hast not known, and let us serve them,’ — and the sign or wonder come to pass; God permitting Satan or his agents to do what is above the ordinary course of nature for thy trial. Saying, Let us go after other gods;

³ thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. — when such a sign or wonder foretold did not follow or come to pass, it was a sign of a false prophet, as is said, Deuteronomy 18:22,

— yet when it did come to pass, it was no sufficient or infallible sign of a true one, especially in such a case when he brings in new gods.

⁴ Ye shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear Him, and keep His commandments, and obey His voice, and ye shall serve Him and cleave unto Him. — to fear the Lord thy God; to fear him with a filial fear, and to keep his commandments, his statutes; all the ten commandments, the feasts and all others, and obey his voice;

⁵ And that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he hath spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee.

— and that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; whose death, according to the Targum of Jonathan, was to be slain with the sword;

— so shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee; the evil man, by putting him to death, and the evil of idolatry, by not listening to the words of the false prophet.

⁶ “If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend who is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which thou hast not known, thou nor thy fathers

— if thy brother; the substance of this law is that individual idolaters, any relatives, however close, entice thee secretly, might be executed, putting the evil away from the midst of Israel.

⁷ (namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth), — of the gods of the people which are round about you; as of the Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites and Phoenicians;

⁸ thou shalt not consent unto him nor hearken unto him, neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him; — neither shalt thou conceal him; that is, smother his fault, hide or protect his person; but shalt accuse him to the magistrate, and demand justice upon him;

⁹ but thou shalt surely kill him. Thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. — but thou shalt surely kill him; not privately and secretly, when and where he entices, nor the enticed himself by his own authority,

— but after being examined, judged, and condemned by the civil magistrate; and none might judge a false prophet but the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem; and afterwards the hand of all the people; this shows that the person enticed had not a right to kill the enticer, without a judicial process, and the order of the civil magistrate.

¹⁰ And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die, because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. — and thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; it was not sufficient to answer the end of the law to cast a few stones at him, but he was to be stoned to death;

¹¹ And all Israel shall hear and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you. — and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you; either to entice unto idolatry or commit it; which is a piece of wickedness against the first table of the law.

¹² “If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the Lord thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying, — if thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities; a report concerning them, anyone of them;

¹³ ‘Certain men, the children of Belial, have gone out from among you and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods,” which ye have not known,’ — certain men, the children of Belial; lawless, designing demagogues (Judges 19:22; 1Samuel 1:16; 25:25), who abused their influence to withdraw the inhabitants of the city to idol-worship;

¹⁴ then shalt thou inquire, and make a search and ask diligently; and behold, if it be truth and the thing certain that such abomination is wrought among you, — then shalt thou inquire, make search, and ask diligently; that is, of the witnesses, as the Targum of Jonathan says; and this is a case that is only taken into consideration and judged of by the great Sanhedrin at Jerusalem;

¹⁵ thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword. — destroying it utterly; the very same punishment which was inflicted upon the cities of the cursed Canaanites, to whom having made themselves equal in sin, it is but fit and just that God should equal them in punishment.

¹⁶ And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof, and shalt burn with fire the city and all the spoil thereof every whit for the Lord thy God. And it shall be a heap for ever; it shall not be built again. — and shall burn with fire the city, and all the spoil, the booty, thereof every bit; and all this shall be done for the Lord thy God;

¹⁷ And there shall cleave nought of the cursed thing to thine hand, that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of His anger, and show thee mercy and have compassion upon thee and multiply thee, as He hath sworn unto thy fathers, — there shall cleave naught of the cursed thing to thine hand; no spoil shall be taken from a city thus solemnly devoted to destruction;

¹⁸ when thou shalt hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God to keep all His commandments which I command thee this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of the Lord thy God. — when thou shalt hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God; not only in this case, but in all others; to do that which is right in the eyes of the Lord thy God; which they would do, if they kept the commandments of the Lord.

Deuteronomy 14

¹ “Ye are the children of the Lord your God: ye shall not cut yourselves nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. — any baldness between your eyes; apparently, “on your foreheads.” The word for baldness in this place is generally used for baldness on the back of the head;

— Rashi: You shall neither cut yourselves: Do not make cuts and incisions in your flesh [to mourn] for the dead, in the manner that the Amorites do, because you are the children of the Omnipresent and it is appropriate for you to be handsome and not to be cut or have your hair torn out.

— Rashi: [nor make any baldness] between your eyes: [i.e.,] near the forehead. Elsewhere, however, it says: “They shall not make their head bald” (Lev. 21: 5), to make the entire head like between the eyes (בֵּין עֵינַיִם) [i.e., one must not make bald spots on any part of the head]. — [Sifrei]

— ye shall not cut yourselves; in any of their flesh in any part of their bodies: tattooing is cutting of the skin, however tiny or however artistic they may be;

² For thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto Himself above all the nations that are upon the earth. — thou art a holy people; since you have the honour to be separated to God to be his peculiar treasure, to be his peculiar servants, by laws different from those of all other nations,

³ “Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing. — thou shall not eat any abominable thing; that is so either in its own nature, or because forbidden by the Lord; what are such are declared in the following verses:

⁴ These are the beasts which ye shall eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat, — the ox, the sheep and the goat; which were creatures used in sacrifice, and are clean ones, yet nevertheless they might be used for food if chosen;

⁵ the hart, and the roebuck, and the fallow deer, and the wild goat, and the pygarg, and the wild ox, and the chamois. — the hart, the roebuck, and the fallow deer: these are clean animals, but are not generally used for sacrifices;

⁶ And every beast that parteth the hoof and cleaveth the cleft into two claws and cheweth the cud among the beasts, that ye shall eat.— and every beast that parted the hoo fand if they chewed the cud,; in this and the two following verses two general rules are given, by which it might be known what beasts were fit for food and what not;

⁷ Nevertheless, these ye shall not eat of them that chew the cud or of them that divide the cloven hoof: the camel, and the hare, and the coney; for they chew the cud, but divide not the hoof; therefore they are unclean unto you. — but such that only chewed the cud, but did not divide the hoof, as the camel, hare, and coney, might not be eaten; and so if they divided the hoof, and did not chew the cud, as the swine, they were alike unlawful;

⁸ And the swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud, it is unclean unto you; ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcasses. — and they that divided the hoof, but did not chew the cud, as the swine, they were alike unlawful;

⁹ “These ye shall eat of all that are in the waters: all that have fins and scales shall ye eat. — the rule given here, that only those with fins or scales are clean practically rules out eels, lampreys and others, with of course all shellfish;

¹⁰ And whatsoever hath not fins and scales ye may not eat; it is unclean unto you. — these ye shall eat of, all that are in the waters; the fishes there, even such as have fins and scales, but they that have not were not to be eaten.

¹¹ “Of all clean birds ye shall eat. — of all clean birds ye shall eat; which the Targum of Jonathan describes, everyone that has a vesicle, and whose crop is naked, and has a superfluous talon, and is not rapacious; but such as are unclean are expressed by name in the following verses:

¹² But these are they of which ye shall not eat: the eagle, and ossifrage, and the osprey, — the eagle, and ossifrage, and the osprey; identified by the baldness of its head and neck; —

¹³ and the glede, and the kite, and the vulture after his kind, —the glede, and the kite, and the vulture; these are closely related to the eagle, and ossifrage, and the osprey; —

¹⁴ and every raven after his kind,

¹⁵ and the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind, — these are they of which they shall not eat,

¹⁶ the little owl, and the great owl, and the swan,

¹⁷ and the pelican, and the giereagle, and the cormorant,

¹⁹ And every creeping thing that flieth is unclean unto you: they shall not be eaten. — these are they of which they shall not eat,

²⁰ But of all clean fowls ye may eat. — but of all clean fowls ye may eat. Even of all fowls, but those before excepted; the locust, as being a clean fowl, that might be eaten; and so the Targum of Jonathan says “every clean locust ye may eat.”

²¹ “Ye shall not eat of any thing that dieth of itself. Thou shalt give it unto the stranger who is in thy gates, that he may eat it, or thou mayest sell it unto an alien; for thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God. “Thou shalt not boil a kid in his mother’s milk.

— Ye shall not eat of any thing that dieth of itself; the blood rendered it unlawful to be eaten. Proselytes of the gate, not being obliged to observe these laws, or mere Gentiles, who might happen to be in their country, might eat such meat;

— but those who were termed proselytes of righteousness, that is, circumcised Gentiles, who had embraced the Israelite religion, were bound to abstain from such food as much as from native Israel; for thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God;

²² “Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed that the field bringeth forth year by year. — thou shalt truly tithe; the tithe mentioned here and in Deuteronomy 14:28, and in Deuteronomy 26:12-15, are second tithe;

— the “first tithe;” are entirely distinct from the ordinary tithe assigned to the Levites for their subsistence in Numbers 18:21, and by them tithed again for the priests (Numbers 18:26); the tithe described in Numbers are called “the first tithe.”

²³ And thou shalt eat before the Lord thy God, in the place which He shall choose to place His name there, the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine and of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herds and of thy flocks, that thou mayest learn to fear the Lord thy God always. — this second tithe: thou shalt eat before the Lord thy God, in the place which He shall choose, which later Jerusalem was nominated to be where his Shekinah dwells;

²⁴ And if the way be too long for thee, so that thou art not able to carry it, or if the place be too far from thee which the Lord thy God shall choose to set His name there, when the Lord thy God hath blessed thee, — or if the place shall be too far from thee; which by the event appeared to be the city of Jerusalem, and this from some parts of the land in the North was a distant:

²⁵ then shalt thou turn it into money, and bind up the money in thine hand, and shalt go unto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose. — and shalt go unto the place which the Lord that God shall choose; in Jerusalem, carrying the money along with him, for which he sold the tithe.

²⁶ And thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after: for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth; and thou shalt eat there before the Lord thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou and thine household.

— or for wine, or for strong drink; to drink with his food, whether wine or any other liquor; the Targum of Jonathan says, wine new or old, which he chose; but the latter, strong drink;

²⁷ And the Levite that is within thy gates, thou shalt not forsake him, for he hath no part nor inheritance with thee. — and the Levite that is within thy gates, thou shalt not forsake him; as not from giving him the first tithe, as so he was not to forget him in this; he was not to leave him behind, but take him with him to partake of this entertainment;

²⁸ “At the end of three years thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase the same year, and shalt lay it up within thy gates. — at the end of three years thou shalt bring forth ail the tithe; this is called Ma’aser ‘Âni, “the poor’s tithe.” It is regarded as identical with the second tithe, which was ordinarily eaten by the owners at Jerusalem; but in every third and sixth year was bestowed upon the poor.

²⁹ And the Levite (because he hath no part nor inheritance with thee), and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are within thy gates, shall come and shall eat and be satisfied, that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest.

— “the stranger, fatherless, and widow,” who are within thy gates, and lay it up within thy gates; not to be hoarded up, or to be sold at a proper time, but to be disposed and made use of.

~ by Joel on May 8, 2024.

Posted in Books of Moses