Read-Post Through the Bible

[daniel1212av]

Leviticus 25 -
The law concerning the Sabbatical or seventh year repeated, Lev_25:1-7. The law relative to the jubilee, or fiftieth year, and the hallowing of the fiftieth, Lev_25:8-12. In the year of jubilee every one to return unto his possessions, Lev_25:13. None to oppress another in buying and selling, Lev_25:14. Purchases to be rated from jubilee to jubilee, according to the number of years unexpired, Lev_25:15-17. Promises to obedience, Lev_25:18, Lev_25:19. Promises relative to the Sabbatical year, Lev_25:20-22. No inheritance must be finally alienated, Lev_25:23, Lev_25:24. No advantage to be taken of a man’s poverty in buying his land, Lev_25:25-28. Ordinances relative to the selling of a house in a walled city, Lev_25:29, Lev_25:30; in a village, Lev_25:31. Houses of the Levites may be redeemed at any time, Lev_25:32, Lev_25:33. The fields of the Levites in the suburbs must not be sold, Lev_25:34. No usury to be taken from a poor brother, Lev_25:35-38. If an Israelite be sold to an Israelite, he must not be obliged to serve as a slave, Lev_25:39, but be as a hired servant or as a sojourner, till the year of jubilee, Lev_25:40, when he and his family shall have liberty to depart, Lev_25:41; because God claims all Israelites as his servants, having redeemed them from bondage in Egypt, Lev_25:42, Lev_25:43. The Israelites are permitted to have bond-men and bond-women of the heathens, who, being bought with their money, shall be considered as their property, Lev_25:44-46. If an Israelite, grown poor, be sold to a sojourner who has waxed rich, he may be redeemed by one of his relatives, an uncle or uncle’s son, Lev_25:47-49. In the interim between the jubilees, he may be redeemed; but if not redeemed, he shall go free in the jubilee, Lev_25:50-54. Obedience enforced by God’s right over them as his servants, Lev_25:55. - Clarke

Lev 25:1 -
The law for the sabbatical and jubilee years brings to a close the laws given to Moses by Jehovah upon Mount Sinai. This is shown by the words of the heading (Lev_25:1), which point back to Exo_34:32, and bind together into an inward unity the whole round of laws that Moses received from God upon the mountain, and then gradually announced to the people. The same words are repeated, not only in Lev_7:38 at the close of the laws of sacrifice, but also at Lev_26:46, at the close of the promises and threats which follow the law for the sabbatical and jubilee years, and lastly, at Lev_27:34, after the supplementary law concerning vows. The institution of the jubilee years corresponds to the institution of the day of atonement (ch. 16). Just as all the sins and uncleannesses of the whole congregation, which had remained unatoned for and uncleansed in the course of the year, were to be wiped away by the all-embracing expiation of the yearly recurring day of atonement, and an undisturbed relation to be restored between Jehovah and His people; so, by the appointment of the year of jubilee, the disturbance and confusion of the divinely appointed relations, which had been introduced in the course of time through the inconstancy of all human or earthly things, were to be removed by the appointment of the year of jubilee, and the kingdom of Israel to be brought back to its original condition. The next chapter (ch. 26) bears the same relation to the giving of the law upon Sinai as Exo_23:20-33 to the covenant rights in Ex 20:22-23:19. - K+D

Lev 25:1-7 -
The law of Moses laid a great deal of stress upon the sabbath, the sanctification of which was the earliest and most ancient of all divine institutions, designed for the keeping up of the knowledge and worship of the Creator among men; that law not only revived the observance of the weekly sabbath, but, for the further advancement of the honour of them, added the institution of a sabbatical year: In the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, Lev_25:4. 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 day and hour which it is God's prerogative to know. This sabbatical year began in September, at the end of harvest, the seventh month of their ecclesiastical year: and the law was, 1. That at the seed-time, which immediately followed the end of their in-gathering, they should sow no corn in their land, and that they should not in the spring dress their vineyards, and consequently that they should not expect either harvest or vintage the next year. 2. That what their ground did produce of itself they should not claim any property or use in, otherwise than from hand to mouth, but leave it for the poor, servants, strangers, and cattle, Lev_25:5-7. It must be a sabbath of rest to the land; they must neither do any work about it, nor expect any fruit from it; all annual labours must be intermitted in the seventh year, as much as daily labours on the seventh day. The Jews say they “began not to reckon for the sabbatical year till they had completed the conquest of Canaan, which was in the eighth year of Joshua; the seventh year after that was the first sabbatical year, and so the fiftieth year was the jubilee.” This year there was to be a general release of debts (Deu_15:1, Deu_15:2), and a public reading of the law in the feast (Deu_31:10, Deu_31:11), to make it the more solemn. Now, (1.) God would hereby show them that he was their landlord, and that they were tenants at will under him. Landlords are wont to stipulate with their tenants when they shall break up their ground, how long they shall till it, and when they shall let it rest: God would thus give, grant, and convey, that good land to them, under such provisos and limitations as should let them know that they were not proprietors, but dependents on their Lord. (2.) It was a kindness to their land to let it rest sometimes, and would keep it in heart (as our husbandmen express it) for posterity, whose satisfaction God would have them to consult, and not to use the ground as if it were designed only for one age. (3.) When they were thus for a whole year taken off from all country business, they would have the more leisure to attend the exercises of religion, and to get the knowledge of God and his law. (4.) They were hereby taught to be charitable and generous, and not to engross all to themselves, but to be willing that others should share with them in the gifts of God's bounty, which the earth brought forth of itself. (5.) They were brought to live in a constant dependence upon the divine providence, finding that, as man lives not by bread alone, so he has bread, not by his own industry alone, but, if God pleases, by the word of blessing from the mouth of God, without any care or pains of man, Mat_4:4. (6.) They were reminded of the easy life man lived in paradise, when he ate of every good thing, not, as since, in the sweat of his face. Labour and toil came in with sin. (7.) They were taught to consider how the poor lived, that did neither sow nor reap, even by the blessing of God upon a little. (8.) This year of rest typified the spiritual rest which all believers enter into through Christ, our true Noah, who giveth us comfort and rest concerning our work, and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed, Gen_5:29. Through him we are eased of the burden of worldly care and labour, both being sanctified and sweetened to us, and we are enabled and encouraged to live by faith. And, as the fruits of this sabbath of the land were enjoyed in common, so the salvation wrought out by Christ is a common salvation; and this sabbatical year seems to have been revived in the Christian church, when the believers had all things common, Act_2:44. - Henry

[daniel1212av]

Lev 25:8-22 -
Here is, I. The general institution of the jubilee, Lev_25:8. etc.
1. When it was to be observed: after seven sabbaths of years (Lev_25:8 ), whether the forty-ninth or fiftieth is a great question among learned men: that it should be the seventh sabbatical year, that is, the forty-ninth (which by a very common form of speech is called the fiftieth), seems to me most probable, and is, I think, made pretty clear and the objections removed by that learned chronologer Calvisius; but this is not a place for arguing the question. 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 upon the sevenths for the sake of God's resting the seventh day from the work of creation.

2. How it was to be proclaimed, with sound of trumpet in all parts of the country (Lev_25:5), both to give notice to all persons of it, and to express their joy and triumph in it; and the word jobel, or jubilee, is supposed to signify some particular sound of the trumpet distinguishable from any other; for the trumpet that gives an uncertain sound is of little service, 1Co_14:8. 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, Psa_51:8. When their peace was made with God, then liberty was proclaimed; for the removal of guilt is necessary to make way for the entrance of all true comfort, Rom_5:1, Rom_5:2. In allusion to this solemn proclamation of the jubilee, it was foretold concerning our Lord Jesus that he should preach the acceptable year of the Lord, Isa_61:2. He sent his apostles to proclaim it with the trumpet of the everlasting gospel, which they were to preach to every creature. And it stands still foretold that at the last day the trumpet shall sound, which shall release the dead out of the bondage of the grave, and restore us to our possessions.

3. What was to be done in that year extraordinary; besides the common rest of the land, which was observed every sabbatical year (Lev_25:11, Lev_25:12), and the release of personal debts (Deu_15:2, Deu_15:3), there was to be the legal restoration of every Israelite to all the property, and all the liberty, which had been alienated from him since the last jubilee; so that never was any people so secured in their liberty and property (those glories of a people) as Israel was. Effectual care was taken that while they kept close to God these should not only not be taken from them by the violence of others, but not thrown away by their own folly.

(1.) The property which every man had in his dividend of the land of Canaan could not be alienated any longer than till the year of jubilee, and then he or his should return to it, and have a title to it as undisputed, and the possession of it as undisturbed, as ever (Lev_25:10, Lev_25:13): “You shall return every man to his possession; so that if a man had sold or mortgaged his estate, or any part of it, it should then return to him or his heirs, free of all charge and encumbrance. Now this was no wrong to the purchaser, because the year of jubilee was fixed, and every man knew when it would come, and made his bargain accordingly. By our law indeed, if lands be granted to a man and his heirs, upon condition that he should never sell or alienate them, the grant is good, but the condition is void and repugnant: Iniquum est ingenuis hominibus (say the lawyers) non esse liberam rerum suarum alienationem - It is unjust to prevent free men from alienating their own possessions. Yet it is agreed in the books that if the king grant lands to a man in fee upon condition he shall not alienate, the condition is good. Now God would show his people Israel that their land was his, and they were his tenants; and therefore he ties them up that they shall not have power to sell, but only to make leases for any term of years, not going beyond the next jubilee. By this means it was provided, [1.] That their genealogies should be carefully preserved, which would be of use for clearing our Saviour's pedigree. [2.] That the distinction of tribes should be kept up; for, though a man might purchase lands in another tribe, yet he could not retain them longer than till the year of jubilee, and then they would revert of course. [3.] That none should grow exorbitantly rich, by laying house to house, and field to field (Isa_5:8 ), but should rather apply themselves to the cultivating of what they had than the enlarging of their possessions. The wisdom of the Roman commonwealth sometimes provided that no man should be master of above 500 acres. [4.] That no family should be sunk and ruined, and condemned to perpetual poverty. This particular care God took for the support of the honour of that people, and the preserving, not only of that good land to the nation in general, but of every man's share to his family in particular, for a perpetual inheritance, that it might the better typify that good part which shall never be taken away from those that have it.

(2.) The liberty which every man was born to, if it were sold or forfeited, should likewise return at the year of jubilee: You shall return every man to his family, Lev_25:10. Those that were sold into other families thereby became strangers to their own; but in this year of redemption they were to return. 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. Some compute that the very year in which Christ died was a year of jubilee, and the last that ever was kept. But, however that be, we are sure it is the Son that makes us free, and then we are free indeed.

II. A law upon this occasion against oppression in buying and selling of land; neither the buyer nor the seller must overreach, Lev_25:14-17. 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. It must be settled what the clear yearly value of the land was, and then how many years' purchase it was worth till the year of jubilee. But they must reckon only the years of the fruits (Lev_25:15), and therefore must discount for the sabbatical years. It is easy to observe that the nearer the jubilee was the less must the value of the land be. According to the fewness of the years thou shalt diminish the price. But we do not find it so easy practically to infer thence that the nearer the world comes to its period the less value we should put upon the things of it: because the time is short, and the fashion of the world passeth away, let those that buy be as though they possessed not. One would put little value on an old house, that is ready to drop down. All bargains ought to be made by this rule, You shall not oppress one another, nor take advantage of one another's ignorance or necessity, but thou shalt fear thy God. Note, The fear of God reigning in the heart would effectually restrain us from doing any wrong to our neighbour in word or deed; for, though man be not, God is the avenger of those that go beyond or defraud their brethren, 1Th_4:6. Perhaps Nehemiah refers to this very law (Neh_5:15), where he tells us that he did not oppress those he had under his power, because of the fear of God.

III. Assurance given them that they should be no losers, but great gainers, by observing these years of rest. It is promised, 1. That they should be safe: You shall dwell in the land in safety, Lev_25:18. and again, Lev_25:19. 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. 2. That they should be rich: You shall eat your fill. Note, If we be careful to do our duty, we may cheerfully trust God with our comfort. 3. That they should not want food convenient that year in which they did neither sow nor reap: I will command my blessing in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years, Lev_25:21. This was, (1.) A standing miracle, that, whereas at other times one year did but serve to bring in another, the productions of the sixth year should serve to bring in the ninth. Note, The blessing of God upon our provision will make a little go a great way, and satisfy even the poor with bread, Psa_132:15. (2.) A lasting memorial of the manna which was given double on the sixth day for two days. (3.) It was intended for an encouragement to all God's people, in all ages, to trust him in the way of duty, and to cast their care upon him. There is nothing lost by faith and self-denial in our obedience.

[daniel1212av]

V. 23: "The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me."  Though the restoration of Jews to their own land is no doubt a Divine miracle, as God has yet future plans for the natural branches (Rm. 11), they are neither in full possession of it nor under full blessing, and in fact the problems they have with neighbors within their traditional land are a chastisement (which the devil is willing to provide) for ther collective hardness of heart toward their Messiah and His gospel (1Ths. 2:14-16).   

Lev_25:23-27
What was already implied in the laws relating to the purchase and sale of the year's produce (Lev_25:15, Lev_25:16), namely, that the land could not be alienated, is here clearly expressed; and at the same time the rule is laid down, showing how a man, who had been compelled by poverty to sell his patrimony, was to recover possession of it by redemption. In the first place, Lev_25:23 contains the general rule, “the land shall not be sold לצמיתת” (lit., to annihilation), i.e., so as to vanish away from, or be for ever lost to, the seller. For “the land belongs to Jehovah:” the Israelites, to whom He would give it (Lev_25:2), were not actual owners or full possessors, so that they could do what they pleased with it, but “strangers and sojourners with Jehovah” in His land. Consequently (Lev_25:24) throughout the whole of the land of their possession they were to grant גּאלּה release, redemption to the land. There were three ways in which this could be done. The first case (Lev_25:25) was this: if a brother became poor and sold his property, his nearest redeemer was to come and release what his brother had sold, i.e., buy it back from the purchaser and restore it to its former possessor. The nearest redeemer was the relative upon whom this obligation rested according to the series mentioned in Lev_25:48, Lev_25:49. - The second case (Lev_25:26, Lev_25:27) was this: if any one had no redeemer, either because there were no relatives upon whom the obligation rested, or because they were all too poor, and he had earned and acquired sufficient to redeem it, he was to calculate the years of purchase, and return the surplus to the man who had bought it, i.e., as much as he had paid for the years that still remained up to the next year of jubilee, that so he might come into possession of it again. As the purchaser had only paid the amount of the annual harvests till the next year of jubilee, all that he could demand back was as much as he had paid for the years that still remained. - K+D

Lev 25:23-38 -
Here is, I. A law concerning the real estates of the Israelites in the land of Canaan, and the transferring of them. 1. No land should be sold for ever from the family to whose lot it fell in the division of the land. And the reason given is, The land is mine, and you are strangers and sojourners with me, Lev_25:23. (1.) God having a particular propriety in this land, he would by this restraint keep them sensible of it. The possessions of good people, who, having given up themselves to God, have therewith given up all they have to him, are in a particular manner at his disposal, and his disposal of them must be submitted to. (2.) They being strangers and sojourners with him in that land, and having his tabernacle among them, to alienate their part of that land would be in effect to cut themselves off from their fellowship and communion with God, of which that was a token and symbol, for which reason Naboth would rather incur the wrath of a king than part with the inheritance of his fathers, 1Ki_21:3. 2. If a man was constrained through poverty to sell his land for the subsistence of his family, yet, if afterwards he was able, he might redeem it before the year of jubilee (Lev_25:24, Lev_25:26, Lev_25:27), and the price must be settled according to the number of years since the sale and before the jubilee. 3. If the person himself was not able to redeem it, his next kinsman might (Lev_25:25): The redeemer thereof, he that is near unto him, shall come and shall redeem, so it might be read. The kinsman is called Goel, the redeemer (Num_5:8; Rth_3:9), to whom belonged the right of redeeming the land. And this typified Christ, who assumed our nature, that he might be our kinsman, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, and, being the only kinsman we have that is able to do it, to him belonged the right of redemption. As for all our other kinsmen, their shoe must be plucked off (Rth_4:6, Rth_4:7); they cannot redeem. But Christ can and hath redeemed the inheritance which we by sin had forfeited and alienated, and made a new settlement of it upon all that by faith become allied to him. We know that this Redeemer liveth, Job_19:25. And some make this duty of the kinsman to signify the brotherly love that should be among Christians, inclining them to recover those that are fallen, and to restore them with the spirit of meekness. 4. If the land was not redeemed before the year of jubilee, then it should return of course to him that had sold or mortgaged it: In the jubilee it shall go out, Lev_25:28. This was a figure of the free grace of God towards us in Christ, by which, and not by any price or merit of our own, we are restored to the favour of God, and become entitled to paradise, from which our first parents, and we in them, were expelled for disobedience. 5. A difference was made between houses in walled cities, and lands in the country, or houses in country villages. Houses in walled cities were more the fruits of their own industry than land in the country, which was the immediate gift of God's bounty; and therefore, if a man sold a house in a city, he might redeem it any time within a year after the sale, but otherwise it was confirmed to the purchaser for ever, and should not return, no, not at the year of the jubilee, Lev_25:29, Lev_25:30. This provision was made to encourage strangers and proselytes to come and settle among them. Though they could not purchase land in Canaan to them and their heirs, yet they might purchase houses in walled cities, which would be most convenient for those who were supposed to live by trade. But country houses could be disposed of no otherwise than as lands might. 6. A clause is added in favour of the Levites, by way of exception from these rules. (1.) Dwelling houses in the cities of the Levites might be redeemed at any time, and, if not redeemed, should revert in the year of jubilee (Lev_25:32, Lev_25:33), because the Levites had no other possessions than cities and their suburbs, and God would show that the Levites were his peculiar care; and it was for the interest of the public that they should not be impoverished, or wormed out of their inheritances. (2.) The fields adjoining to their cities (Num_35:4, Num_35:5) might not be sold at any time, for they belonged, not to particular Levites, but to the city of the Levites, as a corporation, who could not alienate without a wrong to their tribe; therefore, if any of those fields were sold, the bargain was void, Lev_25:34. Even the Egyptians took care to preserve the land of the priests, Gen_47:22. And there is no less reason for the taking of the maintenance of the gospel ministry under the special protection of Christian governments.

II. A law for the relief of the poor, and the tender usage of poor debtors, and these are of more general and perpetual obligation than the former.

1. The poor must be relieved, Lev_25:35. Here is, (1.) Our brother's poverty and distress supposed: If thy brother be waxen poor; not only thy brother by nation as a Jew, but thy brother by nature as a man, for it follows, though he be a stranger or a sojourner. All men are to be looked upon and treated as brethren, for we have all one Father, Mal_2:10. Though he is poor, yet still he is thy brother, and is to be loved and owned as a brother. Poverty does not destroy the relation. Though a son of Abraham, yet he may wax poor and fall into decay. Note, Poverty and decay are great grievances, and very common: The poor you have always with you. (2.) Our duty enjoined: Thou shalt relieve him. By sympathy, pitying the poor; by service, doing for them; and by supply, giving to them according to their necessity and thy ability.

2. Poor debtors must not be oppressed: If thy brother be waxen poor, and have occasion to borrow money of thee for the necessary support of his family, take thou no usury of him, either for money or victuals, Lev_25:36, Lev_25:37. 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. The law here is plainly intended for the relief of the poor, to whom it is sometimes as great a charity to lend freely as to give. Observe the arguments here used against extortion. (1.) God patronizes the poor: “Fear thy God, who will reckon with thee for all injuries done to the poor: thou fearest not them, but fear him.” (2.) Relieve the poor, that they may live with thee, and some way or other they may be serviceable to thee. The rich can as ill spare the hands of the poor as the poor can the purses of the rich. (3.) The same argument is used to enforce this precept that prefaces all the ten commandments: I am the Lord your God which brought you out of Egypt, Lev_25:38. Note, It becomes those that have received mercy to show mercy. If God has been gracious to us, we ought not to be rigorous with our brethren. – Henry

[daniel1212av]

V. 43: "Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour; but shalt fear thy God." Under the N.T. we see,   "Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ; {6} Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; {7} With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men: {8} Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. {9} And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him" (Eph 6:5-9).  "Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven" (Col 4:1). 

The Levitical commands here had to do with Hebrews slaves, not foreigners, who were allowed to be smitten (Ex. 21:21, 22).Slavery is dealt with in the Bible as an accepted economic system, and in the O.T., like as in an "eye for an eye", it's regulation likely restrained the kind of abuse slaves normally suffered, yet while allowing, due to the hardness of man's heart, (as in divorce: Mk. 10:1-9), treatment can be inconsistent with "love thy neighbor as thyself" (however, positional distinctions are not inconsistent with spiritual equality - 1Cor. 11:3, nor under the O.T. was corporeal punishment - Neh. 13:25). But they were to be set free after 7 years.  Under the N.T. slavery is not directly forbidden, but outside of the ownership part - concerning which Paul urges slaves to get free if they can (1Cor. 7:21) – it basically reduces slavery to more like contracted employment in which cruelty is forbidden and fair wages are commanded. This is consistent with the N.T. focus on personal behavior within society, and not institutional political change of society - but which the former effects. But while this kind of "slavery" is far removed from what was usually practiced in history, and is superior to the victim/entitlement mentality or indolence or greed driven wages that men are also prone to, the outworking of the gospel would eventually eliminate the institution, as Mt. 7:12 and the essential spiritual equality of believers (Gal. 3:28) militates against the compulsory ownership of another human (but not just authority and discipline).

Here is a rather extensive apologetic on slavery in the Bible: http://www.christian-thinktank.com/qnoslave.html

Lev_25:42-43
Because the Israelites were servants of Jehovah, who had redeemed them out of Pharaoh's bondage and adopted them as His people (Exo_19:5; Exo_18:10, etc.), they were not to be sold “a selling of slaves,” i.e., not to be sold into actual slavery, and no one of them was to rule over another with severity (Lev_25:43, cf. Exo_1:13-14). “Through this principle slavery was completely abolished, so far as the people of the theocracy were concerned”' (Oehler).

Lev_25:44-46
As the Israelites could only hold in slavery servants and maid-servants whom they had bought of foreign nations, or foreigners who had settled in the land, these they might leave as an inheritance to their children, and “through them they might work,” i.e., have slave-labour performed, but not through their brethren the children of Israel (Lev_25:46, cf. Lev_25:43).

Lev_25:47-50
The servitude of an Israelite to a settler who had come to the possession of property, or a non-Israelite dwelling in the land, was to be redeemable at any time. If an Israelite had sold himself because of poverty to a foreign settler (תּושׁב גּר, to distinguish the non-Israelitish sojourner from the Israelitish, Lev_25:35), or to a stock of a foreigner, then one of his brethren, or his uncle, or his uncle's son or some one of his kindred, was to redeem him; or if he came into the possession of property, he was to redeem himself. When this was done, the time was to be calculated from the year of purchase to the year of jubilee, and “the money of his purchase was to be according to the number of the years,” i.e., the price at which he had sold himself was to be distributed over the number of years that he would have to serve to the year of jubilee; and “according to the days of a day-labourer shall he be with him,” i.e., the time that he had worked was to be estimated as that of a day-labourer, and be put to the credit of the man to be redeemed. - K+D


Lev 25:39-55 -
We have here the laws concerning servitude, designed to preserve the honour of the Jewish nation as a free people, and rescued by a divine power out of the house of bondage, into the glorious liberty of God's sons, his first-born. Now the law is,

I. That a native Israelite should never be made a bondman for perpetuity. If he was sold for debt, or for a crime, by the house of judgment, he was to serve but six years, and to go out the seventh; this was appointed, Exo_21:2. But if he sold himself through extreme poverty, having nothing at all left him to preserve his life, and if it was to one of his own nation that he sold himself, in such a case it is here provided, 1. That he should not serve as a bond-servant (Lev_25:39), nor be sold with the sale of a bondman (Lev_25:42); that is, “it must not be looked upon that his master that bought him had as absolute a property in him as in a captive taken in war, that might be used, sold, and bequeathed, at pleasure, as much as a man's cattle; no, he shall serve thee as a hired servant, whom the master has the use of only, but not a despotic power over.” And the reason is, They are my servants, Lev_25:42. God does not make his servants slaves, and therefore their brethren must not. God had redeemed them out of Egypt, and therefore they must never be exposed to sale as bondmen. The apostle applies this spiritually (1Co_7:23), You are bought with a price, be not the servants of men, that is, “of the lusts of men, no, nor of your own lusts;” for, having become the servants of God, we must not let sin reign in our mortal bodies, Rom_6:12, Rom_6:22. 2. That while he did serve he should not be ruled with rigour, as the Israelites were in Egypt, Lev_25:43. Both his work and his usage must be such as were fitting for a son of Abraham. Masters are still required to give to their servants that which is just and equal, Col_4:1. They may be used, but must not be abused. Those masters that are always hectoring and domineering over their servants, taunting them and trampling upon them, that are unreasonable in exacting work and giving rebukes, and that rule them with a high hand, forget that their Master is in heaven; and what will they do when he rises up? as holy Job reasons with himself, Job_31:13, Job_31:14. 3. That at the year of jubilee he should go out free, he and his children, and should return to his own family, Lev_25:41. This typified our redemption from the service of sin and Satan by the grace of God in Christ, whose truth makes us free, Joh_7:32. The Jewish writers say that, for ten days before the jubilee-trumpet sounded, the servants that were to be discharged by it did express their great joy by feasting, and wearing garlands on their heads: it is therefore called the joyful sound, Psa_89:15. And we are thus to rejoice in the liberty we have by Christ.

II. That they might purchase bondmen of the heathen nations that were round about them, or of those strangers that sojourned among them (except of those seven nations that were to be destroyed); and might claim a dominion over them, and entail them upon their families as an inheritance, for the year of jubilee should give no discharge to them, Lev_25:44, Lev_25:46. Thus in our English plantations the negroes only are used as slaves; how much to the credit of Christianity I shall not say. Now, 1. This authority which they had over the bondmen whom they purchased from the neighbouring nations was in pursuance of the blessing of Jacob, Gen_27:29, Let people serve thee. 2. It prefigured the bringing in of the Gentiles to the service of Christ and his church. Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thy inheritance, Psa_2:8. And it is promised (Isa_61:5), Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your vine-dressers; see Rev_2:26, Rev_2:27. The upright shall have the dominion in the morning, Psa_49:14. 3. It intimates that none shall have the benefit of the gospel jubilee but those only that are Israelites indeed, and the children of Abraham by faith: as for those that continue heathenish, they continue bondmen. See this turned upon the unbelieving Jews themselves, Gal_4:25, where Jerusalem, when she had rejected Christ, is said to be in bondage with her children. Let me only add here that, though they are not forbidden to rule their bondmen with rigour, yet the Jewish doctors say, “It is the property of mercy, and way of wisdom, that a man should be compassionate, and not make his yoke heavy upon any servant that he has.” - Henry

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III. That if an Israelite sold himself for a servant to a wealthy proselyte that sojourned among them care should be taken that he should have the same advantages as if he had sold himself to an Israelite, and in some respects greater. 1. That he should not serve as a bondman, but as a hired servant, and not to be ruled with rigour (Lev_25:53), in thy sight, which intimated that the Jewish magistrates should particularly have an eye to him, and, if he were abused, should take cognizance of it, and redress his grievances, though the injured servant did not himself complain. Also he was to go free at the year of jubilee, Lev_25:54. Though the sons of strangers might serve them for ever, yet the sons of Israel might not serve strangers for ever; yet the servant here, having made himself a slave by his own act and deed, should not go out in the seventh year of release, but in the jubilee only. 2. That he should have this further advantage that he might be redeemed again before the year of jubilee, Lev_25:48, Lev_25:49. He that had sold himself to an Israelite might, if ever he was able, redeem himself, but his relations had no right to redeem him. “But if a man sold himself to a stranger,” the Jews say, “his relations were urged to redeem him; if they did not, it was fit that he should be redeemed at the public charge,” which we find done, Neh_5:8. The price of his ransom was to be computed according to the prospect of the year of jubilee (Lev_25:50-52), as in the redemption of land, Lev_25:15, Lev_25:16. The learned bishop Patrick quotes one of the Jewish rabbin for an evangelical exposition of that appointment (Lev_25:48), One of his brethren shall redeem him. “This Redeemer,” says the rabbi, “is the Messiah, the Son of David.” They expected this Messiah to be their Redeemer out of their captivity, and to restore them to their own land again; but we welcome him as the Redeemer who shall come to Zion, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob, for he shall save his people from their sins; and under this notion there were those that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. - Henry

[daniel1212av]

[Mon. 7-16-07
(Lev 26)  "Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither 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. {2} Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD. {3} If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; {4} Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. {5} And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. {6} And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land. {7} And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. {8} And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. {9} For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you. {10} And ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new. {11} And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you. {12} And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people. {13} I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright.

{14} But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments; {15} And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant: {16} I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. {17} And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you. {18} And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. {19} And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass: {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. {25} And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. {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: and 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} 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 carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you. {31} 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. {34} Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies' land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths. {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 chase 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 unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: {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 of 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."

[daniel1212av]

As these chapters are both lengthy and often contain typological laws which have spiritual applications, i provide more of Matthew Henry's commentary than others, as he usually covers sections at a time and is usually more keen on their spiritual applications than other commentators i know of. Both of these factors make for rather verbose posts, and even usually i fail in trying to read the entirety of such, yet it is nevertheless posted for the edification of whosoever can and will.  Thanks be to God.

Leviticus 26 - This chapter is the parallel of Dt. 28, in which we see the great blessings that would be bestowed upon the children of Israel if they faithfully kept God's laws, with abundance of food, safety, peace, and complete and astounding victory over their enemies. However, as unto whomsover much is given, much is required (cf. Lk. 12:48), so contriwise great curses were foretold if they forsook the Lord in breaking His covenant. The latter was what did happen as Israel grievously rebelled, and tragically realized the warth of God (read Lamentations).  Although we are in a generation that is intolerant of the negative warnings, God is holy and just, and Hell is just as real and just as much a proose as Heaven. The realization by Israel (and in our own lives) of negative promises (Heb. 12) is also a testimony to the reality of God just as much as the realization of postive ones. In either case, God is faithful, and unrepentant sin requires punishment of evil, and without such justice grace means nothing.


Leviticus 26 -
Idolatry forbidden, Lev_26:1. The Sabbath to be sanctified, Lev_26:2-3. Promises to obedience, of fruitful fields, plentiful harvests, and vintage, Lev_26:4-5. Of peace and security, Lev_26:6. Discomfiture of their enemies, Lev_26:7-9. Of abundance, Lev_26:10. Of the divine presence, Lev_26:11-13. Threatenings against the disobedient, Lev_26:14-15. Of terror and dismay, Lev_26:16. Their enemies shall prevail against them, Lev_26:17-18. Of barrenness, Lev_26:19-20. Of desolation by wild beasts, Lev_26:21-22. And if not humbled and reformed, worse evils shall be inflicted upon them, Lev_26:23-24. Their enemies shall prevail, and they shall be wasted by the pestilence, Lev_26:25-26. If they should still continue refractory, they shall be yet more sorely punished, Lev_26:27-28. The famine shall so increase that they shall be obliged to eat their own children, Lev_26:29. Their carcasses shall be cast upon the carcasses of their idols, Lev_26:30. Their cities shall be wasted, and the sanctuary desolated, Lev_26:31; the land destroyed, Lev_26:32; themselves scattered among their enemies, and pursued with utter confusion and distress, Lev_26:33-39. If under these judgments they confess their sin and return to God, He will remember them in mercy, Lev_26:40-43; visit them even in the land of their enemies, Lev_26:44; and remember His covenant with their fathers, Lev_26:45. The conclusion, stating these to be the judgments and laws which the Lord made between himself and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai, Lev_26:46.


Lev 26:3-45 -
As “the book of the covenant” Exo. 20:22–23:33 concludes with promises and warnings Exo_23:20-33, so does this collection of laws contained in the Book of Leviticus. But the former passage relates to the conquest of the land of promise, this one to the subsequent history of the nation. The longer similar passage in Deuteronomy Deut. 27–30 is marked by broader and deeper promises and denunciations having immediate reference not only to outward consequences, but to the spiritual death incurred by transgressing the divine will.

Lev_26:4
Rain in due season - The periodical rains, on which the fertility of the holy land so much depends, are here spoken of. There are two wet seasons, called in Scripture the former and the latter rain Deu_11:14; Jer_5:24; Joe_2:23; Hos_6:3; Jam_5:7. The former or Autumn rain falls in heavy showers in November and December. In March the latter or Spring rain comes on, which is precarious in quantity and duration, and rarely lasts more than two days.

Lev_26:5
Compare the margin reference; Joe_2:19; Job_11:18.

Lev_26:8
Five of you shall chase - A proverbial mode of expression for superiority in warlike prowess Deu_32:30; Isa_30:17.

Lev_26:9
Establish my covenant - All material blessings were to be regarded in the light of seals of the “everlasting covenant.” Compare Gen_17:4-8; Neh_9:23.
Lev_26:10
Bring forth the old because of the new - Rather, clear away the old before the new; that is, in order to make room for the latter. Compare the margin reference.

Lev_26:16
The first warning for disobedience is disease. “Terror” (literally trembling) is rendered trouble in Psa_78:33; Isa_65:23. It seems here to denote that terrible affliction, an anxious temperament, the mental state ever at war with Faith and Hope. This might well be placed at the head of the visitations on a backslider who had broken the covenant with his God. Compare Deu_32:25; Jer_15:8; Pro_28:1; Job_24:17; Psa_23:4.

Consumption, and the burning ague - Compare the margin reference. The first of the words in the original comes from a root signifying to waste away; the latter (better, fever), from one signifying to kindle a fire. Consumption is common in Egypt and some parts of Asia Minor, but it is more rare in Syria. Fevers of different kinds are the commonest of all diseases in Syria and all the neighboring countries. The opposite promise to the threat is given in Exo_15:26; Exo_23:25.

Lev_26:18
For all this - i. e. for all the afflictions in Lev_26:16-17.
Seven times - The sabbatical number is here proverbially used to remind the people of the covenant. Compare Gen_4:15, Gen_4:24; Psa_119:164; Pro_24:16; Luk_17:4.

Lev_26:19, Lev_26:20
The second warning is utter sterility of the soil. Compare Deu_11:17; Deu_28:18; Eze_33:28; Eze_36:34-35.

Lev_26:21, Lev_26:22
The third warning is the multiplication of destructive animals, etc. Compare Deu_32:24; Eze_5:17; Eze_14:15; Jdg_5:6-7; Isa_33:8.

Lev_26:23-26
The fourth warning. Yahweh now places Himself as it were in a hostile position toward His people who “will not be reformed” (rather, brought unto God: Jer_2:30). He will avenge the outraged cause of His covenant, by the sword, pestilence, famine, and captivity.

Lev_26:26
Omit “and.” “To break the staff of bread,” was a proverbial expression for cutting off the supply of bread, the staff of life (Psa_105:16; Eze_4:16; Eze_5:16; Eze_14:13; compare Isa_3:1). The supply was to be so reduced that one oven would suffice for baking the bread maple by ten women for ten families, and when made it was to be dealt out in sparing rations by weight. See 2Ki_6:25; Jer_14:18; Lam_4:9; Eze_5:12; Hos_4:10; Mic_6:14; Hag_1:6.

Lev_26:27-33
The fifth warning. For Lev_26:29 see 2Ki_6:28-29; Jer_19:8-9; Lam_2:20; Lam_4:10; Eze_5:10, for Lev_26:30 see 2Ch_34:3; Eze_6:4; Jer_14:19, for Lev_26:31 see 2Ki_25:9; Psa_74:6-7 : for Lev_26:32-33 see Deu_28:37; Psa_44:11; Jer_9:16; Jer_18:16; Ezek. 5:1-17; Jer_4:7; Eze_9:6; Eze_12:15; Zec_7:14. - Barnes

[daniel1212av]

Lev_26:30
High places - There is no doubt that the word here denotes elevated spots dedicated to false worship (see Deu_12:2), and especially, it would seem, to that of Baal Num_22:41; Jos_13:17. Such spots were, however, employed and approved for the worship of Yahweh, not only before the building of the temple, but afterward (Jdg_6:25-26; Jdg_13:16-23; 1Sa_7:10; 1Sa_16:5; 1Ki_3:2; 1Ki_18:30; 2Ki_12:3; 1Ch_21:26, etc.). The three altars built by Abraham at Shechem, between Bethel and Ai, and at Mamre, appear to have been on heights, and so was the temple.

The high places in the holy land may thus have been divided into those dedicated to the worship of Yahweh, and those which had been dedicated to idols. And it would seem as if there was a constant struggle going on. The high places polluted by idol worship were of course to be wholly condemned. They were probably resorted to only to gratify a degraded superstition. See Lev_19:31; Lev_20:2-5. The others might have been innocently used for prayer and religious teaching. But the temptation appears to have been too great for the temper of the people. They offered sacrifice and burnt incense on them; and hence, thorough reformers of the national religion, such as Hezekiah and Josiah, removed the high places altogether 2Ki_18:4; 2Ki_23:5.

Your images - The original word is rendered in the margin of our Bible sun images (2Ch_14:5; Isa_17:8; Eze_6:4, etc.). Phoenician inscriptions prove that the word was commonly applied to images of Baal and Astarte, the god of the sun and the goddess of the moon. This exactly explains 2Ch_34:4 following.

Idols - The Hebrew word here literally means things which could be rolled about, such as a block of wood or a lump of dirt. It was no doubt a name given in derision. Compare Isa_40:20; Isa_44:19; 2Ki_1:2.

Lev_26:31
Sanctuaries - The holy places in the tabernacle and the temple (Psa_68:35. Compare Psa_74:7).
I will not smell the savor ... - See Lev_1:9.

Lev_26:35
More literally: All the days of its desolation shall it rest that time which it rested not in your Sabbaths while ye dwelt upon it. That is, the periods of rest of which the land had been deprived would be made up to it. Compare 2Ch_36:20-21.

Lev_26:38
The land of your enemies shall eat you up - Compare Num_13:32; Eze_36:13.

Lev_26:39
Iniquity - The meaning here is, in the punishment of their iniquity, and, in the next clause, in the punishment of the iniquity (as in Lev_26:41, Lev_26:43) of their fathers. In the next verse the same Hebrew word is properly represented by “iniquity.” Our translators have in several places put one of the English words in the text and the other in the margin (Gen_4:13; Gen_19:15; 2Ki_7:9; Psa_69:27, etc.). The language of Scripture does not make that trenchant division between sin and punishment which we are accustomed to do. Sin is its own punishment, having in itself, from its very commencement, the germ of death. “Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death” Jam_1:15; Rom_2:5; Rom_5:12.

Lev_26:40
trespass - The Hebrew word signifies an injury inflicted on the rights of a person, as distinguished from a sin or iniquity regarded as an outrage of the divine law. Every wrong act is of course both a sin and a trespass against God. In this place Yahweh takes the breach of the covenant as a personal trespass.

Lev_26:41
Uncircumcised hearts - The outward sign of the covenant might be preserved, but the answering grace in the heart would be wanting (Act_7:51; Rom_2:28-29; Jer_6:10; Jer_9:26; compare Col_2:11).

Accept of the punishment of their iniquity - literally, enjoy their iniquity. The word here and in Lev_26:43 rendered “accept” in this phrase, is the same as is rendered “enjoy” in the expression “the land shall enjoy her sabbaths” Lev_26:34. The antithesis in Lev_26:43 is this: The land shall enjoy her sabbaths - and they shall enjoy the punishment of their iniquity. The meaning is, that the land being desolate shall have the blessing of rest, and they having repented shall have the blessing of chastisement. - Barnes

Lev 26:14-39 -
After God had set the blessing before them (the life and good which would make them a happy people if they would be obedient), he here sets the curse before them, the death and evil which would make them as miserable if they were disobedient. Let them not think themselves so deeply rooted as that God's power could not ruin them, nor so highly favoured as that his justice would not ruin them if they revolted from him and rebelled against him; no You only have I known, therefore I will punish you soonest and sorest. Amo_3:2.

 Observe,
I. How their sin is described, which would bring all this misery upon them. Not sins of ignorance and infirmity; God had provided sacrifices for those. Not the sins they repented of and forsook; but the sins that were presumptuously committed, and obstinately persisted in. Two things would certainly bring this ruin upon them: -

1. A contempt of God's commandments (Lev_26:14): “If you will not hearken to me speaking to you by the law, nor do all these commandments, that is, desire and endeavour to do them, and, wherein you miss it, make use of the prescribed remedies.” Thus their sin is supposed to begin in mere carelessness, and neglect, and omission. These are bad enough, but they make way for worse; for the people are brought in (Lev_26:15) as, (1.) Despising God's statutes, both the duties enjoined and the authority enjoining them, thinking meanly of the law and the Law-maker. Note, Those are hastening apace to their own ruin who begin to think it below them to be religious. (2.) Abhorring his judgments, their very souls abhorring them. Note, Those that begin to despise religion will come by degrees to loathe it; and mean thoughts of it will ripen into ill thoughts of it; those that turn from it will turn against it, and their hearts will rise at it. (3.) Breaking his covenant. Though every breach of the commandment does not amount to a breach of the covenant (we were undone if it did), yet, when men have come to such a pitch of impiety as to despise and abhor the commandment, the next step will be to disown God, and all relation to him. Those that reject the precept will come at last to renounce the covenant. Observe, It is God's covenant which they break: he made it, but they break it. Note, If a covenant be made and kept between God and man, God must have all the honour; but, if ever it be broken, man must bear all the blame: on him shall this breach be.

2. A contempt of his corrections. Even their disobedience would not have been their destruction if they had not been obstinate and impenitent in it, notwithstanding the methods God took to reclaim them. Their contempt of God's word would not have brought them to ruin, if they had not added to that a contempt of his rod, which should have brought them to repentance. Three ways this is expressed: - (1.) “If you will not for all this hearken to me, Lev_26:18, Lev_26:21, Lev_26:27. If you will not learn obedience by the things which you suffer, but be as deaf to the loud alarms of God's judgments as you have been to the close reasonings of his word and the secret whispers of your own consciences, you are obstinate indeed.” (2.) “If you walk contrary to me, Lev_26:21, Lev_26:23, Lev_26:27. All sinners walk contrary to God, to his truths, laws, and counsels; but those especially that are incorrigible under his judgments. The design of the rod is to humble them, and soften them, and bring them to repentance; but, instead of this, their hearts are more hardened and exasperated against God, and in their distress they trespass yet more against him, 2Ch_28:22. This is walking contrary to God. Some read it, “If you walk at all adventures with me, carelessly and presumptuously, as if you heeded not either what you do, whether it be right or wrong, or what God does with you, whether it be for you or against you, blundering on in wilful ignorance.”

(3.) If you will not be reformed by these things. God's design in punishing is to reform, by giving men sensible convictions of the evil of sin, and obliging them to seek unto him for relief: this is the primary intention; but those that will not be reformed by the judgments of God must expect to be ruined by them. Those have a great deal to answer for that have been long and often under God's correcting hand, and yet go on frowardly in a sinful way; sick and in pain, and yet not reformed; crossed and impoverished, and yet not reformed; broken with breach upon breach, yet not returning to the Lord, Amo_4:6, etc. - Henry

[daniel1212av]

II. How the misery is described which their sin would bring upon them, under two heads: -

1. God himself would be against them; and this is the root and cause of all their misery.

(1.) I will set my face against you (Lev_26:17), that is, “I will set myself against you, set myself to ruin you.” These proud sinners God will resist, and face those down that confront his authority. Or the face is put for the anger: “I will show myself highly displeased at you.”

 (2.) I will walk contrary to you (Lev_26:24, Lev_26:28); with the forward he will wrestle, Psa_18:26 [margin]. When God in his providence thwarts the designs of a people, which they thought well laid, crosses their purposes, breaks their measures, blasts their endeavours, and disappoints their expectations, then he walks contrary to them. Note, There is nothing got by striving with God Almighty, for he will break either the heart or the neck of those that contend with him, will bring them either to repentance or ruin. “I will walk at all adventures with you,” so some read; “all covenant loving-kindness shall be forgotten, and I will leave you to common providence.” Note, Those that cast off God deserve that he should cast them off.

(3.) As they continued obstinate, the judgments should increase yet more upon them. If the first sensible tokens of God's displeasures do not attain their end, to humble and reform them, then (Lev_26:18), I will punish you seven times more, and again (Lev_26:21), I will bring seven times more plagues, and (Lev_26:24), I will punish you yet seven times, and (Lev_26:28), I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. Note, If less judgments do not do their work, God will send greater; for, when he judges, he will overcome. If true repentance do not stay process, it will go on till execution be taken out. Those that are obstinate and incorrigible, when they have weathered one storm must expect another more violent; and, how severely soever they are punished, till they are in hell they must still say, “There is worse behind,” unless they repent. If the founder have hitherto melted in vain (Jer_6:29), the furnace will be heated seven times hotter (a proverbial expression, used Dan_3:19), and again and again seven times hotter; and who among us can dwell with such devouring fire? God does not begin with the sorest judgments, to show that he is patient, and delights not in the death of sinners; but, if they repent not, he will proceed to the sorest, to show that he is righteous, and that he will not be mocked or set at defiance.

4.) Their misery is completed in that threatening: My soul shall abhor you, Lev_26:30. That man is as miserable as he can be whom God abhors; for his resentments are just and effective. Thus if any man draw back, as these are supposed to do, God's soul shall have no pleasure in him (Heb_10:38), and he will spue them out of his mouth, Rev_3:16. It is spoken of as strange, and yet too true, Hath thy soul loathed Zion? Jer_14:19. 2. The whole creation would be at war with them. All God's sore judgments would be sent against them; for he hath many arrows in his quiver. The threatenings here are very particular, because really they were prophecies, and he that foresaw all their rebellions knew they would prove so; see Deu_31:16, Deu_31:29. This long roll of threatening shows that evil pursues sinners.

We have here,
(1.) Temporal judgments threatened.

[1.] Diseases of body, which should be epidemical: I will appoint over you, as task-masters, to rule you with rigour, terror, consumption, and the burning ague, Lev_26:16. What we translate terror, some think, signifies a particular disease, probably (says the learned bishop Patrick) the falling sickness, which is terror indeed: all chronical diseases are included in the consumption, and all acute diseases in the burning ague or fever. These consume the eyes, and cause sorrow both to those that are visited with them and to their friends and relations. Note, All diseases are God's servants; they do what he appoints them, and are often used as scourges wherewith he chastises a provoking people. The pestilence is threatened (Lev_26:25) to meet them, when they are gathered together in their cities for fear of the sword. The greater the concourse of people is, the greater desolation does the pestilence make; and, when it gets among the soldiers that should defend a place, it is of most fatal consequence.

[2.] Famine and scarcity of bread, which should be brought upon them several ways; as, First, By plunder (Lev_26:16): Your enemies shall eat it up, and carry it off as the Midianites did, Jdg_6:5, Jdg_6:6. Secondly, By unseasonable weather, especially the want of rain (Lev_26:19): I will make your heaven as iron, letting fall no rain, but reflecting heat, and then the earth would of course be as dry and hard as brass, and their labour in ploughing and sowing would be in vain (Lev_26:20); for the increase of the earth depends upon God's good providence more than upon man's good husbandry. This should be the breaking of the staff of bread (Lev_26:26), which life leans upon, and is supported by, on which perhaps they had leaned more than upon God's blessing. There should be so great a dearth of corn that, whereas every family used to fill an oven of their own with household bread, now ten families should have to fill but one over, which would bring themselves and their children and servants to short allowance, so that they should eat and not be satisfied. The less they had the more craving should their appetites be.

Thirdly, By the besieging of their cities, which would reduce them to such an extremity that they should eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, Lev_26:29. [3.] War, and the prevailing of their enemies over them: “You shall be slain before your enemies, Lev_26:17. Your choice men shall die in battle, and those that hate you shall reign over you, and justly, since you are not willing that the God that loved you should reign over you;” 2Ch_12:8. Miserable is that people whose enemies are their rulers and have got dominion over them, or whose rulers have become their enemies and under-hand seek the ruin of their interests. Thus God would break the pride of their power, Lev_26:19. God had given them power over the nations; but when they, instead of being thankful for that power, and improving it for the service of God's kingdom, grew proud of it, and perverted the intentions of it, it was just with God to break it. Thus God would bring a sword upon them to avenge the quarrel of his covenant, Lev_26:25. Note, God has a just quarrel with those that break covenant with him, for he will not be mocked by the treachery of perfidious men; and one way or other he will avenge this quarrel upon those that play at fast and loose with him.

[4.] Wild beasts, lions, bears, and wolves, which should increase upon them, and tear in pieces all that come in their way (Lev_26:22), as we read of two bears that in an instant killed forty-two children, 2Ki_2:24. This is one of the four sore judgments threatened Eze_14:21, which plainly refers to this chapter. Man was made to have dominion over the creatures, and, though many of them are stronger than he, yet none of them could have hurt him, nay, all of them would have served him, if he had not first shaken off God's dominion, and so lost his own; and now the creatures are in rebellion against him that is in rebellion against his Maker, and, when the Lord of those hosts pleases, they are the executioners of his wrath and the ministers of his justice.

 [5.] Captivity, or dispersion: I will scatter you among the heathen (Lev_26:33), in your enemies' land, Lev_26:34. Never were any people so incorporated and united among themselves as they were; but for their sin God would scatter them, so that they should be lost among the heathen, from whom God had graciously distinguished them, but with whom they had wickedly mingled themselves. Yet, when they were scattered, divine justice had not done with them, but would draw out a sword after them, which would find them out, and follow them wherever they were. God's judgments, as they cannot be outfaced, so they cannot be outrun.

 [6.] The utter ruin and desolation of their land, which should be so remarkable that their very enemies themselves, who ha helped it forward, should in the review be astonished at it, Lev_26:32. First, Their cities should be waste, forsaken, uninhabited, and all the buildings destroyed; those that escaped the desolations of war should fall to decay of themselves. Secondly, Their sanctuaries should be a desolation, that is, their synagogues where they met for religious worship every sabbath, as well as their tabernacle where they met thrice a year. Thirdly, The country itself should be desolate, not tilled or husbanded (Lev_26:34, Lev_26:35); then the land should enjoy its sabbaths, because they had not religiously observed the sabbatical years which God appointed them. They tilled their ground when God would have them let it rest; justly therefore were they driven out of it; and the expression intimates that the ground itself was pleased and easy when it was rid of the burden of such sinners, under which it had groaned, Rom_8:20, etc. The captivity in Babylon lasted seventy years, and so long the land enjoyed her sabbaths, as is said (2Ch_36:21) with reference to this.

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 [7.] The destruction of their idols, though rather a mercy than a judgment, yet, being a necessary piece of justice, is here mentioned, to show what would be the sin that would bring all these miseries upon them: I will destroy your high places, Lev_26:30. Those that will not be parted from their sins by the commands of God shall be parted from them by his judgments; since they would not destroy their high places, God would. And, to upbraid them with the unreasonable fondness they had shown for their idols, it is foretold that their carcases should be cast upon the carcases of their idols. Those that are wedded to their lusts will sooner or later have enough of them. Their idols would not be able to help either themselves or their worshippers; but, those that made them being like them, they should both perish alike, and fall together as blind into the ditch.

(2.) Spiritual judgments are here threatened. These should seize the mind; for he that made the mind can, when he pleases, make his sword approach to it. It is here threatened,

 [1.] That they should find no acceptance with God: I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours, Lev_26:31. Though the judgments of God upon them did not separate them and their sins, yet they extorted incense from them; but in vain - even their incense was an abomination, Isa_1:13.

 [2.] That they should have no courage in their wars, but should be quite dispirited and disheartened. They should not only fear and flee (Lev_26:17), but fear and fall, when none pursued, Lev_26:36. A guilty conscience would be their continual terror, so that not only the sound of a trumpet, but the very sound of a leaf, should chase them. Note, Those that cast off the fear of God expose themselves to the fear of every thing else, Pro_28:1. Their very fears should dash them one against another, Lev_26:37, Lev_26:38. And those that had increased one another's guilt would now increase one another's fears.

[3.] That they should have no hope of the forgiveness of their sins (Lev_26:39): They shall pine away in their iniquity, and how should they then live? Eze_33:10. Note, It is a righteous thing with God to leave those to despair of pardon that have presumed to sin; and it is owing to free grace if we are not abandoned to pine away in the iniquity we were born in and have lived in. - Henry

Lev_26:40, Lev_26:41 

I. How the repentance which would qualify them for this mercy is described, Lev_26:40, Lev_26:41. The instances of it are three: -

1. Confession, by which they must give glory to God, and take shame to themselves. There must be a confession of sin, their own and their fathers', which they must lament the guilt of because they feel the smart of it; that thus they may cut off the entail of wrath. They must in their confession put sin under its worst character, as walking contrary to God; this is the sinfulness of sin, the worst thing in it, and which in our repentance we should especially bewail. There must also be a confession of wrath; they must overlook the instruments of their trouble and the second causes, and confess that God has walked contrary to them, and so dealt with them according to their sins. Such a confession as this we find made by Daniel just before the dawning of the day of their deliverance (ch. 9), and the like, Ezr_9:1-15 and Neh_9:2. Remorse and Godly sorrow for sin: If their uncircumcised heart be humbled. An impenitent, unbelieving, unhumbled heart, is called an uncircumcised heart, the heart of a Gentile that is a stranger to God, rather than the heart of an Israelite in covenant with him. True circumcision is of the heart (Rom_2:29), without which the circumcision of the flesh avails nothing, Jer_9:26. Now in repentance this uncircumcised heart was humbled, that is, it was truly broken and contrite for sin. Note, A humble heart under humbling providences prepares for deliverance and true comfort.

 3. Submission to the justice of God in all his dealings; if they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity (Lev_26:41 and again Lev_26:43), that is, if they justify God and condemn themselves, patiently bear the punishment as that which they have well deserved, and carefully answer the ends o it as that which God has well designed, accept it as a kindness, take it as physic, and improve it, then they are penitents indeed. - Henry

Lev 26:40-46 -
Among the Israelites, persons were not always prosperous or afflicted according to their obedience or disobedience. But national prosperity was the effect of national obedience, and national judgments were brought on by national wickedness. Israel was under a peculiar covenant. National wickedness will end in the ruin of any people, especially where the word of God and the light of the gospel are enjoyed. Sooner or later, sin will be the ruin, as well as the reproach, of every people. Oh that, being humbled for our sins, we might avert the rising storm before it bursts upon us! God grant that we may, in this our day, consider the things which belong to our eternal peace. - MHCC

Lev 26:46 -
Lev_26:46 contains the close of the entire book, or rather of the whole of the covenant legislation from Ex 25 onwards, although the expression “in Mount Sinai” points back primarily to Lev_25:1. - K+D

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Note. For some time i have been realizing increasing mental, etc., fatigue, which makes concentration difficult, and which was the main  reason i began this Bible study. Of late however it has gotten worse, so that i have not been reading thru nor commenting on these detailed chapters as i should and the Word of God deserves, though i could do better. If this continues i may have to do only parts of a chapter a time, at least in  long chapters. Sorry.

(Lev 27)  "And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, {2} Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When a man shall make a singular vow, the persons shall be for the LORD by thy estimation. {3} And thy estimation shall be of the male from twenty years old even unto sixty years old, even thy estimation shall be fifty shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary. {4} And if it be a female, then thy estimation shall be thirty shekels. {5} And if it be from five years old even unto twenty years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male twenty shekels, and for the female ten shekels. {6} And if it be from a month old even unto five years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male five shekels of silver, and for the female thy estimation shall be three shekels of silver. {7} And if it be from sixty years old and above; if it be a male, then thy estimation shall be fifteen shekels, and for the female ten shekels. {8} But if he be poorer than thy estimation, then he shall present himself before the priest, and the priest shall value him; according to his ability that vowed shall the priest value him. {9} And if it be a beast, whereof men bring an offering unto the LORD, all that any man giveth of such unto the LORD shall be holy. {10} He shall not alter it, nor change it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good: and if he shall at all change beast for beast, then it and the exchange thereof shall be holy. {11} And if it be any unclean beast, of which they do not offer a sacrifice unto the LORD, then he shall present the beast before the priest: {12} And the priest shall value it, whether it be good or bad: as thou valuest it, who art the priest, so shall it be. {13} But if he will at all redeem it, then he shall add a fifth part thereof unto thy estimation. {14} And when a man shall sanctify his house to be holy unto the LORD, then the priest shall estimate it, whether it be good or bad: as the priest shall estimate it, so shall it stand. {15} And if he that sanctified it will redeem his house, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of thy estimation unto it, and it shall be his. {16} And if a man shall sanctify unto the LORD some part of a field of his possession, then thy estimation shall be according to the seed thereof: an homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver. {17} If he sanctify his field from the year of jubilee, according to thy estimation it shall stand. {18} But if he sanctify his field after the jubilee, then the priest shall reckon unto him the money according to the years that remain, even unto the year of the jubilee, and it shall be abated from thy estimation. {19} And if he that sanctified the field will in any wise redeem it, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of thy estimation unto it, and it shall be assured to him. {20} And if he will not redeem the field, or if he have sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed any more. {21} But the field, when it goeth out in the jubilee, shall be holy unto the LORD, as a field devoted; the possession thereof shall be the priest's. {22} And if a man sanctify unto the LORD a field which he hath bought, which is not of the fields of his possession; {23} Then the priest shall reckon unto him the worth of thy estimation, even unto the year of the jubilee: and he shall give thine estimation in that day, as a holy thing unto the LORD. {24} In the year of the jubilee the field shall return unto him of whom it was bought, even to him to whom the possession of the land did belong. {25} And all thy estimations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs shall be the shekel. {26} Only the firstling of the beasts, which should be the LORD'S firstling, no man shall sanctify it; whether it be ox, or sheep: it is the LORD'S. {27} And if it be of an unclean beast, then he shall redeem it according to thine estimation, and shall add a fifth part of it thereto: or if it be not redeemed, then it shall be sold according to thy estimation. {28} Notwithstanding no devoted thing, that a man shall devote unto the LORD of all that he hath, both of man and beast, and of the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed: every devoted thing is most holy unto the LORD. {29} None devoted, which shall be devoted of men, shall be redeemed; but shall surely be put to death. {30} And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD'S: it is holy unto the LORD. {31} And if a man will at all redeem ought of his tithes, he shall add thereto the fifth part thereof. {32} And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the LORD. {33} He shall not search whether it be good or bad, neither shall he change it: and if he change it at all, then both it and the change thereof shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed. {34} These are the commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses for the children of Israel in mount Sinai."

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Leviticus 27 -
Laws concerning vows, Lev_27:1, Lev_27:2. Of males and females from twenty to sixty years of age, and their valuation, Lev_27:3, Lev_27:4. Of the same from five to twenty years, Lev_27:5. Of the same from a month to five years of age, Lev_27:6. Of males and females from sixty years old and upwards, and their valuation, Lev_27:7. The priest shall value the poor according to his ability, Lev_27:8. Concerning beasts that are vowed, and their valuation, Lev_27:9-13. Concerning the sanctification of a house, Lev_27:14, Lev_27:15. Concerning the field that is sanctified or consecrated to the Lord, to the year of jubilee, Lev_27:16-24. Every estimation shall be made in shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, Lev_27:25. The firstlings of clean beasts, being already the Lord’s, cannot be vowed, Lev_27:26. That of an unclean beast may be redeemed, Lev_27:27. Every thing devoted to God shall be unalienable and unredeemable, and continue the Lord’s property till death, Lev_27:28, Lev_27:29. All the tithe of the land is the Lord’s, Lev_27:30; but it may be redeemed by adding a fifth part, Lev_27:31. The tithe of the herd and the flock is also his, Lev_27:32. The tenth that passes under the rod shall not be changed, Lev_27:33. The conclusion of the book, Lev_27:34. -- Clarke

Leviticus 27 -
The last verse of the foregoing chapter seemed to close up the statute-book; yet this chapter is added as an appendix. Having given laws concerning instituted services, here he directs concerning vows and voluntary services, the free-will offerings of their mouth. Perhaps some devout serious people among them might be so affected with what Moses had delivered to them in the foregoing chapter as in a pang of zeal to consecrate themselves, or their children, or estates to him: this, because honestly meant, God would accept; but, because men are apt to repent of such vows, he leaves room for the redemption of what had been so consecrated, at a certain rate. Here is,  I. The law concerning what was sanctified to God, persons (Lev_27:2-8), cattle, clean or unclean (Lev_27:9-13), houses and lands (Lev_27:15-25), with an exception of firstlings, (Lev_27:26, Lev_27:27).  II. Concerning what was devoted (Lev_27:28, Lev_27:29).  III. Concerning tithes (Lev_27:30, etc.). - Henry

Lev 27:1 -
The directions concerning vows follow the express termination of the Sinaitic lawgiving (Lev_26:46), as an appendix to it, because vows formed no integral part of the covenant laws, but were a freewill expression of piety common to almost all nations, and belonged to the modes of worship current in all religions, which were not demanded and might be omitted altogether, and which really lay outside the law, though it was necessary to bring them into harmony with the demands of the law upon Israel. Making a vow, therefore, or dedicating anything to the Lord by vowing, was not commanded, but was presupposed as a manifestation of reverence for God, sanctified by ancient tradition, and was simply regulated according to the principle laid down in Deu_23:22-24, that it was not a sin to refrain from vowing, but that every vow, when once it had been made, was to be conscientiously and inviolably kept (cf. Pro_20:25; Ecc_5:3-5), and the neglect to keep it to be atoned for with a sin-offering (Lev_5:4). - The objects of a vow might be persons (Lev_27:2-8), cattle (Lev_27:9-13), houses (Lev_27:14, Lev_27:15), and land (Lev_27:16-25), all of which might be redeemed with the exception of sacrificial animals; but not the first-born (Lev_27:26), nor persons and things dedicated to the Lord by the ban (Lev_27:28, Lev_27:29), nor tithes (Lev_27:30-33), because all of these were to be handed over to the Lord according to the law, and therefore could not be redeemed. This followed from the very idea of the vow. For a vow was a promise made by any one to dedicate and given his own person, or a portion of his property, to the Lord for averting some danger and distress, or for bringing to his possession some desired earthly good. - Besides ordinary vowing or promising to give, there was also vowing away, or the vow of renunciation, as is evident from Num 30. The chapter before us treats only of ordinary vowing, and gives directions for redeeming the thing vowed, in which it is presupposed that everything vowed to the Lord would fall to His sanctuary as corban, an offering (Mar_7:11); and therefore, that when it was redeemed, the money would also be paid to His sanctuary. - (On the vow, see my Archaeologie, §96; Oehler in Herzog's Cycl.) - K+D

Lev 27:1-13 -
This is part of the law concerning singular vows, extraordinary ones, which though God did not expressly insist on, yet, if they were consistent with and conformable to the general precepts, he would be well pleased with. Note, We should not only ask, What must we do, but, What may we do, for the glory and honour of God? As the liberal devises liberal things (Isa_32: , so the pious devises pious things, and the enlarged heart would willingly do something extraordinary in the service of so good a Master as God is. When we receive or expect some singular mercy it is good to honour God with some singular vow.

I. The case is here put of persons vowed to God by a singular vow, Lev_27:2. If a man consecrated himself, or a child, to the service of the tabernacle, to be employed there in some inferior office, as sweeping the floor, carrying out ashes, running of errands, or the like, the person so consecrated shall be for the Lord, that is, “God will graciously accept the good-will.” Thou didst well that it was in thy heart, 2Ch_6:8. But forasmuch as he had no occasion to use their service about the tabernacle, a whole tribe being appropriated to the use of it, those that were thus vowed were to be redeemed, and the money paid for their redemption was employed for the repair of the sanctuary, or other uses of it, as appears by 2Ki_12:14, where it is called, in the margin, the money of the souls of his estimation. A book of rates is accordingly provided, by which the priests were to go in their estimation. Here is, 1. The rate of the middle-aged, between twenty and threescore, these were valued highest, because most serviceable; a male fifty shekels, and a female thirty, Lev_27:3, Lev_27:4. The females were then less esteemed, but not so in Christ; for in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female, Gal_3:28. Note, Those that are in the prime of their time must look upon themselves as obliged to do more in the service of God and their generation than can be expected either from minors, that have not yet arrived to their usefulness, or from the aged, that have survived it. 2. The rate of the youth between five years old and twenty was less, because they were then less capable of doing service, Lev_27:5. 3. Infants under five years old were capable of being vowed to God by their parents, even before they were born, as Samuel was, but not to be presented and redeemed till a month old, that, as one sabbath passed over them before they were circumcised, so one new moon might pass over them before they were estimated; and their valuation was but small, Lev_27:6. Samuel, who was thus vowed to God, was not redeemed, because he was a Levite, and a particular favourite, and therefore was employed in his childhood in the service of the tabernacle. 4. The aged are valued less than youth, but more than children, Lev_27:7. And the Hebrews observe that the rate of an aged woman is two parts of three to that of an aged man, so that in that age the female came nearest to the value of the male, which occasioned (as bishop Patrick quotes it here) this saying among them, That an old woman in a house is a treasure in a house. Paul sets a great value upon the aged women, when he makes them teachers of good things, Tit_2:3. 5. The poor shall be valued according to their ability, Lev_27:8. Something they must pay, that they might learn not to be rash in vowing to God, for he hath no pleasure in fools, Ecc_5:4. Yet not more than their ability, but secundum tenementum - according to their possessions, that they might not ruin themselves and their families by their zeal. Note, God expects and requires from men according to what they have, and not according to what they have not, Luk_21:4.

II. The case is put of beasts vowed to God, 1. If it was a clean beast, such as was offered in sacrifice, it must not be redeemed, nor any equivalent given for it: It shall be holy, Lev_27:9, Lev_27:10. After it was vowed, it was not to be put to any common use, nor changed upon second thoughts; but it must be either offered upon the altar, or, if through any blemish it was not meet to be offered, he that vowed it should not take advantage of that, but the priests should have it for their own use (for they were God's receivers), or it should be sold for the service of the sanctuary. This teaches caution in making vows and constancy in keeping them when they are made; for it is a snare to a man to devour that which is holy, and after vows to make enquiry, Pro_20:25. And to this that rule of charity seems to allude (2Co_9:7), Every man, according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give. 2. If it was an unclean beast, it should go to the use of the priest at such a value; but he that vowed it, upon paying that value in money, and adding a fifth part more to it, might redeem it if he pleased, Lev_27:11-13. It was fit that men should smart for their inconstancy. God has let us know his mind concerning his service, and he is not pleased if we do not know our own. God expects that those that deal with him should be at a point, and way what they will stand to. - Henry

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Lev 27:14-25 -
Here is the law concerning real estates dedicated to the service of God by a singular vow.
I. Suppose a man, in his zeal for the honour of God, should sanctify his house to God (Lev_27:14), the house must be valued by the priest, and the money got by the sale of it was to be converted to the use of the sanctuary, which by degrees came to be greatly enriched with dedicated things, 1Ki_15:15. But, if the owner be inclined to redeem it himself, he must not have it so cheap as another, but must add a fifth part to the price, for he should have considered before he had vowed it, Lev_27:15. To him that was necessitous God would abate the estimation (Lev_27: 8 ); but to him that was fickle and humoursome, and whose second thoughts inclined more to the world and his secular interest than his first, God would rise in the price. Blessed be God, there is a way of sanctifying our houses to be holy unto the Lord, without either selling them or buying them. If we and our houses serve the Lord, if religion rule in them, and we put away iniquity far from them, and have a church in our house, holiness to the Lord is written upon it, it is his, and he will dwell with us in it.

II. Suppose a man should sanctify some part of his land to the Lord, giving it to pious uses, then a difference must be made between land that came to the donor by descent and that which came by purchase, and accordingly the case altered.

1. If it was the inheritance of his fathers, here called the field of his possession, which pertained to his family from the first division of Canaan, he might not give it all, no, not to the sanctuary; God would not admit such a degree of zeal as ruined a man's family. But he might sanctify or dedicate only some part of it, Lev_27:16. And in that case, (1.) The land was to be valued (as our countrymen commonly compute land) by so many measures' sowing of barley. So much land as would take a homer, or chomer, of barley, which contained ten ephahs, Eze_45:11 (not, as some have here mistaken it, an omer, which was but a tenth part of an ephah, Exo_16:36), was valued at fifty shekels, a moderate price (Lev_27:16), and that if it were sanctified immediately from the year of jubilee, Lev_27:17. But, if some years after, there was to be a discount accordingly, even of that price, Lev_27:18. And, (2.) When the value was fixed, the donor might, if he pleased, redeem it for sixty shekels the homer's sowing, which was with the addition of a fifth part: the money then went to the sanctuary, and the land reverted to him that had sanctified it, Lev_27:19. But if he would not redeem it, and the priest sold it to another, then at the year of jubilee, beyond which the sale could not go, the land came to the priests, and was theirs for ever, Lev_27:20, Lev_27:21. Note, What is given to the Lord ought not to be given with a power of revocation; what is devoted to the Lord must be his for ever, by a perpetual covenant.

2. If the land was his own purchase, and came not to him from his ancestors, then not the land itself, but the value of it was to be given to the priests for pious uses, Lev_27:22, Lev_27:24. It was supposed that those who, by the blessing of God, had grown so rich as to become purchasers would think themselves obliged in gratitude to sanctify some part of their purchase, at least (and here they are not limited, but they might, if they pleased, sanctify the whole), to the service of God. For we ought to give as God prospers us, 1Co_16:2. Purchasers are in a special manner bound to be charitable. Now, forasmuch as purchased lands were by a former law to return at the year of jubilee to the family from which they were purchased, God would not have that law and the intentions of it defeated by making the lands corban, a gift, Mar_7:11. But it was to be computed how much the land was worth for so many years as were from the vow to the jubilee; for only so long it was his own, and God hates robbery for burnt-offerings. We can never acceptably serve God with that of which we have wronged our neighbour. And so much money he was to give for the present, and keep the land in his own hands till the year of jubilee, when it was to return free of all encumbrances, even that of its being dedicated to him of whom it was bought. The value of the shekel by which all these estimations were to be made is here ascertained (Lev_27:25); it shall be twenty gerahs, and every gerah was sixteen barley-corns. This was fixed before (Exo_30:13); and, whereas there had been some alterations, it is again fixed in the laws of Ezekiel's visionary temple (Eze_45:12), to denote that the gospel should reduce things to their ancient standard. - Henry

Lev 27:26-27 -
What belonged to the Lord by law could not be dedicated to Him by a vow, especially the first-born of clean cattle (cf. Exo_13:1-2). The first-born of unclean animals were to be redeemed according to the valuation of the priest, with the addition of a fifth; and if this was not done, it was to be sold at the estimated value. By this regulation the earlier law, which commanded that an ass should either be redeemed with a sheep or else be put to death (Exo_13:13; Exo_34:20), was modified in favour of the revenues of the sanctuary and its servants. - K+D


I. The case is here put of persons vowed to God by a singular vow, Lev_27:2. If a man consecrated himself, or a child, to the service of the tabernacle, to be employed there in some inferior office, as sweeping the floor, carrying out ashes, running of errands, or the like, the person so consecrated shall be for the Lord, that is, “God will graciously accept the good-will.” Thou didst well that it was in thy heart, 2Ch_6:8. But forasmuch as he had no occasion to use their service about the tabernacle, a whole tribe being appropriated to the use of it, those that were thus vowed were to be redeemed, and the money paid for their redemption was employed for the repair of the sanctuary, or other uses of it, as appears by 2Ki_12:14, where it is called, in the margin, the money of the souls of his estimation. A book of rates is accordingly provided, by which the priests were to go in their estimation. Here is, 1. The rate of the middle-aged, between twenty and threescore, these were valued highest, because most serviceable; a male fifty shekels, and a female thirty, Lev_27:3, Lev_27:4. The females were then less esteemed, but not so in Christ; for in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female, Gal_3:28. Note, Those that are in the prime of their time must look upon themselves as obliged to do more in the service of God and their generation than can be expected either from minors, that have not yet arrived to their usefulness, or from the aged, that have survived it. 2. The rate of the youth between five years old and twenty was less, because they were then less capable of doing service, Lev_27:5. 3. Infants under five years old were capable of being vowed to God by their parents, even before they were born, as Samuel was, but not to be presented and redeemed till a month old, that, as one sabbath passed over them before they were circumcised, so one new moon might pass over them before they were estimated; and their valuation was but small, Lev_27:6. Samuel, who was thus vowed to God, was not redeemed, because he was a Levite, and a particular favourite, and therefore was employed in his childhood in the service of the tabernacle. 4. The aged are valued less than youth, but more than children, Lev_27:7. And the Hebrews observe that the rate of an aged woman is two parts of three to that of an aged man, so that in that age the female came nearest to the value of the male, which occasioned (as bishop Patrick quotes it here) this saying among them, That an old woman in a house is a treasure in a house. Paul sets a great value upon the aged women, when he makes them teachers of good things, Tit_2:3. 5. The poor shall be valued according to their ability, Lev_27:8. Something they must pay, that they might learn not to be rash in vowing to God, for he hath no pleasure in fools, Ecc_5:4. Yet not more than their ability, but secundum tenementum - according to their possessions, that they might not ruin themselves and their families by their zeal. Note, God expects and requires from men according to what they have, and not according to what they have not, Luk_21:4.

II. The case is put of beasts vowed to God, 1. If it was a clean beast, such as was offered in sacrifice, it must not be redeemed, nor any equivalent given for it: It shall be holy, Lev_27:9, Lev_27:10. After it was vowed, it was not to be put to any common use, nor changed upon second thoughts; but it must be either offered upon the altar, or, if through any blemish it was not meet to be offered, he that vowed it should not take advantage of that, but the priests should have it for their own use (for they were God's receivers), or it should be sold for the service of the sanctuary. This teaches caution in making vows and constancy in keeping them when they are made; for it is a snare to a man to devour that which is holy, and after vows to make enquiry, Pro_20:25. And to this that rule of charity seems to allude (2Co_9:7), Every man, according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give. 2. If it was an unclean beast, it should go to the use of the priest at such a value; but he that vowed it, upon paying that value in money, and adding a fifth part more to it, might redeem it if he pleased, Lev_27:11-13. It was fit that men should smart for their inconstancy. God has let us know his mind concerning his service, and he is not pleased if we do not know our own. God expects that those that deal with him should be at a point, and way what they will stand to. - Henry

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Numbers

(Num 1)  "And the LORD spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying, {2} Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls; {3} From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel: thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies. {4} And with you there shall be a man of every tribe; every one head of the house of his fathers. {5} And these are the names of the men that shall stand with you: of the tribe of Reuben; Elizur the son of Shedeur. {6} Of Simeon; Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai. {7} Of Judah; Nahshon the son of Amminadab. {8} Of Issachar; Nethaneel the son of Zuar. {9} Of Zebulun; Eliab the son of Helon. {10} Of the children of Joseph: of Ephraim; Elishama the son of Ammihud: of Manasseh; Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur. {11} Of Benjamin; Abidan the son of Gideoni. {12} Of Dan; Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai. {13} Of Asher; Pagiel the son of Ocran. {14} Of Gad; Eliasaph the son of Deuel. {15} Of Naphtali; Ahira the son of Enan. {16} These were the renowned of the congregation, princes of the tribes of their fathers, heads of thousands in Israel. {17} And Moses and Aaron took these men which are expressed by their names: {18} And they assembled all the congregation together on the first day of the second month, and they declared their pedigrees after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, by their polls. {19} As the LORD commanded Moses, so he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai. {20} And the children of Reuben, Israel's eldest son, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, by their polls, every male from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war; {21} Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Reuben, were forty and six thousand and five hundred. {22} Of the children of Simeon, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, those that were numbered of them, according to the number of the names, by their polls, every male from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war; {23} Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Simeon, were fifty and nine thousand and three hundred. {24} Of the children of Gad, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war; {25} Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Gad, were forty and five thousand six hundred and fifty. {26} Of the children of Judah, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war; {27} Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Judah, were threescore and fourteen thousand and six hundred. {28} Of the children of Issachar, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war; {29} Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Issachar, were fifty and four thousand and four hundred. {30} Of the children of Zebulun, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war; {31} Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Zebulun, were fifty and seven thousand and four hundred. {32} Of the children of Joseph, namely, of the children of Ephraim, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war; {33} Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Ephraim, were forty thousand and five hundred. {34} Of the children of Manasseh, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war; {35} Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Manasseh, were thirty and two thousand and two hundred. {36} Of the children of Benjamin, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war; {37} Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Benjamin, were thirty and five thousand and four hundred. {38} Of the children of Dan, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war; {39} Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Dan, were threescore and two thousand and seven hundred. {40} Of the children of Asher, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war; {41} Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Asher, were forty and one thousand and five hundred. {42} Of the children of Naphtali, throughout their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war; {43} Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Naphtali, were fifty and three thousand and four hundred. {44} These are those that were numbered, which Moses and Aaron numbered, and the princes of Israel, being twelve men: each one was for the house of his fathers.

 {45} So were all those that were numbered of the children of Israel, by the house of their fathers, from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war in Israel; {46} Even all they that were numbered were six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty. {47} But the Levites after the tribe of their fathers were not numbered among them. {48} For the LORD had spoken unto Moses, saying, {49} Only thou shalt not number the tribe of Levi, neither take the sum of them among the children of Israel: {50} But thou shalt appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of testimony, and over all the vessels thereof, and over all things that belong to it: they shall bear the tabernacle, and all the vessels thereof; and they shall minister unto it, and shall encamp round about the tabernacle. {51} And when the tabernacle setteth forward, the Levites shall take it down: and when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up: and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death. {52} And the children of Israel shall pitch their tents, every man by his own camp, and every man by his own standard, throughout their hosts. {53} But the Levites shall pitch round about the tabernacle of testimony, that there be no wrath upon the congregation of the children of Israel: and the Levites shall keep the charge of the tabernacle of testimony. {54} And the children of Israel did according to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so did they."

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The Fourth Book Of Moses
(Numbers)
Introduction
Contents, and Arrangement of the Book of Numbers
The fourth book of Moses, which the Jews call either Vayedabber (וידבר), from the opening word, מספרים (Ἀριθμοί, Numeri, lxx, Vulg.), or פקודים recensiones (= liber recensionum), and to which the heading במדבר (in the wilderness) is given in the Masoretic texts with a more direct reference to its general contents, narrates the guidance of Israel through the desert, from Mount Sinai to the border of Canaan by the river Jordan, and embraces the whole period from the second month of the second year after the exodus from Egypt to the tenth month of the fortieth year.

As soon as their mode of life in a spiritual point of view had been fully regulated by the laws of Leviticus, the Israelites were to enter upon their journey to Canaan, and take possession of the inheritance promised to their fathers. But just as the way from Goshen to Sinai was a preparation of the chosen people for their reception into the covenant with God, so the way from Sinai to Canaan was also a preparation for the possession of the promised land. On their journey through the wilderness the Israelites were to experience on the one hand the faithful watchfulness and gracious deliverance of their God in every season of distress and danger, as well as the stern severity of the divine judgments upon the despisers of their God, that they might learn thereby to trust entirely in the Lord, and strive after His kingdom alone; and on the other hand they were to receive during their journey the laws and ordinances relating to their civil and political constitution, and thereby to be placed in a condition to form and maintain themselves as a consolidated nation by the side of and in opposition to the earthly kingdoms formed by the nations of the world, and to fulfil the task assigned them by God in the midst of the nations of the earth. These laws, which were given in part at Sinai, in relation to the external and internal organization of the tribes of Israel as the army and the congregation of Jehovah, and in part on various occasions during the march through the desert, as well as after their arrival in the steppes of Moab, on the other side of the Jordan opposite to Jericho, with especial reference to the conquest of Canaan and their settlement there, are not only attached externally to the history itself in the order in which they were given, but are so incorporated internally into the historical narrative, according to their peculiar character and contents, as to form a complete whole, which divides itself into three distinct parts corresponding to the chronological development of the history itself.

The First part, which extends from ch. 1-10:10, contains the preparations for departing from Sinai, arranged in four groups: - viz., (1) the outward arrangement and classification of the tribes in the camp and on their march, or the numbering and grouping of the twelve tribes around the sanctuary of their God (ch. 1 and 2), and the appointment of the Levites in the place of the first-born of the nation to act as servants of the priests in the sanctuary (ch. 3 and 4); (2) the internal or moral and spiritual organization of the nation as the congregation of the Lord, by laws relating to the maintenance of the cleanliness of the camp, restitution for trespasses, conjugal fidelity, the fulfilment of the vow of the Nazarite, and the priestly blessing (ch. 5 and 6); (3) the closing events at Sinai, viz., the presentation of dedicatory offerings on the part of the tribe princes for the transport of the tabernacle and the altar service (ch. 7), the consecration of the Levites (ch. 8 ), and the feast of Passover, with an arrangement for a supplementary Passover (Num_9:1-14); (4) the appointment of signs and signals for the march in the desert (ch. 9:5-10:10). In the Second part (Num_10:11-21), the history of the journey is given in the three stages of its progress from Sinai to the heights of Pisgah, near to the Jordan, viz., (1) from their departure from the desert of Sinai (ch. 10:11-36) to their arrival at the desert of Paran, at Kadesh, including the occurrences at Tabeerah, at the graves of lust, and at Hazeroth (ch. 11 and 12), and the events at Kadesh which led God to condemn the people who had revolted against Him to wander in the wilderness for forty years, until the older generation that came out of Egypt had all died (ch. 13 and 14); (2) all that is related of the execution of this divine judgment, extending from the end of the second year to the reassembling of the congregation at Kadesh at the beginning of the fortieth year, is the history of the rebellion and destruction of Korah (ch. 16-17:15), which is preceded by laws relating to the offering of sacrifices after entering Canaan, to the punishment of blasphemers, and to mementos upon the clothes (ch. 15), and followed by the divine institution of the Aaronic priesthood (ch.17:16-28 ), with directions as to the duties and rights of the priests and Levites (ch. 18), and the law concerning purification from uncleanness arising from contact with the dead (ch. 19); (3) the journey of Israel in the fortieth year from Kadesh to Mount Hor, round Mount Seir, past Moab, and through the territory of the Amorites to the heights of Pisgah, with the defeat of the kings of the Amorites, Sihon and Og, and the conquest of their kingdoms in Gilead and Bashan (ch. 20 and 21). In the Third part (ch. 22-36), the events which occurred in the steppes of Moab, on the eastern side of the plain of Jordan, are gathered into five groups, with the laws that were given there, viz., (1) the attempts of the Moabites and Midianites to destroy the people of Israel, first by the force of Balaam's curse, which was turned against his will into a blessing (ch. 22-24), and then by the seduction of the Israelites to idolatry (ch. 25); (2) the fresh numbering of the people according to their families (ch. 26), together with a rule for the inheritance of landed property by daughters (Num_27:1-11), and the appointment of Joshua as the successor of Moses (ch. 27:12-23); (3) laws relating to the sacrifices to be offered by the congregation on the Sabbath and feast days, and to the binding character of vows made by dependent persons (ch. 28-30); (4) the defeat of the Midianites (ch. 31), the division of the land that had been conquered on the other side of the Jordan among the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half Manasseh (ch. 32), and the list of the halting-places (ch. 33:1-49); (5) directions as to the expulsion of the Canaanites, the conquest of Canaan and division of it among the tribes of Israel, the Levites and free cities, and the marriage of heiresses (ch. 33:50-36). – K+D

Numbers -Overview 
An Exposition, with Practical Observations, of The Fourth Book of Moses, Called Numbers
The titles of the five books of Moses, which we use in our Bibles, are all borrowed from the Greek translation of the Seventy, the most ancient version of the Old Testament that we know of. But the title of this book only we turn into English; in all the rest we retain the Greek word itself, for which difference I know no reason but that the Latin translators have generally done the same. Otherwise this book might as well have been called Arithmoi, the Greek title, as the first Genesis, and the second Exodus; or these might as well have been translated, and called, the first the Generation, or Original, the second the Out-let, or Escape, as this Numbers. - This book was thus entitled because of the numbers of the children of Israel, so often mentioned in this book, and so well worthy to give a title to it, because it was the remarkable accomplishment of God's promise to Abraham that his seed should be as the stars of heaven for multitude. It also relates to two numberings of them, one at mount Sinai (ch. 1), the other in the plains of Moab, thirty-nine years after (ch. 26). And not three men the same in the last account that were in the first. The book is almost equally divided between histories and laws, intermixed. – Henry

We have here,  I. The histories of the numbering and marshalling of the tribes (ch. 1-4), the dedication of the altar and Levites (ch. 7, 8 ), their march (ch. 9, 10), their murmuring and unbelief, for which they were sentenced to wander forty years in the wilderness (ch. 11-14), the rebellion of Korah (ch. 16, Num_17:1-13), the history of the last year of the forty (ch. 20-26), the conquest of Midian, and the settlement of the two tribes (ch. 31, 32), with an account of their journeys (ch. 33),  II. Divers laws about the Nazarites, etc. (ch. 5, 6); and again about the priests' charge, etc. (ch. 18, 19), feasts (ch. 28, 29), and vows (ch. 30), and relating to their settlement in Canaan (ch. 27, 34, 35, Num_36:1-13). An abstract of much of this book we have in a few words in Psa_95:10, Forty years long was I grieved with this generation; and an application of it to ourselves in Heb_4:1, Let us fear lest we seem to come short. Many considerable nations there were now in being, that dwelt in cities and fortified towns, of which no notice is taken, no account kept, by the sacred history: but very exact records are kept of the affairs of a handful of people, that dwelt in tents, and wandered strangely in a wilderness, because they were the children of the covenant. For the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. –  Henry