Who may and who may not enter into the church: uncleanness to be avoided: other precepts concerning fugitives, fornication, usury, vows, and eating other men’s grapes and corn.
Eunuches, bastardes, Moabites, & Ammonites may not enter into the Church. 7. Idumeans, and Aegyptians may be admitted. 9. Obseruation of spiritual and corporal cleannes. 15. other preceptes concerning fugitiues, 17. fornication, 19. vsurie. 21. vowes, 24. and eating other mens grapes or corne.
1An eunuch, whose testicles are broken or cut away, or yard cut off, shall not enter into the church of the Lord.L'eunuco, a cui sono state contuse, o tagliate, o strappate le parti, non avrà luogo nella congregazione del Signore.AN eunuch that hath his stones broken, or cutte of, & his yeard cutte away, shal not enter into the church of our Lord.Non intravit eunuchus, attritis vel amputatis testiculis et abscisso veretro, ecclesiam Domini. 2A mamzer, that is to say, one born of a prostitute, shall not enter into the church of the Lord, until the tenth generation.Il bastardo, vale a dire colui che è nato da una donna di mala vita, non avrà luogo nella congregazione del Signore sino alla decima generazione.Mamzer, that is to say, one borne of a common woman, shal not enter into the church of our Lord, vntil the tenth generation.Non ingredietur mamzer, hoc est, de scorto natus, in ecclesiam Domini, usque ad decimam generationem. 3The Ammonite and the Moabite, even after the tenth generation shall not enter into the church of the Lord for ever:Gli Ammoniti, e i Moabiti non entreranno giammai nella congregazione del Signore, nemmen dopo la decima generazione;The Ammonite, and the Moabite yea after the tenth generation shal not enter into the church of our Lord, for euer:Ammonites et Moabites etiam post decimam generationem non intrabunt ecclesiam Domini in æternum: 4Because they would not meet you with bread and water in the way, when you came out of Egypt: and because they hired against thee Balaam, the son of Beor, from Mesopotamia in Syria, to curse thee.Perché ei non vollero venirvi incontro con del pane, e dell'acqua nel viaggio, allorché voi uscivate dall'Egitto; e perché con doni corruppero in tuo danno Balaam figliuolo di Beor della Mesopotamia di Siria, affinché ti maledicesse:because they would not meete you with bread and water in the way, when you came out of Aegypt: and because they hyred against thee Balaam, the sonne of Beor of Mesopotamia in Syria, to curse thee:quia noluerunt vobis occurrere cum pane et aqua in via quando egressi estis de Ægypto: et quia conduxerunt contra te Balaam filium Beor de Mesopotamia Syriæ, ut malediceret tibi: 5And the Lord thy God would not hear Balaam, and he turned his cursing into thy blessing, because he loved thee.E il Signore Dio tuo non volle fare a modo di Balaam, e cangiò la sua maledizione in benedizione, perché ti amava.and our Lord thy God would not heare Balaam, and he turned his cursing into thy blessing, for that he loued thee.et noluit Dominus Deus tuus audire Balaam, vertitque maledictionem ejus in benedictionem tuam, eo quod diligeret te.
6Thou shalt not make peace with them, neither shalt thou seek their prosperity all the days of thy life for ever.Tu non farai pace con essi, e non farai loro del bene giammai per tutto il tempo di tua vita.Thou shalt not make peace with them, neither doe thou seeke their good al the daies of thy life for euer.Non facies cum eis pacem, nec quæras eis bona cunctis diebus vitæ tuæ in sempiternum. 7Thou shalt not abhor the Edomite, because he is thy brother: nor the Egyptian, because thou wast a stranger in his land.Non avrai in abbominazione l'Idumeo, perché egli è tuo fratello: né l'Egiziano, perché tu fosti ospite nella sua terra.Thou shalt not abhorre the Idumeite, because he is thy brother: nor the Aegyptian, because thou wast a stranger in his land.Non abominaberis Idumæum, quia frater tuus est: nec Ægyptium, quia advena fuisti in terra ejus. 8They that are born of them, in the third generation shall enter into the church of the Lord.I discendenti di questi avran luogo nella congregazione del Signore alla terza generazione.They that are borne of them, in the third generation shal enter into the church of our Lord.Qui nati fuerint ex eis, tertia generatione intrabunt in ecclesiam Domini. 9When thou goest out to war against thy enemies, thou shalt keep thyself from every evil thing.Quando andrai a far guerra a' tuoi nemici, ti guarderai da ogni malvagità.When thou goest forth against thyne enemies to battel, thou shalt keepe thy self from al euil thing.Quando egressus fueris adversus hostes tuos in pugnam, custodies te ab omni re mala. 10If there be among you any man, that is defiled in a dream by night, he shall go forth out of the camp,Se vi sarà tra voi alcuno, il quale si sia renduto immondo a causa d'un sogno notturno, andrà fuori degli alloggiamenti;If there be among you a man, that is polluted in a dreame by night, he shal goe forth without the campe,Si fuerit inter vos homo, qui nocturno pollutus sit somnio, egredietur extra castra, 11And shall not return, before he be washed with water in the evening: and after sunset he shall return into the camp.E non vi tornerà, se non la sera lavatosi nell'acqua: e rientrerà negli alloggiamenti dopo che sia tramontato il sole.and shal not returne, before he be washed with water at euen: and after sunne sette he shal returne into the campe.et non revertetur, priusquam ad vesperam lavetur aqua: et post solis occasum regredietur in castra. 12Thou shalt have a place without the camp, to which thou mayst go for the necessities of nature,Avrai un luogo fuori degli alloggiamenti, dove andrai pe' bisogni naturali,Thou shalt haue a place without the campe, whither thou mayest goe to the necessities of nature,Habebis locum extra castra, ad quem egrediaris ad requisita naturæ, 13Carrying a paddle at thy girdle. And when thou sittest down, thou shalt dig round about, and with the earth that is dug up thou shalt coverPortando un bastoncello a cintola: e quando avrai soddisfatto alla necessità, scaverai la terra d'intorno, e ricoprirai la materia, onde ti sei sgravato;carying on thy girdle a piked instrument. & when thou sittest downe, thou shalt digge round about, and with the earth that is digged vp shal couergerens paxillum in balteo: cumque sederis, fodies per circuitum, et egesta humo operies 14That which thou art eased of: (for the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thy enemies to thee:) and let thy camp be holy, and let no uncleanness appear therein, lest he go away from thee.Conciossiaché il Signore Dio tuo va camminando in mezzo a' tuoi alloggiamenti per essere tuo liberatore, e darti nelle mani i tuoi nemici: onde fa' tu, che i tuoi alloggiamenti sieno mondi, e nulla vi si vegga d'impuro, affinché egli non ti volga le spalle.that which thou art eased of (for our Lord thy God walketh in the middes of thy campe, to deliuer thee, and to geue thyne enemies vnto thee) and let thy campe be holie, and let no filthines appeare therein, lest he forsake thee.quo revelatus es: Dominus enim Deus tuus ambulat in medio castrorum, ut eruat te, et tradat tibi inimicos tuos: et sint castra tua sancta, et nihil in eis appareat fœditatis, ne derelinquat te.
15Thou shalt not deliver to his master the servant that is fled to thee.Non darai nelle mani del padrone il servo, che si è rifuggito presso di te.Thou shalt not deliuer the seruant to his Maister, that is fled to thee.Non trades servum domino suo, qui ad te confugerit. 16He shall dwell with thee in the place that shall please him, and shall rest in one of thy cities: give him no trouble.Egli abiterà teco nel luogo, che gli parrà, e avrà requie in una delle tue città: non lo inquietare.he shal dwel with thee in the place, that shal please him, and in one of thy cities shal he rest: vexe him not.Habitabit tecum in loco, qui ei placuerit, et in una urbium tuarum requiescet: ne contristes eum. 17There shall be no whore among the daughters of Israel, nor whoremonger among the sons of Israel.Non v'avrà tra le figlie d'Israele donna di mala vita, né uomo fornicatore tra' figliuoli d'Israele.There shal be no whoore of the daughters of Israel, nor whooremonger of the sonnes of Israel.Non erit meretrix de filiabus Israël, nec scortator de filiis Israël. 18Thou shalt not offer the hire of a strumpet, nor the price of a dog, in the house of the Lord thy God, whatsoever it be that thou hast vowed: because both these are an abomination to the Lord thy God.Non offerirai nella casa del Signore Dio tuo la mercede di prostituzione, né il prezzo di un cane per isciogliere qualunque voto: perocché l'una, e l'altro è cosa abbominevole negli occhi del Signore Dio tuo.Thou shalt not offer the hire of a strompet, nor the price of a dogge, in the house of our Lord thy God, whatsoeuer it be that thou hast vowed: because both is abomination before our Lord thy God.Non offeres mercedem prostibuli, nec pretium canis in domo Domini Dei tui, quidquid illud est quod voveris: quia abominatio est utrumque apud Dominum Deum tuum. 19Thou shalt not lend to thy brother money to usury, nor corn, nor any other thing:Non impresterai ad usura né denaro, né grano, né qualsiasi altra cosa al tuo fratello:Thou shalt not lend to thy brother money to vsurie, nor corne, nor any other thing:Non fœnerabis fratri tuo ad usuram pecuniam, nec fruges, nec quamlibet aliam rem: 20But to the stranger. To thy brother thou shalt lend that which he wanteth, without usury: that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all thy works in the land, which thou shalt go in to possess.Ma allo straniero. Al tuo fratello poi impresterai senza usura quello che gli bisogna, affinché il Signore Dio tuo ti benedica in tutte le opere tue sulla terra, di cui tu entrerai in possesso.but to the strāger. And to thy brother thou shalt lend, that which he needeth without vsurie: that our Lord thy God may blesse thee in al thy worke in the Land, which thou shalt enter to possesse.sed alieno. Fratri autem tuo absque usura id quo indiget, commodabis: ut benedicat tibi Dominus Deus tuus in omni opere tuo in terra, ad quam ingredieris possidendam.
21When thou hast made a vow to the Lord thy God, thou shalt not delay to pay it: because the Lord thy God will require it. And if thou delay, it shall be imputed to thee for a sin.Quando avrai fatto un voto al Signore Dio tuo, non tarderai ad adempirlo: perocché il Signore Dio tuo te ne domanderà conto: e la lentezza ti sarà imputata a peccato.When thou hast vowed a vow to our Lord thy God, thou shalt not slacke to pay it: because our Lord thy God wil require it. and if thou delay, it shal be reputed to thee for sinne.Cum votum voveris Domino Deo tuo, non tardabis reddere: quia requiret illud Dominus Deus tuus, et si moratus fueris, reputabitur tibi in peccatum. 22If thou wilt not promise, thou shalt be without sin.Non avrai colpa, se non hai voluto promettere.If thou wilt not promise, thou shalt be without sinne.Si nolueris polliceri, absque peccato eris. 23But that which is once gone out of thy lips, thou shalt observe, and shalt do as thou hast promised to the Lord thy God, and hast spoken with thy own will and with thy own mouth.Ma quello che una volta hai pronunziato colla tua bocca, lo manterrai, e lo farai in quel modo, che promettesti al Signore Dio tuo, e dicesti di tua volontà, e di tua bocca.But that which is once gone out of thy lippes, thou shalt obserue, and shalt doe as thou hast promised to our Lord thy God, and hast spoken with thy proper wil and thyne owne mouth.Quod autem semel egressum est de labiis tuis, observabis, et facies sicut promisisti Domino Deo tuo, et propria voluntate et ore tuo locutus es. 24Going into thy neighbour’s vineyard, thou mayst eat as many grapes as thou pleasest: but must carry none out with thee:Entrando nelle vigne del prossimo tuo mangia dell'uve quanto ti pare: ma non portarne via.Entring into thy neighbours vineyarde, eate grapes as much as shal please thee: but carrie none out with thee.Ingressus vineam proximi tui, comede uvas, quantum tibi placuerit: foras autem ne efferas tecum. 25If thou go into thy friend’s corn, thou mayst break the ears, and rub them in thy hand: but not reap them with a sickle.Se entrerai nelle biade del tuo amico, coglierai delle spighe, e le stritolerai colle mani, ma non mieterai colla falce.If thou enter into thy freindes corne, thou shalt breake the eares, and rubbe them in thy hand: but with a sikcle thou shalt not reape.Si intraveris in segetem amici tui, franges spicas, et manu conteres: falce autem non metes.
23:1
Year of the World 2553.
Worthington
Eunuch. By these are meant, in the spiritual sense, such as are barren in good works. (Challoner) (Theodoret, q. 25.) (Worthington)
Calmet
The Hebrew also specifies three sorts of eunuchs, though the Septuagint and Chaldean have only two. No mention is made of natural eunuchs, who are not excluded from the church of the Lord. (Calmet)
This outrage of castration was first offered to nature by Semiramis. (Am. Marcellin. 14.)
Challoner
Church. That is, into the assembly or congregation of Israel, so as to have the privilege of an Israelite, or to be capable of any place or office among the people of God. (Challoner)
Calmet
Philo says, they were not to enter the court of the temple. See Lamentations 1:10. Others think they could not embrace the Jewish religion, Exodus 12:48. But this privilege could not be refused. Most probably the custom of making eunuchs is forbidden, and if any were found among the Jews, they should not be admitted to any place of authority. Isaias (lvi. 5,) speaks of some faithful eunuchs, to whom God will give a place in his house; but he alludes to those of the new law, who embrace the state of celibacy, Matthew 19:12. Eunuchs were rejected from the magistracy among the Romans; and when some were at last received, it was deemed unnatural, as their disposition is generally cruel and selfish. Omnia cesserunt Eunucho Consule monstra. (Claud. in Eutrop. I.) (Calmet)
Tirinus
Those who had the misfortune among the Jews to be eunuchs, did not perhaps (Haydock) lose the right of citizenship. (Tirinus)
23:2
Calmet
Mamzer, etc. The author of the Vulgate adds the explication of mamzer, which only occurs again, Zacharias 9:6. It may in both places denote a stranger, or one of a different religion from the Jews, as Jephte was the son of a prostitute, (Judges 11:1,) and yet became a judge of Israel. But strangers, as long as they professed a false religion, could not be entitled to the privileges of Jewish citizens; and even after they had relinquished their false worship, they were bound to wait ten whole generations, or a long time, before they could fill the posts of honour and command. (Calmet)
Haydock
This, however, seems to be contrary to the disposition made in favour of the Idumeans and Egyptians, who were admitted in the third generation. A mamzer may, therefore, be (Haydock) a bastard of a different nation from the Jews, (Menochius) which was not the case of Jephte. (Haydock)
Selden
The Rabbins specify three sorts of mamzers: 1. those born of parents who, by the law, are forbidden to marry, being too near akin; 2. those who are the fruit of adultery, or some criminal commerce, which is punished with death; and 3. those whose birth subjects the parents to be cut off or retrenched from the people. (Selden, Jur. 5:16.)
Calmet
The Septuagint, etc., exclude the children "of a harlot," which is the sense of mamzer in the canon law. The Christian Church rejects such from holy orders, and the Athenians would not suffer bastards to offer sacrifice in the city, but only in the Cynosarge, dedicated to Hercules, whose birth was hardly legitimate. In a word, some understand that mamzer comprises all concerning whose birth any doubts might be entertained. (Calmet)
Haydock
It is observable, that such often imitate the wicked conduct of their parents; in which case, they are unfit for the magistracy; and though they may live a very exemplary life, the law is intended to discourage such practices in parents, which may entail dishonour and loss upon their children; that, if they be not sufficiently restrained by their own personal disgrace, they may at least by the love for their innocent offspring. (Haydock)
Menochius
Tenth. In the 11th generation, when the stain was obliterated, the descendant might become a magistrate. (Menochius)
Vatable
Some understand that they were excluded for ever, as when the judges of the Areopagus ordered a man to appear again before them in 100 years' time, they meant that his cause was entirely rejected. (Vatable; Casaub. in Athen. vi.)
23:3
Calmet
Ever. This shews that the former verse only excludes bastards for a time. But why are these nations treated with more severity than the Edomite and Egyptian? Because their enmity seemed to proceed from pure malice, and they attempted to ruin the souls of the Hebrews by lust and by idolatry, without any prospect of interest to themselves. Their parents were also of very base origin, and Abraham had rescued their father, Lot, from destruction; so that for his children to oppose with such virulence the descendants of Abraham, manifested a degree of ingratitude and perversity. (Calmet)
Worthington
They had found their attempts to hurt Israel abortive, and yet ceased not to persecute their near relations, (Haydock) by drawing them into carnal sins. Those who are obstinate in their evil ways, can never be rightly received into the Church of God. (Worthington)
Haydock
Achior and Ruth embraced the Jewish religion, but it does not appear that they were admitted to places of trust, Judith 14:6. (Haydock)
Calmet
These regulations were observed till the Babylonian captivity, while the genealogies might be ascertained. (Calmet)
Tirinus
In cases of extraordinary merit, as in that of Achior, the Ammonite, (Judith xiv.,) a dispensation might be granted. (Tirinus)
23:4
Water: the necessaries of life. This inhumanity is highly resented.
Son. Hebrew, "of Beor, of Pethor, a city of Mesopotamia, to curse thee." (Haydock) (Numbers 22:5.)
23:6
Haydock
Peace. Hebrew, "ask or seek not their peace nor their advantage" as a nation; keep at a proper distance; have no familiarity with them. (Haydock)
Calmet
Their vices, not their persons, are to be hated. David behaved in a friendly manner with the king of Ammon, 2 Kings 10:2. He was afterwards forced to make war upon the people, though, without such extraordinary provocations, war was not to be declared against them. (Calmet)
Menochius
Prosperity. Have no intercourse with them. (Menochius)
Septuagint, "Salute them not, wishing them what may tend to their peace and advantage."
23:7
Brother. Esau and Jacob were twins.
Land. The Egyptians had for some time afforded the Hebrews an asylum in their country, and though the kings had of late persecuted them, the people seem not to have entered into the views of their rulers, and spared the male children notwithstanding their cruel edicts. They gave them also very rich presents before their departure, Exodus 12:35. Gratitude required that these things should be considered, (Haydock) and God orders his people generously to pass over the subsequent ill treatment of these two nations.
23:8
Calmet
Lord. The Rabbins explain this of the permission to marry the grand-children of such as had embraced the Jewish religion, though some of them suppose that an Idumean or an Egyptian woman might be taken to wife, as Solomon took the daughter of Pharao; but the Israelites could not give their children in marriage to the men of those nations. The grand-children of converts are rather hereby entitled to the privileges of other Jewish citizens. (Calmet)
23:9
Calmet
Thing, rapine, libertinage, etc., which are but too common among soldiers. (Calmet)
Haydock
We know what instructions St. John the baptist gave to those who followed that lawful profession, Luke 3:14. (Haydock)
23:10
Calmet
Camp of the Levites, according to the Rabbins. (Calmet)
Menochius
Bonfrere explains this of priests. (Menochius)
Calmet
But it rather refers to all who dwelt in the camp, where the ark seems to have been generally present, along with the armies, ver. 14., and Numbers 31:6. (Calmet)
Haydock
It is not clear, however, that the law alludes to any other camp, but that in the midst of which the tabernacle was fixed; and Calmet, elsewhere, denies that the ark commonly followed the army. (Haydock)
23:11
Menochius
Water of the fountain. (Menochius)
23:13
Haydock
Girdle. Hebrew azon, means "a balance," as the Hebrews generally carried weights, etc., about them, Deuteronomy 25:13. Moderns translate, "a paddle upon thy weapon," But the Septuagint seem to have read ezor, "a girdle," (Calmet) which is more intelligible, as the Jews were accustomed to carry the necessary utensils, money, etc., not in their pockets, as we do, but in a bag, which they fixed to their girdles, or belts. All the Jews who dwelt in the camp, were bound to have a paddle, for the purpose here mentioned. (Haydock)
Haydock
Josephus (Jewish Wars 2:7,) observes, that the Essenians always made use of one, with which they made a hole a foot deep, and covered it with their robes, that nothing indecent might be exposed to view. (Haydock)
Calmet
The Turks still follow the same custom, when they are encamped. (Busbec, ep. iii.) (Calmet)
23:14
Haydock
No uncleanness. This caution against suffering any filth in the camp, was to teach them to fly the filth of sin, which driveth God away from the soul. (Challoner) Those who have had the misfortune to fall into the sink of iniquity, must not fail to use the sharp instrument of compunction, with which they may hide the enormity of their crimes. (Haydock)
St. Gregory
Incessanter terram mentis nostrae poenitentiae dolore confodiat et....abscondat. (St. Gregory, Mor. 3:13.)
Haydock
In a camp where three million people were collected, if some such regulation had not been made, great and serious inconveniences would have ensued. The lawgiver, therefore, descends to several particulars which to us might appear minute; but besides the obvious meaning, which is very rational, the words convey other mystical instructions of the highest importance. God was pleased to assume the character of a powerful monarch, residing among his people, and hence every appearance of indecency must be removed. (Haydock)
23:15
Haydock
To thee, from among the Gentiles. The promised land was thus declared a land of liberty, (Calmet) to encourage poor slaves to embrace the service of the true God, and to flee from the slavery of the devil, and from the society of those who adored him in their idols. The whole earth belongs to the Lord, and He was thus pleased to punish those who might claim a right to these slaves. (Haydock)
Grotius
Some believe that the price was given to the owner, at the public expense. The Rabbins allow this privilege of an asylum, only to those who fled from a foreign country, or from an infidel master, to embrace the true religion. Circumcision was given to them as an inviolable mark of liberty. (Chaldean) Those who had been sold for their crimes, or for debt, by the sentence of the judge, could not claim this exemption. (Grotius, Jur. 3:7.)
Philo (de humanit.) says, it would be unjust to give up a slave who has sought refuge with us. We ought either to reconcile him to his master, or sell him to another, and give the price to the former owner. Some translate the Hebrew in a contrary sense, "Thou shalt not shut up the slave who has fled to thee from his master," as if it were unjust to refuse to deliver him up. But the law points out some cases where it is lawful for a slave to flee away, and consequently people must be allowed to receive him. The following verse is decisive in favour of this explanation.
23:17
Calmet
Israel. Some hence very erroneously infer, that before this prohibition the thing was not criminal. (Selden, Jur. 5:4.) Notwithstanding the law, such lewd practices continued to be very common. The original expresses that both the women and the men were consecrated, "kadash," in all probability to some idol, whom they intended to honour by abominable prostitutions, a thing very common in all the East, as we learn both from profane and sacred authors. (Aten. 13:5.) (4 Kings 23:7.) The men were called the effeminate, 3 Kings 14:24. (Calmet)
Calmet
Some copies of the Septuagint have a double translation of this verse, and add, "None of the daughters of Israel shall bear the mysteries, nor shall any of the sons of Israel be initiated (in these mysteries of idols) to make every vow." Telesphoros denotes a strumpet for hire, ver. 18; or, according to Vossius, one who is initiated or performs the pagan mysteries, as fornication and idolatry, commonly go together in the sacred writers. Hesychius seems to understand, that it refers to "the house where a person has been delivered of a child." But Tertullian (pudic. ix.) explains it thus, "No one....shall pay tribute;" as telos means tribute, (Haydock) and the Jews are supposed to have refused to pay any to the Romans on the authority of this verse. See Casaub. in Baruch 2:19. (Grotius) (Calmet)
But it seems far more probable, that it is a farther elucidation of the text, and prohibits that scandalous impiety by which may were not ashamed publicly, like dogs, to commit the most obscene actions, and to present the hire of their bodies to the idols, Micheas 1:7. (Clement of Alexandria, Exhort.; Villalpand in Ezechiel xliii.) We could hardly give credit to those who have attested such things, did not God here find it necessary to caution his people not to fall into such blindness and delusion. That the poor ignorant idolater should think by these means to appease those gods who, while here on earth, had been infamous for the like excesses, needs not so much to excite our surprise. But that the Gnostics, Manichees, and other heretics, almost of all ages since the light of the gospel shone forth, should have thought that they could honour the true God by abusing the flesh, is truly astonishing. Yet they gave into this delusion, by first persuading themselves that the flesh was the creature of an evil principle, fighting against the author of the spirit and of all good, with whom they intended to take part. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes. Yea, there is a way that seemeth to a man right, and the ends thereof lead to death, Proverbs 12:15., and 16:25. These wretches grounded their opinion on the authority of their gods, or of the Scripture. Will this excuse be admitted by the Sovereign Judge? But these delusions are perhaps now at an end.
Haydock
A principle, however, is still maintained of a far more pernicious tendency, inasmuch as it strikes at the root of every law, divine and human. This horrible doctrine was inculcated by J. Wesley for above thirty years, as we have already observed, Deuteronomy 16:22. "O natural man," says he, (Serm. on Orig. Sin,) "thou canst do [no] good. Thy natural actions are sin; thy civil actions are sin; thy religious actions are sin. As many thoughts, words, and actions, so many sins; for nothing but sin comes from thee. Thy duties are sins. Can an evil tree bring forth good fruit?" Thus Scripture teaches him that to work for one's family, to pay taxes, to pray, read the Scriptures, or even to believe, will be a sin! "Knowest thou not that thou canst do nothing but sin, till thou art reconciled to God?" (Sermon on the Righteousness of Faith.) Hence arose the Still-Methodists, Jour. iv. p. 92.. Even after this celebrated reformer had begun, when almost 70 years of age, to discover "the subtle poison, which he says, (Jour. viii. p. 90,) has infected, more or less, almost all, from the highest to the lowest among us," it is astonishing that he still acknowledges those who were infected with it, as the "real children of God by faith." Many of these, he says, (serm. on the law) lay it down as an unquestionable truth, that when we are come to Christ, we have done with the law; and that in this sense, Christ is the end of the law to every one that believeth. We need, therefore, no longer wonder that the pagans should think they honoured their idols by prostitution, (which on other occasions they condemned as "a great disgrace," oneidos mega, as Musonias calls it,) since in this enlightened age, a man of no mean abilities, and far advanced in years, a man who requires that all the preachers in his connexion shall conform to his Sermons and Notes on the New Testament, or be superceded, (Jour. xx. p. 34,) could decide that those who maintain this principle, and make it a branch of their religion to break the law of God on purpose, are the "real children of God by faith;" people, "whom God has taken out of the world." As well might he say that a man may live on subtle poison, and please God, by following a doctrine than which "nothing can be more false," as he styles this very principle of Antinomianism, to which he and his preachers had "leaned" for such a length of time. "If, says a great admirer of his, Mr. Fletcher, (1 Check, 4th letter,) the three first propositions of the minutes are scriptural, Mr. Wesley may well begin the remaining part, by desiring the preachers in his connexion to emerge along with him from under the noisy billows of prejudice, and to struggle quite out of the muddy streams of Antinomian delusions, which have so long gone over our heads, and carried so many souls down the channels of vice into the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone." This is then to be the abode of those whom "God has taken out of the world, and who are real children of God by faith!" This is the heaven, of which they may boast in dying that they are infallibly sure of! At least, the man whom they have so eagerly followed as their judge, has passed this woful sentence upon them, as if he had a mind to laugh at their credulity. If he join us also in the same condemnation, and say, "I have the same assurance that Jesus is the Christ, and that no Romanist can expect to be saved, according to the terms of his covenant;" (Jour. iii. p. 94.) we are not solicitous about his good opinion; we have not chosen him for our judge, nor have his writings given us reason to think that he knew the nature of our covenant. If he did, so much the more dreadful must have been his reckoning with that unerring Judge, before whom he has appeared 20 years ago. It is the glory and happiness of the Catholic Church, that no one attempts to assail her, but he presently betrays the spirit by which he is inspired, the spirit of calumny, and of the perverse application of Scripture. It was thus that our divine head was treated by the father of lies, who alleged Scripture to encourage suicide, or presumption, Matthew 4:6. So in the various points of faith which Mr. Wesley attacks, he shamefully misrepresents our doctrine, that he may have something to oppose. We have seen how unjustly he accuses us of idolatry, Deuteronomy 16:22. But in order, perhaps, to comfort us with the reflection, that we have many partners in guilt, he represents the Protestants as equally criminal. "They set up their idols in their churches; you set up yours in your heart....O how little is the difference before God! How small pre-eminence has the money worshipper at London over the image worshipper at Rome; or the idolizer of a living sinner over him that prays to a dead saint." (Word to a Protestant.) How much soever the Protestants may be entangled in this species of idolatry, they do not at least pretend to authorize it by the principles of religion, as some of the Methodists have done. Witness the man with whom J. Wesley conversed at Birmingham. "Do you believe that you have nothing to do with the law of God? He answered, I have not, I am not under the law....Have you also a right to all the women in the world? Yes, if they consent. And is not this a sin? Yes, to him who thinks it is a sin; but not to those whose hearts are free. The same thing that wretch, Roger Ball, affirmed in Dublin. Surely these are the first-born children of Satan." (Journal vi. p. 133.) Witness Mr. Fletcher, a celebrated clergyman in the Methodist connexion, who has informed us that Antinomian principles and practices had spread like wild fire among the Methodists. "Nor need I go far, says he, for a proof of this sad assertion. In one of his (Wesley's) societies, not many miles from my parish, a married man, who professed being in a state of justification and sanctification, growing wise above what is written, despised his brethren as legalists, and his preachers as persons not clear in the gospel. He instilled his principles into a serious young woman; and what was the consequence? Why, they talked about finished salvation in Christ, and the absurdity of perfection in the flesh, till a perfect child was conceived and born; and, to save appearances, the mother swore it to a travelling man that cannot be heard of. Thus, to avoid legality, they plunged into hypocrisy, fornication, adultery, perjury, and the depth of ranterism, etc." (Check 1:Let. 2.) But enough of such absurdity. We may now easily believe to what length the dissolute examples and maxims of the heathenish mythology, would lead their unhappy votaries, when we behold the purest lessons of the gospel so strangely perverted. (Haydock)
Calmet
Whoremonger. It is very probable, that the Scripture here means such as were guilty of unnatural impurities, "consecrated," as it were, to some idol of lust, as these crimes were common under several faithless kings of Israel and of Juda, 3 Kings 15:12., and 22:47. Simple prostitutes are styled zona. (Calmet)
Tirinus
God will not allow these to be publicly tolerated, though they contrived but too often in private to ensnare the hearts of God's people, 3 Kings 3:16. (Tirinus)
Calmet
Onkelos translates, "No Israelite shall give his daughter in marriage to a slave, nor take one for his son's wife," as the contract would be null, according to the Rabbins, for want of liberty. (Calmet)
He may, perhaps, have given this singular turn to this verse, because the preceding one speaks of fugitive slaves.
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Haydock
Dog. Many explain this in a figurative sense, as we have done in the last verse, to denote the public impudence by which some thought to honour their gods. (Haydock)
Lamprid
Such impiety the Lord abhors, though practiced by all the surrounding nations, as ancient records unanimously attest. How incredible soever it might otherwise appear, that a false notion of religion, joined to a natural depravity, could prompt people to such excesses, we cannot call in question the veracity of so many historians. See Herodotus i, and ii.; Just.[Justinian?], 18:6.; Eusebius, praep. 4:6.; St. Augustine, City of God 4:10; and the sacred writers, Baruch 6:42., and Proverbs 19:13. The Rabbins explain dog literally, and observe that a prostitute, or one who has had any commerce with a man with whom it was not lawful for her to marry, could not offer what she had thus gained to the Lord, nor what had been received in exchange for a dog. Josephus ([Antiquities?] 4:8,) understands it of such hunting or shepherds' dogs as had been lent for hire to propagate the breed. Maimonides thinks that what the strumpet had received in kind, could not be presented, but with the price of it she might buy suitable victims. But Josephus and Philo admit of no such exceptions. They reject all sorts of presents made by strumpets, in detestation of their crimes; and it was probably from the same motive that the Jews concluded it was unlawful to put the price of blood into the treasury of the temple, Matthew 27:6. In the Christian Church, the offerings of public sinners were not received, even to be distributed among the poor. These would not even take an alms from the hands of St. Afra, while she remained a courtesan of Augsbourg. Even the pagan emperor, Severus, refused to admit into the sacred treasury the tribute arising from such unworthy means. (Lamprid.)
Calmet
Some believe that Moses forbids the price of a dog to be presented, as the Egyptians had a sovereign respect for dogs; and many nations offered them in sacrifice, particularly for expiation. All the Greeks purified themselves, by making a dog be carried round them. (Bochart, p. 1, B. 2:56.) Isaias (lxvi. 3,) seems to insinuate that dogs were sometimes immolated. St. Augustine, (q. 38,) and others, believe that dogs are not to be redeemed, as the first-born of other things are, probably because they were too mean, and the price too insignificant to purchase another victim. But we may adhere to the explication which was first proposed. (Calmet)
Haydock
Both. The dog was an unclean animal, and strumpets defiled their own bodies, and draw down the indignation of that God, who is a pure Spirit, and loves chaste souls. Without are dogs and sorcerers, and unchaste, and murderers, and servers of idols. (Apocalypse 22:15.) (Haydock)
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Challoner
To the stranger. This was a dispensation granted by God to his people, who being the Lord of all things, can give a right and title to one upon the goods of another. Otherwise the Scripture every where condemns usury, as contrary to the law of God, and a crying sin. See Exodus 22:25., Leviticus 25:36, 37., 2 Esdras 5:7., Psalm 14:5., and Ezechiel 18:8, 13, etc. (Challoner)
Calmet
The stranger means the devoted nations of Chanaan, etc., whom God authorized his people to destroy. "Exact usury of him whom thou mayst kill without a crime," says St. Ambrose., (de Tob. C. 15,) though this principle will not always excuse usury. This practice was always considered as unjustifiable, except when God gave permission to his people to get by this means the possession of the property of the stranger, the right to which he had already given to them; unless we may consider, that he only tolerates this practice towards the stranger, on account of the hard-heartedness of the Jews. Christ has now expressly declared it unlawful for any one. See Exodus 22:25. (Calmet)
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Menochius
Delay, beyond the time appointed. (Menochius)
Haydock
If no time was specified, the vow must be fulfilled without any unnecessary procrastination. See Numbers 30:2. (Haydock)
Worthington
Vows induce an obligation which before did not exist. (Worthington)
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Thee. Hebrew, "thou shalt not put into thy vessel," or basket. This privilege is restrained by the Chaldean, etc., to vintagers. But Josephus ([Antiquities?] 4:8,) extends it to all; and he says, that those who did not even invite travellers to partake of their grapes, and other fruit, were to be punished with 39 lashes.
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Eunuch.... By these are meant, in the spiritual sense, such as are barren in good works. Ibid. Into the church.... That is, into the assembly or congregation of Israel, so as to have the privilege of an Israelite, or to be capable of any place or office among the people of God.
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No uncleanness.... This caution against suffering any filth in the camp, was to teach them to fly the filth of sin, which driveth God away from the soul.
23:20
To the stranger.... This was a dispensation granted by God to his people, who being the Lord of all things, can give a right and title to one upon the goods of another. Otherwise the scripture everywhere condemns usury, as contrary to the law of God, and a crying sin. See Ex. 22.25; Lev. 25.36, 37; 2 Esd. 5.7; Ps. 14.5; Ezech. 18.8, 13, etc.
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Such as are barrē in good workes can not enter into Gods house. Theod. q. 25. in Deut.
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These natiōs not able to hurt the children of Israel, neither by denying ordinarie curtesies, nor by force, nor by hyring Balaā to curse them, yet inuegling them with carnal sinnes, signified obstinate peruerse sinners, that nouer amending can neuer be rightly receiued into the Church of God.
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Onlie lawful enemies are here called strangers: where therfore is iust cause of warre, there only it is lawful to exercise vsurie. S. Amb. li. de Tobia. c. 15.
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Vowes binde where otherwise was no obligation.
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 19
… But the wonderful nature of the occurrence is shown also by this: that what of old was rare, and hardly done, here takes place with ease, and see with what frequency! ( c ) “An eunuch,” it says, “a man of great authority, under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians.”
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St Jerome † AD 420 Against the Pelagians 1.28
xxiii. 2 . Defilement from unconscious personal acts.
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Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 4.24
… Furthermore, when the Creator also, in the book of Deuteronomy, forbids the reception of the Ammonites and the Moabites into the church, because, when His people came from Egypt, they fraudulently withheld provisions from them with inhumanity and inhospitality,
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 2.79
… Moabites and Ammonites, who were not permitted even to enter the Church of the Lord,
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 42.18
18. Moreover, the Moabites and Ammonites must not even be allowed to enter
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 22.8
… In fact he did not know what he was doing, and his sin was not wilful. Still his error was a grave one, for it made him the father of Moab and Ammon, Israel’s enemies, of whom it is said: “Even to the fourteenth generation they shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord forever.”
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John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 5.19
… “Thou shalt not abhor the Egyptian, because thou wast a stranger in his land.”
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St Hippolytus † AD 235 The Refutation of All Heresies 9.20
… They then replace the upturned soil into the pit; and this is their practice,
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Colossians 4
… xvi. 3; Num. xi. 4, 5 .); the man’s wisdom was great. Howbeit it is not the same thing to guide men who are already philosophers, and to rule unreasoning children. And, if you are inclined to hear yet another particular; as the nurse says to the child, When thou easest thyself, take up thy garments, and for as long as thou sittest, so also did Moses. (
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise Concerning Man’s Perfection in Righteousness 20
Having premised these remarks, let us carefully attend to the passages which he whom we are answering has produced, as if we ourselves had quoted them. “In Deuteronomy, ‘Thou shalt be perfect before the Lord thy God.’ Again, in the same book, ‘There shall be not an imperfect man among the sons of Israel.’
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Tertullian † AD 220 On Modesty 9
… Or else, if any doubts that in the land of Judea, subjugated as it had been long since by the hand of Pompey and of Lucullus, the publicans were heathens, let him read Deuteronomy: “There shall be no tribute-weigher of the sons of Israel.”
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 3.49
… “But the man who will be righteous, shall not oppress a man, and shall return the pledge of the debtor, and shall not commit rapine, and shall give his bread to the hungry, and shall cover the naked, and shall not give his money for usury.” Also in Deuteronomy: “Thou shalt not lend to thy brother with usury of money, and with usury of victuals.”
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Duties of the Clergy 3.3
… For it says: “Remove not the bounds which thy fathers have set.” It bids a neighbour’s ox to be brought back if found wandering. It orders a thief to be put to death. It forbids the labourer to be deprived of his hire, and orders money to be returned without usury.
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St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 3.31
… “But if thou hast vowed a vow to the Lord thy God, thou shalt not delay to pay it: because the Lord thy God inquiring shall seek it of thee; and it shall be for a sin. Thou shalt observe those things that shall go forth out of thy lips, and shalt perform the gift which thou hast spoken with thy mouth.”
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Of the Work of Monks 28
… But, lo, let all men allow this to the servants of God, that when they will they should go forth into their fields, and thence depart fearless and refreshed: as it was ordered to the people Israel by the law, that none should lay hands on a thief in his fields, unless he wanted to carry any thing away with him from thence;
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1. A EUNUCH, WITH TESTICLES BRUISED OR CUT OFF, AND WITH THE VIRILE MEMBER SEVERED (The Male Rod) SHALL NOT ENTER INTO THE CHURCH OF THE LORD. -- By "Church" some understand the court of the temple or tabernacle; for thus it seems to be explained in Lamentations chapter I, 10, where it is said: "The heathen have entered into her sanctuary, concerning whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy Church." Thus Theodoret, Olympiodorus and Dionysius the Carthusian in Lamentations I, 10. Secondly, Cajetan and Oleaster by Church understand the leaders of the Church and the assembly of the Jews, as if to say, A eunuch, etc., shall not be of the magistracy of the Jews. But I say, for shall not enter into the Church of the Lord, in Hebrew it is, shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord, so that namely he be of the holy people, so that he be reckoned an Israelite and a son of Abraham, so that he have the right of taking an Israelitess to wife, so that he enjoy the rights of the Jews. To enter therefore the Church of the Lord, is to be numbered among the Israelitic people, and to enjoy the graces and privileges which in the law the Israelites enjoyed, such as that money should not be given to them at interest, that they should enjoy the privileges of the seventh year remission, and of the jubilee year, as I said in Leviticus XXV, 44, and many others. Not therefore eunuchs, Ammonites, Moabites, etc., are shut out here from Judaism, faith, salvation and the temple; for this seems alien to the goodness of God: they could therefore become proselytes, and thus be admitted to the Passover, and other sacred rites of the Jews, as is evident from Exodus XII, 48. They are shut out therefore only from the political society of the Jews, so that they be not held as citizens, nor have civic rights among the Jews. Thus Church is taken for the assembly of the people, Numbers XX, 4, and Judges XX, 2, where it is said: "All the tribes of Israel were gathered together to the Church of God."
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2. A MAMZER SHALL NOT ENTER INTO THE CHURCH OF THE LORD. -- "Mamzer" is a stranger, spurious, illegitimate, not born of a proper and lawful wife, but of another, namely of a harlot, born from the root zur, that is, he was a stranger, an outsider: or because the mother, an adulteress, substitutes him to her husband, as if he were his offspring, being a stranger. EVEN TO THE TENTH GENERATION. -- The eleventh grandson therefore, descended from a mamzer, as if the stain and mark of his birth were now wiped away, could be received into the assembly and marriage of the Jews. Tropologically, a eunuch signifies the sterility of the soul, a mamzer an evil fruit: these are to be shut out from the Church of God. Thus Theodoret, Questions XXV and XXVI.
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6. THOU SHALT NOT MAKE PEACE WITH THEM (The Ammonites and Moabites, who were enemies to thee, and hired Balaam against thee, that he might curse thee), NOR SHALT THOU SEEK THEIR GOOD, that is to say, Thou shalt have no communion with them, as regards living together and temporal commerce, lest they again become a scandal to thee, and by a kind of inborn hatred seek to seduce thee, to entice thee to idolatry and to destroy thee. Here God excludes eunuchs, bastards, Moabites and Ammonites from His people, both on account of the dignity and honour of His people; for which reason St. Ambrose was unwilling to admit actors into the Christian Church; and also on account of the crimes and inborn hatred of the Ammonites and Moabites toward the Jews, as I have already said. Whence Theodoret: Moab, he says, and Ammon on account of the infected root, and on account of impiety are excluded from the Church of God. Women are excepted; for Ruth the Moabite married Booz, the ancestor of David. Tropologically, Moab signifies concupiscence, which is from the father the devil, likewise carnal senses, which shall never enter the heavenly Church of God: thus Origen, homily 5 on Genesis, Ambrose, Gregory and others.
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23:9
9. WHEN THOU GOEST OUT TO BATTLE, THOU SHALT KEEP THYSELF FROM EVERY EVIL THING, from thefts, robberies, fornication, perjuries, blasphemies and other vices, by which soldiers are wont to be infected and camps to be defiled. Thus Julius Caesar desired in a soldier no less modesty and continence than virtue and greatness of soul, as he himself says, book VI of the Gallic War. Scipio the Younger, seeing in the camps much licentiousness, wantonness, superstition and luxury, immediately cast out the gods along with the brothel-keepers: nay, he ordered all vessels to be removed, except a pot, a spit and an earthen cup. He decreed that soldiers should eat standing food not cooked by fire; but should dine reclining on bread or pottage alone, and roasted or boiled meats. He himself, covered with a cloak, walked about the camps, saying that he mourned the disgraces of the army. Thus Plutarch in the Roman Apophthegms. Theodoric the king in Cassiodorus, book VII, thus ordains: "Let the soldiers committed to thee live with the provincials by civil law, nor let the spirit grow insolent which feels itself armed, because that shield of our army ought to provide peace for the Romans." Sergius Galba in the most serious wars maintained the most severe discipline among his soldiers: so much so that as soon as he came to the camp, that trochaic verse was immediately published: "Learn, soldier, to be a soldier; Galba is here, not Getulicus." Alexander Severus on expeditions, if anyone turned aside from the road into someone's property, he beat them with rods or switches; if they were of rank, he rebuked them sharply: "Would you wish this to be done in your field, which you do in another's?" He frequently cried out what he had heard from Christians, and this through a herald, whenever he punished anyone: "What you do not wish to be done to you, do not do to another." Thus Lampridius. Aurelian the Emperor, when he had received a letter from his vicar asking him to write back how matters should be managed, immediately wrote back thus: "If you wish to be a tribune, nay if you wish to live, restrain the hands of soldiers, let no one seize another's fowl, let no one touch a sheep, let no one steal a grape." Thus Vopiscus in Aurelian. But most excellently and briefly St. John the Baptist, when soldiers asked him, what shall we do that we may be saved? answered: "Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely, and be content with your pay," Luke III. Wherefore Valerius Maximus, book II, rightly concludes: "Military discipline requires a harsh and cutting kind of punishment; because strength consists in arms, which when they have departed from the right course, will oppress, unless they are oppressed."
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10. HE THAT IS DEFILED BY A NOCTURNAL ISSUE SHALL GO OUT OF THE CAMP. -- Tropologically St. Gregory, IX Morals XL: "A nocturnal dream," he says, "is a hidden temptation. Therefore for one defiled to go out of the camp is for one laboring under a shameful assault to despise himself by comparison with the continent. He who washes himself at evening with water, when he perceives his defect, turns to the laments of penance; but after sunset let him return to the camp, because when the heat of temptation has cooled, it is necessary that he again take confidence in the fellowship of the good."
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12 and 13. THOU SHALT HAVE A PLACE WITHOUT THE CAMP, WHITHER THOU SHALT GO TO EASE THYSELF, CARRYING A LITTLE SPADE IN THY GIRDLE, etc., and this for the sake of decency and cleanliness of the camps; whence it is said in verse 14: "Let thy camps be holy," that is, pure and clean: for God, who is the fountain of all purity and a most pure spirit, is a lover of both internal and external splendor; secondly, for the sake of the health of the camps; thirdly, to avoid offending the priests, who passed through the camps with the ark and holy vessels. The Hebrews could have remedied these inconveniences in the land of promise; hence there they had their places of retirement in cities after our manner. Wherefore the Bishop of Avila thinks this precept did not bind except in the desert: add also in time of war, in the camps. But the Essenes, as being most zealous both of the law and of purity, observed this law strictly even in Judaea, as Josephus teaches, book II of the Jewish War, chapter VII. Tropologically, St. Gregory, XXXI Moral. XXII, and from him Rupertus: "We ought to carry a spade under our girdle, so that, namely, always prepared to reprove ourselves, we may have about us a sharp goad of compunction, which may unceasingly pierce the earth of our mind with the pain of penance, and may hide that which foul erupts from us." Hence also Cyril in the Glaphyra interprets the spade as the cross of each one.
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15. THOU SHALT NOT DELIVER TO HIS MASTER A SERVANT WHO IS FLED TO THEE, namely when his master wishes to afflict him unjustly, or to harm or kill him, as is clear from what follows, until he is appeased and reconciled to him; then indeed the servant is to be restored to his master.
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17. THERE SHALL BE NO HARLOT OF THE DAUGHTERS OF ISRAEL, NOR SODOMITE. -- The law admonishes, first, the daughters and sons, that they beware of fornication; secondly, the parents, that they do not permit them to fornicate, nor prostitute their daughters; thirdly, the magistrate, that he do not tolerate in his state public fornication and brothels. For if a harlot is forbidden to the Israelites, much more is a foreign and Gentile woman forbidden, from whom there was danger of idolatry, as the event proved in the Midianites and Moabites, who led the Hebrews to worship Beelphegor; whence God raged against them, Numbers chapter XXV. THERE SHALL BE NO SODOMITE OF THE SONS OF ISRAEL. -- For sodomite, it can be translated with Vatablus and Pagninus, a male harlot, namely a catamite, or a pathic boy. For this is what the Hebrew kades aptly signifies. Our translator elsewhere renders it effeminate, just as its feminine form kedesca here and elsewhere signifies a female harlot, or a harlot. Others, however, with our translator, also rightly translate it sodomite.
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18. THOU SHALT NOT OFFER THE HIRE OF A HARLOT, NOR THE PRICE OF A DOG IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD. -- Philo rightly infers from this: "If gifts complying with the desires of a woman's lovers are called profane, how much more the gifts of a soul that has prostituted itself to be defiled by violence, gluttony, pleasure, ambition, avarice?" Again, St. Jerome in Isaiah LXVI, 3, citing this passage of Deuteronomy, says: "Fittingly," he says, "the dog and the harlot are coupled together, because each animal is prone to lust." Both also on account of shamelessness, baseness, turpitude and stench are abhorred by men, especially by the Hebrews. Whence that saying of Abner, II Kings III, 8, to Ishbosheth objecting to him lust and intercourse with the concubines of his father Saul: "Am I a dog's head?" And David to Saul, I Kings XXIV, 15: "Whom dost thou pursue, O king of Israel? a dead dog."
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19. THOU SHALT NOT LEND TO THY BROTHER UPON USURY. -- "Usury" in Hebrew is called nesech, that is, a bite, namely a canine bite. Since therefore no one wished to be considered a ravenous dog, who by biting others would feed himself; hence to escape reproach, they called usury tarbit, that is, increase, so that it was called by the Latins by an honest name, usury. God, in order to meet such deceits and pretexts, here joins both names together and condemns them. Hear Rabbi Solomon: "Increase," he says, "is called usury nesech, because it has the nature of the bite of a serpent, which bites a small wound in someone's foot, so that he does not feel it, but soon it creeps and spreads poison, until it reaches his head. So also the increase of usury behaves: for it is neither felt nor known, until it grows so much that it exhausts someone's entire substance. Hence usury is called by the Chaldeans chabulia, that is, destruction, because it destroys and devastates all riches. Whence nesech alludes by metathesis to nachas, that is, serpent, because like a serpent it gnaws and kills a man. Hence St. Chrysostom in Matthew, chapter V: "Money," he says, "of a usurer is similar to the bite of an asp. For he who is struck by an asp, as if delighted, goes into sleep, and by the sweetness of slumber dies, because then the poison secretly runs through all his members; so he who receives money under usury, at that time feels it as if it were a benefit, but usury runs through all his faculties, and converts all into debt, that is, devours the man. Wherefore St. Ambrose, book III of the Offices, calls usury homicide. Thus Cato is a witness that formerly thieves were condemned to restore double, but usurers to restore fourfold; and when asked what it was to lend at usury, he answered: It is to kill a man. For usury exhausts the poor, and kills them by hunger. Hence also the Philosophers condemned usury, as repugnant to natural reason; for it is manifestly unjust that fruit should be exacted from a thing not fruitful, namely money, and that with grave damage to one's neighbor, especially a poor man. The Romans, by the law of the Twelve Tables, provided that no one should lend at more than one-twelfth interest; soon by a tribunician proposal the interest was reduced to one-half of one-twelfth, then to one-sixth, afterwards to one-third; finally L. Gemutius, tribune of the plebs, brought it to the people that usury should not be allowed at all; gradually increasing again, Caesar cut off the interest. Lucullus was praised because he freed Asia, Cato because he freed Sicily from usury. Cornelius Tacitus relates that all usury was unknown and execrated among the Germans. The Indians never admitted usury. Agis, leader of the Athenians, so detested usury that he ordered all the tablets of usurers to be burned in a fire, concerning which Agesilaus exclaimed that he had never seen a more splendid and brilliant fire.
23:20
20. BUT TO A STRANGER, an alien, who is not of thy people, whether he persists in infidelity, or has been converted to Judaism. God therefore permitted the Jews to give to usury to aliens, and permitted these to give to Jews, on account of the hardness of their hearts, lest the Jews, eager for gain, should give to Jews at usury; he permitted, that is, did not punish. For all usuries, even under that old law absolutely, without distinction of brother or stranger, are understood to have been forbidden from Psalm XIV, 5, Psalm LIV, 12, Ezekiel XVIII, 8. Thus Lyra, Cajetan and others. Therefore the Jews wrongly seek in this place a pretext for their usuries, by which they lend at usury to Christians and other nations. Especially because Jews call Romans and think them to be Edomites. But the Edomites were brothers of the Jews; for their father Esau was the brother of Jacob or Israel. If therefore Christians are Edomites, therefore they are brothers of the Jews; therefore it is not lawful for them to lend at usury. For the law says: "Thou shalt not lend to thy brother upon usury." St. Ambrose, in the book On Tobias, chapter XV, understands by strangers hostile nations, such as the Amalekites, Amorites, Canaanites, etc., as if to say: Exact usury from these, whom it is not a crime to kill. For where there is the right of war, there is also the right of usury. And so by a twofold right, namely first of reprisals, second of war, the Jews could lend at usury to these nations. Finally, St. Bernardine of Siena said piously and truly, "that usury can be exercised without sin, if money were lent to those who could not repay the principal sum," namely if it were given to the poor.
23:24
24. WHEN THOU ART ENTERED INTO THE VINEYARD. -- What is here said of the grapes of thy neighbor's, and of ears being plucked and eaten, provided they are not carried out, understand the same by parity of reasoning concerning apples and other fruits. Thus Abulensis. 25. IF THOU SHALT ENTER INTO THE CORN OF THY FRIEND, namely a Jew, thy neighbor. For Jews were called brothers and friends or neighbors; for the Jews had scarcely any friendship with Gentiles.
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
23:1
… His physical condition does not constitute an insuperable difficulty, since the prohibition of Deut. 23:1 against the entry of eunuchs into the community of Israel had been gradually mitigated over time. …
23:3
… When Judith showed him the head of Holofernes, A. learned of the rout of the Assyrians and, after a momentary dismay, worshiped the God of Israel; as an exception to the prohibition of Deut. 23:3, he was admitted to circumcision (Judith 5; 6; 13:27-31; 14:6).
… Although Israel, by divine command (Deut. 2:19-37), avoided fighting and plundering them, the envy and hatred of the A. toward Israel were unceasing, and Israel returned it (Deut. 23:3-6: "do not admit them even after the tenth generation"). …
of Balaam the soothsayer (Num. 22-24). Because of this hostility no Moabite, to the tenth generation, may be admitted into the people of Israel (Deut. 23:3-6). In the time of the Judges, Eglon king of M. oppressed the Hebrews in the plain of Jericho and in all the surrounding region; they were freed by Ehud (Judg. 3:11-30). Saul fought …
23:4
… They had hindered Israel during the Exodus (Deut. 23:4 ff.) and Balaam came from their land (Num. 22:5). In the time of the Judges, after having supported the Moabite invasion and carried out various raids in Judah and Ephraim, they invaded …
He was the protagonist of an episode described at length in Num. 22-24, and to which allusion is made in Deut. 23:4-5; Josh. 13:22; 24:9-10; Mic. 6:5; 2 Pet. 2:15; Jude 11; Rev. 2:14.
The various non-Catholic critical opinions, which postpone R. to after the exile and make of it a pure novella (J. Wellhausen) caused by I Sam. 22, 3 (!); a midhrâf (K. Budde) to inculcate the application of the law of the levirate (Deut. 25, 5-10); or for a polemical position against Deut. 23, 4 f.; or more commonly (A. Bertholet, H. Gratz, A. Kuenen, W. Nowack) to protest against the Ezraite norms on marriages with foreign women (Ezd. 9-10; Neh. 13, 23-29), are without foundation. …
23:5
ARAM. - A region of western Asia, mentioned in the Bible, which with A. also designates the people (v. ARAMEI). Aram Nahārajim (Gen. 24:10 and Deut. 23:5; Judg. 3:8; I Chron. 19:6; Ps. 59 [60]:2) designated the highland between the Tigris and the Euphrates in their northern course. …
BALAAM (Hebrew: Bil'ām). - Magician, son of Beor, from the city of Pethor on the right bank of the Euphrates, in Mesopotamia (Num. 22:5-6; cf. Deut. 23:5), probably to be identified with the Pitru of the Assyrian monuments and the Pedru of the annals of Thutmose III (ca. 1500).
… sometimes used to translate Aram (v.), in general and with the determinations "of Damascus, of Zobah," etc.: Σορία Δαμασκού: II Sam. 8, 5; Σ. Σουβά: II Sam. 10, 8; Σ. Μοογά: I Par. 19, 6, etc.; Syria: Os. 12, 12 (Hebr. 13); Mesopotamia Syriae: Deut. 23, 5 (Aram Nahārajim); etc.
23:13
… Iud., II, 8, 9, § 148; cf. Deut. 23, 13-15); they pushed to exaggeration the observance of the Sabbath, on which it was forbidden to satisfy the aforementioned needs (ibid., § 147). All this explains why the cenobia were …
23:16
… assuring them a minimum essential for living (Lev. 25:39-54; Ex. 21:2; Deut. 15:12-18). The slave was permitted to renounce his freedom; in that case he remained the property of the master (Ex. 21:5, 6). Freedom could also be regained through flight (Deut. 23:16 ff.) or following mistreatment by the master (Ex. 21:26, 27).
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · Vulgata Clementina · original Douay-Rheims (Douay 1609-10), transcription by EEBO-TCP (CC0) · La Sacra Bibbia, tradotta dalla Volgata da Antonio Martini (1769-1781) (LaParola (laparola.net), Martini OSIS text, Public domain (LaParola's electronic edition marks it 'Dominio pubblico')). Public domain.