Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary

on the Whole Bible

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Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)

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D E U T E R O N O M Y

CHAP. XIV.

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Moses in this chapter teaches them,

I. To distinguish themselves from their neighbours by a singularity,

1. In their mourning,

ver. 1, 2.

2. In their meat,

ver. 3-21.

II. To devote themselves unto God, and, in token of that, to give him

his dues out of their estates, the yearly tithe, and that every third

year, for the maintenance of their religious feasts, the Levites, and

the poor,

ver. 22,

&c.

What Might Be Eaten, and What Not.	B. C. 1451.

     

1 Ye are the children of the LORD your God: ye shall not cut

yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.

  2 For thou art a holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the

LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above

all the nations that are upon the earth.

  3 Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing.

  4 These are the beasts which ye shall eat: the ox, the sheep,

and the goat,

  5 The hart, and the roebuck, and the fallow deer, and the wild

goat, and the pygarg, and the wild ox, and the chamois.

  6 And every beast that parteth the hoof, and cleaveth the cleft

into two claws, and cheweth the cud among the beasts, that ye

shall eat.

  7 Nevertheless these ye shall not eat of them that chew the

cud, or of them that divide the cloven hoof; as the camel, and

the hare, and the coney: for they chew the cud, but divide not

the hoof; therefore they are unclean unto you.

  8 And the swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not

the cud, it is unclean unto you: ye shall not eat of their

flesh, nor touch their dead carcase.

  9 These ye shall eat of all that are in the waters: all that

have fins and scales shall ye eat:

  10 And whatsoever hath not fins and scales ye may not eat; it

is unclean unto you.

  11 Of all clean birds ye shall eat.

  12 But these are they of which ye shall not eat: the eagle,

and the ossifrage, and the ospray,

  13 And the glede, and the kite, and the vulture after his kind,

  14 And every raven after his kind,

  15 And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the

hawk after his kind,

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

  17 And the pelican, and the gier eagle, and the cormorant,

  18 And the stork, and the heron after her kind, and the

lapwing, and the bat.

  19 And every creeping thing that flieth is unclean unto you:

they shall not be eaten.

  20 But of all clean fowls ye may eat.

  21 Ye shall not eat of any thing that dieth of itself: thou

shalt give it unto the stranger that is in thy gates, that he

may eat it; or thou mayest sell it unto an alien: for thou art

a holy people unto the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid

in his mother’s milk.

     

Moses here tells the people of Israel,

     

I. How God had dignified them, as a peculiar people, with three

distinguishing privileges, which were their honour, and figures of

those spiritual blessings in heavenly things with which God has in

Christ blessed us.

1. Here is election: The Lord hath chosen thee,
v. 2.

Not for their own merit, nor for any good works foreseen, but because

he would magnify the riches of his power and grace among them. He did

not choose them because they were by their own dedication and

subjection a peculiar people to him above other nations, but he chose

them that they might be so by his grace; and thus were believers

chosen,

Eph. i. 4.

2. Here is adoption

(v. 1):

“You are the children of the Lord your God, formed by him into a

people, owned by him as his people, nay, his family, a people near

unto him, nearer than any other.” Israel is my son, my

first-born; not because he needed children, but because they were

orphans, and needed a father. Every Israelite is indeed a child of God,

a partaker of his nature and favour, his love and blessing Behold

what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us!

3. Here is sanctification

(v. 2):

“Thou art a holy people, separated and set apart for God,

devoted to his service, designed for his praise, governed by a holy

law, graced by a holy tabernacle, and the holy ordinances relating to

it.” God’s people are under the strongest obligations to be holy, and,

if they are holy, are indebted to the grace of God that makes them so.

The Lord has set them apart for himself, and qualified them for his

service and the enjoyment of him, and so has made them holy to

himself.

     

II. How they ought to distinguish themselves by a sober singularity

from all the nations that were about them. And, God having thus

advanced them, let not them debase themselves by admitting the

superstitious customs of idolaters, and, by making themselves like

them, put themselves upon the level with them. Be you the children

of the Lord your God; so the Seventy read it, as a command, that

is, “Carry yourselves as becomes the children of God, and do nothing to

disgrace the honour and forfeit the privileges of the relation.” In two

things particularly they must distinguish themselves:–

     

1. In their mourning: You shall not cut yourselves,
v. 1.

This forbids (as some think), not only their cutting themselves at

their funerals, either to express their grief or with their own blood

to appease the infernal deities, but their wounding and mangling

themselves in the worship of their gods, as Baal’s prophets did

(1 Kings xviii. 28),

or their marking themselves by incisions in their flesh for such and

such deities, which in them, above any, would be an inexcusable crime,

who in the sign of circumcision bore about with them in their bodies

the marks of the Lord Jehovah. So that,

(1.) They are forbidden to deform or hurt their own bodies upon any

account. Methinks this is like a parent’s change to his little

children, that are foolish, careless, and wilful, and are apt to play

with knives: Children, you shall not cut yourselves. This is the

intention of those commands which oblige us to deny ourselves; the true

meaning of them, if we understood them aright, would appear to be,

Do yourselves no harm. And this also is the design of those

providences which most cross us, to remove from us those things by

which we are in danger of doing ourselves harm. Knives are taken from

us, lest we should cut ourselves. Those that are dedicated to God as a

holy people must do nothing to disfigure themselves; the body is for

the Lord, and is to be used accordingly.

(2.) They are forbidden to disturb and afflict their own minds with

inordinate grief for the loss of near and dear relations: “You shall

not express or exasperate you sorrow, even upon the most mournful

occasions, by cutting yourselves, and making baldness between your

eyes, like men enraged, or resolvedly hardened in sorrow for the dead,

as those that have no hope,”

1 Thess. iv. 13.

It is an excellent passage which Mr. Ainsworth here quotes from one of

the Jewish writers, who understands this as a law against immoderate

grief for the death of our relations. If your father (for

instance) die, you shall not cut yourselves, that is, you

shall not sorrow more than is meet, for you are not fatherless, you

have a Father, who is great, living, and permanent, even the holy

blessed God, whose children you are,

v. 1.

But an infidel (says he), when his father dies, hath no

father that can help him in time of need; for he hath said to a stock,

Thou art my father, and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth

(Jer. ii. 27);

therefore he weeps, cuts himself, and makes himself bald. We

that have a God to hope in, and a heaven to hope for, must bear up

ourselves with that hope under every burden of this kind.

     

2. They must be singular in their meat. Observe,

     

(1.) Many sorts of flesh which were wholesome enough, and which other

people did commonly eat, they must religiously abstain from as unclean.

This law we had before

Lev. xi. 2,

where it was largely opened. It seems plainly, by the connection here,

to be intended as a mark of peculiarity; for their observance of it

would cause them to be taken notice of in all mixed companies as a

separate people, and would preserve them from mingling themselves with,

and conforming themselves to, their idolatrous neighbours.

[1.] Concerning beasts, here is a more particular enumeration of those

which they were allowed to eat then was in Leviticus, to show that they

had no reason to complain of their being restrained from eating swines’

flesh, and hares, and rabbits (which were all that were then forbidden,

but are now commonly used), when they were allowed so great a variety,

not only of that which we call butcher’s meat

(v. 4),

which alone was offered in sacrifice, but of venison, which they had

great plenty of in Canaan, the hart, and the roe-buck, and the

fallow deer

(v. 5),

which, though never brought to God’s altar, was allowed them at their

own table. See

ch. xii. 22.

When of all these (as Adam of every tree of the garden) they

might freely eat, those were inexcusable who, to gratify a perverse

appetite, or (as should seem) in honour of their idols, and in

participation of their idolatrous sacrifices, ate swines’ flesh, and

had broth of abominable things (made so by this law) in their

vessels,
Isa. lxv. 4.

[2.] Concerning fish there is only one general rule given, that

whatsoever had not fins and scales (as shell-fish and eels, besides

leeches and other animals in the water that are not proper food) was

unclean and forbidden,
v. 9, 10.

[3.] No general rule is given concerning fowl, but those are

particularly mentioned that were to be unclean to them, and there are

few or none of them which are here forbidden that are now commonly

eaten; and whatsoever is not expressly forbidden is allowed,

v. 11-20.

Of all clean fowls you may eat.

[4.] They are further forbidden, First, To eat the flesh of any

creature that died of itself, because the blood was not separated from

it, and, besides the ceremonial uncleanness which it lay under (from

Lev. xi. 39),

it is not wholesome food, nor ordinarily used among us, except by the

poor. Secondly, To seethe a kid in its mother’s milk,

either to gratify their own luxury, supposing it a dainty bit, or in

conformity to some superstitious custom of the heathen. The Chaldee

paraphrasts read it, Thou shalt not eat flesh–meats and milk–meats

together; and so it would forbid the use of butter as sauce to any

flesh.

     

(2.) Now as to all these precepts concerning their food,

[1.] It is plain in the law itself that they belonged only to the Jews,

and were not moral, nor of perpetual use, because not of universal

obligation; for what they might not eat themselves they might give to a

stranger, a proselyte of the gate, that had renounced idolatry, and

therefore was permitted to live among them, though not circumcised; or

they might sell it to an alien, a mere Gentile, that came into their

country for trade, but might not settle it,

v. 21.

They might feed upon that which an Israelite might not touch, which is

a plain instance of their peculiarity, and their being a holy people.

[2.] It is plain in the gospel that they are now antiquated and

repealed. For every creature of God is good, and nothing now to be

refused, or called common and unclean,
1 Tim. iv. 4.

Tithes for Feasting and Charity.	B. C. 1451.

     

22 Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed, that

the field bringeth forth year by year.

  23 And thou shalt eat before the LORD thy God, in the place

which he shall choose to place his name there, the tithe of thy

corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy

herds and of thy flocks; that thou mayest learn to fear the LORD

thy God always.

  24 And if the way be too long for thee, so that thou art not

able to carry it; or if the place be too far from thee, which

the LORD thy God shall choose to set his name there, when the

LORD thy God hath blessed thee:

  25 Then shalt thou turn it into money, and bind up the money

in thine hand, and shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God

shall choose:

  26 And thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul

lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong

drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth: and thou shalt eat

there before the LORD thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou, and

thine household,

  27 And the Levite that is within thy gates; thou shalt not

forsake him; for he hath no part nor inheritance with thee.

  28 At the end of three years thou shalt bring forth all the

tithe of thine increase the same year, and shalt lay it up

within thy gates:

  29 And the Levite, (because he hath no part nor inheritance

with thee,) and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow,

which are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and be

satisfied; that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work

of thine hand which thou doest.

     

We have here a part of the statute concerning tithes. The productions

of the ground were twice tithed, so that, putting both together, a

fifth part was devoted to God out of their increase, and only four

parts of five were for their own common use; and they could not but own

they paid an easy rent, especially since God’s part was disposed of to

their own benefit and advantage. The first tithe was for the

maintenance of their Levites, who taught them the good knowledge of

God, and ministered to them in holy things; this is supposed as

anciently due, and is entailed upon the Levites as an inheritance, by

that law,

Num. xviii. 24,

&c. But it is the second tithe that is here spoken of, which was to be

taken out of the remainder when the Levites had had theirs.

     

I. They are here charged to separate it, and set it apart for God:

Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of they seed,
v. 22.

The Levites took care of their own, but the separating of this was left

to the owners themselves, the law encouraging them to be honest by

reposing a confidence in them, and so trying their fear of God. They

are commanded to tithe truly, that is, to be sure to do it, and

to do it faithfully and carefully, that God’s part might not be

diminished either with design or by oversight. Note, We must be sure to

give God his full dues out of our estates; for, being but stewards of

them, it is required that we be faithful, as those that must give

account.

     

II. They are here directed how to dispose of it when they had separated

it. Let every man lay by as God prospers him and gives him success, and

then let him lay out in pious uses as God gives him opportunity; and it

will be the easier to lay out, and the proportion will be more

satisfying, when first we have laid by. This second tithe may be

disposed of,

     

1. In works of piety, for the first two years after the year of

release. They must bring it up, either in kind or in the full value of

it, to the place of the sanctuary, and there must spend it in holy

feasting before the Lord. If they could do it with any convenience,

they must bring it in kind

(v. 23);

but, if not, they might turn it into money

(v. 24, 25),

and that money must be laid out in something to feast upon before the

Lord. The comfortable cheerful using of what God has given us, with

temperance and sobriety, is really the honouring of God with it.

Contentment, holy joy, and thankfulness, make every meal a religious

feast. The end of this law we have

(v. 23):

That thou mayest learn to fear the Lord thy God always; it was

to keep them right and firm to their religion,

(1.) By acquainting them with the sanctuary, the holy things, and the

solemn services that were there performed. What they read the

appointment of their Bibles, it would do them good to see the

observance of in the tabernacle; it would make a deeper impression upon

them, which would keep them out of the snares of the idolatrous

customs. Note, It will have a good influence upon our constancy in

religion never to forsake the assembling of ourselves together,
Heb. x. 25.

By the comfort of the communion of saints, we may be kept to our

communion with God.

(2.) By using them to the most pleasant and delightful services of

religion. Let them rejoice before the Lord, that they may learn to

fear him always. The more pleasure we find in the ways of religion

the more likely we shall be to persevere in those ways. One thing they

must remember in their pious entertainments–to bid their Levites

welcome to them. Thou shalt not forsake the Levites

(v. 27):

“Let him never be a stranger to thy table, especially when thou eatest

before the Lord.”

     

2. Every third year this tithe must be disposed of at home in works of

charity

(v. 28, 29):

Lay it up within they own gates, and let it be given to the

poor, who, knowing the provision this law had made for them, no doubt

would come to seek it; and, that they might make the poor familiar to

them and not disdain their company, they are here directed to welcome

them to their houses. “Thither let them come, and eat and be

satisfied.” In this charitable distribution of the second tithe they

must have an eye to the poor ministers and add to their encouragement

by entertaining them, then to poor strangers (not only for the supply

of their necessities, but to put a respect upon them, and so to invite

them to turn proselytes), and then to the fatherless and widow, who,

though perhaps they might have a competent maintenance left them, yet

could not be supposed to live so plentifully and comfortably as they

had done in months past, and therefore they were to countenance them,

and help to make them easy by inviting them to this entertainment. God

has a particular care for widows and fatherless, and he requires that

we should have the same. It is his honour, and will be ours, to help

the helpless. And if we thus serve God, and do good with what we have,

it is promised here that the Lord our God will bless us in all the

work of our hand. Note,

(1.) The blessing of God is all in all to our outward prosperity, and,

without that blessing, the work of our hands which we do will bring

nothing to pass.

(2.) The way to obtain that blessing is to be diligent and charitable.

The blessing descends upon the working hand: “Except not that God

should bless thee in thy idleness and love of ease, but in all the work

of they hand.” It is the hand of the diligent, with the blessing of God

upon it, that makes rich,

Prov. x. 4, 22.

And it descends upon the giving hand; he that thus scatters certainly

increases, and the liberal soul will be made fat. It is an undoubted

truth, though little believed, that to be charitable to the poor, and

to be free and generous in the support of religion and any good work,

is the surest and safest way of thriving. What is lent to the Lord

will be repaid with abundant interest. See

Ezek. xliv. 30.

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Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)

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