View Leviticus 17 in the note window.
Two prohibitions,
- That no sacrifice be offered by any but the priests,
nor any where but at the door of the tabernacle, ver. 1 - 9.
- That no blood be eaten, ver. 10 - 16.
3: That killeth - Not for common use, for such beasts might be killed
by any person or in any place but for sacrifice. In the camp, or out
of the camp - That is, anywhere.
4: The tabernacle - This was appointed in opposition to the Heathens,
who sacrificed in all places; to cut off occasions of idolatry; to prevent
the people's usurpation of the priest's office, and to signify that God
would accept of no sacrifices but through Christ and in the Church; (of
both which the tabernacle was a type.) But though men were tied to this
law, God was free to dispense with his own law, which he did sometimes to
the prophets, as (1Sa 7:9,11:15).
He hath shed blood - He shall be punished as a murderer. The reason is,
because he shed that blood, which, though not man's blood, yet was precious,
being sacred and appropriated to God, and typically the price by which men's
lives were ransomed.
5: They offer - The Israelites, before the building of the
tabernacle, did so, from which they are now restrained. Peace - offerings
- He nameth not these exclusively from others, as appears from the reason of
the law, and from (Le 17:8,9), but because in these the temptation was
more common in regard of their frequency, and more powerful, because part of
these belonged to the offerer, and the pretence was more plausible, because
their sanctity was of a lower degree than others, these being only called
holy, and allowed in part to the people, whereas the others are called
most holy, and were wholly appropriated either to God, or to the
priests.
6: Upon the altar - This verse contains a reason of the foregoing
law, because of God's propriety in the blood and fat, wherewith also
God was well pleased, and the people reconciled. And these two parts
only are mentioned, as the most eminent, and peculiar, though other parts
also were reserved for God.
7: Unto devils - So they did, not directly or intentionally, but by
construction and consequence, because the devil is the author of idolatry,
and is eminently served, and honoured by it. And as the Egyptians were
notorious for their idolatry, so the Israelites were infected with their
leaven, (Jos 24:14,Eze 20:7,23:2,3).
A whoring - Idolatry, especially in God's people, is commonly called
whoredom, because it is a violation of that covenant by which they
were peculiarly betrothed or married to God.
10: I will set my face - I will be an enemy to him, and execute
vengeance upon him immediately; because such persons probably would do this
in private, so that the magistrate could not know nor punish it. Write
that man undone, for ever undone, against whom God sets his face.
11: Is in the blood - Depends upon the blood, is preserved and
nourished by it. The blood maketh atonement - Typically, and in respect
of the blood of Christ which it represented, by which the atonement is
really made. So the reason is double;
- because this was eating up the ransom of their own lives, which in
construction was the destroying of themselves.
- because it was ingratitude and irreverence towards that sacred blood
of Christ which they ought to have in continual veneration.
15: That eateth - Through ignorance or inadvertency; for if it was
done knowingly, it was more severely punished. A stranger - Who is a
proselyte to the Jewish religion: other strangers were allowed to eat
such things, (De 14:21), out of which the blood was either not drawn
at all, or not regularly.
16: His iniquity - The punishment of it, and therefore must offer
a sacrifice for it.
