Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Various moral and ceremonial precepts are established, some previously reviewed, some new, such as that concerning not sowing a field with diverse seed, not wearing a garment of wool and linen, verse 19, circumcising the foreskins of trees, verse 23, not shearing the hair in a circle, not shaving the beard, verse 27, not cutting the flesh, verse 28.
Vulgate Text: Leviticus 19:1-37
1. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2. Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and you shall say to them: Be holy, because I am holy, the Lord your God. 3. Let every one fear his father and his mother. Keep My sabbaths. I am the Lord your God. 4. Do not turn to idols, nor make molten gods for yourselves. I am the Lord your God. 5. If you sacrifice a peace offering to the Lord, that it may be acceptable: 6. on the day it is sacrificed you shall eat it, and on the next day; but whatever remains on the third day you shall burn with fire. 7. If anyone eats of it after two days, he shall be profane and guilty of impiety, 8. and he shall bear his iniquity, because he has polluted the holy thing of the Lord, and that soul shall perish from among his people. 9. When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not shear the surface of the ground bare, nor gather the remaining ears of grain. 10. Neither shall you gather the clusters and fallen grapes of your vineyard, but you shall leave them for the poor and for strangers to pick. I am the Lord your God. 11. You shall not steal. You shall not lie, nor shall anyone deceive his neighbor. 12. You shall not swear falsely by My name, nor profane the name of your God. I am the Lord. 13. You shall not slander your neighbor, nor oppress him by violence. The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you until the morning. 14. You shall not curse the deaf, nor place a stumbling block before the blind; but you shall fear the Lord your God, because I am the Lord. 15. You shall not do what is unjust, nor judge unjustly. You shall not regard the person of the poor, nor honor the face of the mighty. Judge your neighbor justly. 16. You shall not be an informer, nor a whisperer among the people. You shall not stand against the blood of your neighbor. I am the Lord. 17. You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but reprove him publicly, lest you bear sin on his account. 18. You shall not seek revenge, nor be mindful of the injury of your fellow citizens. You shall love your friend as yourself. I am the Lord. 19. Keep My laws. You shall not cause your beast to breed with a different kind of animal. You shall not sow your field with diverse seed. You shall not wear a garment woven from two kinds. 20. If a man lies with a woman by seminal intercourse, who is a female slave even of marriageable age, and yet not redeemed for a price, nor granted freedom: they shall both be scourged, and they shall not die, because she was not free; 21. but for his offense he shall offer to the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the testimony a ram; 22. and the priest shall pray for him, and for his sin before the Lord, and He shall be merciful to him, and the sin shall be forgiven. 23. When you shall have entered the land and planted fruit-bearing trees, you shall remove their foreskins: the fruit that they produce shall be unclean to you, and you shall not eat of them. 24. But in the fourth year all their fruit shall be sanctified as praise to the Lord. 25. And in the fifth year you shall eat the fruits, gathering the fruit they produce. I am the Lord your God. 26. You shall not eat with blood. You shall not practice augury, nor observe dreams. 27. You shall not shear your hair in a circle, nor shave your beard. 28. And you shall not cut your flesh for the dead, nor make any figures or marks upon yourselves. I am the Lord. 29. Do not prostitute your daughter, lest the land be contaminated and filled with wickedness. 30. Keep My sabbaths, and revere My sanctuary. I am the Lord. 31. Do not turn to magicians, nor seek anything from soothsayers, lest you be defiled through them. I am the Lord your God. 32. Rise up before a gray head, and honor the person of an elder; and fear the Lord your God. I am the Lord. 33. If a stranger dwells in your land and remains among you, do not reproach him; 34. but let him be among you as a native, and you shall love him as yourselves: for you too were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. 35. Do not do anything unjust in judgment, in measurement, in weight, in measure. 36. Let the scales be just and the weights equal: a just bushel and a fair pint. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. 37. Keep all My precepts and all My judgments, and do them. I am the Lord.
Verse 2: Be Holy
2. Be holy. — "Holy," that is, clean and pure from all uncleanness of flesh and spirit, from all sin and legal irregularity.
Verse 3: Fear Father and Mother
3. Let him fear his mother, — that is, let him revere her.
Verse 4: Do Not Turn to Idols
4. Do not turn to idols. — For "idols" the Hebrew is elilim, that is, vanities, vain and worthless things, which is what idols are, which bear before themselves a vain and false shadow of the Divinity; second, elilim is a diminutive of el, that is God, as strong, as if you were to say: little gods, little strong ones; which in Flemish we say Godekens; third, elil is the same as al el, that is "not God": for idols are not truly gods; fourth, elil is the same as el lail, that is "God of the night," that is nocturnal, light-shunning, who walks in darkness: such are the demons who are worshipped in idols; fifth, elil alludes to the root ala, that is "he cursed": for idols are things to be cursed. So Oleaster.
Nor shall you make molten gods for yourselves. — This is a synecdoche; for from the part the whole is understood: for by "molten gods" he means all idols, whether they are cast and smelted, or hammered, or carved. So St. Augustine, and from him Radulphus.
Tropologically, the avaricious have masses of gold as their gods; for these are their molten gods, these are their elilim: how wise are those who worship not elilim, that is, vanities and false insanities, but el, that is, God the strong and true, who bestows true riches not in this land of the dying, but in that higher land of the living! Happy are those for whom You alone, O Lord, are their hope and their possession, and all their work is prayer, so that they may say: "In peace, in the selfsame, I will sleep and rest."
Verse 5: The Peace Offering
5. That it may be acceptable. — The Hebrew is lirtsonechem, that is, according to your will or good pleasure, as if to say: Sacrifice it willingly and voluntarily. So the Chaldean. But our translator, the Septuagint, and Vatablus take the Hebrew ratson passively, as if to say: For obtaining favor, grace, good pleasure, and benevolence for yourselves before God. See Canon 25.
Verse 7: Eating After Two Days
7. If anyone eats of it (the peace offering) after two days, he shall be profane and guilty of impiety, — because he violated this sacred ceremony established by God, and therefore he shall be abominable, as the Chaldean translates. The Septuagint render it as "it is unsacrificeable," as if to say: Such flesh and victim, being as it were profane and polluted, cannot be offered and sacrificed to God.
Verse 8: He Shall Perish
8. He shall perish, — by the sentence of a judge, if the matter is established; but if not, by God punishing and avenging.
Verse 9: Gleaning the Harvest
9. You shall not shear the surface of the ground bare, — as if to say: You shall not reap your field completely, but shall leave some ears of grain in the field, for example the lower ones almost lying on the ground, for the poor to pick. So Abulensis on chapter XXIII, verse 22; whence in Hebrew it reads: You shall not finish reaping the corner or edge of your field, as if to say: You shall not cut all the crops, but shall leave something at the edge or corner of your field, so that the poor may gather it. So Oleaster and others.
Verse 10: The Vineyard Gleanings
10. Nor shall you gather the clusters (remaining after the vintage) of your vineyard. — So the Chaldean. In Hebrew it reads: Do not make a second gleaning of your vintage; the Septuagint: You shall not re-harvest your vineyard; therefore the gleaning of grapes, as also the gleaning of grain, is here commanded to be left for the poor, as also the fruit of the seventh year, concerning which see chapter XXV, 6.
Verse 11: You Shall Not Lie
11. You shall not lie. — In Hebrew, you shall not deny, namely the truth, in a deposit, a loan, or any other contract and debt.
Verse 12: You Shall Not Swear Falsely
12. You shall not swear falsely by My name, — by My name. Nor shall you profane the name of your God, — as far as it depends on you; for otherwise the name of God cannot in itself be profaned.
Verse 13: The Wages of a Hired Worker
13. The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you until morning. — "Work," that is, the wages of work; it is a metonymy: in a similar way "work" is taken in Isaiah XXXII, 17, and chapter XL, 10, LXII, 11; Job XXXIV, 11; Psalm CXXVII, 2, as if to say: You shall not delay payment of wages to another day, but on the same day before nightfall you shall pay the laborer or hired worker, because these workers are generally poor, and they live day to day from their daily wages.
For "you shall not slander," etc., the Hebrew reads: do not oppress your neighbor, and do not rob, do not exact anything from him by force.
Verse 14: The Deaf and the Blind
14. You shall not curse the deaf, — because it is very inhumane to inflict injury on one who cannot defend himself.
Tropologically, St. Gregory, Part III of the Pastoral Rule, admonition 36: "To curse the deaf," he says, "is to disparage one who is absent and does not hear."
Nor shall you place a stumbling block before the blind. — The Hebrews believe that here it is also prohibited for anyone to give bad advice to a simple man. But this is a mystical sense. Tropologically, St. Gregory above: "To place a stumbling block before the blind is indeed to do something discreet, but yet to provide an occasion of scandal to one who does not have the light of discernment."
Verse 15: Impartial Judgment
15. You shall not regard (in judgment, as preceded) the person of the poor, — lest, moved by unjust pity for him, you pervert judgment.
Verse 16: The Informer and Whisperer
16. You shall not be an informer, nor a whisperer. — In Hebrew to these two words corresponds one noun rachil, that is, a detractor, a whisperer. The Septuagint translate: You shall not walk deceitfully among your people.
Thus the Emperor Vespasian suppressed fiscal calumnies with severe punishment of the calumniators, and his saying was famous: "The prince who does not punish informers, encourages them." And the Emperor Antoninus Pius punished informers with capital punishment if they did not prove the crime; if they did prove it, he dismissed them with infamy after offering a reward. Aristotle, when he had fled from Athens for fear of lawsuits, was asked by someone: "What is the city of Athens like?" He replied: "Most beautiful, but in it pear tree grows old upon pear tree, and fig tree upon fig tree." By this witticism he noted the sycophants and calumniators of Athens, most pernicious to good men. So Aelian, book III.
When Thearidas was sharpening his sword on a whetstone, he was asked by someone whether it was sharp: "Sharper," he said, "is calumny," indicating that calumny is a most harmful thing. Demosthenes, oration I Against Aristogiton: "When you see a viper," he says, "you immediately kill it: likewise when you see an informer and a cruel man having a serpentine nature, do not wait until he bites one of you, but as soon as he appears, let him be punished."
When a certain brave soldier was brought before Pelopidas by calumny, as one who had reviled him, he said: "Indeed, I regard his deeds, but his words I did not hear." So Xenophon in the Economics.
Finally, St. Athanasius, Apology 1: "He who is struck by a stone," he says, "seeks a physician; but the blows of calumny strike more gravely than stones. For calumny is a club, and a sword, and an incurable javelin, as Solomon says."
You shall not stand (the Septuagint has: you shall not conspire) against the blood of your neighbor, — that is, so that you might bear false testimony against him, or otherwise unjustly help those killing him. "Blood" here signifies life; for the soul and life are in the blood, as Moses said, chapter XVII, 14.
Verse 17: You Shall Not Hate Your Brother
17. You shall not hate your brother in your heart. — Hence it is clear that for the Jews in the Old Testament, not only external action, for example of murder or injury, as Josephus and some Rabbis (whom Christ accordingly corrects, and explains the law in Matthew V, 23) supposed, but also the internal act, namely the evil act of the will, such as hatred, was forbidden. So Cassian, book VIII On the Capital Vices, chapter XIV.
But reprove him publicly. — In Hebrew, "reproving reprove," as if to say: Do not cherish hatred in your heart against your neighbor; nor secretly plot evil against him; but show publicly, that is, openly, to the one who injured you that you are offended, and seek satisfaction for the injury or damage done to you. He does not therefore command that the offender be rebuked publicly and before the whole crowd, but that the offended party not keep hidden hatred; and therefore should reveal the injury done to him to the one who inflicted it, and seek satisfaction. Whence Tertullian, book IV Against Marcion, chapter XXXV, takes this passage as concerning fraternal correction, as if that had been commanded to the Jews here.
Lest you bear sin on his account, — by secretly plotting his harm or destruction.
Verse 18: You Shall Not Seek Revenge
18. You shall not seek revenge, — so as to avenge yourself privately. Secondly and more precisely, neither privately nor publicly in court shall you seek vengeance proceeding from rancor; for all such vengeance is a sin in the forum of the soul and before God. This law therefore supplements and perfects the law of retaliation, enacted in Numbers XXXV, 19, and Deuteronomy XIX, 12, which permits one to seek vengeance in the judicial forum, when it is just in the matter itself, even though the accuser may seek it with an evil disposition and from a spirit of revenge — for example, that a relative of the slain may kill the murderer; for although this is just in itself, yet if it is done from revenge, it is unjust and sinful.
Therefore God commands here that in such cases they should not seek revenge, but only their right, so that either private or public justice may be satisfied.
Plutarch says admirably: "Food is used according to nature by one who is hungry; but vengeance ought to be used by one who neither thirsts for it nor hungers for it. As a father, seeing a child wanting to cut something, takes the knife and does it himself, so reason, snatching vengeance from anger, punishes usefully." And Juvenal, Satire 13: "Revenge is the pleasure of a weak and petty mind: gather from this at once that no one delights more in vengeance than a woman."
And Francis Petrarch, dialogue 101: "The noblest kind of vengeance," he says, "is to spare. The delight of revenge is momentary, that of mercy everlasting. Many have regretted taking revenge, but no one has regretted sparing." But what is more illustrious than this saying of Christ, Matthew V, 39: "I say to you not to resist evil; but if anyone strikes you on your right cheek, offer him the other also:" and of Paul to the Romans chapter XII: "Repaying no one evil for evil. Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."
Nor shall you be mindful of injury. — The Chaldean: You shall not keep enmities.
You Shall Love Your Friend as Yourself
You shall love your friend as yourself. — Hence the Jews inferred by contrary reasoning: therefore enemies are to be hated, as Christ reports, Matthew V, 43. But that argument is entirely invalid; for neither does the inference hold, nor is the premise true as they understood it: for "friend" does not signify here one who is well-disposed toward us, but every neighbor. This is clear from the Septuagint, who translate it as "neighbor," and from the Chaldean, who translates chabrach, that is, "your companion," and from the Hebrew rea, which signifies not only a friend, but also by a metaphor common among the Hebrews is transferred to anyone connected with us by any relationship, or with whom we have any dealing: and such is every human being; for at the very least every person is a friend to another and connected with another by a common origin from the first parent, a common creation and likeness of God, a common redemption, a common Church and Sacraments, a common grace, charity, ordination and course toward eternal life. So St. Augustine, Jerome, Theophylact on Matthew V; for that the love of enemies was commanded to the Jews is clear from Exodus XXIII, 4.
What kind and how great this love ought to be, Christ taught us by His own example, concerning whom St. Bernard, sermon 20 on the Song of Songs: "God loved me," he says, "at once strongly, wisely, and sweetly. Sweetly, because He put on flesh; wisely, because He avoided sin; strongly, because He endured death."
Again, St. Gregory, book X of the Morals, chapter VI: "The love of neighbor," he says, "is derived from two precepts, when through a certain just man (Tobit, chapter IV, verse 16) it is said: What you would hate to be done to you by another, see that you do not do to another. And through Himself the Truth says: What you wish men to do to you, do also to them," namely in lawful and salutary matters: for these alone should everyone will and desire for his neighbor equally as for himself, according to right reason, as St. Gregory illustrates with many particular examples in the same place.
As yourself. — The word "as" signifies not equality, but likeness: for with ordered charity a person loves himself more than his neighbor: yet he ought to show similar signs of love to his neighbor as to himself. Thus the word "as" is taken in Deuteronomy XVIII, 45, John XVII, 21 and 22, Isaiah I, 26, Malachi III, 4, where Malachi compares the abundance of spiritual goods in the new law with the richness of the old law and earlier times, although in the new law it is far greater.
I am the Lord, — who indeed exact and command this very thing, however difficult, by My right.
Thus St. Paul loved his neighbor, King Agrippa. For when the king said: "In a little you persuade me to become a Christian," he replied: "I wish before God both in little and in much, not only you, but also all who hear me today, to become such as I am, except for these chains," Acts XXVI, 29.
And St. John, who as an old man in the assemblies would say nothing else but: "Little children, love one another." When asked why he always repeated the same thing, he replied: "Because it is the Lord's commandment, and if it alone is done, it suffices;" the witness is St. Jerome in his epistle to the Galatians.
And St. Dominic, whose saying was: "I have learned more from the book of charity than from all of Sacred Scripture." From this book he preached, and converted many, and wished his followers to preach from the same.
And our holy Father Ignatius, who to correct a lewd man going to his mistress, plunged himself into the waters and said: "Go on, wretch, to your most foul pleasures; do you not see the ruin hanging over your head? I will torment myself here for your sake for as long as it takes to avert the most just fury of God prepared against you." The witness is Ribadeneira in his Life.
And St. Xavier, who said to friends dissuading him from China on account of its dangers: "I have no other wish than to secure the salvation of the Chinese even by my death." The witness is Tursellius, book III of his Life, chapter XV.
Verse 19: Mixed Kinds
19. You shall not cause your beast to breed with a different kind of animal. — The Hebrews and Cajetan think that this law and the two following should be understood not literally, as they sound, but symbolically, namely that they only forbid the pursuit of novelty and novel curiosity, says Cajetan, and disturbance and confusion, so that among the Hebrews there should be no malicious tongue and strife, but perfect unity and charity, say the Hebrews: they bring forward the reason that it is established that the Jews had mules, which are generated from different species, namely from a mare and a donkey. For David, Solomon, Absalom, and other sons of David rode on mules, II Samuel XIII, 29; and in I Ezra II, 66, it is said that the Jews returning from Babylon had two hundred mules. But others everywhere take these things literally, as they sound: for the words themselves plainly and simply signify this. And so by this law the Jews were forbidden to arrange the mating of a donkey with a mare to produce mules. Therefore the mules that the Jews had were either born by chance, the donkey and mare having mixed of their own accord; or they purchased them from other nations that arranged this cross-breeding and the production of mules.
The reason for this law was, first, because God wished the Hebrews to live most honorably according to nature: but the mating of animals of different species is against nature; second, because God did not want the species of animals to be intermixed and confused by the Hebrews, but wanted each to remain simple and whole in its essence; third, lest the Hebrews themselves, arranging and therefore watching this mating of animals, should learn similar things and imitate them. So Theodoret, Question XXVII. Whence in the Traditions of the Hebrews a precept is found (as Rabbi Moses says), that men should turn their eyes away from animals mating: for easily in this sight a movement of concupiscence is excited in a person, says St. Thomas, whom we shall cite shortly.
Tropologically, Radulphus: Beasts mate with animals of another kind at the urging of their masters, as human minds prone to vices, seduced by the example of their pastors, conform themselves to lovers of the world.
Allegorically, Hesychius explains it thus, as if to say: You shall not permit the faithful to follow both circumcision and baptism.
You Shall Not Sow Your Field with Diverse Seed
You shall not sow your field with diverse seed. — The literal reason for this and the following law was, first, that through them God might cut off from the Hebrews the occasion of novelty and confusion, and admonish them of simplicity and order.
Second, because God wished to be worshipped with this ceremony, namely with simplicity of seed and garment, rather than with duplicity: because He was pleased to institute this so as to commend simplicity to men in food, dress, and every other thing. For since God in Himself is most simple, and is simplicity itself, and therefore the unity, the first principle, and the cause of all things, He loves simple things, and hates and forbids adulterous mixtures whether of flesh or of spirit in His worship, says Theodoret.
Whence symbolically, St. Cyril, book VIII On Adoration, says that by this law double-faced morals are forbidden. "For all of us at the beginning of conversion, no virtue is more necessary than modest simplicity," says St. Bernard. Thus holy Job is praised because he was a simple and upright man: "simple, because he desired to hurt no one, indeed to be of benefit; upright, because he allowed himself to be corrupted by no one," says Bede, book I On the Temple of Solomon. Hence the Wise Man, Proverbs XI, 20: "An evil heart," he says, "is abominable, and His will is in those who walk simply." And chapter XX, 7: "The just man who walks in his simplicity shall leave blessed children after him." "You will be simple," says St. Augustine, homily 2 on John, "by disentangling yourself from the world; by entangling yourself, you will be double." "What," says St. Jerome, "is more divine than simplicity? which, like a good master of a household, has enough for itself, and content with its own purity, does not seek what belongs to another: nor does it gnaw at others, but keeps to itself regarding others: nor does it change itself into various forms, as craftiness does, which, in order to be cautious, fears everything and does not trust its own counsels: it turns over its own opinions; but simplicity knows not how to fear." And again: "Prudence without simplicity is malice, and simplicity without reason is called foolishness." Hence Christ says: "Be wise as serpents, and simple as doves."
Hear also the pagans. Cicero, book I On Duties: "The shortcut to glory," he says, "is for each person to be what he wants to be thought." And in his book On Friendship: "To hate or love openly is more noble than to hide one's opinion behind one's face." Seneca, epistle 10: "He follows virtue in good faith," he says, "who does not adorn and paint himself; but he is the same whether seen by appointment or unprepared and suddenly; truth is always the same in every aspect of itself." The same author to Nero: "No one," he says, "can long wear a false mask; pretenses quickly fall back into their own nature." The same in the Proverbs: "A bad man," he says, "when he pretends to be good, is then at his worst."
Third, God forbade this mixing of seeds in agriculture "for the detestation of idolatry, by which the Egyptians, in veneration of the stars, made various mixtures both in seeds, in animals, and in garments, representing the various conjunctions of the stars. Again, all such mixtures are prohibited for the detestation of intercourse against nature," says St. Thomas, I-II, Question CII, article 6, reply 9.
Tropologically, you shall not sow your field with diverse seed, that is, you shall not teach things contrary to divine doctrines in the Church, says Hesychius. Secondly, Radulphus: He sows diverse seed, says he, the preacher who speaks good things but does evil; who scatters wheat by his word, but by the example of sin casts a sowing into the hearts of his disciples.
The Garment Woven from Two Kinds
You shall not wear a garment woven from two kinds. — He does not say, a garment sewn from two cloths: for this was not forbidden to the Jews, says Abulensis, but one that is woven from two materials, namely wool and linen. So the Chaldean, and thus this law is explained in Deuteronomy XXII, 11. Except from this law the vestments of the high priest: for these were multicolored, woven from linen or fine linen, scarlet, purple, and violet. Indeed Josephus asserts that for this reason lay people are here forbidden a double-woven garment, namely one woven from linen and wool, so that they would not dress like the high priest, but would be distinguished from him in garment as in status.
Tropologically, Radulphus: Wool, because it is coarser, signifies visible work; linen, because it is finer, signifies hidden malice; therefore those put on a garment woven from wool and linen who speak peace with their neighbor, but evil is in their hearts, Psalm XXVII. So also St. Cyril, book VII On Adoration, page 144: Figuratively, he says, the law forbids duplicity, namely the desire to please men, which is composed of two pursuits and wills, namely wanting to be evil and wanting to appear good to men. Rupert has similar things, book I on Deuteronomy, chapter XVIII, and Procopius on Deuteronomy XXII, 11.
Verse 20: A Female Slave
20. Even of marriageable age. — So it should be read with the Roman editions, not "noble," as the Plantin editions have. For in Hebrew it is necherephet, that is, betrothed, that is, eligible for betrothal to a man: for passive participles among the Hebrews are often taken as verbal nouns.
They shall both be scourged. — In Hebrew, there shall be scourging for them with ox-hide straps: for this is what bircoret signifies, derived from bacar, that is, ox. So Vatablus.
Verse 22: Propitiation
22. And He shall be propitiated toward him, lest He punish him in this life, as I said in chapter I, verse 4. And again "He shall be propitiated toward him," through grace and the infusion of charity, if he has truly offered this sacrifice with contrition.
Verse 23: The Foreskins of Trees
23. You shall remove their foreskins. — Here God commands that the fruits of trees which are produced in the first three years shall be cast away as unclean, but the fruits born in the fourth year shall be consecrated to God, and thus finally the fruits of the fifth year shall be considered clean and may be eaten. He therefore calls the fruits of the first three years "foreskins," as the Hebrew explains; they are called "foreskin" by allusion to the circumcision of a boy. For just as a boy was unclean until the foreskin was removed from him in circumcision and cast away, so also the trees were considered unclean until the fruits of the first three years had been circumcised and cast away: hence in Hebrew these fruits are called uncircumcised, that is, unclean.
And St. Chrysostom, in his sermon On the Ascension of the Lord, from this passage teaches that the first-fruits which are expected by God should be not imperfect and weak fruit, but strong and robust. For he says: "See the prudence of the lawgiver: he does not permit the first fruit to be eaten, lest anyone seem to have enjoyed it before God; nor did he allow it to be offered, lest something unripe be offered to God; but he says, 'Let it go, because it is the first, and do not offer it, because it is not yet worthy of offering.'"
God willed to be worshipped by this ceremony, just as by the circumcision of boys, yet fittingly adapted to the nature of trees; for their first fruits are more watery and undigested, and therefore less wholesome than the later ones. So Abulensis.
Allegorically, the first three years were the first three periods, during which the law was still impure, being weighed down by the coarseness of history and having shadow as a useless bark placed around it. These three periods were those over which Moses, Joshua, and the Judges presided; then followed the fourth, in which the illustrious choir of the Prophets arose: then the fruit of the law became holy and praiseworthy, because the coming of Christ began to be preached. Finally in the fifth period, namely that of Christ, the law became fit for consumption, most useful and most pure through the Gospel of Christ. So Cyril, book VIII, page 167.
Tropologically, St. Gregory, book VIII of the Moralia chapter XXXV: "Fruit-bearing trees," he says, "are works fruitful in virtues: we remove their foreskins when, suspicious of the weakness of our very beginning, we do not approve the first efforts of our works, lest, while the praise received is sweetly savored, the fruit of the work be eaten prematurely," and this until the fourth year when they are consecrated to God, that is, until the mind, established and strengthened in its fourfold state, learns to ascribe all good things not to itself but to God. So Radulphus.
The fruits that germinate — that is, that produce — namely, the trees themselves.
Verse 24: The Fourth Year Fruit
24. But in the fourth year all the fruit shall be sanctified as praiseworthy to the Lord. — In Hebrew, in the fourth year all the fruit shall be a holiness of praises to the Lord, that is, in the fourth year the fruit shall be consecrated to the Lord in His praise, so that it be offered to the priests, just as first-fruits and tithes, and pass into their possession; therefore in the fourth year the priests, not the laity, could eat these fruits.
Verse 26: Augury and Dreams
26. You shall not practice augury — you shall not practice magic, or magical divination.
Note: Augury is so called as if from the chattering of birds, and it was divination from birds, and it was threefold. For some birds were thought to predict the future by their flight, others by their song: the former were called praepetes, the latter oscines. There was also a third kind from their feeding, when food was offered to chickens brought out of a cage; concerning which Alexander ab Alexandro writes at length. But our Interpreter everywhere takes augury in a general sense, for any kind of divination. Thus Joseph is said to have been accustomed to divine in his cup, Genesis chapter XLIV, verse 5. Thus the Latins also take augury in a general sense. For the Hebrew nachas absolutely signifies to divine: related to which is lachas, that is, he murmured, he whispered. For diviners use whisperings and murmurings. M. Cato recognized the vanity of this art, who used to say that he marveled that a soothsayer did not laugh whenever he looked at another soothsayer, sensing that this whole class of divinations was an imposture by which the people were deceived: for impostors are accustomed to laugh among themselves at the stupidity of the multitude. Cicero is the witness, in book II of De Divinatione.
Nor shall you observe dreams. — In Hebrew it is onen, which our Interpreter elsewhere, and the Septuagint here, translate as: you shall not take auguries from birds; secondly, the Rabbis and Oleaster translate it as: you shall not be conjurers, so that onen alludes to ain, that is, eye, and to anan, that is, cloud, as if to say: "You shall not cloud your eyes with illusions;" thirdly, our Interpreter more correctly here and in Deuteronomy XVIII, 10, translates: You shall not observe dreams; for the Hebrew onen is varied and general: for it signifies to observe something with the eyes. Hence the meonenim are called observers, whether of times, or of stars, or of dreams, or of birds. Now since augury, which properly is from birds, immediately preceded here, and the observation of times and stars is often lawful: hence our Interpreter prudently judged that what is censured here are observers and diviners of dreams (which superstition was then frequent and familiar to many): for onen correctly applies to dreams, whether you consider the root ain, that is, eye; for dreams are nocturnal visions which the soul seems to see with its eyes, and the dreamer seems to himself to perceive with his bodily eyes: or whether you consider the root anan, that is, cloud; for what clouds are in the air, that is what dreams and phantasms are in the soul.
Moreover, Chrysippus teaches that the Gentiles attributed much to dreams, and he defines a dream thus: "A dream is a power of discerning and explaining what is signified by the gods to men in sleep." Indeed, Cicero too in book I of De Divinatione says: "When the mind has been withdrawn by sleep from the association and contamination of the body, then it remembers the past, perceives the present, and foresees the future; for the body of the sleeper lies as if dead: but the mind is vigorous and alive; which it will do much more after death, when it has entirely departed from the body."
But Diogenes ridiculed the vanity of this superstition, saying: "The things you do while awake, you pay no attention to; but what you dream while sleeping, you anxiously investigate. For what matters for a man's happiness or unhappiness is not so much what he experiences in dreams, but what he does while awake. Whenever he commits something shameful there, he ought to fear the wrath of the gods and a sad outcome; not if something appeared to him while sleeping." Laertius is the witness, book VI.
Heraclitus said, "Those who are awake share one common world, but those who are asleep each depart into their own; yet the superstitious man does not even while awake enjoy the world in common with others, for his thought is always dreaming," says Plutarch in the Moralia.
The Comic poet said: "Although the gods have given us sleep as a relief from cares and labors, the superstitious man turns it into a torture for himself."
Rightly therefore Ecclesiasticus, chapter XXXIV, verse 2: "As one who grasps at a shadow and pursues the wind: so also is he who attends to lying visions. This after this is a vision of dreams;" and verse 5: "The dreams of evildoers are vanity;" and verse 7: "For dreams have led many astray, and those who hoped in them have perished."
Verse 27: The Hair and the Beard
27. Nor shall you cut your hair round about. — Because this, and the things that follow, the Gentiles used to do, as is clear from Jeremiah IX, 26, and XXV, 23, and chapter XLIX, 32, especially the Egyptians, among whom the Hebrews had hitherto lived. Hence Vatablus explains it thus: You shall not cut your hair round about in the manner of the Egyptian priests. Indeed, Radulphus asserts that the Gentiles, when they consecrated themselves to demons, used to cut their hair in a circle: for they believed that the gods delighted in the round and circular shape, as the most capacious and perfect of all. Hence Empedocles, when asked what God was, answered: "God is a circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere," because, of course, God's majesty and immensity are terminated nowhere. God expressed this roundness of His in the world, as in His own image: for He created the heavens and the elements spherical and round.
For this reason the ancients built round temples to their gods: thus Numa Pompilius is said to have consecrated a round temple at Rome to Vesta, because he believed that she was the same as the earth, by which human life is sustained, so that the goddess might be worshipped in a temple resembling herself: for the earth is round. Thus Augustus Caesar, in the name of Agrippa, dedicated a temple of round circuit to all the gods, and for this reason called it the Pantheon, and it, now dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, takes its name from the round form which it retains.
Aristotle attests that the ancients delighted in dedicating round temples to the gods, of which kind many are still seen at Rome, either largely in ruins or restored by Christians in honor of the Saints.
For this same reason, when they devoted themselves to their gods, they used to cut their hair in a circle: for Lucian at the end of De Dea Syria, Theodoret here in Question XXVIII, Cyril in book XVI of De Adoratione, and Athanasius or rather Anastasius in Questions on Sacred Scripture, Question LXIV, relate that the Gentiles used to dedicate their hair to the gods, that is, to demons. Rightly therefore God here forbids the same thing to the Jews, as if saying: I do not want you, O Jews, to follow the Gentiles and demons, but rather the nature and arrangement of the face in the cutting of your hair, and I wish to teach you all propriety and decency, even in clothing and hair. Hence also among certain Greeks, to cut the hair round about was a proverb for making a mockery of someone. For thus the hair is usually cut round about on stupid and foolish people who do not notice, for the sake of ridicule. Hence Lucian in the Misanthropist: "You were sitting," he says, "while your hair was being cut round about by them." This precept was ceremonial, and therefore has now been abolished.
Therefore heretics foolishly twist this passage against the tonsure of monks, as Bellarmine shows in book II De Monachis, chapter XL. The Septuagint translate: "You shall not make sisoen from your hair." The Septuagint seem to have taken the word sisoen from the Hebrew tsitsit, that is, a curl, as is clear from Ezekiel VIII, 3; for Suidas interprets sisoen as braided hair; and Cyprian, book III of Testimonies 83, translates sisoen as cirrus (a curl). St. Peter, in epistle I, chapter III, verse 3, seems to call sisoen the braiding of hair, which our Interpreter translates as capillatura (coiffure); St. Paul, I Timothy II, 9, calls it interwoven tresses; the Latins call it capillitium calamistratum, that is, hair curled with curling-irons into ringlets.
The Septuagint therefore judge that ringlets are here forbidden to the Jews, and the Hebrew words can be taken in this sense, which literally read: You shall not make circular, you shall not make round, or "you shall not adorn the extremity of your head." The reason is that curled and crimped hair is a sign of a soft and effeminate spirit, and therefore is unbecoming to men.
"Far from us be youths adorned like women."
Hence that weighty saying of Arcesilaus recorded by Plutarch, who, when he saw a young man who was chaste but curled, with an affected voice and roving eyes, said: "It makes no difference which of your members makes you effeminate, the rear or the front;" and Plautus in the Asinaria: "Who would believe that of you, you curled catamite?" and Synesius: "No man with long hair who is not also a catamite;" and St. Ambrose, book III De Virginitate: "Ringlets," he says, "are not ornaments but crimes; enticements of beauty, not precepts of virtue." Clement of Alexandria, book III of the Paedagogus chapter III, teaches that ringlets were practically the badge of harlotry. Rightly therefore Tiburtius, in the Life of St. Sebastian, rebukes Torquatus, a curled man who called himself a Christian; and when both were brought before the judge on account of their religion, and Torquatus, when asked about his faith, replied that he was a Christian: "Do you believe," said Tiburtius, "most illustrious sir, that this man is a Christian, who, in fashioning his own allurement, wears fringes on his head, etc.: Christ never deigned to have such pestilent men as His servants." So much does the devil delight in ringlets that he once assumed the name Cincinnatulus. It has been recorded that he and almost all of Italy heard this name speaking from a woman's womb. "Cincinnatulus was the demon's name; with this title he would gleefully answer whoever called upon him: if you inquired about past or present matters, even the most hidden, he gave wonderful responses; if about the future, he was always most mendacious." Go now, young men, go, nobles, tie up your hair, anoint it, curl it, go, new glory of demons and delights of hell: he loves you, he leaps and dances at your name: prostitute your modesty and beauty.
Nor shall you shave your beard. — It was not forbidden for Jews to trim the beard, but to shave it, by applying, for example, a razor, as is done with the tonsures that priests wear on the crown of the head; in Hebrew it reads: You shall not destroy the extremity of your beard; for God willed that in His people the beard should appear as a mark of manliness; for the beard signifies a man. Hence Diogenes replied that he wore a beard so that he might constantly remember that he was a man; and Artemidorus said that sons bring as much adornment to their fathers as the beard adds beauty to the face. The Cynic in Lucian also considers it as shameful to remove the ornament of the beard from men as to shear the mane from a lion.
A certain Spartan, asked why he wore so long a beard, replied: "So that seeing my gray hairs, I may admit nothing unworthy of them." Plutarch is the witness in the Laconica, who also adds there that the Spartans were accustomed to grow their hair long, remembering the saying of Lycurgus, who declared that long hair increases the beauty of the handsome and makes the ugly more fearsome.
Finally, they say that Theseus never wished to cut his beard, so that he might profess his virtue by that mark. The beard therefore is, first, a mark of manhood; second, of virtue; third, of perfection, says Hesychius; fourth, of fortitude, says Eucherius; fifth, of wisdom, says Radulphus. The Hebrews are therefore commanded to preserve the beard, so that even in the appearance of their faces they may seem to bear the form of virtue and wisdom. Excepted from this law are lepers who have been cleansed; for in their legal purification they had to shave all the hair of the body, according to the law of Leviticus XIV, 9. Moreover, among Christians, clerics do not shave but trim their beards, following an ancient custom; monks, however, as if dead to the world, shave, although in different churches the practice in this matter has varied. See Baronius, year of Christ 58.
Therefore Martin of Poland in the Chronicle errs and misleads, as does Peter de Natalibus in book IV, chapter LVII, who write that Pope Anicetus forbade the beard no less than the hair of clerics. For in the decrees of Anicetus, 23 distinction, chapter Clericis, no mention is made of the beard. For it is from the tradition of the Apostles that clerics should grow beards, as Clement of Alexandria teaches in book III of the Paedagogus chapter III, Cyprian in book III to Quirinus, Epiphanius, heresy 80, besides the fact that the icons of the Apostles remove all doubt. Therefore, as clerics used to cut their hair, so they used to grow their beards. Hence that decree of the Fourth Council of Carthage, canon 44: "Let a cleric neither grow his hair nor shave his beard;" for this is how the Vatican Manuscript reads. Therefore someone wrongly, as an enemy of the beard, in order to eradicate the beard from priests, erased the word radat ("shave"), as it was erased in the decree of Burchard, book II, chapter CLXXIV, and chapter V of the Extravagantes, De Vita et Honestate Clericorum. Indeed Sidonius Apollinaris, book IV, epistle 24 to Turnus Maximus, formerly a courtier, now a priest, thus portrays and celebrates him: "The man's bearing, his gait, modesty, complexion, speech are religious; then his hair short, his beard long."
Verse 28: Incisions for the Dead
28. And you shall not make incisions in your flesh for the dead. — In Deuteronomy chapter XIV, 1, the pulling out of hair is also forbidden: and this is, first, lest the Jews mourn the dead with excessive grief, but rather set a limit to their mourning through hope of the resurrection. Beautifully and truly St. Jerome writes to Paula on the death of Blaesilla: "Why," he says, "do we grieve over anyone who has died? Were we born for this, that we might remain forever? Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, Peter, James, John, Paul, the vessel of election, and above all the Son of God dies; and we are indignant that someone should depart from the body, who was perhaps taken away lest wickedness should change his understanding? Let the dead man be mourned — but that one whom hell receives, whom the underworld devours, for whose punishment the eternal fire burns. But as for us, whose departure a throng of angels accompanies, and whom Christ comes forth to meet, let us rather be burdened if we dwell longer in this tabernacle of death; for as long as we tarry here, we are pilgrims from the Lord," etc.
Secondly, because idolaters, especially the Syrians who were neighbors to the Jews, and consequently the Jews themselves, used to do these things in mourning and cut their flesh, as is clear from III Kings XVIII, 28. St. Augustine likewise testifies regarding the sacrifices of the mother of the gods, in book II of De Civitate Dei XXVII, and book VII, XXVI, where he says: "The Great Mother was believed to help the strength of the Romans by cutting off the virile members of men; whence also her priests on the feast day used to pour forth their blood, cutting the flesh of their arms: and the chief priest would amputate his own virile members, in honor of the first priest of that goddess, named Attis."
Hear also what Herodotus says about the Scythians, in book IV: "The Scythians," he says, "at the funeral of their kings cut off an ear, shave the hair round about, gash their arms, and pierce their left hand with arrows." Lucian too says this about his own Syrians (for he himself was Syrian) in the book De Dea Syria: "All are tattooed with certain marks, some on the palm of the hand, others on the neck; and from this it is that all the Assyrians have branded marks." The same author in the book De Luctu mentions the tearing of hair and the bloodying of cheeks in mourning. So too Virgil in Aeneid IV, speaking of Anna lamenting the death of Dido:
"Her face with nails, her breast with fists she smites, O sister."
And Ovid, book III of the Tristia, elegy 3:
"Yet spare to tear your cheeks, nor rend your hair; / Not for the first time, O my light, shall I be snatched from you."
And Servius on Aeneid III says: "Varro says that women were accustomed in funerals and mourning to tear their faces, so that by showing blood they might satisfy the spirits of the dead." For this reason it was forbidden in the Law of the Twelve Tables, where, as Cicero testifies in book II of De Legibus, this was the ordinance: "Women shall not scratch their cheeks." Moreover, Ovid teaches that women loosened and tore their hair in mourning, in book VI of the Metamorphoses, fable 7 on Philomela:
"When soon her mind returned, she tore her disheveled hair."
And Tibullus, book I, elegy 1:
"Do not harm my shades, but spare your loosened / Hair, and your tender cheeks, O Delia, spare."
But Cicero says clearly in Tusculan Disputations III: "From this opinion," he says, "arise those various and detestable kinds of mourning: the squalor of women, the laceration of cheeks, the beating of breast and head. Hence that Homeric Agamemnon, and the same one in Accius, repeatedly tearing his unshorn hair in grief. Concerning which that witty saying of Bion: that the most foolish king tears out his hair in mourning, as if grief might be relieved by baldness," when rather it is increased by the pain of the pulling. Hear also Plutarch in the Consolation to Apollonius: "Some barbarians," he says, "cut off parts of their bodies, namely their noses and ears, and punish the rest of their body as well."
Nor figures, etc. — Which Prudentius excellently described in Hymn 10 On the Crowns:
"What when one about to be consecrated receives the brandings? / They thrust tiny needles into furnaces, / With these they proceed to burn the limbs, and when they have set them ablaze, / Whatever part of the body the burning mark / Has branded, this they proclaim is thus consecrated."
Naturally, by these marks they professed themselves as it were servants of the deity whose distinctive mark they bore. Thus, as the author of the third book of Maccabees reports, near the beginning, Ptolemy Philopator ordered that the Jews who had defected to idols should be registered and branded on the body with fire, with the ivy leaf symbol of Bacchus.
Verse 30: Sabbaths and the Sanctuary
30. Keep My sabbaths. — Sabbath here signifies any feast day by synecdoche: for the Sabbath was the greatest of all feasts.
And revere My sanctuary — that is, reverence My tabernacle and temple: both so that you do not approach it irreverently while unclean, and so that you do not scrutinize it curiously, nor enter it further than I have prescribed: for the laity could not enter the Holy Place, nor even the court of the priests. This is a law distinct from the preceding one about sabbaths.
Verse 31: Magicians and Soothsayers
31. Do not turn to magicians. — In Hebrew, to pythons, who have a familiar demon, especially a ventriloquist one. For these are called obot, from ob, that is, a wineskin, because the demon spoke from their belly as if with a confused voice from a wineskin; the Greeks call them ventriloquists, that is, those who prophesy from their bowels, says Theodoret, Question XXIX; hence the Septuagint here and elsewhere call them ventriloquists.
Nor shall you inquire anything of soothsayers. — Soothsayers properly are those who divine from sacrificed victims. This art was first invented by a certain man called Tages, who they say leaped forth from the earth while plowing, as Lucan testifies in book I of De Bello Civili, and Boccaccio in book I of De Genealogia Deorum. Canon Law also mentions this matter, 24, Question V, chapter Episcopi. For soothsayers the Hebrew is iidonim, that is, diviners.
Verse 32: Honor the Aged
32. Honor the person of the aged, and fear the Lord — that is, if you do not fear the old, at least fear God, and out of fear of the Lord honor the aged: for here God commands that they be honored. And this first, because the young ought to conduct themselves with their elders as students with their teachers; but it belongs to teachers to sit, and to students to stand beside them and listen. Hence Emperor Theodosius ordered his sons to stand before Arsenius, their teacher.
Secondly, because, as Aristotle says in book IX of the Ethics chapter II: "To every elder, honor befitting his age must be rendered, by rising and yielding one's seat," etc. Plato teaches the same in dialogue IX of the Laws, and Cicero in book I of De Officiis: "It befits a young man," he says, "to revere his elders."
Thirdly, because in the aged, besides the excellence of age, there is the excellence of experience and of the prudence that comes from a longer life. Hence the old used to govern the state, and from the old (senes) the senate (senatus) took its name, just as among the Spartans the gerousia took its name from the elders, which was a magistracy that sat beside the king. Hence St. Thomas says that old age is a sign of virtue, and therefore to be honored, even though sometimes virtue may be lacking. Hence the Chaldean, for what we have, "Rise before a gray head," translates, "Rise before one who is learned in the law."
Fourthly, because almost all nations by the instinct of nature have honored the aged. The Spartans, as Plutarch testifies, all rose in the theater when the aged arrived, and received them to sit down. Roman youths used to escort their elders to the senate-house, and waited outside for them to lead them home. Hear Juvenal, satire 13:
"They considered it a great crime deserving death, / If a young man had not risen for an old man."
For the Spanish this word senior, somewhat twisted into señor, and for the Italians into signore, signifies lord. Philo says of the Essenes: "Their reverence and care for the elders is such as true-born children can have for their parents."
Fifthly, because the aged are like parents and represent God, the parent of all. Hence Tecletus, when asked why the young Spartans rose for the old, replied: "This is done so that, being accustomed to show this honor to strangers, they may all the more revere their own parents." Plutarch is the witness in the Laconica.
Sixthly, because, as St. Basil says in the book De Abdicatione Rerum, if you honor the aged, "God will bestow glory upon you for this submission of your soul;" and, as Hesychius says here, when you have grown old, He will cause the same reverence to be repaid to you by the young: if you neglect the aged, the punishment of retaliation will punish you when old, so that you will be despised by the young as if senile.
Verse 33: The Stranger
33. If a stranger shall dwell — that is, a circumcised proselyte, concerning whom see the following chapter verse 2.
Verse 35: Just Measures and Weights
35. Do not commit any iniquity in judgment, in the measuring-rule — that is, by which you measure anything, such as the cubit, meaning: Use a just measure in measuring.
36. Let the weights be equal. — In Hebrew, let the stones be equal; for formerly they used stones as weights: hence in Proverbs XVI, 11, these weights are called stones of the pouch, not of the world, as some erroneously read.
A just bushel. — In Hebrew, let the ephah be just. The ephah contained three modii: but our Interpreter, in place of ephah, substituted the more familiar and common Greek and Latin name for a measure, namely the modius; similarly, for "and a just sextarius," that is, let there be, in Hebrew it reads, let the hin be just. The hin of the Jews was a measure containing 12 sextarii. But since among us there is no single measure that corresponds to this Hebrew one, hence the Interpreter fittingly substituted sextarius for hin. For this measure is most familiar to us: for God here only means to say and command that the Hebrews should use a just measure both in liquids and in dry goods; for as the hin and sextarius were measures for liquids, so the ephah and modius were measures for dry goods.
The Hebrews write that he who uses unjust measures and weights is the cause of five crimes and evils. First, he pollutes the earth. Second, he violates or profanes the name of God. Third, he causes the majesty, glory, and presence of the Divinity to recede. Fourth, he causes Israel to fall by the sword. Fifth, he brings it about that they are expelled into exile from their own land.