Commentaria in Deuteronomium
Chapter the Sixteenth. Synopsis of the Chapter
He repeats the feast of the passover and of the unleavened bread, and in vers. 10 the feast of Pentecost, and in vers. 13 the feast of tabernacles, and commands, vers. 16, that at these every male appear before the Lord in the tabernacle. Lastly, vers. 18, he commands judges to be appointed in every city.
1. Observe the month of the new corn, and the time of the spring first, that thou mayest keep the phase to the Lord thy God: because in this month the Lord thy God brought thee out of Egypt by night. 2. And thou shalt sacrifice the phase to the Lord thy God, of sheep and of oxen, in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, that his name may dwell there. 3. Thou shalt not eat leavened bread with it: seven days shalt thou eat of it without leaven, the bread of affliction, because in fear thou camest forth out of Egypt: that thou mayest remember the day of thy coming out of Egypt all the days of thy life. 4. And there shall be no leaven seen in all thy coasts for seven days, and there shall nothing of the flesh remain of that which was sacrificed in the evening of the first day until morning. 5. Thou mayest not immolate the phase in any of thy cities, which the Lord thy God will give thee: 6. but in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, that his name may dwell there: thou shalt immolate the phase in the evening, at the going down of the sun, at which thou camest forth out of Egypt. 7. And thou shalt boil it, and eat it in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, and in the morning rising up thou shalt go into thy dwellings. 8. Six days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day, because it is the assembly of the Lord thy God, thou shalt do no work. 9. Seven weeks thou shalt number to thyself from that day when thou didst put the sickle to the corn: 10. and thou shalt celebrate the feast of weeks to the Lord thy God, a voluntary oblation of thy hand, which thou shalt offer according to the blessing of the Lord thy God; 11. and thou shalt feast before the Lord thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, who abide with you, in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, that his name may dwell there; 12. and thou shalt remember that thou wast a servant in Egypt: and thou shalt keep and do the things that are commanded. 13. Thou shalt also keep the solemnity of tabernacles seven days, when thou hast gathered in thy corn and wine and fruits from the barnfloor and the winepress: 14. and thou shalt feast in thy solemnity, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the Levite, and the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates. 15. Seven days shalt thou celebrate feasts to the Lord thy God, in the place which the Lord shall choose; and the Lord thy God will bless thee in all thy fruits, and in every work of thy hands, and thou shalt be in joy. 16. Three times in a year shall all thy males appear in the sight of the Lord thy God, in the place which he shall choose: in the solemnity of unleavened bread, in the solemnity of weeks, and in the solemnity of tabernacles. He shall not appear with his hands empty before the Lord; 17. but every one shall offer according to what he hath, according to the blessing of the Lord his God, which he shall have given him. 18. Thou shalt appoint judges and magistrates in all thy gates, which the Lord thy God shall give thee, in all thy tribes: that they may judge the people with just judgment, 19. and not go aside to either part. Thou shalt not accept person nor gifts: for gifts blind the eyes of the wise, and change the words of the just. 20. Thou shalt follow justly after that which is just: that thou mayest live and possess the land which the Lord thy God shall give thee. 21. Thou shalt not plant a grove, nor any tree near the altar of the Lord thy God. 22. Neither shalt thou make to thyself, nor set up a statue: which the Lord thy God hateth.
1. OBSERVE THE MONTH OF THE NEW CORN,—namely when the ears of barley begin to turn yellow; for that is Nisan, or March, in which in the land of promise they were brought in at the pasch, namely on the second day of the unleavened bread, as is plain from Leviticus xxiii, 11, and Leviticus xxii[i], 10.
2. AND THOU SHALT SACRIFICE THE PHASE TO THE LORD, ETC., OF SHEEP AND OF OXEN.—“Phase,” that is, the paschal victims, which in the paschal solemnity are commanded to be offered of sheep and oxen, Numbers xxviii, 19; for the paschal lamb could not be exchanged for an ox.
Wrongly, therefore, do some Hebrews here take phase for the paschal lamb, and think that a calf could be substituted for the lamb, and add as a reason that in large families a lamb would not have sufficed for each. But I answer: The lamb was not for satisfying each, but that each might eat some part of it in memory of the deliverance from Egypt; besides the lamb, however, they ate other foods with which they satisfied themselves. So St. Augustine here, Question xxiv. See what is said on Exodus chap. xii.
THAT HIS NAME MAY DWELL THERE,—that God may be worshipped there, and invoked by his name.
3. THOU SHALT NOT EAT LEAVENED BREAD WITH IT (that is, with the phase).—For all the seven days of the pasch they ate unleavened loaves with the lamb, and with the other sacrifices and foods, even common ones.
THOU SHALT EAT THE BREAD OF AFFLICTION.—In the Hebrew: thou shalt eat unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, that is, a sign and memorial of the Egyptian affliction, and likewise of thy haste and fear at the going out of Egypt, as follows. Secondly, “bread of affliction,” that is, afflicting, because unleavened bread is insipid to the taste and heavy on the stomach. Cajetan renders it bread of poverty, and so it can be rendered; for it belongs to the poor to lack the convenience of leavening bread, and to use bread baked under the ashes, which is unleavened, and is made and baked at once.
BECAUSE IN FEAR (the Chaldee and Septuagint, Because thou camest out of Egypt with such trembling and haste that thou hadst no leisure to leaven bread): in memory of this thou shalt eat unleavened bread at the pasch.
6. THOU SHALT SACRIFICE THE PHASE (properly so called, that is, the paschal lamb) IN THE EVENING, AT WHICH YE CAME FORTH,—when you made ready for the going out; for the Hebrew word signifies an act begun. See what is said on Exodus xii, 42. Secondly, “when” could be referred to the feast of the Pasch: for the Hebrew is, at the appointed time (namely of the Pasch), when ye came forth. So Vatablus.
7. THOU SHALT GO INTO THY DWELLINGS,—to thy houses, to thy habitation.
8. SIX DAYS THOU SHALT EAT UNLEAVENED BREAD.—Hence some Jews supposed that by the law of God unleavened bread was commanded for only six days; but that it is commanded for seven days is plain here, vers. 4, and Exodus chap. xii, 19. I say therefore: The sense is as if to say: Six days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, but shalt not rest from work; but on the seventh day, besides the unleavened bread, thou shalt also rest from work, because it is the feast of the assembly. So Lyranus.
BECAUSE IT IS THE ASSEMBLY,—because it is the feast of the assembly, in which the people are gathered and united in the temple, to give thanks to God before they return home. See what is said on Leviticus xxiii, 36.
18. THOU SHALT APPOINT JUDGES AND MAGISTRATES IN ALL THY GATES.—“Magistrates,” that is, officers, namely wise men, who, as masters and magistrates, may preside in pronouncing judgment, as follows; the judges and the masters are therefore the same, because judges ought to be masters. So the Hebrew, the Chaldee and Vatablus. Hence Plato held that commonwealths would be happy if philosophers ruled them, or if those who rule them philosophized.
Note, “in the gates,” that is, in the cities; it is a synecdoche, as also in the next chapter, vers. 2. So the Septuagint and the Chaldee. He names the gates because judgments were wont to be held in the gates of cities, that strangers might the more freely come to plead their cause there, as to an open and public place.
19. THOU SHALT NOT ACCEPT PERSON NOR GIFTS: FOR GIFTS BLIND THE EYES OF THE WISE, AND CHANGE THE WORDS OF THE JUST.—Let counsellors and judges hear this. For gifts have these two evils: first, that they blind the mind; secondly, that they change the tongue and the sentence to be pronounced; for first, they bend the affection; secondly, the affection bends and clouds the reason and the judgment; thirdly, the reason bends the sentence in favour of him who gave the gifts. See what is said on Exodus xxiii, 8.
20. THOU SHALT NOT PLANT A GROVE, NOR ANY TREE NEAR THE ALTAR,—lest thou seem to imitate the sacred groves of the Gentiles and of idols, especially of Priapus; for the rites of Priapus were performed in groves, that his obscenities might be hidden by them; hence in these groves they practised every kind of filthiness. Note “any,” that is, whatsoever; for thus the collective “all” among the Hebrews is often taken for the distributive “any.”
Tropologically St. Gregory, in the Preface to Job, epistle to Leander, at the end: “I beseech thee,” he says, “that in running through the words of this work thou look not in them for leaves of words; because through the sacred utterances the lightness of fruitless talkativeness is carefully restrained by their expounders, since in the temple of God it is forbidden to plant a grove.” So also Philo.
21. NEITHER SHALT THOU MAKE TO THYSELF, NOR SET UP A STATUE,—namely such as the Gentiles set up to their gods or idols.