Commentaria in Deuteronomium
THAT THOU CAUSE NOT THY LAND TO SIN,—that thou defile not thy land. So the Septuagint; as if to say: Lest the land be defiled by the sin of disobedience against this law, and God impute this sin to it and punish it; because, namely, the former husband, by receiving against the law a wife once put away by himself and defiled by another’s seed, and so made abominable to him, rendered himself defiled, abominable and infamous, and was held such by all; by which deed the land itself was as it were defiled, because it suffered a foul and base thing to be done upon it. So Genesis xxxviii, 7, Her and Onan defiled the land upon which they poured out their seed, and which they consequently made liable to divine punishment, as to barrenness, locusts, caterpillars, famine, plague, etc., on account of the wickedness of those who dwell in it. So Abulensis and Cajetan. See what is said on Leviticus xviii, 28.
6. THOU SHALT NOT TAKE THE NETHER NOR THE UPPER MILLSTONE TO PLEDGE (millstone, that is, a grinding stone, or both, or either one, so that he cannot grind. In Hebrew the nether millstone is called rechayim, because it breathes and blows out, as it were, the meal ground by it; for ruach signifies to breathe; whence ruach is spirit. The upper millstone is called rekeb, because it rides, as it were, on the lower; he adds the reason), FOR HE HATH PLEDGED HIS LIFE TO THEE,—that is, as the Hebrew and Septuagint have it, because he gives his soul in pledge. For, as the Chaldee renders, with these millstones food is made for every soul; as if to say: While thou takest the millstones in pledge, thou takest the life of the miller and of others: because by this mill the miller lives, and prepares his livelihood, and supplies meal and nourishment to many others.
Tropologically St. Gregory, Morals xxxiii, xvi, and from him Rupert and Rabanus. The pledge of the debtor is the confession of the sinner; the upper millstone is hope, the lower is fear. These, therefore, are forbidden to be taken as a pledge: because he who preaches to a sinner ought to compose his preaching with such dispensation that neither, hope being left, he take away fear; nor, hope being taken away, he leave him in fear alone.
7. SOLICITING HIS BROTHER,—namely that the brother, that is a neighbour, submit himself to him, and follow him to foreigners to whom he may sell him. Whence the Hebrew, Chaldee and Septuagint, for “soliciting,” have stealing, that is, a kidnapper; for kidnapping is the theft of a man, by which a man is carried off or sold into servitude, which is an enormous sin and injury, and is therefore here punished with death.
8. OBSERVE DILIGENTLY THAT THOU INCUR NOT THE PLAGUE OF LEPROSY. Vers. 8.—So also the Chaldee renders: Observe, he says, studiously that thou fall not into the plague of leprosy, that thou keep it diligently, and do according to all that the priests have taught you concerning leprosy, if thou do what the priests shall teach thee; but if thou be rebellious to them, fear lest thou be struck with leprosy, as Mary was struck because she had murmured against Moses. Hence it is plain that leprosy was a scourge which God sent upon rebels and those who despise their superiors, especially ecclesiastical ones. Hence King Ozias, wishing to burn incense against the will of the priests, was struck with leprosy, 4 Kings xv, 5. See what is said on Leviticus xi, near the beginning of the chapter.
10. THOU SHALT NOT GO INTO HIS (thy neighbour’s) HOUSE TO TAKE A PLEDGE,—lest, namely, pressing into his house, thou take in pledge a thing necessary or very convenient to thy neighbour; let thy neighbour, therefore, of his own accord bring thee, in place of a pledge, what he pleases, and what he can best do without.
12. BUT IF HE BE POOR, THE PLEDGE SHALL NOT LODGE WITH THEE.—The rich who have received from a poor man in pledge a garment, or other thing necessary to him, are here commanded to send back this pledge to his house every evening, that by night he may be warmed by his garment and use his own property; in the morning, however, they are allowed every day to take it again in pledge, that in this way the poor man may be stirred to pay quickly what he owes them.
13. THAT THOU MAYEST HAVE JUSTICE BEFORE THE LORD THY GOD, Vers. 13.
“Justice,” that is, mercy: so the Septuagint, that is, the merit and reward of mercy. So Daniel iv, 24, where we have: “Redeem thy sins with alms,” the Chaldee, which in that book is the original, has: redeem thy sins with justice. Hence our Interpreter, too, often takes justice for mercy, as Proverbs xi, 4: “Justice (that is, alms) shall deliver from death”; for there preceded: “Riches (hoarded by the covetous) shall not profit in the day of vengeance”; and Psalm cxi, 9, which the Apostle cites, 2 Corinthians ix, 9: “He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor, his justice (that is, alms) remaineth for ever and ever.” Mercy, then, is called justice, because mercy is the proper virtue of the just and the holy, and the same man is holy and merciful. Hence also “holy” is in Hebrew called chasid, that is, pious; on the contrary, “the bowels of the wicked are cruel,” as is said in Proverbs xii, 10.
14 and 15. THOU SHALT NOT REFUSE THE HIRE OF THE NEEDY, ETC. BUT THOU SHALT PAY HIM THE PRICE OF HIS LABOUR THE SAME DAY, ETC., BECAUSE HE IS POOR, AND WITH IT MAINTAINETH HIS LIFE.—Wages are here commanded to be paid to the poor on the same day on which they laboured, before sunset; because from it they must live from day to day, and feed their family.
16. THE FATHERS SHALL NOT BE PUT TO DEATH FOR THE CHILDREN.—Lyranus thinks that a penalty, not only of loss but also of sense, such as torments and death, can be inflicted on children for the sins of their parents, and that not only by God but also by men, namely by judges and princes. But this conflicts with this verse, and Gabriel Vasquez well refutes it.
19. WHEN THOU HAST REAPED THE CORN IN THY FIELD, AND HAST FORGOTTEN A SHEAF, THOU SHALT NOT RETURN TO TAKE IT AWAY. Vers. 19.—Here and in Leviticus xix, 9, it is commanded that the gleaning of the field and of the vine after the vintage be left to the poor; the same is ordained of the fruits of the olives left on the tree after the gathering. These, then, are precepts of mercy, not of justice.
Note in this chapter how God is the guardian and avenger of the poor, and how he wills that they be succoured, and not injured: “Lest he cry,” he says, vers. 15, “against thee to the Lord, and it be imputed to thee for a sin.” A celebrated example, spread in everyone’s mouth, exists in Holland: the wife of the Count of Holland, repulsing a poor beggar-woman, and charging her with adultery because she had so numerous an offspring, was cursed by her, that she should bear as many children as there are days in the year. God heard the curse, and brought it about that the Count’s wife at one birth bore 365 children, who were all baptized, and soon after baptism died. A picture of this prodigy exists in the convent of virgins between Leyden and The Hague. The very same, Crantz relates, befell Margaret, wife of the Count of Holstein, in his History of the Vandals, and the Annals of Brunswick in the year of our Lord 1313. Whether this prodigy is the same as the former, the neighbouring names of Holstein and Holland having deceived them, I do not trouble, provided we doubt not that the thing is most true.