Commentaria in Deuteronomium
15. The tithe of animals, namely of sheep, ox and goat, shall be offered to God, Ibid. verse 32.
16. Every year thou shalt set apart double tithes, the first to be given to the Levites, the second for the journey, and for victims to be given to God, when thrice in the year thou shalt go up to the temple; but in the third year thou shalt set apart a third tithe for the poor, Deut. xiv, verses 22 and 28.
XII. Ceremonial concerning the census to be paid and concerning offerings.
1. When thou shalt take the sum of the children of Israel, each shall give a price for his soul, namely half a sicle, and that thou shalt deliver for the uses of the tabernacle,
2. Let the children of Israel offer for the fabric of the tabernacle gold, silver, brass, violet, purple, scarlet, fine linen, goats’ hair, rams’ skins, setim wood, oil, spices, onyx stones and gems, Exodus xxv, 3.
3. Thou shalt not offer the hire of a harlot, nor the price of a dog, in the house of the Lord thy God, Deut. xxiii,
4. The Levites shall offer to the Lord the better and fatter tithes, Numbers xviii, 32.
XIII. Ceremonial of the Nazarites and of vows.
1. He that makes the vow of a Nazarite shall not drink wine, strong drink, and whatever is pressed from grapes, nor eat fresh or dried grapes. Secondly, he shall not cut his hair. Thirdly, he shall not go in to a funeral, even of father and mother. Fourthly, if anyone die before him, he shall be defiled: wherefore he shall shave his head on the first and seventh day; and on the eighth day he shall offer two turtles, or two young pigeons, one for sin, the other for a holocaust. Fifthly, when the days of the vow are completed, he shall offer a lamb of one year for a holocaust, and a ewe of one year for sin, and a ram for a peace offering, with its flour and libation: and then he shall shave his head, and burn the hair to the Lord, Numbers vi.
2. The man who has devoted himself to God, shall redeem himself with the price which shall be taxed for him by age and sex, Levit. xxvii, 2.
3. An animal fit for sacrifice, offered to God by vow, shall actually be given, not changed into another, nor redeemed, Ibid. verse 9.
4. An animal which cannot be sacrificed, if it be vowed to God, shall be sold at the price which the priest shall fix; but if the one who vowed wish to give it, let him add besides the fifth part of the price, Ibid. verse 11.
5. A house vowed to God shall be sold at a price to be taxed by the priest: but if the one who vowed wish to redeem it, let him add to the taxed price the fifth part of it, Ibid.
6. An heir vowing an inherited field, which is sown with thirty bushels of barley, can redeem it for 50 sicles, to be paid in proportion to the years that remain until the jubilee; but if he redeem it not, and the field be sold to another, he himself shall never be able to recover it, not even in the jubilee, but the field shall absolutely and for ever pass into the right of God and the priests, Ibid. verse 16.
7. If he who vows a field be not the heir, but the buyer of the field, he shall redeem it at the price which the priest shall fix, according to the number of years that remain until the jubilee: for in the jubilee the field must return to its first heir, Ibid. verse 22.
8. What by the vow of cherem, that is of anathema, is consecrated to God, shall not be redeemed, but shall die, either naturally, if it be an animal; or civilly, if it be a man, house or field, Ibid. verse 28.
9. A father may make void the vow of his daughter, a husband that of his wife, if he contradict it at once, that is, on the first day on which he learned of it; but if he is silent that day, on the second day he cannot contradict and annul the vow, Numbers chap. xxx.
XIV. Ceremonial of the purification of a woman after childbirth.
1. A woman, if having received seed she shall bear a man child, shall be unclean seven days, Levit. xii.
2. On the eighth day the infant shall be circumcised, Ibid.
3. She shall remain thirty-three days in the blood of her purification, Ibid.
4. But if she bear a female, she shall be unclean 14 days, and 66 days shall remain in the blood of her purification, Ibid.
5. And when the days of her purification are fulfilled, she shall offer a lamb of one year for a holocaust, and a young pigeon, or a turtle for sin: if she be poor, she shall offer only two turtles, or two young pigeons, Ibid.
XV. Ceremonial concerning leprosy and lepers.
1. In Levit. xiii, seven kinds of leprosy are determined. The first is the white and shining leprosy, verse 3. The second is the recurring leprosy, verse 7. The third is the inveterate leprosy, verse 10. The fourth is the whitest leprosy, verse 13. The fifth is the leprosy of the head and beard, verse 29. The sixth is the leprosy in baldness, verse 42. The seventh is the leprosy of a garment, verse 47, and of a house, chap. xiv, verse 35.
2. In Levit. xiii, 45, five things are commanded to the leper: first, that he have his garments unsewn; second, his head bare; third, his mouth covered; fourth, that he cry out that he is unclean; fifth, that he dwell alone outside the camp.
3. In Levit. xiv, the rite is laid down by which he who has been cured of leprosy is to be legally purified, namely that first, the priest sprinkle the one to be purified with the blood of a sparrow, by means of another sparrow, tied to a cedar stick with scarlet and hyssop; then he let the living sparrow fly away, verse 4. Second, the one to be purified wash his garments, shave the hairs of his body, and wash himself, verse 8. Third, on the eighth day he offer a lamb for a trespass, and a lamb for sin, and a ewe of one year for a holocaust, with three tenths of flour, and a sextary of oil, verse 10. If the one to be cleansed be poor, instead of these let him offer a lamb for trespass, and two turtles, or two young pigeons, one for sin, the other for a holocaust, with three tenths of flour and a sextary of oil, verse 21. Fourth, the priest shall dip the right ear of the one to be cleansed in the blood of the lamb, and the thumbs of his right hand and foot. Fifth, he shall sprinkle of the oil seven times before the tabernacle, and pour the rest of the oil upon the tip of the right ear, and upon the thumbs of the right hand and foot, and upon the head of the one to be purified, verse 25 and following. In like manner a garment, or a house, is to be purified, when it has been cured of leprosy, verse 49.
XVI. Ceremonial concerning those with a flow of seed, those who lie together, menstruous women and women with an issue of blood.
1. A man who suffers a flow of seed shall be unclean, Levit. xv, 2.
2. Every bed on which he shall sleep shall be unclean, and wherever he shall sit, Ibid.
3. If any man touch his bed, he shall wash his garments, etc. Ibid. verse 5.
4. If he be healed, he shall count seven days, and, his garments and his whole body being washed, he shall be clean, Ibid. verse 13.
5. On the eighth day he shall offer two turtles, or two young pigeons: one for sin, the other for a holocaust, Ibid. verse 14.
6. A man from whom the seed of copulation goes out (lying with a woman) shall wash his whole body with water, and be unclean until the evening, Ibid. verse 16. The woman shall do the same, Ibid. verse 18.
7. A woman who suffers her monthly courses shall be separated seven days, Ibid. verse 19.
8. A woman with an issue of blood shall be unclean; every bed on which she shall sleep, and every vessel on which she shall sit, shall be polluted, Ibid. verse 25.
9. If the blood stop, she shall count seven days, and on the eighth day shall offer two turtles, or two young pigeons, one for sin, the other for a holocaust, Ibid. verses 28 and 29.
XVII. Ceremonial concerning the eunuch and the mamzer, or bastard.
1. A eunuch, whose testicles are crushed or cut off, shall not enter the Church of the Lord, Deut. xxiii, 1.
2. A mamzer, that is, one born of a harlot, shall not enter into the Church of the Lord, even to the tenth generation, Ibid. verse 2.
XVIII. Ceremonial concerning the water of purification from the ashes of the red heifer.
1. Take a red cow without blemish, which hath not borne the yoke; let the priest immolate it outside the camp, and burn it all with cedar wood, scarlet twice dyed, and hyssop. A man shall gather the ashes of the cow, which shall be cast into living water, and with these the one who is unclean, especially by touching the dead, or a carcass, shall be sprinkled on the third and seventh day, and so he shall be purified, Numbers xix.
2. This is the law of a man that dieth in a tabernacle: all that go into his tent, and all the vessels that are there, shall be polluted seven days: so also those who touch a corpse, or bones, or the sepulchre of a dead man, shall be unclean, and shall be purified by the sprinkling of the water of ashes mentioned, on the third and seventh day, Ibid. verse 14.