Commentaria in Deuteronomium
IX. Judicial laws concerning hired servants, strangers, orphans and widows.
1. Thou shalt not keep the wages of the hired servant until
2. Entering into the vineyard of thy neighbour, eat as many grapes as thou pleasest, but carry none out with thee. Do the same in the cornfield and with the ears, Deut. xxiii, 24.
3. When thou reapest the corn, thou shalt not cut it down to the very ground, nor gather the ears that remain; neither shalt thou gather in thy vineyard the clusters and the grapes that fall down, but shalt leave them to be taken by the poor and the strangers, Levit. xix, 9.
4. Thou shalt do the same with the olives, in the olive tree after the shaking, Deut. xxiv, 20, and with the sheaf which thou hast forgotten in the field, Ibid. vers. 19.
5. Take care that there be no needy man nor beggar among you, Deut. xv, 4.
6. Thou shalt open thy hand to the poor, and shalt lend to him, though the seventh year of remission be at hand, Ibid. vers. 7.
X. Judicial law concerning pledges.
1. If thou take of thy neighbour a garment in pledge, thou shalt give it him again before sunset: for that is the covering wherein he sleepeth, Exod. xxii, 26.
2. Thou shalt not take the nether or the upper millstone to pledge: for he hath pledged his life to thee, Deut. xxiv, 6.
3. When thou shalt demand of thy neighbour anything that he oweth thee, thou shalt not go into his house to take away a pledge; but thou shalt stand without, and he shall bring out to thee what he hath, Ibid. vers. 10.
XI. Judicial law concerning usuries.
1. Thou shalt not lend to thy brother money to usury, nor corn, nor any other thing, but to the stranger: but to thy brother thou shalt lend that which he needeth, without usury, Deut. xxiii, 19.
2. If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor, thou shalt not be hard upon them as an extortioner, nor oppress them with usuries, Exod. xxii, 25.
XII. Judicial law concerning thefts and damages done.
1. If any man steal an ox or a sheep, and kill or sell it, he shall restore five oxen for one ox, and four sheep for one sheep, Exod. xxii, 1.
2. If that which he stole be found with him alive, either ox or ass, he shall restore double, Ibid. vers. 4.
3. If he have not wherewith to make restitution, he himself shall be sold,
4. He that killeth a thief by night shall be held guiltless; but he that killeth a thief by day shall be put to death, Ibid. vers. 2.
5. He that hath sinned and done a damage to his neighbour shall confess his sin, and restore the principal itself, and the fifth part over and above to him against whom he hath sinned, Num. v, 7.
6. If any man hurt a field or a vineyard, and put in his beast to feed on that which is another man’s, he shall restore the best of whatsoever he hath in his field or vineyard, according to the estimation of the damage, Exod. chap. xxii, vers. 5.
7. If a fire break out and catch upon thorns, and lay hold of the corn in the fields, he that kindled the fire shall make good the damage, Ibid. vers. 6.
8. The kidnapper, who stealeth a man to sell him, shall be put to death, Deut. xxiv, 7.
XIII. Judicial law concerning deposits.
1. If the depositary fraudulently make away with the thing deposited, he shall restore double, Exod. xxii, 9.
2. If through his negligence the thing deposited be stolen, he shall restore the single value, Ibid. vers. 12.
3. If the thing be taken away without his negligence and fault, he shall restore nothing, Ibid. vers. 10 and 11.
4. If the deposit, as an animal, be killed by a beast, the depositary shall bring to the depositor what was killed, and shall restore nothing else, Ibid.
XIV. Judicial law concerning loans.
1. He that borroweth anything of his neighbour, if it be hurt or die, the owner not being present, shall be compelled to make restitution, Exod. chap. xxii, vers. 14.
2. But if the owner be present, he shall not restore, especially if the borrower or hirer had not received the loan gratis, but had hired the use of it for a price, Ibid.
THUS MUCH HAS BEEN SAID OF THE SIMPLE PRECEPTS AND LAWS OF MOSES; THE MIXED OR COMPOUND ONES FOLLOW, AND FIRST THOSE AT ONCE MORAL AND CEREMONIAL.
1. Remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day, Exod. xx, vers. 8.
2. Beware in marriage and carnal union of the degrees of consanguinity and affinity forbidden both by the law of nature and by the divine ceremonial law, Levit. chap. xviii, which I have set out in the sixth precept of the Decalogue.
3. Everything that is consecrated to the Lord by the vow of cherem, that is, of anathema, cannot be redeemed, but shall be put to death, Levit. xxvii, vers. 28 and 29.
4. Offer to the Lord the tithes and firstfruits of animals and fruits, Levit. xxvii, vers. 30 and 32.
5. You shall celebrate the feasts of the Lord, Levit. xxiii, 4.
6. The precepts of God shall be in thy heart: thou shalt bind them as a sign on thy hand, and they shall be and shall move between thy eyes, and thou shalt write them in the entry and on the doors of thy house, Deut. vi, 6–9.
7. What I command thee, that only do thou to the Lord; neither add anything nor diminish, Deut. xii, 32.
8. Consecrate priests and high priests, Exod. xxix.
9. Offer to the Lord sacrifices and any victims, Levit. i and following.
10. Offer gold, silver, brass, etc., for the making of the temple, Exod. xxv, 3.
THE SECOND KIND OF THE LAWS OF MOSES, THE MIXED, ARE AT ONCE MORAL AND JUDICIAL.
I. Concerning the first four precepts of the Decalogue.
1. Thou shalt not suffer sorcerers to live, Exod. xxii, 18.
2. He that sacrificeth to gods shall be put to death, Ibid. vers. 20.
3. A man or woman in whom there is a pythonical spirit or spirit of divination shall be put to death; they shall stone them, Levit. xx, 27.
4. He that giveth of his seed to Moloch shall be stoned, Ibid. vers. 2.
5. If there arise a prophet, or thy son, or daughter, or wife, and say: Let us go and serve strange gods, thou shalt presently kill him: let thy hand be first upon him, and afterwards the hand of all the people: he shall be stoned to death, Deut. chap. xiii,
6. If a city do the same, thou shalt destroy it with its inhabitants, even to the cattle: all things that are in it thou shalt burn with fire to the Lord thy God, and it shall be a heap for ever: it shall be built no more, Ibid. 13.
7. He that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, dying let him die; all the multitude shall stone him, whether he be a native or a stranger, Levit. xxiv, 16.
8. Thou shalt utterly destroy all the Chanaanites; thou shalt not enter into a league with them, nor marriages; they shall not dwell in thy land: for they will turn away thy sons from me, and they will worship strange gods, Exod. xxiii, 33.
9. He that striketh his father or mother shall be put to death, Exod. xxi, 15.
10. He that curseth his father or mother shall be put to death, Ibid. vers. 17.
11. The parents shall bring a rebellious son and glutton to the judges, and by their sentence all the men of that city shall stone him, Deut. xxi, 18.
II. Concerning the sixth precept, namely concerning incestuous union and lust.
1. The adulterer and the adulteress shall be punished with death, Levit.
2. If any man sleep with his stepmother, or his daughter-in-law, or with a male, both shall die, Ibid. So also he that sleepeth with his aunt on the mother’s side, or on the father’s side, or with the wife of his brother, or of his uncle on the father’s or the mother’s side, Ibid. vers. 18 and following. Likewise he that seeth the nakedness of his sister, Ibid. vers. 17.
3. He that, having taken a wife, taketh also her daughter, shall be burnt alive together with them, Ibid. vers. 14.
4. A man or woman that lieth with a beast shall be put to death, Ibid. vers. 15.
5. If a man find in the city a virgin who is betrothed to another, and lie with her, and she cried not out, both shall be stoned, Deuter. chap. xxii,
6. But if he do this in the field, he alone shall die: the maid shall suffer nothing, Ibid.
7. He that forceth a virgin not betrothed shall have her to wife, and shall never be able to put her away; and moreover he shall pay her father fifty sicles, Ibid.
8. If any man sleep with a handmaid, that is, a bondwoman, both shall be scourged, and shall not die, because she was not free; and they shall offer a ram for sin to the Lord,
9. If any man lie with a virgin not betrothed, he shall endow her, and have her to wife, Exod. xxii, 16.
10. If the father of the virgin will not give her, he shall endow her, Ibid.
11. If the husband accuse his spouse, saying: I found her not a virgin: if what he alleges be true, they shall stone her; but if not, the parents of the virgin shall bring forth the tokens of her virginity, and by these the judges shall condemn the husband to scourging, and to a hundred sicles of silver, to be given to the father of the spouse, and the spouse he shall be forced to keep all her life, Deut. xxii, 13.
12. A woman shall not be clothed with man’s apparel, nor a man use woman’s apparel, Deut. xxii, 5.