LEVIT. XVII. ftatute for ever unto them throughout their generations. PARAPHRASE. idolatrous and magical ufage which they have run into, not only in Egypt, but in the wildernefs too, polluting themselves with thefe dæmons, on the occafion of killing and facrificing beasts in the open fields: though I have fo lately and fo folemnly engaged them into covenant with myself, and espoused them to me for my own people. To which idolatrous and magical rite I fee them fo prone, especially whilft they continue in the wildernefs haunted by these dæmons; that a law lefs ftrict than this will not be an effectual cure of this great evil. Wherefore this law (though it fhall be repealed LEVIT. XVII. PARAPHRASE. pealed as to that part which relates to beasts killed for private use, when you come into 8 And thou shalt fay unto them, Whatsoever man there be of the houfe of Ifrael, or of the ftrangers which fojourn among you %, that of the promised land, Deut. xii. 15, 16, 20, 21. where you cannot be near the altar, as you are here, and will not want this strict restraint fo much as you do in the wildernefs; yet as far as relates to facrifices) fhall continue as long as this difpenfation of religion lasteth. Ver. 8, 9. And as the profelytes of the gate are to abstain from all idolatrous and magical rites, as NOTE S. well Ver. 8, 9. "Or of the strangers which fojourn among "you." That is, the profelytes of the gate. I think fo, for this reafon; that as these verfes extend the law contained contained in all the former verfes of this chapter to fome perfons which are here called "the ftrangers that fojourn "among you," fo those must be the profelytes of the gate; fince profelytes of righteoufnefs were included under Ifraelites, ver. 2. according to the known law, "One "law fhall be to him that is home-born and him that "fojourneth among you," Exod. xii. 49. Lev. xxiv. 22. and Numb. xv. 16, 29. This alfo farther appears from the words that follow," that offereth a burnt-offering "or facrifice." For burnt-offerings, or facrifices that were peace-offerings, the profelytes of the gate might offer. But none could offer fin-offerings or trefpafs-offerings but Ifraelites and profelytes of righteousness. Now, fince no offering is here mentioned but what a profelyte of the gate might offer, it feems plain, that by "the ftran"gers that fojourn among you" in this verfe, we are to understand a profelyte of the gate. If a profelyte of righteousness had been meant here, why was it not said," that "offereth a burnt-offering, peace-offering, or a fin or trefpafs-offering." practices; ▲ Ver. 10. "Or of the stranger that fojourneth among 66 you, that eateth any manner of blood." By "blood" here is not meant blood mixed with the flesh, or kept in it by ftrangling (that is forbidden, ver. 13.); but blood drained from the body of the beaft, and eat or drunk by itself, or mixed up with any thing elfe. And the prohibition of blood follows that of eating things which had been offered to idols, because those offerings were gene rally rally of the larger animals, fuch as oxen, lambs, or goats; and that it was from thofe that fuch large quantities of blood could be drained, as could be eat or drunk by themfelves, or mixed up with fomething else; for that reason, the eating blood is here forbidden next to things offered to idols. 66 And that blood here is forbidden to the profelytes of the gate, under the name of "the ftranger that fojourneth among you," is not only plain from the context, and the matter of the prohibition, which it is well known did extend to profelytes of the gate, but from this confidera-^ tion, that blood had been forbidden to the Ifraelites, under which the religious profelytes are generally comprehended, on two former occafions, Lev. iii. 17. and vii. 26. which feems to be the fenfe of the following verse : "Therefore I faid" (that is, in thofe places juft now quoted)" unto the children of Ifrael, No foul of you" (that is, of you Ifraelites by birth or by religion)" fhall 66 eat blood, neither fhall, &c." that is, And now "fay unto you, that no ftranger that sojourneth among you fhall eat it." beafts I |