(CHAPTER 21)
10. "When you go out [ki-theytzey] to battle against your enemies and YHWH your Elohim has given them into your hands, and you have taken them captive,
This refers to nations outside the Land of Israel, where captives may still be taken. (20:10-18) Unlike the men, virginal women do not carry the seed of the condemned people:
11. "if you have seen among the captives a woman of lovely form, and have a longing for her, and have taken her for yourself as a wife,
12. "then you may bring her inside your household, and she must shave her head and prepare her nails.
Bring her: Those not specifically wanted for wives would be considered corporate chattel and not necessarily end up in the household of the one who captured them. Prepare (literally, simply "do") her nails: the exact meaning or purpose is unclear, but it may be symbolic, as with her hair, of putting off her uniqueness and individuality completely, like men conscripted into the army are all made to look alike. Her hairstyle and nails are a woman's point of pride, and also identified her as a member of her former culture, so she can now make a fresh start. A woman's hair as symbolic of her being under authority. (1 Cor. 11:15) She is no longer under her old authority, so she removes the things that symbolize it. In a way she is made to look like a baby again, since she was being "born again" as part of Israel. Like her nails, she will now reflect a different light. This bride is a picture of corporate Israel, especially the Northern Kingdom. YHWH captured us from among the nations, but it is up to us to put off the reflection of whatever we served before, or we will just end up enslaved to the world or our own passions again. If she says she will not do it, she forfeits the option of being his wife, and would revert to simply being his servant--or she could be sold to someone else as a slave. But if she decides to comply, everything changes. She can now reflect the will and authority of the one who will now be her covering.
13. "Thus she will remove the resemblance of [the people from which] she was taken away, and remain in your house to mourn for her father and mother for a month of days; after that, yes, you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.
Resemblance: from the word for "image"--clothing that conforms to the shape of one's body, and thus by extension, the garments by which she conformed to her former culture's standards, for she is now to be an Israelite. Likewise, evangelists who "harvest" and pastors who "thresh" are to teach the paganism out of anyone they "capture". (Eph. 4, interpreting the counting of the Omer) Once one is part of free Israel, his former identity is only a vestige of his captivity. Now that YHWH is drawing us back home, we do not need the reminders of our exile. A month: the symbol of renewal. She is humanely given time to grieve as she must, but after a set time, she must move on from whatever she was to the immense new task of learning to be an Israelite. This is also enough time for her, as a woman, to have even what was inside her body purged out. With her head shaved, she would not be very attractive to her new husband, who is not to have relations with her until that month is over. The Apostles also gave those returning to Israel from being scattered among the nations time to learn and absorb Moshe's teaching in the process of rejoining the commonwealth of Israel.
14. "But if it turns out that you are not pleased with her, you shall let her go free [if] her soul [wishes], but you may by no means sell her for money. You may not treat her like a slave, because you have humiliated her.
If she agreed to go through this process, yet you then find out that she snores, you no longer have a choice to tell her she is a slave again. You brought her into the house; you must take responsibility for her welfare. Let her go free: Aram., "release her to her own rights". She is not only free, but a free Israelite citizen. She has the same rights as any native-born Israelite woman. A woman rightfully married but no longer desired may not be as attractive to another man as a virgin, so she must be compensated for this loss of face. YHWH thus limited Himself: If we have chosen to live as Israel, yet we "snore", He will not sell us back into the world. We must do the right thing (v. 9) for those who are entering the community of Israel today as well, for most have been enslaved to the Roman or Babylonian system, and of course to self.
15. "If a man has two wives, one loved and one less favored, and both the beloved one and the one less favored have borne him children, and if the firstborn was by the one less favored,
16. "then [this is how it] must be: when [it comes] time to divide his inheritance for his children, he is not permitted to give the son of the loved [wife] the right of the firstborn before the son of the less favored, [who is in fact] the firstborn.
Leah's firstborn Re'uven only forfeited his right to the position, and it devolved on Rachel's firstborn, because Re'uven took his father's concubine, thus damaging the relationship with his father too seriously to remain in a position of authority over the rest of his brothers. Less favored: literally, hated, but in such cases it must be understood in comparative terms.
17. "Rather, he shall recognize the son of the less favored [wife] by bestowing on him a double portion of all that he has, because he is the first of his generative power; the right of the firstborn is his.
Do not shortchange an innocent man; do what is right even toward the Israelite that you do not particularly like. (v. 9)
18. "If a man has a son who is rebellious and grievously provokes him and will not obey his father's or mother's voice, and after they have disciplined him, will not listen to them,
This does not refer to a child, but an adult of accountable age (by the Torah, 20 years)--who probably should not be living under his parents' roof as a parasite, but taking responsibility for himself. After they have disciplined him: They must also have exhausted their "wits" and resources to correct him; they are not saying, "Here, take care of my kid; I don't know how." They must learn how.
19. "then his father and mother shall seize him and bring him to the elders of his city or the gates of his locality,
20. "and tell the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious, and will not obey our voice; he is a squanderer and a drunkard.'
The testimony of both parents is needed, but theirs alone. A squanderer (or glutton) and a drunkard: one who is “spoiled”--so lavish with things that he acts as if they have no value, since he himself is worthless or insignificant. He is “eating them out of house and home”, and giving them nothing back for all they have provided for him. This is the accusation some were trying to level against Yahshua (Mat. 11:19), using this “code name” for a rebel, thus saying he should be killed because he would not submit to some of the rabbinic customs of his day. But he echoed Proverbs 8 by calling wisdom his mother (Luke 7:31-35), against whom he was thus NOT rebelling. He proved his accusers were acting like immature children, finding something wrong with him whether what he did seemed positive or not. This neither wisdom nor his Father would testify against him. (Yochanan 5:37) Christians may call YHWH “Father” as well, but we have a mother too—the Torah, another name for Wisdom. She is the perfect yielding wife, and will teach us how to be the same. One cannot be obeying his Father without also obeying the mother; likewise if one is only following the Torah’s strict legal interpretation without the guidance of the spirit that comes from Abba’s voice, we are out of balance as well.
21. "Then all the men of the city shall pelt him with building-stones, so that he dies, and thus you shall purge out the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear and stand in reverential awe.
YHWH mercifully allows the parents not to have to be the ones to cast the first stone in this case, and both of them must agree to it, and the local elders would probably be his own uncles and cousins anyway. If he does listen to one parent but not the other, he might be beaten but not killed. One who respects neither (provided these are Torah-honoring parents) is worthy of death, for he has brought them shame. Building-stones: the community is actually built up by this seeming act of destruction, because it is purified. Stones are one things that cannot be ritually defiled. Purge: the benefit of the whole nation is more important than individual family ties. Rabbinic writings say that this sentence never had to be carried out; the deterrent was effective. Awe: fear or respect--the very thing which was missing in the rebellious son.
22. "Also, if a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he has been executed, and you hang his body on a tree,
The rebellious son (vv. 18-21) was executed only by the elders, so there would not be enough stones to make a pile covering him as in executions participated in by all Israel, so his body would still be easily hung up. However, there has never been found a recorded case in which this command had to be obeyed. The severity of the sentence has apparently been enough of a deterrent in itself.
23. "his body may not remain on the tree all night. Rather, you must by all means bury him that [same] day (since whoever is hanged is cursed by Elohim), so that your land, which YHWH is giving you for an inheritance, will not be defiled.
Paul ties this curse to Yahshua's form of death in Galatians 3:13; 2 Cor. 5:21. This may be why Yoseyf of Ramathayim obtained permission to take Yahshua's body off the cross before sunset, especially when the next day was a festival high day (Yochanan 19:31ff. Being the Passover Lamb, he also could not remain overnight; Deut. 16:4.) "Accursed" means "vilified" or "treated lightly"--the picture of hanging off the ground versus one "carrying weight" with YHWH being buried underground. But the idea here seems to be more that one is executed first, then hung up for public display as a sobering warning to others. However, as we see so often today with Hollywood, one can become desensitized to the shock of such a spectacle, to the point that it no longer repulses us, and this might occur if the body remains there too long. People would start taking pictures posed next to it, writing popular songs about it, and doing comedy routines based on it. YHWH does not wish to hurt the family of the executed man in this way, for He is not cruel. Our responsibility to an Israelite is not over once he dies; even those deserving of death in Israel must still receive a decent and timely burial, with a few notable exceptions of people so wicked that the dogs were allowed to eat their bodies. The rabbis say the greatest display of love one can show is to bury someone, since he cannot repay him for all the expenses involved and even after that, make sure his grave is never defiled. (This is a close second to Yahshua's statement that no one has greater love than to lay down one's life for his friends.) So this chapter was all about responsibility--Moshe's emphasis as he winds down before leaving his flock for the last time. As Israelites, we have many responsibilities, but do not let that frighten you; all of Israel is responsible for you as well. (Psalm 118:7)
CHAPTER 22
1. "You must not see your fellow tribesman's ox or lamb being driven away and ignore them. You must by all means return them to your brother.
Fellow tribesman: literally, brother, but in the extended sense so common in Middle Eastern languages, since it may include one you do not even know. (v. 2) An ox and a lamb are animals YHWH accepts on His altar so that people may draw near to Him, re-establishing or strengthening the relationship, and they have been chased away from their masters. There are drawing-near “offerings” prescribed for every festival and Sabbath, and even those of us who have recovered the true festival calendar (which both Christianity and Judaism expelled) all too often still see them as a “sacrifice”: I have to give up my Saturday for YHWH; I have to use all my vacation time at the feasts, etc. Rather, we should look at it as letting something go in order to come closer to YHWH. Nowadays we have no place to make such slaughters to YHWH, but there are many ways we can apply this principle: we can let go of things, thought patterns, priorities, or men’s morality in order to be near Him. These do not negate the simple, literal meaning of this verse, but the deeper meaning we can see in these potential “drawings-near” is also very important. These animals are usually seen as part of a herd or flock, so seeing them wandering alone would clue us in to the fact that they are lost. An entire flock may be going astray, and you can recognize this by the fact that they have no shepherd. How much more are we responsible to return those of YHWH’s flock who are lost? (Yirmeyahu 50:6) Being driven away: Hebrew, nadakh. This does not appear to be an animal that escapes on its own or wanders away, but rather one that someone has let loose, expelled, or led away, probably for some malicious reason, or possibly due to the owner’s own anger at it. (There would be a different set of rules for one which was being stolen.) What can we learn from other Scriptures about this term nadakh? It is easy to see why someone would come to the sanctuary if he has sinned, but if he is not coming to cleanse his conscience, why would anyone bring an offering there? Ecclesiastes (Qoheleth) 5:1 tells us why. We are meant to draw near in order to hear, not rashly or hastily trying to talk our way in. Except for confession, our words must be few (described in Hoshea 14:2 as the “calves of our lips”) letting our actions speak for themselves. He does not want us to draw near with our mouths when our hearts are far from Him, fearing Him only according to men’s commands (Yeshayahu/Isaiah 29:13-14) The “sacrifice of fools” simply wastes an animal; those who do not come to listen will learn nothing about YHWH wants. Fools are known for their many words, even in prayer. (Mat. 6:7) The Torah has a purpose, and if we use its commands for some other purpose—even if it is just doing what someone told us we were supposed to do—we will miss the point. Bringing an offering is not meant to be a religious act; this animal we slaughter becomes somewhat of a “telephone” by which we can speak—not to YHWH, but with YHWH. For it to be a relationship, the conversation must go both ways. The prophets and David often prayed YHWH’s own words back to Him, essentially saying, “You said…” When we show Him that we have indeed heard what He said before, we are in a position to hear more from Him. Every festival, including the Sabbath and New Moon, has its particular offerings, and each is meant to teach us something. They are all times to hear. Christianity and Judaism have both “driven away” the things He will accept on His altar, for both have said animal sacrifice is no longer necessary (though their reasons are different). Men’s commands have told us not to celebrate the Passover, but to celebrate Easter—complete with ham instead of lamb—or to forsake the Sabbath for the day of the sun. These have driven away from us the true times when we can draw near. In a less extreme way, subtle manipulations of the calendar throw us a day or two off from the days determined by actual sightings of the moon in Israel, but YHWH still keeps His appointment; if we arrive on the wrong day, how can we expect to hear from Him? Where is the celebration of the New Moon today? It was very prominent in ancient Israel, but now it is mostly limited to a few groups of women. One can approach on his own terms, but will YHWH speak in response? We must return these potential “drawings near” of which our brothers have been deprived—or in some cases driven away by their own choice. In the latter case, they may be downright angry when we bring to their attention the “animal” they have lost, but we do not get to ignore them—or, literally, "hide yourself from them”. We cannot pretend we did not see. We cannot wait until a wolf starts to eat the lost sheep to decide to do something about the fact that it is loose. We are not permitted to just mind our own business, but must expose ourselves to whatever difficulties or dangers are involved in the confrontation. The fact that we also fall short never gives us an excuse not to restore one who is overtaken in an error, because if their “donkey” cannot get up, it will die beneath the load. Though we may have a beam in our own eye, we still must help our brother remove the splinter from his own, so we must deal with self quickly and get to the other task as rapidly as possible—“in season or out of season”, for when a brother has gone astray, it is in season; we do not have the luxury of waiting until Yom Kippur to repent. Powers of persuasion will not suffice; we need a thorough knowledge and understanding of Torah, so that when we do expose ourselves we will still be protected. If you do not want to get involved, you have shown that you are not part of the covenant. In Hebrew, the word for return is the root of the word for repentance; it is the job of every Israelite to help them repent and return to their original context of a flock in covenant with YHWH by means of the Torah. One of the biggest ways we have cast off the ways of YHWH is by trying to draw near on our own rather than as a people. So community is also what we must restore to our brothers. Many may not wish to return, and we only have a certain degree of power over others’ decisions, but the command is to do all you can. When you restore what they have lost, you will find out who your real brothers are by how they respond.
2. "And if your fellow tribesman is not close to you, or you do not know [whose] it [is], you must bring it into your own household, and it must [remain] with you until your countryman comes looking for it, and then you must return it to him.
No “finders keepers” excuse here. Do not know whose it is: If we are not close to the owner either physically or relationally, but we know the animal has been driven away, our responsibility is to gather it into our own house. He may not know we exist, but we have his animal, and must keep it until he shows up. How do we find what our brothers have lost? Through studying Torah and recognizing all these means of drawing close to YHWH. Return them to those you know, and keep them safe for those we do not yet know. Until he comes looking, provide basic care for the possession he lost, and make sure it is in suitable condition when he does come looking for it. Take care of it as if it were your own and return it to him as soon as you know whose it is, even if it belonged to your personal enemy. (Ex. 23:4) Stay prepared to tell him how to draw near to YHWH, so that when he does want to know, the information is ready. Yehudah has been keeping Torah for all this time not just for their own sakes, but so we who are finally returning will still have a covenant to come back to. They have been taking many of the “lost sheep” of the House of Israel into their house through conversion to Judaism, but we have our own heritage as part of Israel to be returned to. He does not say we should go looking for our distant cousins who lost their property, though there must have been an effective network of information that would enable “finders” to make known what they had found so that the “losers” would have a clue where to search. We do not have to post notices on telephone poles or take out an ad in the newspaper saying, “Did you lose your Torah?” But we must have it in the house. This requires that we have a house to gather it into. This is yet another reason we need Israelite community. Men have told us that we need to go far afield to gather the masses, and there may be a time for that, but do not engage in this at the expense of building a place for them to show up to look for their “animals”. Yahshua said our true brothers are those who do YHWH’s will, and that we need to focus on those who are worthy among the lost sheep of the House of Israel. As our light shines like a city set on a hill, those who are seeking truth will find us. We receive many treasures from YHWH’s word which we ourselves may never be able to use, but we need to store them up for others who will need them. Once we know who our true fellow Israelites are, we need to restore their lost heritage to them, even if they don’t realize they have lost it. “Here is your festival calendar back! Here is the Sabbath that was stolen from you!” You may not get a warm reception if people do not want to receive the truth that they belong to Israel and have obligations to it, for they feel they are being accused. A few will celebrate the revelation and embrace it whole-heartedly. Either way, it is our responsibility to make it known. (Y’hezq’el 33) We are indeed our brothers' "keepers”. You may not even use it for your own purpose while you wait for him to come looking for it, for that is a form of stealing. In a case in which the owner was the one who drove it away and really does not want it back, and has not shown up after a reasonable amount of time, and it is becoming an undue burden to care for, one could then take the question to the court for a ruling on what to do with it.
3. "You must treat his donkey the same way, and do the same for his clothing or for any missing item that your brother has lost and you have found; you cannot conceal yourself.
A donkey is not only not an altar animal, but an unclean beast, but it can be redeemed by a lamb. (Ex. 13:11ff) This is the only animal we are told can be redeemed, and it is clear that a dog cannot be. (23:18) It is stiff-necked, a picture of looking only at our own interests, not those of our brothers on our right or left. This is probably why YHWH made this animal redeemable, because He so often describes Israel as “stiff-necked”. That we did not respond to our brothers’ needs is one of the primary reasons Yahshua,who was called the “Lamb of Elohim”, had to act as our kinsman redeemer. YHWH can do anything He wants, but the standard is that after he has sold himself into slavery to avoid starving when a debt cannot be paid, an Israelite can only be redeemed by a kinsman. YHWH is the Redeemer of the nation, but our job is to redeem one another as individuals. There was no one in Israel suited to the task, so our brother from Yehudah—a more distant kinsman--did the job. He is a physical, not merely spiritual, relative; we have the same ancestor, Yaaqov. We need to look at him in this light--as the only kinsman willing to lose his own inheritance for the sake of his brothers, the lost sheep—or in this case, “the lost donkeys of the House of Israel”! He does not have to be a magical god-man. It is exciting enough to find kinsmen in Yehudah today willing to reach out to their lost brothers, but they still usually want to convert us; to find someone who did it according to Torah is truly amazing. A lamb is a herd animal, and that is what we are redeemed by: being an active part of a community loosens our necks to be able to look at our brothers and sisters. Becoming part of a flock ensures that all of our interests will be common ones rather than selfish ones. But stubbornness can be redeemed--put to a positive use as we retain our determination to recognize our selfish thoughts and turn them into more loving ones that serve another. So we need to tell our lost brothers who they are—redeemable, not because they said a fancy prayer, but because their ancestor had a covenant with the Creator of the Universe. His clothing: Heb., simlah—“what resembles”, i.e., the type of clothing that takes the shape of a person, thus the inner garments--one’s most basic covering. It is amazing that someone could lose his undergarment, but it is a big problem. So many think they are Christians, and wear outer garments that resemble the nations, never looking in the mirror of the Torah to see who they really resemble, and therefore do not realize that they are really Israelites. It is one of life’s greatest blessings to learn who we really are, and where we belong, and it is just as wonderfuil to see the light come on in others when they see the truth of who they are, because our garments are what cover us. We need to return the gift of self-examination rather than pretending our brothers still have their clothes on when they do not. Return their identity to them, whether they are already here or when they come looking. You therefore need to know how to do so. Start with the teachings that are right here. They are many but not complicated. Garments are also a picture of our works, and if someone has “lost” his will to continue obeying YHWH, it is our responsibility to try to help him get back on track.
4. "If you see your countryman's donkey or ox fall down along the road, you must not ignore them; you must by all means [help] them up.
It is even acceptable to do this on the Sabbath (Luk. 14:5), since life is the purpose behind the letter of the Torah. A donkey and ox are grouped together here, though they will be separated again in verse 10. They can both plow and can both carry great burdens--just not the same ones at the same time. Paul says that restoring those brothers who fall into sin and bearing one another's burdens fulfill the "Torah of the Messiah". (Gal. 6:1ff) What is His Torah? The very same Torah that Moshe was giving right here.
5. "Masculine gear must not come to be upon a woman, nor may a strong man put on the resemblance of a woman's shape, because whoever does [this] is an abomination to YHWH.
Masculine gear: or a warrior's weapon, in the Aramaic interpretation, born out by the fact that "gear" or "vessels" differ from garments (as is clearer in Exodus 3:22). We must remember that modern clothing differs from ancient, when no one "wore the pants" and everyone wore what we would consider "dresses", so we must limit our interpretation to things that clearly mark one as male or female. There are deeper meanings, for the literal rendering is "A woman shall not put on the likeness of strength, nor shall a woman have a strong vessel." This is Shim'on Kefa/Peter's basis for calling a woman "the weaker vessel" (1 Kefa 3:7) and telling her to trust her husband and be the weaker vessel, for he is to show her honor as well. Neither is inferior in value, but neither is meant to try to be the other. The man must not burden his wife with his own responsibilities, since she is not expected to be able to "contain" as much, just as one would not put a watermelon in a plastic shopping bag. Nor must he be submissive to her; this is what disgusts YHWH. This is a reminder for the husband to take up his place as the strong leader so the wife is not tempted to, since though most do not really want to lead the household, it is self-evident that someone must do so. She is not to be a pushover, nor is he to be a brute, but the man, as spiritual head, is responsible to ensure that all in his household are seeking and approaching YHWH.
6. "If you come across a bird's nest in front of you on the road, in any tree, or on the ground, [with] hatchlings or eggs, and the mother is sitting on the hatchlings or eggs, you may not take the mother along with the young;
Just the thought of taking both sounds cruel; YHWH wants us to have compassion even on animals, as seen in verse 4. Bird: small bird or fowl: tsippor, from a word meaning "to depart early", so the "early bird" is actually a Hebrew concept! It can also mean "to hop around", which has been our tendency as the children of Israel. Esau's homeland is described as his "nest" in Ovadyah 4, so Israel's "nest" must be our Land. Some of the children may depart from the Land, but the entity of Israel--the "mother" concept--must remain intact so there is something for the exiles to return to.
7. "you must by all means let the mother go free, and may take the young for yourself, so that it may go well with you and you may prolong [your] days.
Prolong your days: i.e., you will not just have a feast today, but you will have something to eat again tomorrow, since you still have the source of the eggs. As long as there is a mother, there can be more young. Though the mother would make a better meal, but any other remaining young would die if the mother was taken instead. This command parallels that of not boiling a kid in its mother's milk, because the whole lineage would be destroyed that way. It is not just about being kind to the bird; if we end their hope, it would end up coming back upon us. We would also end all fruitfulness and eradicate the hope of our posterity continuing to have food from that source. So like the command to honor one'sparents, this verse is also about the relationship of parents to children. It literally only says "take", and mentions nothing overtly about eating it (though that is implied). So we must look deeper: When today's evangelist goes into a church to "hunt out" who is meant to take his place as Israel, he must bring only those who are teachable; those who are "dyed in the wool" and will not allow themselves to be changed, must be taken out of the picture. We must bring them in as our own, not as children of their mother, since Yoseyf's wife was Egyptian, thus, figuratively, the philosophies our mother, the Church, espoused will shorten our days. The phrase "prolong your days" is always used in connection with the Land of Israel(30:20; Ex. 20:12; et al), which makes requirements of us. (Lev. 18:28; 20:22) YHWH was to us like a mother bird (32:10-11) who flutters over her young, creating a wind current so they to will begin to flap their wings and prepare to fly, so they will not remain immature in the nest (thinking only about how inconvenient this wind is to them) and thus become breakfast for or captive to whomever may walk by. We cannot protect what He has given us by being lazy. This is the day to work out our salvation, finding our rest only in Him. Following these unusual laws accomplishes just that.
8. "When you build a new house, you must also make a safety railing for your roof, so that you do not bring blood [guilt] upon your household if someone falls from it.
Safety railing: parapet or low restraining wall. Flat roofs are common in the Middle East, where it seldom snows. They serve the purpose of a patio. People often spend leisure time there, dry clothes or grain there, have social interaction from roof to roof, or even sleep there when it is too hot inside the house. People are expected to be in this naturally-dangerous position, so YHWH considers it negligence to take no precautions against accidents. When we build our houses, we must do so with others in mind. Our home is to be a place of refuge and hospitality, not just for our comfort. As Lot knew, we are responsible to protect any who come under our roof—or on top of our roof, in this case! This is true religion in YHWH’s eyes. He thinks of every aspect of our lives, and we must do the same for our fellows.
9. "You may not sow your vineyard with mixed kinds of seed, so that neither the fullness of your produce that you have sown nor the produce of your vineyard will become forbidden.
The parallel passage in regard to fields is Lev. 19:19, and pertains to not mixing wheat with the less-valued barley, lest they all be sold at the same price, thus cheating the buyer in some cases. (Nehemia Gordon) With mixed kinds of seed: literally, from two separate sources. Usually only a few types of grape thrive in any given area, and just because one can engineer a different product does not mean it is profitable; if there is nothing wrong with the ordinary grapes our Land grows, a hybrid might do nothing more than make your neighbors envious, and might even get someone so used to being different that he winds up worshipping a different Elohim than all his countrymen. Priestly vintner Gershon Ferency noted that some types of grapes are more suited for eating, while others are better for making wine, but to mix the two might end up with something ruined for either purpose. Hebraically, wine, the product of a vineyard, is symbolic of joy. (Psalm 104:15) Thus the things that gladden us are not to come from two different sources. Biblically, we are commanded to receive our joy from YHWH’s festivals (16:14; Lev. 23:40), eating before YHWH in the Temple (12:5ff), the fact that YHWH can be trusted (Psalm 5:11), and when He rescues the exiles. (Psalm 14:7) So these are the kinds of seed we are to plant. We must sow His field with things of His Kingdom, not of this age or of self, being content to do things His way instead of our own. Thrill in the beauties of His creation, yes, but when reveling in a view of the mountains, think of the mountains where He has met His people. Rejoice in political freedom, but not so you can become personally wealthy, but so that Efrayim can be gathered. Forbidden: literally "holy" or "devoted", probably in the sense of becoming the new standard, for the world’s purpose is to get everyone into one nice, easy thing that everyone can like, much like Christianity, but once this has become the preference, it is hard to find the original—and hybrids usually do not reproduce well. Hirsch renders it "kinds which are closed to each other". Yahshua's parable of the wheat and tares illustrates this, and shows that the ultimate meaning here is not horticultural as much as it is a picture of how His congregation (which a vineyard pictures) will bear weakened fruit in the end if haSatan's seed grows along with that sown by the "Son of Adam". Mixing theologies obscures the truth. (Yirmeyahu 2:21-23 uses the same imagery to depict Israel’s straying after Baal.) Hirsch points out that "if something was planted or sown, and afterwards other plants or seeds are wrongfully planted there, then what was originally planted or sown remains allowed to be used, and only the additional or subsequent growth is prohibited." The true apostolic doctrine was sown throughout the world before the enemy sowed the tares. Once we realign ourselves with that, we will be fit for the Master's consumption. When the holy seed was intermingled with the people of Kanaan, both the foreign wives and those born of these forbidden marriages had to be sent away. (Ezra 9:2; 10:3). If the wives had allowed themselves to become Israelite, it would not have been a problem, since this is not about “race”, but mixing the ways of YHWH with paganism. But since they tried to retain their old identity (as in 21:10ff), they had to be take out of the way.
10. "You must not plow with an ox and a donkey together.
Indeed, you cannot! The root word for "ox" is "traveller"--one that moves on, while a donkey typically digs in its heels unless coerced by a reward. This is another forbidden mixture, and is the basis for Paul's command not to be "unequally yoked" with unbelievers. (2 Cor. 6:14) His context is lawlessness, or being without Torah. He says to come out from such and not touch the unclean thing. The ox is a clean animal; the donkey is not. The ox is the highest form of offering, while a donkey, though strong, useful, able to carry much, and redeemable, cannot be offered on His altar. It offers less to Him. Just because it can also pull a plow does not mean it has the right to pull a plow with what is already acceptable and does not need to be redeemed. Yahshua speaks of his yoke being easy: it is common to yoke a seasoned plow-ox and a novice together so that the one can train the other, but two different types of animals will want to move at a different pace, and are likely to start moving in a circle instead of a straight path. This is really the same argument as was given in verse 9, and which will be given in verse 11, since the term for "mixed kinds" can apply to animals or fabrics as well. The point is to teach us about how to live: "How can two walk together unless they are agreed?" (Amos 3:3) In Hebrew, a donkey (the name of which means "heap" --i.e., the whole pile) is associated with the world at large, so we could read, "do not yoke a sojourner to the world"; it will tie us to one place. The word for "plow" can also mean "keep silent"; there is no peace if you mix clean and unclean, or try to serve both YHWH and Mammon. It can also mean "devise", for we cannot co-design things well with people who are motivated differently.
11. "You may not wear a garment of mixed fabric--wool and linen together.
The two will react differently to washing, etc., like the new patch that will shrink away from the worn-out wineskin in Yahshua's analogy. But wool is an animal fabric, from something living and breathing, while linen is from a vegetable, from the earth. This reminds us of a similar illustration all the way back in the first generation ever born. Qayin brought an offering that was the work of his hands, the produce of earth, since Yahshua tells us that a field represents the world. Hevel (Abel) brought a living being with blood, which represents a gift from heaven, since life is attributable only to YHWH. Likewise we are forbidden to mix a type of worship appointed by heaven with that which originates from men. Get your covering from either the kingdom or the world. Not both. Choose one or the other; do not be lukewarm. (Rev. 3:16)
12. "You must make for yourself tassels on the four corners of the vesture with which you cover [yourself].
Tassels: "twisted fringes", from a word for “enlarging”, so they must somehow make our garment longer. Elsewhere they are called tzitziyoth--something noticeable, so that you will remember who--and whose--you are. It must include a thread of blue in it. (Num. 15:38) There is much argument over the source of the dye, but the term there is based on the color, not the source. The important thing is that the blue not be left out. The vesture here is the outer garment; the tassels are not to be hidden (Ex. 22:26) like the candle under a basket. Corners: literally, "wings", which is why the woman with an issue of blood wanted to touch the "hem" of the garment of Yahshua, in whose "wings" there is healing. (cf. Mal'akhi 4:2) Vesture: the outermost garment--something that conceals our natural shape, and likewise, when we are dressed according to His commands, our own selfish ways will be suppressed and not as able to influence others.
13. "If any man should take a wife and go in to her, then despise her,
14. "and bring a fabricated case against her and bring about an evil reputation for her, declaring, ‘I took this woman and when I came near her, I discovered that she was not a virgin!'
15. "Then the girl's father and mother shall fetch and bring forward the tokens of the girl's virginity to the elders of the city in the gate,
16. "and the girl's father shall tell the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man as a wife, and he despises her!'
The presence of the evidence makes it clear that he was only looking for an excuse to be rid of her.
17. "‘And, here, he has brought a fabricated case against her, saying, "I didn't find in your daughter the evidence of virginity." But here are the tokens of my daughter's virginity!' And they shall open up the cloth in the presence of the elders of the city.
Cloth: the sheet with blood on it from the wedding night. This underlines the importance of keeping it as evidence rather than discarding it, as would be our natural tendency due to the embarrassment.
18. "Then the elders of the city will take that man out and chastise him,
Chastise: teach by beating. This is what David meant when he said, ‘Let the righteous heap blows on me." (Ps. 141:5) I.e., "Do whatever it takes to make me holy."
19. "and fine him a hundred sheqels of silver, and give it to the girl's father, because he has brought a bad reputation upon a virgin of Israel. Then she must become his wife, and he may not divorce her all the days of his [life].
The father, not the daughter, gets the money, because it is his honor that has been threatened. He is the one who sought out a husband for her. It was often little more than a business deal, though the Biblical ideal is that the husband and wife should treasure each other. Still,at this time "romance" was a foreign concept; the first five letters of the word tell where it came from. Virgin: She is married by this point, but the time in question is when she was still a virgin. On a deeper level, Paul says he is working hard to present those coming back into covenant as a pure, chaste virgin (2 Cor. 11:2), though they did go astray, because YHWH promised to rebuild the virginity of Israel (Yirm./Jer. 31:4). It is Yahshua's blood that serves as the evidence (cf. v. 17), for he is our kinsman and can thus redeem us. But the proof is also in whom we are treating as our Husband now. May not divorce her: One would hope that a man who would do such a thing to his wife would end up more than "hen-pecked".
20. "However, if this accusation is true, and tokens of the girl's virginity are no[where] to be found,
21. "then they shall bring the girl to the door of her father's house, and the men of the city shall pelt her with stones until she dies, because she has brought about a disgraceful folly in Israel--committing fornication [while] in her father's household; this way you shall purge out the evil from among yourselves.
How important, then, that parents not allow their virgin daughter to ride a horse or camel in such a fashion as could tear the hymen and render this type of token impossible, and all the more should they guard their daughter's purity and make sure she is honest with them. At the very least, if she is not a virgin when being betrothed, she must not pretend that she is, because it could spell her death one day. Father's household: here is where the picture lies for us. Idolatry in Scripture is considered the same as adultery. Slander against the children does come back upon the father, the one in authority over us and from whom we come. A daughter must be more concerned for her father's honor than for her own pleasure, for whatever she does reflects on him. A tree is known by its fruit. There remains no protection in the household for those who live the opposite way from what they were taught. Purge: literally, "burn". This behooves us to both keep our daughters out of situations where they are likely to become impure and to be careful what we say!
22. "If a man is discovered [to be] lying with a woman married to a husband, then both of them shall die: the man who lay with the woman, and the woman [herself]. This way you shall purge wickedness from Israel.
Yahshua was tested by having a woman caught in this act brought to him for a verdict (Yochanan 8), but since the man was not brought (being, perhaps, even one of the accusers themselves), the case was invalid, and so he used it as evidence against the accusers, just as in the prior case mentioned here. (Compare Yochanan 8 in the context of chapter 7 with Yirmeyahu/Jeremiah 17:13ff, his point of reference.) Also, this defines adultery as only involving a married woman. If the man is married, but the paramour is not, this is not technically adultery; she would be considered his concubine.
23. "If a young virgin girl is betrothed to a husband, and a man comes up to her in the city and lies with her,
Betrothed: engaged, but with a stronger legal contract than in modern culture. The bond is seen as if completely enacted, since it has already been promised. Stealing someone else's fiancée is the theme of many stories in Western culture, but betrothal is considered the first stage of actual marriage in Israel, so this counts as adultery, since she was promised to him, and thus already had the same legal obligations to him as if the consummation had also taken place. The Torah sees the deal as done once it is agreed upon, just as one takes on the sanctity of the higher courtyard in the Temple as soon as one enters its gate.
24. "then you shall bring both of them out to the gate of that city and pelt them with stones so that they die: the girl, because she did not call out for help, [being, after all] in the city, and the man, because he has humiliated his fellow citizen's woman. This way you shall purge away the evil from among yourselves.
If she did cry out in the city, someone would certainly hear her. That she did not implies her consent and possibly even her subconscious desire. The sentence is very clear, leaving no room for law suits or messy divorces. People will tend to avoid doing what they know will incur the death penalty.
25. "However, if a man comes upon a betrothed girl in the open country, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man that lay with her must die,
26. "while to the girl you shall do nothing, because there is no sin [worthy] of death in the girl, because this case is just the same as when as a man rises up against his fellow citizen and murders him,
27. "because he met up with her in the open field, and the betrothed girl cried out for help, but there was no one to rescue her.
Open field: Yahshua likens the whole world to a field, a place outside the protection of the community based on YHWH's instruction, where there is justice available for the needy. "Sin is not counted where there is no law" (Rom. 4:15), but when one knows better, she is judged based on what she did know, not what she could not have known. As in v. 24, this emphasizes the importance of her actually calling out for help, even if she seems to be in a place where no help is available, as well as the importance of parents doing all they can to avoid letting their daughters be in such a vulnerable position.
28. "If a man comes up to a virgin girl who is not betrothed, and takes hold of her and lies with her, and they are discovered,
29. "then the man who lay with her shall give the girl's father fifty [sheqels] of silver, and she shall become his wife; since he has humiliated her, he may never divorce her all the days of his [life].
This is not adultery; he has simply taken a wife, though without betrothal and in a way that brings shame to his parents and hers. Thus the penalty is not as stiff as in v. 19. But although he has made this all-important choice in a fit of passion, he is still responsible, and must live with this intemperance all his life. He has no right to complain against her as the man in v. 13ff, since her parents may not have been able to save the token of her virginity (as in v. 15). His payment is a public record that this woman, who is yet an Israelite, is vindicated and can move on past her shame. As with a cured leper, she (and more so, he, by his faithfulness) can be restored to being a vital functioning part of the community.
30. [23:1 in Hebrew] "A man shall not take his father's wife [to bed], so as not to uncover his father's skirt.
His father's skirt: i.e., the one his wife is wearing. Re'uven was guilty of this, and it cost him not only his birthright privileges, but more importantly, his relationship with his father Yaaqov, who from then on had nothing positive to say about him. Aramaic, "his father's shame". But the word used is actually "wing" or "corner"--the same word used in verse 12, which is one reason the tzitziyoth were to be placed just there (Numbers 15:39)--to remind men not to stray in this particular way. As we gravitate toward Torah,it gravitates toward us. This chapter underlines again that we are expected to be a responsible people, not those who close our eyes and do not want to get involved. We cannot go to sleep on our watch. We are certainly responsible for ourselves, but not only ourselves. They all point to the over-arching command to love our neighbors as ourselves. While we can only practice a limited form of these social laws that define Israel in our present context, we must move as far as we can in the deeper truths they symbolize, watching out for one another and seeing things in light of these ways rather than through the glasses of what surrounds us now. Fighting off the attacker is much easier in the context of a community. To move forward, we must have a like-minded group. The further we try to walk in YHWH's Word, the more He will enable us to carry out, and the readier we will be to fit into the framework of the Kingdom when it fully arrives.
CHAPTER 23
1. "No one who has his organ of procreation wounded, crushed, or cut off may enter the congregation of YHWH.
Organ of procreation: any part of one’s reproductive system. Cut off: or "severed". This would include a vasectomy. May enter: This would include a man who wishes to marry an Israelite woman. What is the congregation of YHWH? It could range anywhere from the festival gatherings at the Temple to the local synagogue, depending on the time in history. At the very least it would mean having no voice as any kind of authority in the community, because one whose fruitfulness is over is a bad picture which would at best distract others, or worse, amuse them with thoughts not conducive to assembling in YHWH’s name, or set a bad example for them. This goes against the laws of creation. Whether this applies to accidental causes is uncertain, and in such cases one might still be able to plant the “seeds” of knowledge and experience in others. But it certainly applies if one does this by choice. Why would anyone do this? It was a common practice to emasculate men who were chosen to care for harems, and even men in a king's court who needed to be trusted to deal with numerous women. This was also a common practice among pagans (often the idea was to sacrifice one's own fertility for the sake of his crops' fertility), which in a slightly modified way was brought into the Church through the requirement of celibacy for priests and castration of choir boys who could sing very high notes so that they would not experience puberty and have their voices change. (For centuries the choir consisted of only males.) A priest in Israel may not deliberately prevent procreation, at least permanently. The practice is not exactly forbidden for others, but this condition does prevent one from active participation in YHWH's assembly, so it is obviously discouraged. The penalty for deliberately causing this condition in another--or trying to--is severe. (See 25:11-12.) Why? Because bearing fruit through seed is the way YHWH chose all the way back at creation, and the very first command He ever gave to human beings was to be fruitful and multiply. (Gen. 1:11-26) When He had set all of this in place, He said it was very appropriate. Part of being created in YHWH's image includes fruitfulness. Not that the person who is born a eunuch or forced to be so by others (Mat. 19:12) is despised by YHWH; Yeshayahu/Isaiah 56:3 addresses this. But one who has chosen to render himself incapable of obeying the command--the man who chooses to have no seed--is counted as dead already. Efrayim means "doubly fruitful", which he must be as he returns to his Land. Of course, the concept goes far beyond physical reproduction. Propagating ouirselves is just the beginning; we need to raise them to be fruitful as well by planting the "seeds" of the Kingdom in them. When we teach what we know and understand, we are sowing seeds. (Mat. 13:22) We multiply our wisdom and dedication by planting it in the fertile ground of others who are ready to learn and bear more fruit, even if one seed is all we have. So those who prevent themselves from reproducing are a picture of withholding what they know. Our fruit is when we live what we know, and others live what we teach them through our words and, more importantly, actions. This way we have not just a tree, but a forest. Trees in Scripture are often symbolic of people. If we do not bring forth fruit worthy of the repentance He has granted us, we will likewise be "cut down and thrown into the fire". (Mat. 3:7-10) The P'rushim to whom Yochanan was speaking were "immersion freaks", so he made it clear that this was not just the latest fad in immerson, a miqvah resort, or a spectator sport. This miqvah had to do with repentance, and if that was not their motive they had better not participate in it. It was not enough to fall back on the fact that they were descendants of Avraham; their job was to continue--to reproduce--what Avraham had begun. Yochanan says even a fruitful tree might be bearing bad fruit, and the result is the same as if it had no fruit at all. A tree cannot change its fruit (Mat. 7:17-19), but we can do something about our unfruitfulness. So what is fruit that is worthy of repentance? Yahshua says it is doing YHWH's will. That tree will not be cut down. Proclaiming that he is our teacher will not be enough. There is a way back from our exile if we seek YHWH with all of our desires and motivations (Deut. 4:26ff), and if we love our neighbors as ourselves. Yahshua somewhat sarcastically called this a "new commandment"--not because it was never heard before, but because it had not yet been "taken out of the wrapper" and used! (Yoch. 13:34) This is not "mushy" emotional love, but commitment to one another that lasts and can be fully relied on--i.e., being dependable, always being there for one another. We must be doing this to even be granted the occasion to repent; Pharaoh was not allowed that option. But in our day, though individual repentance is still necessary, corporate repentance is far more critical. Israel is called a vine from which YHWH expects to enjoy the fruit. (Yeshayahu 5) His covenant is not with individuals but with a people. When we understand how many timeswe have disappointed Him in the past, His frustration is no surprise. When as a people we bear acceptable fruit, "all Israel will be saved". Not understanding that it is about the whole nation (and focusing only on personal salvation) cuts off our seed and makes us fruitless trees. How do we become fruitful again? Step 1 is to hear the Word of YHWH (Mat. 13:23), understood in its Hebraic context (that it is for those who are willing to leave self behind and cross over into a covenant that puts the people of Israel first). Yahshua also tied the fruitless tree to a lack of faith. (Mat. 21:18ff) The way we increase our confidence in YHWH is through practice. We cannot be confident in what we have never tried. Therefore the one who has no potential for fruitfulness may not entering the gathering of YHWH's people, which minimally means participation in the festivals and the Sabbath, for all the feasts are related to the longing for agricultural fruitfulness. If one puts away his fruitfulness, he loses his standing in Israel. Whatever we plant ourselves into is the part of us that continues even after we are gone.
2. "An illegitimate child may not enter the congregation of YHWH; all [the way down] to his tenth generation he may not enter the congregation of YHWH.
After speaking about one who bears no fruit, the Torah goes on to speak of those who bear bad fruit. Illegitimate: Not the modern definition of someone whose parents are not married, or the result of mere fornication as in 22:29, for the union itself constitutes a marriage of sorts; this is foolish, but does not fall into this category. What is referred to here is one born of any marriage forbidden by Torah, which can never be made legal, e.g., the result of adultery (sex involving a woman married to someone else), incest (a father lying with his daughter, etc.), a Levite marrying outside his tribe, or marriage to one who remains a pagan rather than converting and becoming part of Israel. This was the case with many whom the exiles returning from Bavel married, so they had to divorce not only their wives but the children they bore. (Ezra 10:2-11) What is illegitimate is actually the union that produced the child, not the child himself, but he is not allowed in the assembly because this would teach the wrong thing--that an Israelite can get away with being intimate with the wrong things. This command is directed specifically to those seeking entrance into Israel, but since it is forbidden for a man to take his son's wife (Lev. 18:15), it may be that the offspring of Yehudah through Tamar could not fulfill the royal position promised to them until the tenth generation, though Yehudah recognized her noble intentions and she was clearly no longer a pagan. David was the tenth generation, so only until he was ready could the king come from another tribe, as was the case with Sha'ul. But on a deeper level, all of His people have been in illegal relationships. YHWH did the hard thing too and sent us away. The illegitimate births outnumber the legitimate as long as "Mother Israel" continues to lie with Rome and teach the doctrines that "he" gave her. (Hos. 2:5) Her children even call themselves by a different name--Christian. These must be purged out of Israel, or we cannot go home. But unlike the physical mamzer, we can do something to change this. We can wed Israel as a whole back to our father YHWH as a husband. We must approach Him corporately. When we learn to walk as a nation, we can have a bride fit to marry Him again, and the illegitimacy can go away since we can be called "children of the Living Elohim" again (Hos. 2:16-23; 3:5), when we prove our parenthood by loving one another. But this cannot be accomplished as long as Efrayim settles for Noachide status or converts to Judaism. We must come back as the people we are.
3. "Neither an Ammonite nor Moavite may enter the congregation of YHWH; not even down to their tenth generation they may not enter the congregation of YHWH, perpetually,
This may apply only to men, since Ruth was called a Moavitess, but Ruth 1:22 also says she "returned" to Beyth Lehem, suggesting that she may have been the descendant of an exiled Israelite rather than a true Moavitess. (1 Chron. 4:22 even suggests that if Ruth was of royal Moavite lineage, she may have been from the stock of Yehudah after all, from a much earlier ancestor; in any case, by the time Boaz married her, she was fully living as an Israelite, for she had made the commitment to do so, just as Rahav and Tamar had put away their foreignness.) Perpetually: This is different from the prohibition in v. 2, though Ammonites and Moavites as whole nations were indeed born of incest. (Gen. 19) They were conceived because of Lot's fear, his daughters' lack of understanding (as they thought they were the only women left on earth), and drunkenness. Much of Christianity is conceived on fear of hell, lack of accurate understanding, and drunkenness on the Babylonian system. Is there still within us anything conceived by these things?
4. "because [respectively] they did not come out ahead of you with bread and water on the journey when you came out from Egypt, and because they hired Bilaam the son of Be'or from P'thor of Aram-Naharayim against you, in order to curse you.
Two simple acts had eternal ramifications! They are unforgiveable. But notice the priority YHWH gives to their errors. We might think it is worse to curse someone, but in YHWH's eyes, the former was even worse than the latter, for, being relatives of Avraham and even children of Lot himself, they were expected to be more hospitable, especially to their relatives. They were expected to not just offer bread and water, but be there waiting with it, having preceded them to the meeting point. Failing on this point, let alone the other, they could not be part of the community of Israel.
5. ("However, YHWH your Elohim would not listen to Bilaam; rather, YHWH your Elohim turned the curse into a blessing for you, because YHWH your Elohim loved you.)
They tried to curse, but "a curse without a cause will not alight". (Prov. 26:2) And we are told that YHWH "makes the wrath of man to praise Him, and the remainder of wrath He restrains." (Psalm 76:10) As our Father, He filters all that comes toward us, and only allows negative things to touch us if they will help us. He may spank His children, but no one else may. In fact, in verse 3, he turned the curse back on the heads of those who tried to perpetrate it. (See Psalm 7:16.)
6. "You shall not ask [YHWH] for their welfare or prosperity for all your days, forever.
Ask for: Aramaic, "advocate for". We do not need to be at peace with those who are only out for themselves and do not offer instruction or community to Israel. Forever: being illegitimate children, their exclusion lasted ten generations (v. 3), but because of the other two offenses (v. 4), it was extended into perpetuity.
7. "You shall not abhor an Edomite, because he is your relative; nor shall you abhor an Egyptian, because you were a sojourner in his land.
Sojourner: or guest. Edom is a much closer relative than Lot's illegitimate children, and did receive some limited blessing from Yitzhaq. The first Pharaoh who dealt with Yoseyf is rewarded for his hospitality, despite what came later in Egypt's history. We need not become best friends with these people, but do need to provide them with bread and water when they come down the road, for the Egyptians represent the Church at large, who did provide most of us with refuge in a time of need, and the Edomites symbolize the masses who are led around and enslaved by the Church but are actually kindred with Israel, for Israel will one day take possession of a remnant of them (Amos 9).
8. "The descendants to which they give birth may enter the congregation of YHWH in their third generation.
They can sojourn with Israel before that, but would not have the same rights as a native Israelite until that they have become full enough of Torah and community to be considered. Compare this with an illegitimate child, Ammonite, or Moavite above. A more positive slant to this is that one would need to want to be Israelite very badly to have to wait so many years for all the benefits to kick in for his posterity! May we all be so willing!
9. "[Even] when you go out [and] camp against your enemies, guard yourself from every evil matter.
The same rules that apply in the camp of all Israel also apply in a war camp. Evil matters may include covetousness of beautiful plunder you may see when you are conquering a city that YHWH has said to devote to destruction: look what happened to the whole nation because Akhan did not so guard himself. (Y'hoshua 7:1ff) The call of Yom Truah (the day of trumpet-blasts) is to attack, but it also means to defend our gates--which include any entry the enemy could gain into the camp of Israel through places we leave undefended. Enemies: not just those who hate us, but in the different kind of war in which we are engaged, those who oppose our following YHWH in any way, even if they simply want to spare us the pain of dying to self. Members of our own families are the most likely to be inadvertently hostile to His will in this way. (Luke 14:25) Enemies within Israel might be people of other sects, with whom we disagree about major ideas, but who are our brothers nonetheless. (In Yahshua's day, the greatest enemies of most Jews were other Jews; exile has been the best remedy for this.) Unlike the Moavites whose peace we may never seek, we may not be malicious or do evil things to these people (Mat. 5:44), yet we must recognize that they could steal something YHWH has entrusted to us, and not be naïve, guarding ourselves accordingly, strengthening ourselves to do our job no matter what they say, for "matter" here literally means "word". Their words could discourage us, express disappointment at what we are doing, plant doubt in our minds, or lead us into invalid guilt trips. We should not stop praying for them, yet guard ourselves from their words. We must really walk in balance, and we cannot do this without community.
10. "If there is among you a man who is not ritually clean, due to nocturnal accident, then he must go out to the outside of the camp; he may not enter into the camp.
Accident: i.e., emission. The reason he goes is not to sulk, but because there is a certain amount of time before ritual defilement can pass from you. There is no need to ask for further direction; just go outside now so you can return sooner and so you will not affect anyone else with whatever you have rubbed up against. Ritual impurity is a picture of selfishness, which is harmful to the others inside the camp. Indeed, it is the reason that we do not have a camp today. Even if we are in the very midst of the camp, if we do not make a conscious decision to be about the camp instead of self, we are really still outside.
11. "But when evening approaches, he must bathe himself with water, and when the sun is gone, he may enter the camp [again].
Evening means a new day (Gen. 1:5) We must not bring our selfishness into it. Deal with it before today ends. (Ephesians 4:26) The surest path to becoming clean is to wash ourselves in the "water" of the Torah (Ephesians 5:26), and get rid of our selfishness by making it right with whomever we have hurt.
12. "You must also have a designated area [marked out] in the outer part of the camp, and you must go out there,
13. "and you must have a sharp tool among your equipment, and when you sit down out [there], you can dig with it, then turn around and cover up what comes out of you,
Spike among your equipment: or "on your implement"; LXX, "spade" or "trowel on your belt". What comes out of you: LXX, "your nuisance", i.e., excrement. There is a place for this to be dealt with, but the point is that we are responsible to clean up the messes we make. We are meant to be a people prepared to do just that.
14. "because YHWH your Elohim walks about in the nearest part of your camp to snatch you away and deliver up your enemies in front of you. Therefore your camp must be dedicated [to purity], so that He will see no shameful thing exposed among you and turn away from being behind you.
Behind you: i.e., in support of you. Keep the camp set apart, getting whatever help you need to from others. He does not want to "foul His feet" with anything that should not be there.
15. "You must not turn over to his master a slave who has escaped to you from his master;
Turn over: Hirsch, "extradite". The Aramaic interprets this to refer to slaves from other nations who come as refugees to Israel. This fits well with chapter 22, which teaches us to hold and return to our fellow Israelite whatever he loses. (All Israelite slaves had it better than slaves anywhere else, with one day in seven off and the requirement that they be permitted to participate in every festival.) We escaped from Pharaoh, and YHWH harbored us, as 24:18, 22 repeats; we must do to others what has been done for us.
16. "he may live with you--right in your midst--in whatever place he chooses in whichever of your gated cities is most pleasing to him; you must not expel him.
Most pleasing to him: or "best for him". He can be a member of whatever tribe he fits best with. This is why Paul persuaded Onesimos to go back to his master, Filemon; it was thus his choice. Expel: or oppress. An Israelite slave would need to return to his own tribe when the time for his release comes.
17. "There may be no [cult] prostitute among the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite among the sons of Israel.
Sodomite: or male cult prostitute; both it and "prostitute" here literally read "holy person", i.e., one set apart to the wrong things, dedicated wholly to worship in pagan temples, which involved sexual rituals. The rampant sex of today is actually offered to pagan elohim, whether its purveyors know it or not. The LXX calls the second merely a "fornicator", but adds another meaning, an "idolatress", for the two concepts are linked in Hebrew. There are to be no sexual rites involved in Israelite worship. This is why Paul says that a certain hairstyle was not a custom among us. (1 Cor. 11:6) It was one that marked a man as one of these male cult prostitutes (which, by the way, serviced men, not women). This is probably why Israelite priests were traditionally required to keep their hair cut back to a particular length.
18. "You shall not bring the hire-price of a prostitute or the sale price of a dog into the house of YHWH your Elohim for any votive offering, because both of these are indeed disgusting to YHWH your Elohim.
Sale price of a dog: interpreted in Aramaic as "the exchange for a dog", i.e., an animal that was acceptable for sacrifice which a dog had been traded for. This may be why Yahshua insisted that he could not give the children's food to dogs. (Mat. 15:26) This is one way in which YHWH does not allow us to be generous. Scripture generally casts dogs in a negative light, as meaning those outside Israel, are and often associated with swine. Is our culture's fascination with dogs a part of the spirit of lawlessness? They are useful in certain contexts, but are not to be treated as members of the family as humans are. In context, "dog" is probably another allusion to the male cult prostitute of v. 17.
19. "You must not lend to your brother with interest--interest in [the form of] money, interest [in the form] of food, or interest of anything that is lent at interest.
Interest: literally, a bite. You cannot become rich by taking advantage of a brother's neediness. Yahshua raised the standard by saying we should not even expect to get the principal back (Luqa 6:35), though an honorable person will, of course, repay what he borrows.
20. "To a foreigner you may lend at interest, but to your fellow [Israelite] you shall not lend at interest, so that YHWH your Elohim may bless you in everything yet set your hand to in the Land to which you are going to take possession.
For this reason Jews were forced to be moneylenders in Christian Europe, then demonized for doing so. Strangely, this is one "Old Testament" command the Church chose to obey!
21. "When you make a vow to YHWH your Elohim, you shall not delay to pay it, because YHWH your Elohim will indeed require it from you, and it would be a sin among you.
A vow: We are commanded to swear by YHWH's name. The form is usually, "As YHWH lives…" Matthew 23 does not contradict this in the Hebrew text. Yahshua was just saying we should not find loopholes that allow us to take an oath we do not plan to keep. Do not delay: This links us to bringing the firstfruits offering on time, instead of letting a kid grow up on its mother's milk first. (Ex. 23:19; 34:26) A kid will nurse for years if not deliberately weaned away, and this is against the spirit of bringing what one owes to YHWH as quickly as possible. The longer you "drag your feet", the more likely you are to back out of it.
22. "But if you refrain from making a vow, that is no sin for you.
Yahshua built on this when he told those who were making a distinction between vows sworn to YHWH and vows sworn by the altar, etc., that it was best not to swear at all, if it meant one's ordinary word was to be cheapened thereby. Vows are an optional way to express one's love and appreciation for YHWH, and should never be degraded into something one feels obligated to do in order to keep up with his neighbors and thus be respectable to men. You set the standard for yourself, but do not say you will do something if you do not plan to follow up on it; as Yahshua said, Let your "yes" ALWAYS be "yes".:
23. "Whatever comes out of your lips you must be careful to carry out; just as you [carry out] a vow to give a freewill offering to YHWH your Elohim, do the same with whatever you have promised with your mouth.
24. "When you come into your fellow countryman's vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes if you wish, but you may not bring any [out] in a container of your own.
This is not referring to the Sabbatical year. (Ex. 23:11; Lev. 25;3ff) Usually if one is in another's vineyard, unless he is passing through and satisfying his hunger, he would be there to help his neighbor with the harvest. The principle is the same as in 25:4--the worker deserves to share in the fruit of his work. That you are eating of his blessing speaks well of him. There is a certain fellowship and comraderie involved in sharing food together, but one should not take his neighbor's food out of this context, or it reflects thinking more of oneself than of community. It turns his generosity into your greed. If your family needs it, they need to come to where you came to eat it! Figuratively, we should not claim another's fruitfulness as our own, such as by plagiarizing a teaching that YHWH gave him.
25. "When you pass through your fellow countryman's standing grain, you may pluck the kernels with your hand, but you may not wield a sickle over your fellow countryman's standing grain.
What Yahshua's disciples were doing (Luk. 6:1) was lawful, and he did not consider this to be work unworthy of the Sabbath. Standing grain is a picture of the assembly. We may eat freely of what is provided there, but not put your brother at a disadvantage, or use it as security for tomorrow--as if the Elohim who provided for you in this way today could not do so again tomorrow! This includes stealing "sheep" from someone else's congregation. If we do, YHWH will take His sickle to us!
CHAPTER 24
1. "When a man has taken a wife and married her, and it comes about that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found something indecent in her, then he may write her a document of severance, place it in her hand, and send her out from his house,
To "take a wife and marry her" is not redundant. The first stage is the betrothal, which normally takes place a year or two before they actually live together. The betrothal is not mere engagement; it takes a bill of divorce to break it. Most from the Northern Kingdom have drawn our ideas about divorce only from the New Testament without the Torah background required to understand it properly. We do not want to take it so lightly that we engage in divorce parties complete with divorce cakes, as some now do, nor consider the subject so taboo that we fail to deal with some very real situations where common sense tells us it is the only feasible option, as in cases of abuse or promiscuity involving life-threatening sexually-transmitted diseases. Divorce is rarely a positive experience for the parties involved. It can especially destroy children’s sense of security and leave them with long-term scars. So it is not something for which anyone should give blanket approval. Yet neither should we ostracize those who have gone through it for what may be legitimate reasons. We have to know both what Torah really says about it and what Yahshua actually meant when he gave his well-known judgments in this regard. There are also keys in those passages and in these verses to how couples can fix some marital problems that seemed broken beyond repair. Something indecent: literally, uncovered or naked, and in Torah to uncover someone’s nakedness is an idiom for having sexual relations with them. It might seem that this is granting permission to divorce a wife that he finds is not a virgin after all. That may be included, but it is not so simple, for if she misrepresented herself as a virgin when she was not, such a case was already addressed in 22:20-21, which says she should be stoned, so he could not merely divorce her. The phrase “comes about” suggests that this comes later in the marriage, when he seems to have evidence for adultery, but no witnesses. Yet the procedure for a husband who suspects that his wife has cheated on him is found in Numbers chapter 5. So it is not speaking of that either. It may be a case in which there might appear to be condemning evidence, if YHWH does not provide two witnesses, it indicates that He has chosen in this case to have mercy, for she is not officially established to be an adulterer in the eyes of the nation. But it is still the husband’s option to divorce her. The phrase “finds no favor” indicates that there is room for mercy here, for the root word for the term “favor” means “bending over” (i.e., “backwards”, as we say in English). One might choose to divorce her, but he does not have to. The term for “something indecent” literally means “an uncovered word”, so it tells us how important it is that we “dress” our words properly. A word in season brings healing, as many Proverbs say, but one out of season—one not properly restrained when it should be, one that gives evidence that what is really in her heart is not her husband’s needs, but only her own wishes. In the context of marriage, it might mean one who greets her husband after a hard day’s work with complaining about the children’s behavior or nagging about a needed repair. A man’s home is his fortress, and yet when he enters it he is being ambushed and overwhelmed by an “enemy”! This certainly shows him no favor. Not that she has to be the idealized 1950’s-style housewife, but at the very least the honeymoon will be over if she “slaps” him with such a welcome. She has uncovered something about herself that she should have at least left until later. It may end up leaving her uncovered as well, as he retracts his covering from her. Rabbinic writings bear out the fact that even this was considered grounds for divorce in Yahshua’s day, when it was as common as it is today. This “indecency” was interpreted however one wished--even if the “indecency” was simply that she burned his dinner. While our Christian baggage oversimplified the issue to “YHWH hates divorce”, still Yahshua implies that nagging is not grounds for divorce, by upholding adultery as the only legitimate reason for divorce (Mat. 5:31ff), and this can include one additional reason (explained below). The favor is in his eyes. One’s eye is the window on his heart, so if he wants to divorce for so trivial an offense, it shows that his eye is on self rather than his spouse. When Yahshua says “whoever marries a divorced woman”, to be true to the Torah, he must mean “whoever marries a woman whom he himself married and divorced previously”. This fits with Torah’s emphasis on not looking back to Egypt, whjich we have left behind. Going bacxk to what we have already dealt with is not the way of the Kingdom. If one has already made the declaration that he does not want to be married to this woman, taking her back would only bring confusion to all. Apparently some Prushim heard what he said, because they used his own words to test him in regard to what was apparently a great controversy in their day. (Mat. 19:1-12) Each sect had their own opinions on it, and they used this as a test of whether Yahshua was in their camp. He had already won the argument when he asked, “Have you not read…?” Where Torah speaks, one need not give an opinion. He referred them back to Genesis 2:24—to YHWH’s intent from the beginning, the older creation law, which predates Sinai, not just what Moshe permitted because of our hardness of heart—again, the fact that the wife finds no favor. The older precedent is more authoritative, and what came later must be understood in the context of what came earlier. This showed them that he knew the Torah better than they did, and now they were the ones wanting to learn more. His students, from the coarser part of society, respond by saying that if one signs up for marriage, he is “stuck” with her for life, it would be better no to get married. He answers by saying that if they are more concerned about being able to get out of it, then maybe that would be better for them. This will not work for everyone, though there are some who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the Kingdom. What in the world was he talking about? In the context of Deut. 23:1, he certainly cannot mean that one should be celibate to concentrate on “full-time ministry” (for this has backfired and led to homosexual, pedophile priests). One who purposefully makes himself infertile is not permitted to enter the assembly of YHWH. Rather, he is saying, “If you are going to look at it in such a selfish way, if yes, for the sake of your children and the rest of Israel, please don’t marry anyone!” But the Creator intended each man to have a woman who was created specifically for him—not chosen on emotion but based on Torah criteria. They are to be one flesh, and if you sever that, how can either or both parts remain alive? If you were willing to wait for that spouse, then go to whatever length it takes to make the marriage work, because you believe that is the person you are meant to be with. What does it mean for two pieces of flesh to ve one? Torah defines it here as two people showing favor to one another in an extreme way. Genesis says a true marriage entails giving more priority to one’s spouse even than to one’s parents—and, we would add, one’s children. Marry someone who will not break your back when you bend over, but bends over herself, if you can. If you are still married, it is not too late to begin. YHWH more than “bent over backwards” for backsliding Israel countless times before she took on other lovers; even then, He tied Himself in pretzels and still said, “Come back, if you will repent.” (Yirmeyahu 3:1-8; Hoshea 2) So Israel can return to her “Husband from the beginning”, for we never married another; even the Church does not want to be called pagan, though she constantly whored around with paganism. Forgiveness is therefore an option in this case. Since the term for adultery can also mean idolatry, a spouse refusing follow YHWH is another allowable cause for divorce, as per the precedent in Ezra 10:18ff, where priests were required to put away the foreign wives they had taken from the inhabitants of the Land after the exile, who apparently still clung to pagan ways.
2. "and after she has left his house, she may go and become another man's wife.
While this allows for more causes for divorce than the Church does, Yahshua brings great balance for our day as well, when many assume they will need a "starter marriage" to make their mistakes, and later find the right mate.
3. "But if the latter husband despises her and writes her a document of divorce, places it in her hand, and sends her out of his house--or if the latter husband, who took her into his household, dies--
There are very few other things in Torah that we are commanded to put in writing. But a prerequisite for any legal divorce according to Torah is that she must be served with papers for this, though there is no such requirement if she is to be stoned to death! This shows how serious YHWH is about what He has joined together. He makes us go to great trouble, even great expense (if one has to hire a scribe) so that we will think twice about making such a move casually. As Groucho Marx said, “Alimony is like buying hay for a horse that is already dead!” Many wives have been left in very bad situations because their husbands did not provide them with such a document, and it seems that if they abandon their responsibility in this regard, they should not be protected by Torah; if they have made themselves unavailable, the authorities who do follow Torah should write the document on their behalf so that the wife can begin to move on.
4. "her first husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she is defiled, because that is a disgusting thing to YHWH; you must not bring guilt upon the Land which YHWH your Elohim is giving you as an inheritance.
There are very few other things in Torah that we are commanded to put in writing. But a prerequisite for any legal divorce according to Torah is that she must be served with papers for this, though there is no such requirement if she is to be stoned to death! This shows how serious YHWH is about what He has joined together. He makes us go to great trouble, even great expense (if one has to hire a scribe) so that we will think twice about making such a move casually. As Groucho Marx said, “Alimony is like buying hay for a horse that is already dead!” Many wives have been left in very bad situations because their husbands did not provide them with such a document, and it seems that if they abandon their responsibility in this regard, they should not be protected by Torah; if they have made themselves unavailable, the authorities who do follow Torah should write the document on their behalf so that the wife can begin to move on.
5. "When a man has taken a new wife, he must not go out to battle, nor may any responsibility be passed on to him, but he shall be exempt for one year [to care] for his household and to let his wife, which he has taken, be joyful.
This is a different situation than when the war priest tells someone who has not yet married his betrothed to go back home from the battleground because his heart is somewhere else. (20:7) This is telling us where our hearts need to be if we have just been wed. Let your hobbies, buddies, promotions at work, and even your ministry wait. Have as few other responsibilities as possible in order to strengthen your marriage. It is no coincidence that this comes where it does. YHWH set this exemption in place to give the couple a full year to concentrate on solidifying their relationship—learning to “bend over backwards” in showing one another favor and mercy. (See note on v. 1.) This is the way to avoid the hardness of heart toward one another that leads to divorce. (vv. 1-4) Be joyful: This may also indicate ensuring that she conceives a child. But the marriage must come even before the relationship with one’s child.
6. "No one may take [either] a lower or an upper millstone as a deposit, because it is a life he is taking as a pledge.
In ancient times, bread constituted up to 90% of people's diet. No one can grind grain if he has only one of the two millstones, so what will he eat? This would be self-defeating, since one was probably making the loan to him so that he can eat! The word for "pledge" means "to tie or bind together". This is really what the whole chapter is about. If you invest in someone to get him through hard times, you create a tie between his soul and your own. So it is in the interest of both parties to fulfill the pledge. Both are bound to enable it rather than hinder it. The millstone is just one example. We are not permitted to charge interest to our fellow countrymen, but you can hold something as collateral. But if all he owned was an upper millstone, then take no collateral at all. This is blasphemous to the reigning financial system, which only goes to show that it, too, is an idol. Yahshua calls us to a higher standard, saying, in effect, if you have it and he needs it, why not just give it to him? YHWH is holding His Land as collateral until we return what we have taken of His reputation and His relationship with us. We cannot have it back if we do not fix what we broke. Our ancestors pledged us to Him, but we ran from the covenant. If we do not fulfill this promise, we ruin any reputation for trustworthiness. One cannot make bread fro grain kernels; they must be ground into flour, and the giftings listed in Ephesians 4 correlate with the various steps of this process. But the one step that humans cannot carry out is the stage of crushing; that can only be done between the two stone tablets of the Torah--that is, the two foundation al commands, "Love YHWH your Elohim with all you have" and "love your neighbor as yourself". We cannot just do one and not the other. Trying to love YHWH but disregarding one's neighbor is what is holding the Kingdom back.
7. "If a man be discovered kidnapping a soul from among his brothers, the descendants of Israel, and places him in bondage or sells him, that robber shall die; thus you shall purge out the evil from among yourselves.
Places him in bondage: "ties him up" or "heaps blows upon him". I.e., treats him like a slave. Sells him: Treating a fellow Israelite like a commodity. The context is debt (i.e., kidnapping someone to sell him for ransom in order to be paid back). One who places lust for money above his brother is not fit to live. No wonder Yoseyf's brothers were so terrified when he revealed his identity. (Gen. 45:3ff) YHWH made sure that what Yoseyf's brothers did to him would not be repeated, no matter how much mileage He got out of it that time. Yet when Yehudah tells Yoseyf that all we can be is either Jews or Noachides, they are again selling us. One could make himself your slave in order to work off a debt, but you may not sell him to a foreigner, or anyone else, unless the court consents. Avraham was a mild man who was best known for hospitality, but when his brother was taken captive, he took the slaves he had bought and turned into his students, and made them his army to get his relative back. We can also enslave our brothers: through false doctrines or wrong understandings.
8. "Take extra measures in the plague of leprosy that you pay close attention to do everything just as the priests (the Levites) shall instruct you. You shall be careful to do just as I ordered them.
This is not a change of subject, for we are not to try to handle any of these matters according to our own hearts. The priests are the ones authorized to make rulings. (Mal'akhi 2:7) There is a connection here with verse 7, because leprosy was a plague sent on those who coveted another's possessions or position (as Miryam did, v. 9, cf. Numbers 12:10). There is a connection to v. 7: Yoseyf's brothers were jealous of his status, and that is why they kidnapped him. He was not the firstborn, literally, but he was the first of Yaaqov's sons to show signs of actually bearing fruit, which is one reason his second son was named "doubly fruitful"--the firstborn receives a double portion (21:17). The requirements for determining whether or not one has leprosy also have a prophetic connection to events of the last days of this age that will determine whether a person will share in the Messianic Kingdom or not.
9. "Remember what YHWH your Elohim did with Miryam on the way after you had left Egypt.
This gets to the root of the matter in verse 8. Moshe does not tell them what He did, even though many in his audience might not yet have been born when it occurred; he expects them to have learned their history. What He did (per Exodus 12) was to strike her with leprosy because she was jealous of another's relationship with YHWH. She thought she deserved more than she was getting. This coveting of another's position was also the cause for Uzziah's and Gehazi's leprosy (2 Kings 5:27; 15:5). It is a spiritually-induced condition, not a physically-contagious one. We must remember so we do not repeat her error. Do not expect YHWH to bow to what seems right to you.
10. "Any time you loan something to your brother, you may not go into his house to claim the collateral he gives [as a pledge].
You cannot go inside to see if he has something else you would prefer as collateral.
11. "You must wait outside, and the man to whom you are lending shall bring the item securing the pledge out to you.
Do not think too much of yourself just because you have lent him money. You have no right to "lord it over him", going inside to see what else he owns, saying that it all belongs to you because you have helped him. Just thank YHWH for the occasion to do so; even Yahshua, the king, came to serve, not to enslave us. (Mat. 20:25ff) This command would also prevent one from going in to find out that the borrower's cupboards are not bare after all. One might thus judge the loan to be unnecessary, since he has enough already. But what if he wanted to borrow in order to aid a friend in need? Yahshua says not to refuse one who wants to borrow from you (Mat. 5:42)--provided it is in your power to do so. (Prov. 3:27)
12. "Moreover, if the man is poor, you must not go to sleep with the security pledge [still in your possession].
13. "You must be sure to return the article to him by the time the sun goes down, so he may lie down in his own outer garment, and bless you; this shall constitute justice for you in the presence of YHWH your Elohim.
Outer garment: fancier than his undergarments, but also warmer. It was usually a square with a hole or slit cut in the middle for one's head, so it could double as a blanket. He does not even say you can exchange it for a less urgently-needed item as a pledge; you just have to trust your brother--or at least trust YHWH to remind him of what he owes you!
14. "Do not exploit a hired worker who is poor and needy, [either] from among your brothers or from the sojourners who are in your Land, within your gates.
Hired worker: Hirsch, "day-laborer". Within your gates: This is not the Salvation Army or the food bank; trying to live the Torah out in the world at large takes it out of context; that is getting the cart before the horse. After we establish such prototype communities as "cities set on a hill", sojourners will come looking for truth, and thus the Torah can go forth as Israel is a light to the nations. This reflects on the reputation of the whole Land, and thereby YHWH Himself. Rather than being known as "a land that devours its inhabitants" (Num. 13:32), He wants the word to go out to the lands these sojourners come from that this is a Land that is generous, and that even strangers never had their pay withheld.
15. "You must give him his wage on its [proper] day, and do not let the sun go down on it, because he is impoverished and he pins his expectation on it. Otherwise he may cry out to YHWH against you, and it would constitute guilt for you.
Proper day: the same day, in ancient context where one was paid immediately since most lived from hand to mouth, but, in any case, on the day it is expected or promised. (He has no claim if you agreed to pay him five months from now.) If he cries out, YHWH will pay attention. Constitute guilt: conversely, give it back to him, and it will constitute righteousness.
16. "The parents shall not be executed because of the children, nor shall the children be executed because of the parents; every man shall be executed for his own guilt.
In context, we cannot be punished for wages our parents failed to pay. (v. 15) Compare Y'hezq'el 18:20, whose context includes many of the issues listed here (especially in vv. 17-18). It is the soul that sins that will die. We are held accountable for our own choices. Keep Torah and you will live, period. But if your son does not, he cannot rest on your laurels. But if the next generation repents (in overall lifestyle, not counting the inevitable slip-ups), they will again live. This very verse is often used to prove that Yahshua could not die for our sins. But Christianity has twisted what the Renewed Covenant said. There is no magic to it, as if his death saved us no matter how we live. He took responsibility for us whose parents had gone astray, making it his priority to redeem his lost brothers even when everyone around him had written us off as dead and never likely to return. He thus kept Torah even when it cost him his life, as an example to his students who would finish the job of finding the lost sheep who were indeed still exiled because of our ancestors' sins, so that we could survive to do what is right and again come back and take responsibility for our own actions. He died not so we could get away with our sins, but so we could get away from them. (Gal. 1:3; 1 Kefa 2:21-24; 1 Yochanan 1:9ff)
17. "You must not stretch out the court proceedings involving an alien or an orphan, nor shall you take a widow's garment as security [for a loan],
These two commands address the same issue: Do not take so long to make a ruling—or demand as collateral something so vital--that you endanger the lives of those who have no other resources. (See note on v. 13.)
18. "keeping in mind that you [yourself] were a slave in Egypt, and YHWH your Elohim rescued you from there; that is why I am ordering you to act in this manner.
He wants justice to be a hallmark of His Land. How we treat the most powerless in society shows who we really are; we can say "He knows my heart", but how we treat other people is a dead giveaway of where our hearts are. Do not say "I can beat my children because I was beaten as a child". Remember how it felt! Put an end to that cycle, and plant them in better ground. Our treatment of the weak is meant to be a testimony to His treatment of Israel.
19. "When you reap your harvest in your field, and [realize you] have overlooked a sheaf [omer] in the field, you shall not go back to retrieve it. It shall be for the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow, so that YHWH your Elohim may bless you in all that your hands [undertake to] do.
They still have the dignity of working for their food this way. You are not blessed because you forgot a sheaf, but because you remembered and left it anyway--because you thought of the defenseless, and provided for them. It is significant that it is a whole sheaf that is forgotten. The word for "sheaf" is omer, because the resulting grain translates down to one omer's worth when all the useless parts are removed. A whole omer is sufficient to feed a person for a day, according to the command regarding manna. (Ex. 16:16) Like the manna in the wilderness, YHWH is still providing for His people's needs, only this time, rather than a miracle, those who are not disadvantaged are His means of provision. An omer has the value of a half-sheqel, the same price as the ransom for the soul of an Israelite. What you intentionally leave tells them, "Despite your plight, you are still part of a people. Somebody cares about you, even if you have nothing with which you could help us now." Boaz made a special effort to obey this command (Ruth 2:16), as his antitype Yahshua did (see note on v. 22). They both did more than was required, and they were rewarded by being ancestors of the royal line of David. While we were still sinners--not even interested in becoming part of the Israelite covenant we had left--Messiah died for us, then sent messengers out to search and bring us back. But the fact of their doing so made it the new standard. Again, He wants it to be said that His Land provides for those who live in it. It is better not to "marry" YHWH if we are not willing to bend over backwards for others among His people.
20. "When you beat [the fruit] off your olive tree, you shall not search through the branches behind you; it shall be for the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow,
Beat: Aramaic, "shake". These are people who have no inheritance--who would not be able to donate to the "building fund"--but YHWH does not want them marginalized.
21. "When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not go back and glean it thoroughly; it shall be for the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow.
Wine, which is made from grapes, is a symbol of joy (Psalm 104:15), and indeed He wants every member of His society to be given a reason for joy, even if they cannot pay us back.
22. "remembering that you [yourself] were a slave in Egypt; that is why I am ordering you to act in this manner.
Considering the imagery of the omer gleaned in the field, olive tree, and the vineyard, compare the statement by the Gentile woman who impressed Yahshua with her faith: "even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the master's table". (Mat. 15:27) A slave: and also a sojourner. (v. 19) He did not just bring us out of Egypt; He bought us. That makes us servants in His house, and this is how we do things in His house. If we are not blessing the strangers within our gates, He may withhold His blessing from us. The whole House of Israel has been orphaned and left homeless. All the more reason that we who are beginning to have "gates" (organized community and ancient authority structures restored) need to provide for those who are returning but are still isolated.
CHAPTER 25
1. "If there is a dispute between men, and they approach the court, and they have rendered a verdict [for] them (vindicating the righteous and condemning the guilty),
A dispute: over something not directly covered in the Torah, or something about which they could not come to an agreement out of court, whether because of stubbornness or because the case is difficult. This is why they come to the judge, asking him to find the deeper principle, but he must arrive at a verdict that clearly determines guilt or innocence, so that one party is declared right and the other wrong, not "It was just a misunderstanding." What a revolutionary concept for modern man! Many would say it is belittling to ever declare a person wrong, and few even of those who recognize clear absolutes are willing to do so because of a misinterpretation of Yahshua's words, "Judge not, lest you be judged." But this robs the Kingdom of a role required by the Torah. What Yahshua really said was, "Do not condemn." There is a vast difference. We need discrimination, for the issue must be resolved, because one may not remain angry with his brother. The emotion will one day subside, but it can only be replaced by bitterness. It must be settled, though this is hard to do today because most are not willing to yield to the judgment of another. And today rarely is someone declared innocent; "not guilty" is the best we can usually do because of all the loopholes or insufficient evidence. Yet once what is laid out in Torah is recognized, there is no room for middle ground between black and white. No leader can afford to refuse to judge. This is another thing that keeps us in exile, for Moshe mandated that courts be established before we entered the Land. We cannot go home until we have people who can bring proper judgment. Few want the burden of having to make sure they are in the right before they declare another wrong, but then we can again have the discernment to define guilt or innocence. For the sake of all Israel, it is time to learn to judge righteously. Not that one should enjoy this; it will certainly not make you popular, but it will eventually clear things up and allow matters to be truly resolved. And notice that there is no appeal on the ruling; the judge's decision stands. This avoids the problem of the case being tied up for years, and everyone can get on with their lives. If the case is very difficult, there may be more than one judge; in fact, the court was in the city gates, where business was done--probably the source of most quarrels anyway. Whichever qualified judges were nearby on a given day would probably be called on; it was not a full-time job. And there is no jury of peers. And this makes sense, for if I am not able to resolve the dispute, how can someone just like me resolve it? I need someone wiser than myself to judge. And where are the lawyers? Judges would be people recognized by the authorities for their ability to see both sides of the issue and be impartial, as well as for their knowledge, faithful performance, wisdom, and experience. The one who judged you was one you would call on for help in other areas, for according to the original plan, the Land was settled by tribes, and so the one judging would be related to both the plaintiff and the defendant. Again, small matters should be settled within a household, where the father's word is final, or, when the Torah's infrastructure is properly in place, at the level of leaders of tens, fifties, etc., before taking it to a higher level, or the judges would be very exhausted indeed. All of Israel must be a learned people, knowing the Torah and understanding what it says. A "crash course" on being a judge is found in Exodus 23:1-9.
2. "then this is how it shall be: if the guilty man is a [found] worthy of blows, then the judge shall have the man lie prostrate and be punished in his presence, with as many [blows] as his guilt deserves:
In his presence: in the public eye, much like the stocks used outside court houses in the colonial New World--another deterrent to crime. It is not an alternative to stoning where that is the sentence Torah indicates. In eastern countries, it is still common for those caught in wrongdoing to be beaten on their feet with a cane. If we knew certain actions would bring blows, we would probably behave much better. Torah-based judgment is the guard rail that keeps us in the safe zone. Have the man lie prostrate: or, fall down. If the man does not submit to the punishment on his own, the judge is the one responsible to ensure that he does, just as in the case of stoning, the witnesses cast the first stone. For this reason, the judgment is carried out then and there, not five months later.
3. "He may give him [up to] forty blows, but not exceed [this], in case (if he goes too far beyond these and beats him with too many blows) your brother should be disgraced in your eyes.
Up to forty: i.e., one may receive fewer than forty, according to the severity of the case, but never more. The usual practice came to be that only 39 blows were administered in case they should lose count. This was done to Paul five times (2 Cor. 11:24), but it did not change his resolve, since 40 is the number of transition and change. Adding an extra--making it 41, which symbolizes continuing to punish someone after he repents--humiliates him and breaks his spirit. Disgraced: lightly esteemed, taken lightly, degraded, dishonored, seen as vile. Revenge is not the point of the chastisement; learning is. The Hebrew word for "teach" means to prod or goad, and the old adage holds true: "No pain, no gain." If he were to get away with the wrongdoing, his guilt and disgrace would remain. The Biblical view is, "Blows that hurt… cleanse away evil from the innermost seat of desires." (Prov. 20:30) This might even prevent many of the other physical problems by which our bodies punish us if we let the guilt remain. One should not punish himself, as many have tried to do; we must get what we deserve from someone impartial who has the right to judge. Of course, what a person can physically bear would be taken into account, but as with any athlete, one is stretched best by being taken all the way to his limit. YHWH takes us as low as we can go and still recover, but He does not degrade us. Once he has taken his stripes, the matter is settled, and he is to no longer be held in contempt by his community. Remember, we must stay focused on the fact that he is a brother, and the reason we carry out judgment is not so we can get one over on someone or sadistically beat someone, but so that we can get things right in the family again. Though it must be done, it is also important that it be difficult to render judgment, so it does not become commonplace in our minds. The more we beat someone, the easier it becomes to keep doing so, but thenwe could easily forget that he is a person, and that would bring disgrace to the one beating him as well. Get it over with, and do not treat him as if he had done worse than he actually did. He has done the honorable thing by submitting to the judges and to his punishment, so do not abuse your right to judge. (Compare Luke 12:42ff) His actions are no longer to be held against him. His stripes serve as occasion to give witness to what he has learned, for now he is an expert on what not to do in that particular situation. The bruises given to Yahshua healed us (Isa. 53:5)--not in terms of individualistic salvation, but since the rod and stripes were the specific sentence for the sins of the royal line of David (Psalm 89:32) in order to restore the eternal nature of the throne which sat vacant from the Babylonian captivity on, this is the treatment Yahshua received (Yochanan 19:1) as the King of the Jews--a title that always had belonged to David's line. (Yoch. 18:33)
4. "You shall not muzzle the ox while he treads out [the grain].
The theme of disgracing another continues here. On the literal level, this refers to a practice of threshing grain. There would be a pole in the center of the threshing floor harnessed to the ox so it will walk in a circle, removing the husks from the grain and separating the separating kernels from the stalks. Its mouth must not be tied shut, so that it can be compensated for its work by eating some of the grain. YHWH is not cruel to animals (see Proverbs 12:10), but this command goes beyond consideration merely for them. It is an analogy of how we should treat those who work on our behalf, which is even more important. Pharaoh violated this principle by requiring his slaves to provide their own straw for brickmaking. King Shlomo went "back to Egypt" by relying on horses, and his son Rehav'am tried to bring the nation back to Egypt through enslaving them again, which caused the nation to split. Sha'ul (Paul) says this verse really refers to making sure a servant of the Body is being adequately provided for. (1 Corinthians 9:9 ff) Anyone who has part in a work should share in the reward. In context here, it refers to the one judging his brothers. (Psalm 141:5 makes a similar connection between legal rulings and plowing.) He is a servant to all, so he is to be given special privileges, much like the Levites. Those who rule well are worthy of double honor. (1 Tim. 5:17) They have a right to have their food source come directly from the work they are doing, as the ox would feed from what was at his feet as he ground at the mill. Treading grain is one form of threshing--separating the wheat from the chaff, which is the work of the pastor (Eph. 4): calling others to holiness--getting out of their system the remainder of the "world" from which they have been separated by the evangelist. If those they judge learn from their rulings, they will have fewer and fewer rulings to make. Yeshayahu (Isaiah)compares the way YHWH teaches us to judge with the different ways that different grains must be threshed, since some cannot take as rough treatment as others. (28:24-29)
5. "If brothers dwell together and one of them dies childless, the wife of the dead one shall not marry outside--to a strange man; her husband's brother shall go in upon her and take her to himself as a wife, performing the duty of a husband's brother for her.
Together: if they remain on their tribal inheritance. To die childless is also a disgrace, so YHWH goes even beyond the natural limits of one's life to ensure continuance to an Israelite. This is another form of being "set apart", called the law of levirate ["brother-in-law"] marriage. This was common among other peoples in the Middle East, to the point that YHWH considered failure to extend this courtesy to be worhy of death. (Gen. 38) Rachel, who after being barren, then having her womb opened, still lost her sons to assimilation with the Gentiles, is told to stop weeping, for her sons will return. (Yeshayahu 49:20ff; 54:1-10; Yirmiyahu 31:15ff). The fratrilineal aspects of Israelite society show up here in that the redeemer is either a brother, a father's brother, or his father's brother's son (if there is no direct brother).
6. "And this is how it will be: the firstborn to which she gives birth shall establish the name of his dead brother, so his name may not be obliterated from memory in Israel.
Firstborn: the term is masculine here, indicating that it must be a son, for otherwise the father's name would be lost when the daughter married into another family. Establish: confirm, validate, rise up on; i.e., carry it on and let his lineage "take root". Name: or renown. This continuation of one's seed is why the descendants can also repent for their ancestors, for in a very real way they are their ancestors (the same genetic line). If the father does not leave seed, his wife's seed, if mingled with one from the same father as her husband, counts as his own, for the genetic similarity is as close as it can be. The firstborn is the "beginning of one's strength" (Gen. 49:3); Yahshua completely exhausted his first coming for the sake of the lost sheep of the Northern Kingdom. (Mat. 15:24) His name may not be obliterated: i.e., if Shlomoh sired the son but Gid'on was the name of the brother who died childless, this child would be named "Ben Gid'on". This shows how important fruitfulness is to YHWH. This also ensures a place for the widow in the family. In most circumstances, it does not matter if the brother who takes the widow is already married.
7. "Now if the man does not [gladly] agree to take his brother's wife, then let his brother's wife go up to the elders in the gate, and declare, ‘My husband's brother refuses to establish a name for his brother in Israel; he will not perform the duty of my brother-in-law.'
8. "Then the elders of his city shall summon him and threaten him, but if he persists in saying, ‘I do not agree to take her',
9. "then his brother's wife shall approach him in the sight of the elders, remove his shoe from his foot, spit in his face, and testify, saying, ‘This is what will be done to the man who will not build up his brother's house.'
Remove (or loose) his shoe: This was carried out by Ruth toward the kinsman who was nearer than Boaz, and is an awesome picture of how haSatan refuses to let the house of Israel (who were defiled, having forsaken their covenant) ruin his inheritance, while Yahshua did accept the task of leaving the faithful sons and going after the "lost sheep of the House of Israel". But remember Yochanan the Immerser's statement that he was not worthy to loosen the sandal-thong of the One who came after him. In the context of calling himself "the friend of the bridegroom", rather than the one on whom the attention was to focus, he strengthened the imagery of Yahshua being the one who did fulfill the Torah's intent of building up/re-establishing the house (or temple) of his brother, the northern Kingdom (since Yahshua was from the still-established house of Yehudah), while they were "dead" to the covenant, in exile, and far from "worthy" of this honor.
10. "Then his infamy will be proclaimed throughout Israel [as] ‘the household of him who had his shoe taken off'.
It is permissible to opt out, but not with one's honor intact. He will not be punished per se, but this will bring shame on his entire household from that time onward. He even gets a new nickname! This shows the importance of a man's memory being kept alive through his progeny and of his widow being cared for. This is still done today among some Orthodox Jews, even in the United States. The script of the ritual includes the question, "Do you consider your brother to have never lived?" One with his sandals on his feet is prepared to move when YHWH makes an opening (Ex. 12:11); this man lives out the opposite picture.
11. "If some men are struggling with each other, and the wife of one comes close to [try to] pull her husband away from the hand of his assailant, and she stretches out her hand and catches him by the genitals,
12. "then you shall chop off her hand; your eye shall not have any compassion on her.
She was trying to prevent the man from having descendants, thus obliterating his name forever. (See v. 6.) If she threatens a man's fruitfulness, even under the most extreme conditions, she dishonors both men (her husband because a woman had to save him and the other man because of the vulgarity of touching him. If he was about to kill her husband, she would need to use another means to stop him; she is free to gouge his eyes out, but not this. Placing one's hand on another's genitals (as in the vow of Avraham's servant, Gen. 24:2) showed the utmost in trust, and this woman is breaching the trust that there has to be among the fellow members of the nation of Israel. Fruitfulness is also the hallmark of Israel, as seen in verses 5-10. One who would try to destroy it must bear severe consequences.
13. "You shall not keep in your money-bag [both] a large weight and a small weight.
14. "You shall not keep in your household [both] a large measuring-basket and a small measuring-basket.
The idea is not like what we have today in the transition from English weights to metric. Rather, there were two similar measuring vessels, both of which were called, for example, an "eyfah". The merchant would select the slightly-bigger one when buying, so he could weigh out a larger amount of a product to his advantage, and select the slightly-smaller one when selling, so he would still have the advantage. There must be justice at every level for us to be able to remain as tenants on YHWH's Land:
15. "Rather, you shall have an impartial, just weight; an untainted, just measuring-basket you shall have [also] so that your lifetime may be long on the Land that YHWH your Elohim is giving you,
There is not meant to be one weight used to measure out merchandise to the poor, and a different one when selling to the rich who can afford more. Yaaqov (James) carries this concept over to showing respect to newcomers to our congregations. We need to see each for what he is worth, not according to how they appear or what they have. And we are not to rule in favor of the poor just because they are poor, for they may still be in the wrong. The "golden rule" (Mat. 7:12) assures such equal weights and measures. The two houses of Israel must be judged by the same standard, whether for better or for worse. Both need rebuke in many areas, and neither is to be given more weight than the other, except in the specific areas each has been specially gifted, and this too is only so each can be a servant to the rest. Both have the same responsibility to obey the Torah and the same authority to teach it once they know it well. Paul was corrected for giving the Northern Kingdom too low a standard, and the elders ruled that though obedience to the whole body of Torah was not necessary before one could come in the door, they still had to go to where the Torah was taught each Sabbath and keep learning little by little. (Acts 15:20) Yahshua's brother Yaaqov (James) knew the focus of his brother's ministry, so he echoes Yahshua's call to avoid impartiality and to include the lost tribes. (Yqv. 1:1; 2:1-9) Some Jews today even forbid non-Jews from keeping the Sabbath! Most of the Temple complex is in Yehudah's tribal territory, but part of it is on Binyamin's land, giving claim to it to both northern and southern kingdoms, as well as to both Rachel's and Leah's children. Disobedience to this command may have been one of the reasons Yahshua overturned the tables of the moneychangers there.
16. "because all who do such things and all who deal unrighteously are a stench to YHWH your Elohim.
Stench: We need to recognize that YHWH does indeed recoil in disgust from some people. Since both the stranger or anyone among us is required to keep to the same standard as the most learned (Num. 15:13ff), this highlights the importance of keeping the commandments uncomplicated by unauthorized rules added by men, so we do not place unnecessary burdens on the weakest. (Mat. 23:4)
17. "Remember what Amaleq did to you when you were on the journey, having come out of Egypt
Amaleq--the "valley-dweller"--represents the opposite of those with a Kingdom calling, for it emanates from the highest of mountains. (Yeshayahu 2:2)
18. "--how he met you by the roadside and attacked your rear--all the feeble ones at the back of your [caravan], when you were fainting and exhausted--while not respecting YHWH.
This is the very same thing as in verses 13-16: taking advantage of the unsuspecting, the weak, the disadvantaged (who can't go any faster and can barely keep up) puts you in the same category as Amaleq in YHWH's eyes. He: Amaleq is referred to as singular, since "valley-dwellers" are about themselves, not their brothers. Attacking someone when he is already weakened rouses the justice in YHWH, and He sets His face against them. But in a community, the strong will uphold the weak. Those who enter in wholeheartedly will be energized by the community's dynamics. Do not say, "It's okay, some of us are just weak." That does not help them become stronger! It facilitates their weakness. We will never starve Amaleq that way. How do we blot out his remembrance? Demand loyalty to the Kingdom. Teach them, challenge them, hold them accountable, so that they will become stronger. It is those who deliberately distance themselves from community and hang back--choosing to walk at their own pace instead of keeping up with Moshe's--who become an easy target, setting ourselves up as bait for this attack. They do not hear the call to ascend (Prov. 1:7) They do not want to get too close to the leaders, lest they might tell them what to do! People hate standards and boundaries, but they are only there to keep us from falling off a cliff. YHWH does not mind saying, "I expect you to do this." This chapter seems foreign to us because we do not do these things, but the Torah is not outdated; if it seems foreign to us, we are the ones who are out of season. We all have valleys to walk through, but avoid staying there so we do not strengthen Amaleq.
19. "So when YHWH your Elohim grants you a respite from all the enemies round about you in the Land which YHWH your Elohim is giving to you as a property to take possession of, [then] obliterate the memory of Amaleq from under heaven. Don't forget!
Yes, this is genocide! YHWH does not want certain genes to endure, and He specifies which. Don't forget to not remember them! It is so important that it almost sounds contradictory. But by no means let the duty to fight Amaleq in every generation be forgotten. He actually perpetuates their name by mere virtue of this reminder, but it is in order to ultimately blot it out completely. (Compare Psalm 92:7) King Agag and Haman were both descendants of Amaleq (Esau's son). Though the punishment for some is to die childless (Lev. 20:20-21), YHWH makes provision for an Israelite's line to be carried on by a roundabout way so his name (as part of Israel, even if not in the best standing) is not blotted out. But Amaleq's name is to be obliterated. YHWH did not say He would do it. Sha'ul did not carry out his part in doing this, so Shmu'el had to, but apparently the Amaleqite king had enough time to procreate before being slain, and Haman was able to exist as a result. But David destroyed the Amaleqites who remained in Israel in his day.
Parashat Ki Theytze'
(Deuteronomy 21:10 - 25:19)
