The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 2 — Section 128

part>nt, sins upon their children as in e.11 CIU!es not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto unjust. So<".it>ty by ih! geom punisheg f.,r the Lord thine oe.th~. flut I MY ttnfo you- their parents' transf!Tessions the illegitnnotte. Swe11.r not 11.t 11.ll " ( Matt. v. :13-34 ). It. is also the children of cnmm .. ls, 1-he childrcn- m favour ol the command being levelled against espt>cie.ll~· the daughten;-of e.dultere5Sll8. false-swearing, th ..t perjury should n11ture.lly, Ci,-il ju5tice condemns to forfeiture of their as a great sm, have a special prohibition di- titles s.nd their estates, the innocent children rected age.inst it in the Decalogue, while ve.in- of t.hN;e executed for trMSon. God age.in swearing. as o. little sin, would scarcely seem me.nife.<th· does b, the laws which obtain in entitled to such notice. Perjury has always his moral° unil'en;e. entail on children me.nv been felt to be one of the greatest both of <',0nsequt>nMs of their parents' ill-doing---as moral and of soeie.l offences. It implies an the diseases which arise from profligacy or absolute v.•ant of any reverence at all for God ; intemperance, the po,·erty which is the result and it destroys civil society by rendering the of idleness or extre.,-age.nce, the ignore.nee ILlld administration of justice impossible. There e,·il hohits which e.re the fruit of e. neglected has been a general horror of it among e.11 education. It is this sort of visitation whioh civilised nations. The Egyptians punished is intendt>d here. The children e.nd grand- perjury with death. The Greeks thought that children of idolaters would start in life under e. divine Nemesis pursued the perjured man, disad,·e.utages. The vicious lives of their and brought destruction both upon himself and parent>- would have sov.'D in them the seeds upon his offspring (Herod. vi. 86). The Romans both of physical s.nd more.I evil. They would regarded the perjurer as infamous, and the commonly be brought up in wrong courses, object of Divine vengeance in the other world have their more.I sense early perverted, and so (Cic. De Leg. ii. 9). The threat contained in suffer for their parents' faults. It would be the words-" The Lord will not hold him difficult for them to rise ont of their unha.ppy guiltless "-may be taken as an argument on condition. Still, " each would bear his own either side. If viewed as equivalent to " the iniquity." Ee.eh would "be judged by that Lord will punish severely" (Kalisch), it e.ccords he had. not b1· that he had not." An all-wise best with the view that perjury was intended; God would. in the fine.I award, make allow- if taken literally, it would suit best a lesser anl',e for the disadvantages of birth and in- sin. of which men ordinarily think little. herited disposition, and would assign to each Ver. 8.-Remember the sabbath day. The that position to which his own conduct-his institution of the sabbath dates, at any re.to, struggles, efforts, endeavours after right- from the giving of the manna (eh. xvi. 23). entitled him. Its primeval institution, which has been To say that the threat " applies only to such thought to be implied in Gen. ii. 3, is uncer- children as follow the sins of their fathers " tain. The word " remember " here may be (Kalisch) is to empty the pe.ssa.ge of all force. simply a reference to what passed in the It applies to all ; but the visitation intended " wilderness of Sin " as related in eh. xvi. 22- l'»nsists in temporal disadvantages, not in the 30. On the sabbath itself, both Jewish and final award of happiness or misery. Christie.a, see the comment upon that chapter. Ver. 6.-8hewing merey UI1to thoua.nda. Ver. 9.-Six days Bhalt thou labour. This Or, "to tJi£ thousandth generation." (Com- is not so much a command as a prohibition- pare Dent. vii. 9.) In neither ease ere the " Thon shalt ,wt labour more than six (con- numbers to be taken as ex.a.et and definite. secutive) days." In them thou she.It do all The object of them is to contrast the long thy necessary work, so as to have the Sabbath duration of the Divine love and fa.-our to- free for the worship and service of God. wards the descendants of those who love him, Ver. 10.-The seventh day ii the ■abbath with the comparatively short duration of his of the Lord thy God. Rather-" The seventh chastening wrath in the case of those who are day shall be a sabbath to the Lord thy God;" his adversaries. And keep my oo!lllll&Dd- i.e., the seventh day shall be a day of holy rest menta. Thus only is love shown. Compare dedicated to religion. All unnecessary labour John xiv. 15-21 : I John ii. 5 ; 2 John 6. shall be suspended and put aside-the law of Ver. 7.-Thoi: :halt not take the name of rest and ease, so far as hod.ill toil is concerned, the Lord thy God in vain. It is disputed which was the law of man s existence before whether this is a right rendering. Sluiv in the fall, shall supen;ede for the time that law Hebrew means both "vanity" and ••falsehood;" of heavy toil and continual unrest, which was so that the Third Commandment may forbid laid on man as the penalty of his transgression either "vain-swearing'' or simply "false- (Gen. iii. 17-19). Eden shall be, as it were, sweari.ng." It is in favour of the latter restored-me.a shall not " go out to his toil int.arpretation, that our Lord seems to con~ and his le.hour "--even the very beasts, pressed hi& own prohibition of unnecessary oat~ with into man's service since the fall, shall rest. In the ancient prohibition of false oaths 1n the it thou aha.lt not do any work. On the ex- words--•• Ye ha,·e he11rd that it bath been said ceptions to this rule, which even Judaism, with tly • ( or " to •· J .. them of old time-Thou sbalt its extrewe formality and literalism, saw to h en. u. 10-12.] Tur: nooK OF r~x.orrns. 133