The Pulpit Commentary — Leviticus — Section 418

EXPOSITION. The reason why the nanative or the ltrove together in the camp. According to blBBphemer's death (vers. 10-23) is intro- J ewillh tradition, the cause of quarrel was a. duced in its present connection, is simply claim aet up by the Egypt.a-Israelite to encamp in the Danita quarters, on the that it took place at the point of time which ground that hie mnther was e. Danite-e. followed the promulgation of the last law. claim which he insisted on enforcing, al- It serves, however, to vindicate by a memor- though the judges gave e. decision against able example the principle which is at the him. foundation of every Mosaio law. "I am Ver. 11.-In the course of the struggle the Lord" is the often-repeated sanction, the Iaraelitish woman's BOD blBBphemed the whether or a moral law or or e. ceremonial name of the Lord, and ouned. The word regulation. But this bastard Isroelite, one nakav is here rightly translated blasphemeth (cf. vers. -14, 16, 23), but the words of the of the mixed multitude that had followed Lord should be omitted, as they are not in the flight from Egypt (Exod. xii. 38), foUDd in the original, and are not required. blasphemed the Name or the Lord. If such The LXX. have rendered nakav by a word blasphemy were to go unpunished, the meaning pronounced, and on this misunder· obligation of law WBB dissolved. For, as standing, adopted by the J ewe, bas heen founded the Jewish precept forbidding the Lnnge has said, "A community which suffers utterance or the Divine No.me. Owing to the reviling of the principle of theil' com- that prohibition, the true pronunciation of mUDity without reaction, is morally Callen the word written and called" Jehovah" hllll to pieces." He wBB brought, therefore, to been lost. Wherever the No.me occurred in Moses, fllld so solemn WBB the occasion, that Scripture, that of .Adonai, meaning Lord, Moses reserved the case, for which no pro- wo.e substituted for it in. 'Publio reading, the consonants only of the original nume, vision had yet been made, for the special Y H V H, being preserved in the written decision or God. The speci.fio judgment text, and the vowels or Adonai, namely on the man is that he shall die by stoning a o a, being written underneath them in at the hands of the congregation, nfter the lieu of the original vowels. From the con- witnesses of his sin had laid their hands sonants Y H V H o.ud the vowels a o a would be formed Yahovo.h or Jo.huvab, but tho laws upon his head; and e. general law is founded of the Hebrew language required the first a on the special CBBe. to be changed in to e, and hence the no.me Ver. 10.-The aon of an Iaraelitiah woman. Jehovah. It is almost certain thut the '\'his is the only place where the adjective original vowels were a and e, which would [1raelituh is found; and the word" Israelite" form the name Yahveh, the Samaritans only ocours in 2 Sam. xvii. 25. Whose having always so pronounced it, according father was an Egyptian. The man couhl to the testimony of Theodoret. It is snid not, therefore, be a member of the congrega- that the high priest continued to utter the tion, as, according to the sulsequontly pro- very name Yo.hveh on the Day of Atone- mulgated law (Dent. x:r.iii. 8), the descend- ment Jong after it had ceased to be used in ant of an Egyptian could not be admitted the reading of the Scriptures, and that when till the third generation. He seems to have he did so, thoeo who heard it pruetrated committed two offences whioh led up to his themselves, saying," Blessed be the Name I" great crime. First, he went out among the After e. time, however, he ceased to pro- ohildren of larael, that is, he did not confine nounco it aloud on that day also, lest it himself to his own purt of the enco.mpment, should be learnt and used for magic.Ll where the mixed multitude lived, but he purposes. In consequence, perhaps, of the intruded into the part set aside for pure substitution of Adonai for Yahveh, lho Sop. Israelites ; and next, having thus put him- to&gint version always reads for Yo.hvoh, self already in the wrong, thia BOD of the K6p1os: and the English version the LOBD. Ieraeliiilh woman and a man of Israel In French and oth1ir versions the name is  THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS. [oH. XXIV, 10-28,