The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 216

nnimals from which the blood h8.ll not been them (LXX., Syriac, Vu~ate, A. V., Calvin, properly drained (Calvin, Keil, Kalisch, Rosenmiiller (qui ad ammas vestras perti• Murphy, Wordsworth). Tho same prohibi- net),· Murphy, 'Speaker's Commeute.ry ')- tion (commonly regarded by the Hebrew although, according to Kalisch, ~ cannot havo doctors as the seventh of the Noacl1ic pre- cepts which were enjoined upon all nations ; the force of a genitive after Cl:)~"1, n substan. vide infra, ver. 6) was afterwards incor- tive with a suffix; but vide Levit. xviii. 20, pornted in the Mosaic legislation (cf. Lovit. 23; cf. Ewald, 'Heh. Syn.,' p. 113. Perhaps iii. li ; ,ii. 26, 27 ; xvii. 10-14; xix. 26 ; the force of ~ may be brought out by rcn• Deut. xii. 16, 23, 24 ; xv. 23), and subse- dering " your blood to the extent of your quently imposed upon the Gentile c01~verts lives ; " i. e. not nll blood-letting, but that in the Christian Church by the nuthonty of which proceeds to the extent of taking life the Holy Ghost and the apostles (Acts xv. (cf. vcr. 15: '' There $hall no more be waters 28, 29 ). Among other _reasons, . doubtless, to tlie extent of a flood"). Will I require. for the original promulgation of this law were Literally, search after, with a view to punish- these : - 1. .A desire to guard against the ment ; hence avenge (cf. eh. xlii. 22 ; Ezek. practice of cruelty to animals (Chrysostom, xxxiii. 6 ; Ps. iL 13). At (literally, from) Cal.in, 'Speaker's Commenta~y'). 2. .A ~c- the hand of every bee.at will I require it. sign to hedge about human hfe by showmg Not "an awful warning against cruelty to the inviolabilitv which in God's eye attached the brute creation I" (Clarke), but a solemn to even the lives of the lower creatures (Calvin, proclamation of the sanctity of human life, Willet, Poole, Kalisch, Murphy). 3. Th: in- since it enacted that that beast should be timate connection which even 1n the anunal destroyed which slew a man-a statute after- creation subsisted between tlie blood and the wards incorporated in the Mosaic legislation life (Kurtz, 'Sacr. Worship,' I . .A. 5_). 4. Its (Exod. xxi. 28-32}, and practised _even in snnbolic use as an atonement for SID (Poole, Christian times ; "not for any punishment Dclitzsch, 'Bib. Psy.' iv. 11; K~il,_ Words- to the beast, which, being under no law, is worth, Murphy). That the restriction con- capable of neither sin nor punishment, but tinues to the present day may perhaps be for caution to men " (Poole). If this prac- argued from its having been given to Noah, tice appears absurd to some modems (Dr. H. but cannot legitimately be inferred from Oort, 'The Bible for Young People,'_ p. 103), having been imposed on the Gentile converts it was not so to Solon and Draco, m whose to Christianitv as one ,wv i1ravay1:Er roi,rwv, enactments there was a similar provision from the burden of which they could not (Delitzsch, Lange). And at (from) the be excused (Clarke), as the,n, by parity of hand of man; at (or from) the he.nd of rcasoninn- meat offered to iuols would be every man's brother. Either (1~ t'li:o. per- equallv f~rbidden, which it is not, except sons are here described-(a) the md1vidual when • the consciences of the weak and man himself, and (b) his brother,. i. e._ the i!!norant are end.angered (Calvin). snicide and the murderer (llfa1momdes, <> Ver. 5. -And surely. .Again the con- Wordsworth, Murphy), or. the murder~~ junction ";Jl::.t introduces e. restriction. The and his brother man, ,,,, e. kinsman, or _goel blood of beasts might without fear be shed (Michaelis Bohlen, Baumgarten, Kalisch, for necessary nses, but the blo~d of man was Bush), or the ordinary civil authorities (~fa- holv and inviolable. Follow1Dg the L~ lisch, Candlish, Jamieson)-or (2) one,.~·• (rai yap), Jerome, Pererillii, llforcerus, CalvlD, the murderer, who is first genencally distin- Poole Willet give e. cansal sense to the guished from the beast, and then character- conju~ction, as if it_ 51!-pplied the reaso~ of ised as his victim's brother; as thus-" at" the foregoing restnction-a sense which, or from " the hand of man," as well o.s according to Fiirst (' Heb. Lox.,' sub ?i?m.) beast • "from the hand of the individual it sometimes, though rarely, has; ~- ID 2 man, ~r every man (cf. eh. xlii. 25 i Nu~. Kings xxiv. 3 ; Ps. xxxi~ 12; lxvm. 22 ; xvii. 17 for this distributive use of t;:1 111:t) h!S but in each case ';Jl::.t 1s better rendered brother," supplying a new ar~ent again_st "surely." Your. blo~d of y_our lives. (1) homicide (Calvin, Knobel, Dehtzsc~, Keil, For your souls, t- e. ID reqU1tal ~or them:- Lange). The ,Principal objection to d1scove~- 1,e:r; talionis, blood for blood, life for life ing Goelism m the phraseology_ is that _it (Kalisch, Wordswor_th, Bnsh)_; (2) for y-:our requires i:t.;l to be understood Ill two dif- souls, i. e. for the1r protection (GeseIDWi, ferent senses and the circumstance, that the M.icha.alis, Schumann, Tuch); (3) from yo~ institution ~f the magistracy appears to be souls-a prohibition against SU1C1de (Saman- hinted at in the next verse, renders it un- tan) ; (4) with reference to your soulB,-~ necessary to detect it in this. Will I re- =quoad (Ewald, 'Heb. Syu.,' 310 a),-~ if quire the We_( or so1:l)_ of 11:111:n: 'l'he specific specifying the particular blood for which manner in which thlB mqu1S1tion after blood exaction would be ma.de (Keil); (5) of your should he carried out is indicated in the 10uls, belonging to them, or residing in words that follow. OIi, IX, 1-7.] THE BOOK OF GENESIS. 141