thnt the nnimal might bo freo to eat of the free to do eo; but the womrm had her grnins which ile lnbour soverccl from the redress. She wo.s to bring the m:ittcr bcforn husks. '£hie prohibition, therefore, was the elders of the town, sitting as magistrates dictntocl by o regnrcl to tho rights and cln.ims at the gate, o.nd they were to summon t.he of nnimo.ls employecl in l11bour; but there man ancl speak to him, cmrl it' he persisted is involvecl in it the genera.I principle that in his refusal, the woman was to take his oil lo.hour is to bo duly requited, and honce shoe from off his foot, ancl spit before his it seems to bo.ve poesed into a proverb, and face, and say, So she.II it be done unto that wo.s nppliccl to men os well o.e the lower mo.n that will not build up his brother's animo.le (cf. I Cor. ix. 9; I Tim. v. 18). Tho house. The taking off of the shoe of the use of oxen to trencl out the corn oncl the man by the woman was an act of indignity rule of leaving the animals so employed to him; it amounted to a declaration that unmuzzled still prevail o.mong the Arabs he was not worthy to stand in his brother's ancl other Ea.stern peoples (Robinson, 'Bib. place, and was scornfully rejected by the Res.,' ii. 206, 207; iii. 6; Kitto, 'Bib. Cycl.,' woman herself. As the planting of the shod i. 8G). foot on a piece of property, or the casting of Vera. 5-10.-Levirate marriagea. If a the shoe over a field, was emblcmaticnl of man who wo.s mo.rried died without heue, taking possession of it with satisfaction (Pa. Ix. 8; cviii. 9); and as the voluntary bis surviving brother wo.s requir<Jd to marry banding of one's shoe to another betokened the wiclow, eo os to raise up a successor to the giving up to that other of some property the deceased, who should be bis heir. The or right; so, contrariwise, the forcible re- brother who refused this duty must be moval from one of his shoe and the casting publicly disgro.ced. The design of this of it aside indicated contemptuous rejection of the owner, and repudiation of all his institut~on-whicb was not originated by rights and claims in the matter. To walk Moses, bntcame down from eo.rly times (Gen. barefooted was regarcled by the Jews ns :r.xxviii. 8), o.nd is to be found amongst ignominious and miserable (cf. Isa. xx. other nations than the Jews, and that even 2, 4; 2 Sam. xv. 30). The spitting bcforo in the present day-was to preserve a family the face of the man (1'_?;):;l_, in front of him) from becoming exlinct and to secure the is by the Jewish interpreters understoocl of property of a family from passing into the spitting on the ground in his presence (Talmud, 'Jebam ,' 106; Maimon., 'In hands of a stranger. The notion that Jibbum.,' iv. G-8). This seems to be what the usage "had its natural roots in the the words express (cf. eh. iv. 37; vii. 2{; desire inherent in man who is born for im- xi. 25; Josh. x. 8; Ezek. x. 8, for the render- mortality, and connected with the hitherto ing of •JEJ::l); and this, according to Oriental undeveloped belief in o.n eternal life, to notions, would be insult enough (cf. Numb. xii. H; Isa. 1. 6; Niebuhr, 'De,cription de secure a continued personal existence for l' Axabie,' i. 49). himself and immortality for his name Vera. II, 12.-Bnt though the childless through the perpetu11tion of bis family, and widow might thus approach and lay hold in the life of the son who took bis place" on the mau, no licence was thus granted to (Keil), seems wholly fanciful. women to pass beyond the bounds of decency Ver. 5.-Dwell together; i.e.not necessarily in their approaches to the other sex. Henco in the snme house, but in the same com- the prohiuition in these verses. The severe munity or plnce (cf. Gen. xiii. 6; xxvi. 7). sentence here prescribed was by the rabbins And have no child; literally, have no son; commuted into a fine of the value of tile but this is rightly interpreted as meaning band. child (so the LXX.; Vulgate: Josephus, Vers. 13-16.-Rectitude and integrity • Autiq.,' iv. 8, 23; l\Iatt. xxii. 25; llfaimon., in tro.do are here anew inculcated ( cf. Lev. • In Jihbum.,' ii. 6-9); for, if the deceased xix. 35, etc.). left a daughter, the perpetuation of the Ver. 13.-Divere weights; literally, a family and the retention of the property stone and a stone-a. large one for buying, might bo secured through her (of. Numb. and a small one for selling ( cf. Amos viii. :r.xvii. 4, eto.). 5). Both weights ancl measures were to be Ver. G.-Sho.11 auooeed in the name of his "pei·fcct,'' i.e. exactly correct, o.nd so just. brother whioh is dead; literally, Bhall rise (On the promise in ver. 15, see eh. iv. 26; up on the name of hia deceased brother ; i.e. v. 16.) shall be enrollee{ in the family register as heir of the deceased, and shElll perpetuate Ver. 16.-(Cf. oh. xxii. 5; :r.xiii. 12.) All that do unrighteously; equiVl\lent to e.11 that his name. transgress any law. Vere. 7-10.-If the man refUBed to marry the widow of bis deceased brother, he was Vers.17-19.-Wbilit in their intercoune 394. THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY. [en. xxv. 1-10.
'l;th 4.'-Mh ot.hcr th<' law of lo'"c ancl brotherly already punished by the Israelites, who, led kindness wns to predominate, it was to be on by Joshull, had turned upon them cmd otherwi~c iu regard to the enemies of C'.od diecomfitecl thorn with the edge of the nnd his people. Them they were to over- sword. This, however, W[!.B not enough; come by force; wickedness wns to be Amalek WllS to be utterly destroyed, am\ remo'l"ed by the extinction of the wicked. this the Israelites were to effect 11.8 soon &11 Moses has already repeatedly reminded the the Lord bad given them rest in the pro- Isre.elitos thnt they he.d utterly to destroy mised land. It WW! not, however, till the the wicked nations of Ce.ne.e.n; e.nd he hero time of David that this WllS done. closes this discourse by reminding them Ver.18.-And smote the hindmost of thee; that there was e. nation outside of CanRan literally, and tailed thee; i.e. out oft' thy tail, 'l·hicb wns also doomed, and 'l·hich they or rear. The verb (::l}!) occur.; only here were to root out. This was Amalek, which and in Josh. x. 19. It is o. denomino.tive had attacked the Israelites in their journey from :lll, a tail, and, like mo.ny denomi- at Repbidim, and had taken advantage of natives:• both in the Hebrew and in other languages, it bll.8 the sense of taking away their exhausted condition to harass their or cutting oft' the thing expressed by the renr and destroy those who, fo.int and weary, noun from which it is formed, like the had lagged behind. For this they had been English verb f,o skin, for example,
HOMILETICS.