Deuteronomy 14:1

14:1-21 Moses tells the people of Israel how God had given them three distinguishing privileges, which were their honour, and figures of those spiritual blessings in heavenly things, with which God has in Christ blessed us. Here is election; The Lord hath chosen thee. He did not choose them because they were by their own acts a peculiar people to him above other nations, but he chose them that they might be so by his grace; and thus were believers chosen, Eph 1:4. Here is adoption; Ye are the children of the Lord your God; not because God needed children, but because they were orphans, and needed a father. Every spiritual Israelite is indeed a child of God, a partaker of his nature and favour. Here is sanctification; Thou art a holy people. God's people are required to be holy, and if they are holy, they are indebted to the grace God which makes them so. Those whom God chooses to be his children, he will form to be a holy people, and zealous of good works. They must be careful to avoid every thing which might disgrace their profession, in the sight of those who watch for their halting. Our heavenly Father forbids nothing but for our welfare. Do thyself no harm; do not ruin thy health, thy reputation, thy domestic comforts, thy peace of mind. Especially do not murder thy soul. Do not be the vile slave of thy appetites and passions. Do not render all around thee miserable, and thyself wretched; but aim at that which is most excellent and useful.

Deuteronomy 14:1 . Ye are the children of the Lord your God — Ye are not only the creatures, and the offspring, but the peculiar people, the worshippers, the servants, and those of you that are truly pious, the adopted children of Jehovah, the one living and true God, who is your God in covenant; and therefore you should not dishonour him, your heavenly Father, nor disparage yourselves, by unworthy or unbecoming practices, such as here follow; and whom you must not disobey. Ye shall not cut yourselves — This was the practice of idolaters, both in the worship of their idols and in their funerals, as also upon occasion of public calamities. For the dead — Through excessive sorrow for your dead friends, as if you had no hope of their happiness after death, 1 Thessalonians 4:13 . See on Leviticus 19:28 . These furious expressions of mourning for the dead subsist at this day in some of the eastern countries: see on Genesis 50:10 . But nothing surely can be more unbecoming the sons of God and heirs of immortality than thus to sorrow like those who expect no life after this. Nor make any baldness between your eyes — On the fore part of your heads, ( Leviticus 21:5 ,) just over the space that is between your eyes.

XIV. (1) Ye are the children of Jehovah.—This fact is made the foundation of all the laws of ceremonial and moral holiness in the Pentateuch, more especially in the Book of Leviticus, where these laws are chiefly to be found. Ye shall not cut yourselves.—The precept is repeated with little variation from Leviticus 19:28. Any baldness between your eyes—i.e., apparently, “on your foreheads.” The word for baldness in this place is generally used for baldness on the back of the head.

Verse 1. - Ye are the children of Jehovah your God (cf. Exodus 4:22 , etc.). As his children, it behooved them to avoid all that would be offensive to him or indicate distrust in him. Ye shall not cut yourselves , etc. (cf. Leviticus 19:28 ; Leviticus 21:5 ; Jeremiah 16:6 ; Jeremiah 48:36, 37 ; Ezekiel 7:18 ; Ezekiel 27:31 ). ("Ex hac opinions sunt ilia varia et detestabilia genera lugendi, paedores, muliebres lacerationes genarum, pectoris, feminum, capitis percussiones." Cicero, 'Tusc. Quaest.,' 3:26; see also ' De Legibus,' 2:25.) Deuteronomy 14:1

Make any baldness between your eyes - i. e. by shaving the forepart of the head and the eyebrows. The practices named in this verse were common among the pagan, and seem to be forbidden, not only because such wild excesses of grief (compare 1 Kings 18:28 ) would be inconsistent in those who as children of a heavenly Father had prospects beyond this world, but also because these usages themselves arose out of idolatrous notions.

CHAPTER 14 De 14:1, 2. God's People Must Not Disfigure Themselves in Mourning. 1. ye shall not cut yourselves … for the dead—It was a common practice of idolaters, both on ceremonious occasions of their worship (1Ki 18:28), and at funerals (compare Jer 16:6; 41:5), to make ghastly incisions on their faces and other parts of their persons with their finger nails or sharp instruments. The making a large bare space between the eyebrows was another heathen custom in honor of the dead (see on [128]Le 19:27, 28; [129]Le 21:5). Such indecorous and degrading usages, being extravagant and unnatural expressions of hopeless sorrow (1Th 4:13), were to be carefully avoided by the Israelites, as derogatory to the character, and inconsistent with the position, of those who were the people of God [De 14:2].Heathenish rites of mourning prohibited, Deu 14:1,2; and the eating of any abominable thing, Deu 14:3. All unclean beasts, Deu 14:4-8, fish, Deu 14:9,10, and birds, prohibited, Deu 14:11-20. True tithing commanded, Deu 14:22; and where it was to be eaten, Deu 14:23-27. A command about the third year’s tithing, Deu 14:28; and who should eat it, Deu 14:29. Of the Lord your God; whom therefore you must not disparage by unworthy or unbecoming practices, such as here follow, and whom you must not disobey.

Ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes, which were the practices of idolaters, both in the worship of their idols, as 1 Kings 18:28; or in their funerals, as here, and Jeremiah 16:6; or upon occasion of public calamities, as Jeremiah 41:5 47:5. See Poole "Leviticus 19:27", See Poole "Leviticus 19:28". See Poole "Leviticus 21:5". For the dead; through excessive sorrow for your dead friends, as if you had no hope of their happiness after death, 1 Thessalonians 4:13.

1 f. Against certain Rites for the Dead No parallel in JE; but one in H, Leviticus 19:28 a . 1 . Sons are ye to Jehovah your God ] The order of the EVV. misses the emphasis. Note not merely the change to the Pl. address but its cause, the conception of individual Israelites as the sons of Jehovah: not elsewhere in D. In the discourses in D Israel, the nation, is as the son of Jehovah, Deuteronomy 1:31 , Deuteronomy 8:5 and so more definitely in J, Exodus 4:22 f., Hosea 11:1 , and Jeremiah 31:20 . The transition from this conception to the statement of Jehovah’s fatherhood of Israelites as individuals was natural; the two conceptions occur together in the Song Deuteronomy 32:5-6 and in Hosea and Jeremiah. The latter is already found in the 8th century, Hosea 1:10 , Isaiah 1:2 . But as we advance through the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, with their strong individualism, to the exilic and post-exilic writings we find a great increase of references to Israelites as the sons of Jehovah, Jeremiah 3:14 ; Jeremiah 3:19 ; Jeremiah 3:22 ; Jeremiah 4:22 , Ezek. ( Ezekiel 2:4 ?), Ezekiel 20:21 , Isaiah 63:8 ; Isaiah 63:16 ; Isaiah 64:8 (cp. Isaiah 57:4 ), Malachi 2:10 , Deuteronomy 32:5 , Psalm 73:15 ; Psalm 82:6 . This is contemporary with the breaking up of the Jewish state and the destruction of the national worship.

While then it is clear that one cannot take sons of Jehovah in this law as by itself proof of an exilic or post-exilic date, we can say that if it does not add to, it at least agrees with, the evidence in that direction adduced in the note below. Many ancient nations believed in their descent from gods or demigods; and among them the Semitic peoples, e.g. the Moabites are called sons and daughters of Kemosh, Numbers 21:29 . But the relation was conceived physically. In the O.T. God’s fatherhood and Israel’s sonship are historical and ethical, based not on physical generation, but on an act of love on God’s part, on His choice or adoption (cp. Romans 9:4 ) of the people, and on His deliverance of them from Egypt; and it is carried out by His providence of love and moral chastisement (see the references above and cp. Amos 3), which is nowhere more tenderly described than in this Book. But when all the O.T. references to God as the Father whether of Israel or Israelites and to them as His children have been reckoned up, how few are they in comparison to the number of times that sons , and children , of God occur in the N.T. God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying Abba Father ( Galatians 4:6 ); joint heirs with Christ ( Romans 8:17 ). ye shall not cut or gash yourselves ] So of the priests of Ba‘al ( 1 Kings 18:28 ) and in Ar. one form of the vb. is used of mutilations of animals, Leviticus 19:28 : you shall put no incision on your flesh (cp.