Leviticus 21:9

21:1-24 Laws concerning the priests. - As these priests were types of Christ, so all ministers must be followers of him, that their example may teach others to imitate the Saviour. Without blemish, and separate from sinners, He executed his priestly office on earth. What manner of persons then should his ministers be! But all are, if Christians, spiritual priests; the minister especially is called to set a good example, that the people may follow it. Our bodily infirmities, blessed be God, cannot now shut us out from his service, from these privileges, or from his heavenly glory. Many a healthful, beautiful soul is lodged in a feeble, deformed body. And those who may not be suited for the work of the ministry, may serve God with comfort in other duties in his church.

The Targum of Jonathan restrains it to one that is betrothed; but others, as Jarchi and Aben Ezra, whether betrothed or married; and all confess, as the former says, that the Scripture does not speak of one that is single or entirely free: but there is no exception in the text; and besides, the daughter of any man that was betrothed to a man, and guilty of the crime here spoken of, was to die, Deuteronomy 22:23 ; and therefore such a law respecting the priest's daughter would be needless; unless it can be thought that it was made merely for the sake of the different kind of death she was to be put to, and that burning was a more terrible one than stoning: if she profane herself by playing the whore; which brings scandal and disgrace on any person, and much more on anyone that had the honour of being related to a person in such a sacred office, and the advantage of a more strictly religious education, and had eaten of the holy things in her father's house; all which were aggravations of her crime, and made it the more scandalous and reproachful to her: some render it, "when she begins to play the whore" (b); as soon as ever it is discovered in her, and she is taken in it; even for the first that she commits, she is not to be spared, but put to death: she profaneth her father: which is another aggravation of her sin; she brings him under disgrace, disparages his office, and exposes him to censure, reproach, and ridicule, as not having taken care of her education, and taught her

Leviticus 21:9 . And the daughter — And by analogy his son also, and his wife, because the reason of the law here added concerns all. And nothing is more common than to name one kind for the rest of the same nature, as also is done Leviticus 18. She profaneth her father — Exposeth his person and office, and consequently religion, to contempt.

And by analogy his son also, and his wife, because the reason of the law here added concerns all. And nothing is more common than to name one kind for the rest of the same nature, as also is done Le 18 . She profaneth her father, i.e. exposeth his person and office, and consequently religion, one of whose prime ministers he is, to contempt. She shall be burnt with fire; which was the severest of all the kinds of punishments among the Jews. Whereby God would show, both the greatness of their sins who stand in nearer relation to God than others, and how far God is from allowing sin in those who are nearest to him.

(9) And the daughter of any priest.— This statute, according to the administrators of the Law during the second Temple, applies only to betrothed and married daughters. Hence the ancient Chaldee version renders it, “and if the betrothed daughter” She shall be burnt with fire.—Whilst the married daughter of a layman who had gone astray was punished with death by strangling (see Leviticus 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:23-24), the daughter of a priest who had disgraced herself was to be punished with the severer death by burning. Though the doom of the guilty partner in the crime is not mentioned here, his sentence was death by strangulation.

7-9. They shall not take a wife that is a whore, or profane—Private individuals might form several connections, which were forbidden as inexpedient or improper in priests. The respectability of their office, and the honor of religion, required unblemished sanctity in their families as well as themselves, and departures from it in their case were visited with severer punishment than in that of others.