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ways shall be desolate, there shall be no people to walk in them, 23 or it shall be dangerous to go there, And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto 24 me; Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will pun25 ish you yet seven times for your sins. And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of [my] cove. nant, my quarrel against you for breaking my covenant; and when ye are gathered together within your cities, or strong holds, which ye thought impregnable, I will send the pestilence among you and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the 26 enemy. [And] when I have broken the staff of your bread, deprived you of that which is the support of life, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, an oven which used to be filled for one family shall serve ten, and they shall deliver [you] your bread again by weight and ye shall eat, and not 27 be satisfied. And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, 28 but walk contrary unto me; Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; I will act like a man that meets an enemy in fury and in battle: and I, even I, will chastise you seven 29 times for your sins. And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.*

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And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcasses upon the carcasses of your 31 idols, and my soul shall abhor you. And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries, your synagogues, or the tabernacle, the temple, and the several buildings about them, unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet 32 odours, will not accept your services. And I will bring the land into desolation and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it, at the calamities that befall you; so grievous, so various, and so uncommon shall they be.

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And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you and your land shall be desolate, and 34 your cities waste. Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye [be] in your enemies' land; [even] then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths, those sabbatical years of rest from tillage, which you, through 35 covetousness, oftentimes would not give it. As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest ; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.

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And upon them that are left [alive] of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall

This was fulfilled in the siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonians and by the Romans. This is the most terrible threatening of all the rest; for when God abhors a people, the way is open to all evil.

Which was seventy years during their captivity, and was a just punishment for their neglect of the sabbath and the sabbatical year.

flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none 37 pursueth. And they shall fall one upon another, as it were

before a sword, when none pursueth and ye shall have no $8 power to stand before your enemies. And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat 39 you up. And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands, through grief, hunger, and oppression; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them, if they walk in their fathers' steps. 40 If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, 41 and that also they have walked contrary unto me; And [that] I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies, and that all those things shall have come upon them by my just judgment, and not by chance; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, to justify God and condemn themselves, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity, patiently and humbly submit to their 42 correction: Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham, the most ancient of all, will I remember; and I 43 will remember the land, which seemed to be forgotten. The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred 44 my statutes. And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my cove45 nant with them: for I [am] the LORD their God. But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I [am] the LORD.t

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These [are] the statutes, and judgments, and laws, which the LORD made between him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.

• This was the case with the ten tribes.

From these last verses we may observe, that such a reformation as there is at present among the Jews from idolatry, would have restored them to favour, according to the Mosaic covenant: but they are still under national guilt, as having crucified Christ. Yet from this they shall at length be delivered; and the Jews themselves, we are told by some of their rabbies, expect it, and ground their expectation upon this promise, as christians also do. See Rem. xi.

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REFLECTIONS.

"HAT an awful and majestic Being is the blessed God! who hath all our comforts in his hand. All creatures are at his disposal; he has the command of all diseases; they are his servants. All nature, heaven, earth, air, rain, and beasts, and the hearts of men, are under his control. He can stir up enemies when he will. Men are his sword; their spirits are under his influence; who would not therefore fear him!

2. How great is the wisdom of those who practise religion, which makes this God our friend. He will have respect to those that keep his statutes and commandments; he will favour and bless them; no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. Godliness hath the promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come.

3. We learn from hence, that good men, those who endeavour to promote religion in their country by their prayers, admonitions, and examples, are the best friends to it. We are not under an equal providence now, as the Jews were there is therefore no arguing in our favour from their circumstances. But still the Lord loveth righteousness; and righteousness exalteth a nation. We have reason to expect peculiar blessings from heaven, especially when we observe his sabbaths, and reverence his sanctuary.

4. We are here taught the great value of spiritual blessings above all others, and how happy those are who possess them : God will be their God, and they shall be his people. His soul will not abhor them. Let us ever desire God's word and ordinances; remembering that his blessing is bestowed on a regular, orderly attendance on them. Let us esteem them more than all the blessings of the corn floor and the wine press, and be thankful that we have them in such abundance. God hath not dealt so with many other nations. Praise ye the Lord.

5. Let us be thankful that our nation is free from those desolating judgments which are here threatened. Ours is a fruitful land, wherein we dwell safely; here are no wild beasts to break in and destroy. Yet God could soon break our staff of bread, turn our fertile soil into barrenness, and cause despised enemies to go through the land. But through divine goodness and patience our blessings are continued, though we are unworthy of them. Let us then adore his goodness, that our land yields its increase, that he strengthens the bars of our gates, feeds us with the finest of the wheat, and suffers none to make us afraid. He giveth us all things richly to enjoy. Let us therefore love and serve God, who dealeth so bountifully with us.

6. We learn, that in our private conduct we must not walk contrary to God. All sinners walk contrary to his nature, will,

and law; especially those who sin presumptuously, or, after manifest rebukes of Providence. If, when visited with affliction, we despise God's chastisements, and are not awakened and reformed, but trespass yet more and more, he will punish us yet seven times more. God grant that all who have been, or still are, under his rod, may consider this, lest his strokes the next time should be heavier; lest he send greater judgments, for he both can and will do it.

7. Let us pray that Israel may be taught, by the fulfilment of these threatenings, the evil of sin, which brought all their calamities upon them; and that they may be brought to true repentance and conversion. Their sins were many and great; but it was their crucifying Christ which filled up the measure of their iniquities: in consequence of which, they have remained longer in their pres ent dispersed state than any former captivity; yea, than all the time they continued in their own land. But when their uncircumcised hearts shall be humbled to confess their iniquity, their own obstinacy and unbelief, as well as the iniquity of their fathers,/ then, and not till then, can they reasonably expect the full accomplishment of the promises of their restoration, with which the chapter closes. May God hasten it in his own time! And let our constant prayer for Israel be, that they may be saved. ́

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This chapter relates to vows, and to devoted things which were not to be redeemed.

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ND the LORD spake unto Moscs, saying, Speak unto

man shall make a singular vow, that is, an extraordinary vow that he would devote himself to the service of God's sanctuary, the persons [shall be] for the LORD, set apart for his service, or else redeemed, by thy estimation, according to that value which the priest, by the direction here given, shall set upon them. And thy estimation shall be of the male from twenty years old even unto sixty years old, even thy estimation shall be fifty shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary, or about 4 five pounds fourteen shillings of our money. And if [it be] a female, then thy estimation shall be thirty shekels, about three pounds eight shillings: it was less than for a man, because the labour and service of a man is usually worth more than of a 5 woman. And if [it be] from five years old even unto twenty years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male twenty shekels, or about two pounds five shillings, and for the female 6 ten shekels, about twenty two shillings. And if [it be] from a month old even unto five years old, then thy estimation VOL. I. Fff:

shall be of the male five shekels of silver, or twelve shillings and sixpence, and for the female thy estimation [shall be] 7 three shekels of silver, or seven shillings and sixpence. And if [it be] from sixty years old and above; if [it be] a male, then thy estimation shall be fifteen shekels, or one pound fourteen shillings, and for the female ten shekels, or one pound froe 8 shillings. But if he be poorer than thy estimation, then he shall present himself before the priest, and the priest shall value him according to his ability that vowed shall the priest value him.*

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And if [it be] a beast, whereof men bring an offering unto the LORD, all that [any man] giveth of such unto the LORD shall be holy, consecrated to God, either to be sacrificed, or giv10 en to the priest. He shall not alter it, nor change it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good and if he shall at all change beast for beast, then it and the exchange thereof shall be 11 holy. And if [it be] any unclean beast, of which they do not offer a sacrifice unto the LORD, then he shall present the 12 beast before the priest: And the priest shall value it, whether it be good or bad as thou valuest it, [who art] the priest, so 13 shall it be. But if he will at all redeem it, then he shall add a fifth [part] thereof unto thy estimation.

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And when a man shall sanctify his house [to be] holy unto the LORD, shall appropriate the income of that house to the service of the sanctuary, then the priest shall estimate it, whether it be good or bad: as the priest shall estimate it, so shall it 15 stand. And if he that sanctified it will redeem his house, then he shall add the fifth [part] of the money of thy estimation unto it, and it shall be his.

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And if a man shall sanctify unto the LORD [Some part] of a field of his possession, then thy estimation shall be according to the seed thereof, according to the quantity of seed it will take to sow it: an homer of barley seed 17 [shall be valued] at fifty shekels of silver. If he sanctify his field from the year of jubilee, according to thy esti18 mation it shall stand. But if he sanctify his field after the jubilee, then the priest shall reckon unto him the money according to the years that remain, even unto the year of the 19 jubilee, and it shall be abated from thy estimation. And if he that sanctified the field, will in any wise redeem it, then he shall add the fifth [part] of the money of thy estimation 20 unto it, and it shall be assured to him. And if he will not

These persons were probably the same as the Nethinins afterward; the young men were hewers of wood and carriers of water: the old men were employed in sweep ing the floor, and carrying out ashes: the women in making the priests' garments and repairing the covering of the tabernacle: but lest too many should offer for this work, the price of their redemption was fixed, that no mors might be retained than were necessary. That is, he was to leave it with the priest, or pay the value according to the priest's estimation.

If he did this, it is plain that he thought it worth more than the priest put upon it; and therefore a fifth part more might be thought to be the real value.

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