LEVIT. XVII. PARAPHRASE. an atonement for your beafts to be accepted fouls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the foul. 12 Therefore I faid unto the children of Ifrael, No foul of you fhall eat blood, neither fhall any stranger that fojourneth among you, eat blood. as a ranfom and atonement for the forfeited lives of offending men; and their blood (one of the principal feats of life) to be fprinkled for that purpose in his appointed worship; it was not fit that a thing appropriated to fo facred an ufe fhould be eaten as common food. The eating of blood therefore was capitally prohibited to Ifraelites and profelytes of the gate by this law, and the fevereft degree of God's displeasure annexed to the wilful breach of it. And this is the reason why, as he had forbidden the eating of blood before to the Ifraelites, chap. iii. 17. and vii. 26. fo now he should forbid it PARAPHRASE. it to the profelytes of the gate. Ver. 13. And for the fame end it was that Mofes was ordered alfo to forbid both the Ifraelites and profelytes of the gate the eating any thing. ftrangled, because things ftrangled used generally to be eaten by NOTES. 1 Ver. 13. "He fhall pour out the blood thereof." This is a prohibition of "things ftrangled." All the blood of beafts that were ever permitted to be offered was to be sprinkled on the altar. The blood of fuch creatures as were permitted to be eaten, but were not allowed to be facrificed, and which had been ufually ftrangled by the Heathen, and eaten after they were fo ftrangled, in honour to their idols, &c. thefe they were not to ftrangle, but to let out the blood of. And, as the things that were generally strangled were fuch as were caught in hunting, with nets, fnares, hawks, &c. therefore those are what the text mentions: but, by a parity of reason, all other things ftrangled are forbidden. And the reason why the beasts and birds caught in hunting are only mentioned is, that they were the things that were ufually strangled. "And PARAPHRASE. by the Heathen in their idolatrous and magical rites. But whereas at other times the Heathen used to drain the blood even out of those creatures which they commonly ftrangled, fuch as birds and beasts usually taken in hunting, and put it into a hole in the earth, and leave it uncovered for their N. O TE S. "And cover it with the duft;" left the earth fhould not fuck it all up, and it fhould entice men, or appear as if it had enticed men, to an idolatrous ufage: the Heathen fometimes pouring out the blood of these creatures (which they generally ftrangled) into an hole in the ground, as an idolatrous rite, as we may juftly fuppofe from this place. Maimonides was of this opinion; for he fays, Mor. Nevoc, p. iii. c. 46. "God commanded that the "blood of all clean beafts and birds fhould be co"vered with duft where they were killed, that men " might not be able to get together and eat about it, and "fo the fraternity between them and the devils fhould "be defeated; though the devil in reality has a full pos"feffion of evil men.' VOL. II. A a devils PARAPHRASE, devils and imaginary deities to feaft upon; therefore I order, that the blood of those of creatures, which the Heathens used commonly to keep in the body by ftrangling them, and which you fhall let out before you eat them, shall be let out upon the earth, and not be poured into a into a hole. And left any part it, when poured upon the earth, fhould not be fucked in by the earth, but remain upon it, as if it was left there for those dæ mons to feed on, it fhall be carefully covered with duft, in order to put an entire end to fuch magical and idolatrous ufages, PARAPHRASE. Ve. 14. And I also forbid things ftrangled, for the fame rea fon that I forbad blood: blood being the life of every thing, and therefore appointed by me for an atonement for you. This was the reason, that I before forbad blood, after it was let out of the bodies of animals, to the children of Ifrael, and that I now forbid them and the profelytes of the gate, to keep it in the bodies of any animal they kill for private use, by ftrangling it. Ver. 15. And tho' it is not unlawful for an alien or a profelyte of the gate to eat of things that die of themselves, or that are A a 2 torn |