DiscipleDeck
Get started
Bible Commentary

Leviticus 24:17-22

The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 24:17-22

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

The holy Law of God.

These enactments, occasioned by the sin of the son of Shelomith, contain certain principles on which God founded his Law, and which he would have us introduce into our dealings and regulations now. These are—

I. THE SACREDNESS OF HUMAN LIFE. "He that killeth any man shall surely be put to death" (). This is significantly repeated () We can hardly be said to have learnt this lesson yet, after eighteen centuries of Christian legislation. Here, however, is a statute which unmistakably and emphatically asserts it.

II. EQUITY. There is to be careful discrimination in awarding penalty (). A man must suffer according to the injury he has done. Nothing is more destructive of the main purpose of law than undistinguishing, and therefore unrighteous, retribution, whether at the national tribunal, or in the school, or in the home; nothing more salutary than the calm, regulated equity which estimates degrees of guilt, and determines the fair penalty therefrom.

III. CONSIDERATENESS. Law is obliged to regard the general good, the welfare of the community at large, the result of action and of permission in the end and upon the whole. It therefore often bears severely on individual men. But it must not be inconsiderate. Where it can right one man that has been wronged it must do so. "He that killeth a beast, he shall restore it" ().

IV. IMPARTIALITY. (.)

V. INSTRUCTIVENESS. Law should not only decide individual cases, and bring down appropriate penalty on individual transgressors; it should also, by its embodiment of Divine principles, be a most effective teacher of truth, a constant instructor in righteousness. The law of the land should be daily leading the nation to true conceptions of what is upright, moral, estimable. These few statutes contain that vital principle, the supreme value of human (as compared with animal) nature. If a man killed his fellow-man, he must die; if he killed a beast, he must restore it (, , ). There are too many who

How much is a man better than a sheep? He is better by the immeasurable height of his intelligent, responsible, spiritual, immortal nature. Let us estimate our own worth, and recognize the preciousness, before God, of the meanest soul that walks by our side along the path of human life. We may add that we see here—

VI. ROOM FOR FURTHER REVELATION. Righteous law, applicable to all, vindicated by just administrators, without a trace of personal resentment, says," an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." But beside this righteous law, consistent with it while high above it, is the spirit of individual, generous forgiveness. Where duty to society does not demand it, let the spirit of retaliation, so natural to unrenewed humanity, give place to the spirit of magnanimity,—the spirit of Jesus Christ, the Great Teacher (), the Divine Exemplar ().—C.

HOMILIES BY S.R. ALDRIDGE

Recommended reading

More for Leviticus 24:17-22

Continue with other commentaries and DiscipleDeck content connected to this verse, chapter, or topic.

Other commentaries

Matthew Henry on Leviticus 24:10-23Leviticus 24:10-23 · Matthew Henry Concise CommentaryThis offender was the son of an Egyptian father, and an Israelitish mother. The notice of his parents shows the common ill effect of mixed marriages. A standing law for the stoning of blasphemers was made upon this occa…The Blasphemy of Shelomith's Son; The Punishment of Shelomith's Son. (b. c. 1490.)Leviticus 24:10-23 · Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole BibleTHE BLASPHEMY OF SHELOMITH'S SON; THE PUNISHMENT OF SHELOMITH'S SON. (B. C. 1490.) Evil manners, we say, beget good laws. We have here an account of the evil manners of a certain nameless mongrel Israelite, and the good…The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 24:10-23Leviticus 24:10-23 · The Pulpit CommentaryThe law of death. Blasphemy, murder, willful injury, whether by Israelite or stranger, judged and punished on the principle of compensation without mercy (cf. Isaiah 12:1-6; Romans 11:1-36). I. Here is the evil of a fal…The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 24:10-23Leviticus 24:10-23 · The Pulpit CommentaryEXPOSITION The reason why the narrative of the blasphemer's death (Leviticus 24:10-23) is introduced in its present connection, is simply that it took place at the point of time which followed the promulgation of the la…The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 24:10-23Leviticus 24:10-23 · The Pulpit CommentaryShelomith's son. Here a narrative is introduced into the midst of a code of laws; but this is done as a preamble to enactments of whose publication the case was the occasion. We notice— I. THE CRIME OF THIS SON OF SHELO…The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 24:17Leviticus 24:17 · The Pulpit CommentaryIn close connection with the command to slay the blasphemer is repeated the prohibition of murder, and the injunction that the murderer shall surely be put to death. Thus a distinction is sharply drawn between the judic…
commentaryMatthew Henry on Leviticus 24:10-23This offender was the son of an Egyptian father, and an Israelitish mother. The notice of his parents shows the common ill effect of mixed marriages. A standing law for the stoning of blasphemers was made upon this occa…Matthew HenrycommentaryThe Blasphemy of Shelomith's Son; The Punishment of Shelomith's Son. (b. c. 1490.)THE BLASPHEMY OF SHELOMITH'S SON; THE PUNISHMENT OF SHELOMITH'S SON. (B. C. 1490.) Evil manners, we say, beget good laws. We have here an account of the evil manners of a certain nameless mongrel Israelite, and the good…Matthew HenrycommentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 24:10-23EXPOSITION The reason why the narrative of the blasphemer's death (Leviticus 24:10-23) is introduced in its present connection, is simply that it took place at the point of time which followed the promulgation of the la…Joseph S. Exell and contributorscommentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 24:10-23The law of death. Blasphemy, murder, willful injury, whether by Israelite or stranger, judged and punished on the principle of compensation without mercy (cf. Isaiah 12:1-6; Romans 11:1-36). I. Here is the evil of a fal…Joseph S. Exell and contributorscommentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 24:10-23Shelomith's son. Here a narrative is introduced into the midst of a code of laws; but this is done as a preamble to enactments of whose publication the case was the occasion. We notice— I. THE CRIME OF THIS SON OF SHELO…Joseph S. Exell and contributorscommentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 24:17In close connection with the command to slay the blasphemer is repeated the prohibition of murder, and the injunction that the murderer shall surely be put to death. Thus a distinction is sharply drawn between the judic…Joseph S. Exell and contributorscommentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 24:17-22Public justice secured by the law of retaliation. cf. Matthew 5:38-48; Romans 12:19-21. There is here presented to us, as a law upon which Israel was to act, the principle of retaliation. And yet we have seen in the mor…Joseph S. Exell and contributorscommentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 24:18-21A summary of the law respecting minor injuries is added to that respecting murder. He that killeth a man, he shall be put to death, but he that killeth a beast shall make it good; and this lex talionis shall apply to al…Joseph S. Exell and contributors