A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast. For "regardeth," the Hebrew word is literally "knoweth" (Exodus 23:9); he knows what animals want, what they can bear, and treats them accordingly (comp.
Proverbs 27:23). The LXX. translates "pitieth." The care for the lower animals, and their kind treatment, are not the produce of modern sentiment and civilization. Mosaic legislation and various expressions in Scripture recognize the duty.
God's mercies are over all his works; he saves both man and beast; he hateth nothing that he hath made (Psalms 36:6; Psalms 145:9; Jonah 4:11; Wis. 11:24). So he enacted that the rest of the sabbath should extend to the domestic animals (Exodus 20:10); that a man should help the over-burdened beast, even of his enemy (Exodus 23:4, Exodus 23:5); that the unequal strength of the ox and the ass should not be yoked together in the plough (Deuteronomy 22:10); that the ox should not be muzzled when he was treading out the corn (Deuteronomy 25:4): that the sitting bird should not be taken from her little brood (Deuteronomy 22:6), nor a kid seethed in its mother's milk (Exodus 23:19).
Such humane injunctions were perhaps specially needed at a time when man's life was little regarded, and animal sacrifices had a tendency to make men cruel and unfeeling, when their symbolical meaning was obscured by long familiarity.
These enactments regarding animals, and the mysterious significance affixed to the blood (Genesis 9:4; Le Genesis 17:10-14), afforded speaking lessons of tenderness and consideration for the inferior creatures, and a fortiori taught regard for the happiness and comfort of fellow men.
Our blessed Lord has spoken of God's ears of flowers and the lower creatures of his hand. But the tender mercies; literally, the bowels, regarded as the seat of feeling. The wicked cannot be supposed to have "tender mercies;" hence it is best to take the word in the sense of "feelings," "affections."
What should be mercy and love are in an evil man only hard.heartedness and cruelty.