“accedentque sacerdotes filii Levi, quos elegerit Dominus Deus tuus ut ministrent ei, et benedicant in nomine ejus, et ad verbum eorum omne negotium, et quidquid mundum, vel immundum est, judicetur.”
“And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for them the LORD thy God hath chosen to minister unto him, and to bless in the name of the LORD; and by their word shall every controversy and every stroke be tried: word: Heb. mouth”
“And the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them to serve Him and pronounce blessings in His name and to give a ruling in every dispute and case of assault.”
“The priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for them Yahweh your God has chosen to minister to him, and to bless in Yahweh’s name; and according to their word shall every controversy and every assault be decided.”
“And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for them Jehovah thy God hath chosen to minister unto him, and to bless in the name of Jehovah; and according to their word shall every controversy and every stroke be.”
Judged. We see here again the great authority of the priests, chap. xvii. 9. Hebrew, “by their word shall every controversy and every stroke be tried,” as the Protestants render it. (Haydock) — Some understand by stroke, the leprosy, of which they were undoubtedly the judges. But it is better to explain it of all wounds, and even of death, (Calmet) concerning which Moses is here speaking. (Haydock) — The Rabbins restrain the authority of priests as much as they can, to give greater power to their chimerical Sanhedrim. They pretend that here they had only to pronounce the blessing, ver. 8. Josephus ([Antiquities?] iv. 8,) joins the magistrates with them in the whole ceremony. This awful meeting of so many people, tended to discover the authors of the murder, as all would naturally converse together on the subject, and each person declaring what he knew, some suspicions might at last be formed, which might by degrees lead to the detection. Josephus says rewards were proposed to any who might make a discovery. Draco decreed, that on the very day when a murder was announced, if the author was not known, the whole people (of Athens) should be purified. (Calmet) — Abulensis insinuates, that if the murderer was present in the crowd, he might be detected by blood gushing from the corpse of the deceased, &c., as God often brings murder to light in a wonderful manner. (Cic.[Cicero,?] Div. i.) (Tirinus)
II. Directions are given concerning what is to be done in this case. Observe,
Verses 1-9 If a murderer could not be found out, great solemnity is provided for putting away the guilt from the land, as an expression of dread and detesting of that sin. The providence of God has often wonderfully brought to light these hidden works of darkness, and the sin of the guilty has often strangely found them out. The dread of murder should be deeply impressed upon every heart, and all should join in detecting and punishing those who are guilty. The elders were to profess that they had not been any way aiding or abetting the sin. The priests were to pray to God for the country and nation, that God would be merciful. We must empty that measure by our prayers, which others are filling by their sins. All would be taught by this solemnity, to use the utmost care and diligence to prevent, discover, and punish murder. We may all learn from hence to take heed of partaking in other men's sins. And we have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, if we do not reprove them.