virtue was cultivated even by the heathen, e.g., the Egyptians (Herod. 2, 80), the Spartans (Plutarch), and the ancient Romans (Gellius, ii. 15). It is still found in the East (Lane, Sitten und Gebr. ii. p. 121).
verses 33-34
A few commandments are added of a judicial character. - Lev 19:33, Lev 19:34. The Israelite was not only not to oppress the foreigner in his land (as had already been commanded in Exo 22:20 and Exo 23:9), but to treat him as a native, and love him as himself.
verses 35-36
As a universal rule, they were to do no wrong in judgment (the administration of justice, Lev 19:15), or in social intercourse and trade with weights and measures of length and capacity; but to keep just scales, weights, and measures. On ephah and hin, see at Exo 16:36 and Exo 29:40. In the renewal of this command in Deu 25:13-16, it is forbidden to carry “stone and stone” in the bag, i.e., two kinds of stones (namely, for weights), large and small; or to keep two kinds of measures, a large one for buying and a small one for selling; and full (unadulterated) and just weight and measure are laid down as an obligation. This was a command, the breach of which was frequently condemned (Pro 16:11; Pro 20:10, Pro 20:23; Amo 8:5; Mic 6:10, cf. Eze 45:10).
Verse 37
Concluding exhortation, summing up all the rest.
Chap. 20
Verse 1
Punishments for the Vices and crimes Prohibited in Ch. 18 and 19. - The list commences with idolatry and soothsaying, which were to be followed by extermination, as a practical apostasy from Jehovah, and a manifest breach of the covenant.
Verse 2
Whoever, whether an Israelite or a foreigner in Israel, dedicated of his seed (children) to Moloch (see Lev 18:21), was to be put to death. The people of the land were to stone him. בּאבן רגם, lapide obruere, is synonymous with סקל, lit., lapidem jacere: this was the usual punishment appointed in the law for cases in which death was inflicted, either as the result of a judicial sentence, or by the national community.
Verse 3
By this punishment the nation only carried out the will of Jehovah; for He would cut off such a man (see at Lev 17:10 and Lev 18:21) for having defiled the sanctuary of Jehovah and desecrated the name of Jehovah, not because he had brought the sacrifice to Moloch into the sanctuary of Jehovah, as Movers supposes, but in the
