to slaughter an animal (usually in sacrifice) · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
god
לָאֱלֹהִ֖יםla.'E.lo.Him
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
save
בִּלְתִּ֥יbil.Ti
H1115
properly · noun, common both genders singular absolute
LORD
לַיהוָ֖הla.Yah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · preposition + proper noun, a title
destroyed
יָֽחֳרָ֑םyo.cho.Ram
H2763
to seclude · verb, hophal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Deuteronomy 17:2-5 If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the LORD thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the s…
Numbers 25:7-8 And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation, and took a javelin in hi…
Deuteronomy 18:20 But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of…
Deuteronomy 13:1-15 If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,
Numbers 25:2-4 And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods.
Numbers 21:3 And the LORD hearkened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities: and he cal…
Joshua 23:15-16 Therefore it shall come to pass, that as all good things are come upon you, which the LORD your God promised you; so shall the LORD bring up…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Exodus 22:16-24
Here is, I. A law that he who debauched a young woman should be obliged to marry her, Exo 22:16, Exo 22:17. If she was betrothed to another, it was death to debauch her (Deu 22:23, Deu 22:24); but the law here mentioned respects her as single. But, if the father refused her to him, he was to give satisfaction in money for the injury and disgrace he had done her. This law puts an honour upon marriage and shows likewise how improper a thing it is that children should marry without their parents' consent: even here, where the divine law appointed the marriage, both as a punishment to him that had done wrong and a recompence to her that had suffered wrong, yet there was an express reservation fo…
If fire break out, and catch in thorns--This refers to the common practice in the East of setting fire to the dry grass before the fall of the autumnal rains, which prevents the ravages of vermin, and is considered a good preparation of the ground for the next crop. The very parched state of the herbage and the long droughts of summer, make the kindling of a fire an operation often dangerous, and always requiring caution from its liability to spread rapidly.
stacks--or as it is rendered "shocks" (Jdg 15:5; Job 5:26), means simply a bundle of loose sheaves.
Adam Clarke on Exodus 22:20
Utterly destroyed - The word חרם cherem denotes a thing utterly and finally separated from God and devoted to destruction, without the possibility of redemption.
John Gill on Exodus 22:20
He that sacrificeth unto any god,.... To Elohim, to strange gods, to the idols of the people, as the Targum of Jonathan; to the Egyptian deities, to the gods of the Moabites, Amorites, Edomites, Canaanites, Philistines, or any other: Aben Ezra says the word Elohim comprehends angels; and by the exceptive clause it is plain it takes in all that had been, were, or ever would be the objects of idolatrous worship, especially the sun, moon, and stars, the principal objects of worship in those days:
save unto the Lord only; the true and living God; Jehovah, the self-existent, immutable, and eternal Being; the Creator of all things, the possessor of heaven and earth, the most high God, and the onl…
The Church Fathers
In the law of the true God it is written, "He that sacrifices to gods shall be put to death, save only to the Lord." The dreadful sanction of this command makes it clear that God wanted no sacrifices offered to such gods, good or bad.
Some people give no thought to the question of demons, that is to say, to the fact that these demons, in order to be able to exist in the heavy atmosphere that encircles the earth, must have the nourishment of exhalations and consequently are always on the lookout for the savor of burnt sacrifices, blood and incense. Since they attach no importance to the matter of sacrifice, we would express ourselves also on this subject. If men who give sustenance to robbers, murderers and barbarian enemies of the great king are punished as criminals against the state, how much more will they be punished justly who through offering sacrifice proffer sustenance to the minions of evil and thus hold them in the atmosphere of the earth! And this holds true especially if knowing the text, "He that sacrifices to gods other than the Lord alone will be destroyed utterly," they nevertheless sacrifice to these authors of evil on earth. In my opinion, when there is question of crimes committed by these demons operating against men, they who sustain them by sacrificing to them will be held no less responsible than the demons themselves that do the crimes. For the demons and they that have kept them on earth, where they could not exist without the exhalations and nourishment considered vital to their bodies, work as one in doing evil to mankind.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Idolatry — Image-worship or divine honour paid to any created object. Paul describes the origin of idolatry in Rom. 1:21-25: men forsook God, and sank into ignorance and moral corruption (1:28). The forms of…
Law of Moses — Is the whole body of the Mosaic legislation (1 Kings 2:3; 2 Kings 23:25; Ezra 3:2). It is called by way of eminence simply “the Law” (Heb. Torah, Deut. 1:5; 4:8, 44; 17:18, 19; 27:3, 8). As a written…
Coercion · RELIGIOUS — RELIGIOUS
Idolatry · Consists in: Sacrificing to other gods — Consists in: Sacrificing to other gods
Intolerance, Religious · Of idolatrous religions, taught by Moses — Of idolatrous religions, taught by Moses
Offerings · To be made to God alone — To be made to God alone
Punishment · .For sacrificing to false gods — .For sacrificing to false gods
Sacrifices · To be offered to God alone — To be offered to God alone
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Exodus 22:19
19. Whosoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to death.
19. Quisquis concubuerit cum animali, morte moriatur.
We learn from these passages that the people were not only prohibited from adultery, but also from all sins [61] which are repugnant to the modesty of nature itself. In order that all impurity may be the more detestable, He enumerates two species of unnatural lust, from whence it is evident that when men indulge themselves in this respect, they are carried away by an impulse, which is more than beastly, to defile themselves by shameful wickedness. The beasts are satisfied with natural connection; it is therefore a gross enormity that this distinction should be…
Whoever offered sacrifice to strange gods instead of to Jehovah alone, was liable to death. יחרם he shall be banned, put under the ban (cherem), i.e., put to death, and by death devoted to the Lord, to whom he would not devote himself in life (cf. Lev 27:29, and my Archologie, 70).
Tyndale Open Study Notes on Exodus 22:20
must be destroyed: See “Complete Dedication” Theme Note.
Rashi on Exodus 22:20
וגר לא תונה — means, do not vex him with words (referring to the fact that he is a stranger); contrarier in old French Similar is, (Isaiah 49:26) “And I will feed them that vex thee (מוניך) with their own flesh”.
ולא תלחצנו NOR OPPRESS HIM — by robbing him of money (Mekhilta).
כי גרים הייתם FOR YE WERE STRANGERS — If you vex him he can vex you also by saying to you: “You also descend from strangers”. Do not reproach thy fellow-man for a fault which is also thine (Mekhilta). Wherever גר occurs in Scriptures it signifies a person who has not been born in that land (where he is living) but has come from another country to sojourn there.
