Section V. Lev. xxv. 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, II, 13, 14, 15, 16 ; ten laws relating to the sabbatical year and the year of jubilee.
Section VI. Lev. xxv. 23, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35-38 ; ten laws about the redemption of land, and its restitution at the jubilee.
Section VII. Lev. xxv. 39, 43, 44, 45, 47, 50, 51, 53, 54 ; ten laws about servants and slaves, both foreign and Israelite, and redemption of the latter.
Here ends the legislation of Mount Sinai ; the 26th chapter, which records its termination (ver. 46), contains emphatic promises and threatenings of the Theocratic King. The Law of the Covenant, which formed the first of our groups, ended, as we saw, with a decalogue of gracious promises-but no threatenings were added to the nation, which had not yet declined from its obedience. Now, on the completion of the ampler laws of Sinai, and after experience of the people's waywardness, menaces of anger follow promises of blessing. The bles sings, as before, are enshrined in a decalogue of promises (in verses 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 7, 9, to, 11 13). The threatenings, which are meant as a sanction to the five groups which have succeeded the Book of the Covenant,' seem to have regard to the five times seven sections of the command ments which constitute these groups. They ac cordingly fall into five sections themselves, and that in an order of gradation. (1.) Verses 14-17 menace seven chastisements-terror ; consumption ; burning ague ; fruitless sowing ; slaughter by the enemy ; subjugation ; panic flight. (2.) Verses t8 20 threaten a seven fold increase of these punish ments, if they prove ineffectual. (3.) Verses 21, 22, contain a like threat of seven times more plagues, according to their sins.' (4.) Verses 23-26 prescribe, on the failure of former resources, further chastisements in a sevenfold num Der, with the sword, to avenge the quarrel of his covenant' (5.) Verses 27.33 predict the extreme fury' of Jehovah, and its precise infliction on his rebellious subjects. I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins ;' and the seven stages are then enumerated :-Direful famine, in which their children should be their food ; the destruction of their high places ; the burial of their idols beneath their own carcases ; the desolation of their cities ; the desecration of their sanctuaries, with the rejec tion of their religious services ; the desolation of their land and its occupation by the enemy ; and their dispersion among the heathen, with their rough usage and utter prostration and panic there (ver. 34-39). The whole denunciation ends with a
beautiful allusion to Jehovah's remembrance of the nation's primitive fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob :- I will remember my covenant with them ; I will remember the land ; when they be in the land of their enemies (if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled), I will not cast them away nor will I abhor them to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them, for I am Jehovah their God.' Appendix to the Laws of Sinai. - The last chapter of Leviticus contains supernumerary laws, which do not prescribe duties obligatory on the subjects of the Theocratic King, by reason of the covenant between them ; but which rather direct such optional engagements as devout men might be disposed to make with God, in a higher sense than what was implied in their political relation to him. These engagements took the form of vows; and God gives Moses estimates of their value, at which they might be redeemed by such as made them, whether they were offerings of the person, or of cattle, or of houses, or of fields, or even of tithes. On comparing the last verse of chap. xxvi. with the last verse of chap. xxvii., we find that the latter chapter, though not a constituent part of the or ganic law of the covenant nation, was yet a pendant to that law, containing principles of administration which were only applicable to that nation. The remarkable feature, which we have so often ob served, follows us also in the structure of these supernumerary provisions. They are contained in two decalogues. Thus, verses 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, to [middle], I I, 13, constitute the first decade ; and verses 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 26, 30-33, form the second.