Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 22:31
And ye shall be holy men unto me: neither shall ye eat [any] flesh [that is] torn of beasts in the field; ye shall cast it to the dogs.
The sanctification of the nation was emphatically symbolized by strictness of diet as regards both the kind of animal, and the mode of slaughtering. See Lev. 11; 17.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 31. Neither shall ye eat – flesh – torn of beasts in the field] This has been supposed to be an ordinance against eating flesh cut off the animal while alive, and so the Syriac seems to have understood it. If we can credit Mr. Bruce, this is a frequent custom in Abyssinia; but human nature revolts from it. The reason of the prohibition against eating the flesh of animals that had been torn, or as we term it worried in the field, appears to have been simply this: That the people might not eat the blood, which in this case must be coagulated in the flesh; and the blood, being the life of the beast, and emblematical of the blood of the covenant, was ever to be held sacred, and was prohibited from the days of Noah. See Clarke on Ge 9:4.
IN the conclusion of this chapter we see the grand reason of all the ordinances and laws which it contains. No command was issued merely from the sovereignty of God. He gave them to the people as restraints on disorderly passions, and incentives to holiness; and hence he says, Ye shall be holy men unto me. Mere outward services could neither please him nor profit them; for from the very beginning of the world the end of the commandment was love out of a pure heart and good conscience, and faith unfeigned, 1Ti 1:5. And without these accompaniments no set of religious duties, however punctually performed, could be pleasing in the sight of that God who seeks truth in the inward parts, and in whose eyes the faith that worketh by love is alone valuable. A holy heart and a holy, useful life God invariably requires in all his worshippers. Reader, how standest thou in his sight?
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Ye shall be holy, i.e. separated from all filthiness, both moral and ceremonial.
Neither shall ye eat any flesh that is torn of beasts; partly, because the blood was not taken out of it; partly, because the clean beast was ceremonially defiled by the touch of the unclean; and partly, to beget in them a detestation of cruelty, even in the beasts, and much more in men.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And ye shall be holy men unto me,…. They were so by God’s act of election, not special and particular, but general and national; choosing and separating them to be an holy people to him, above all the people on the face of the earth, and in a ceremonial sense they observing laws and appointments of God of this kind; which is the sense here intended, as appears by what follows: all men, and so these Israelites, ought to be holy in a moral sense, and some are holy in a spiritual and evangelical sense, being made holy by the Spirit of God; of these the Apostle Peter speaks, in allusion to this, and such like passages, 1Pe 2:9
neither shall ye eat any flesh that is torn of beasts in the field; or in the house, as Jarchi notes; but the Scripture, as he observes, speaks of the place where it is more usual for beasts to tear, and so Aben Ezra; otherwise what is torn elsewhere, or by whatsoever accident it is bruised and maimed, was not to be eaten: ye shall cast it to the dogs: for even a stranger was not to eat of it, or if he did he was unclean, and was obliged to wash his clothes, and bathe himself,
Le 17:15 and yet Jarchi interprets this figuratively of such as are like dogs, meaning the Gentiles, whom the Jews used to call so, see
Mt 15:26. An Heathen poet gives instructions perfectly agreeable to this law;
“do not (says he) eat flesh fed upon by beasts, but leave the remains to the swift dogs o.”
o &c. Phocylides, ver. 136, 137.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
As the whole nation sanctified itself to the Lord in the sanctification of the first-born, the Israelites were to show themselves to be holy men unto the Lord by not eating “flesh torn to pieces in the field,” i.e., the flesh of an animal that had been torn to pieces by a wild beast in the field. Such flesh they were to throw to the dogs, because eating it would defile (cf. Lev 17:15).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Verse 31:
The blood of an animal killed by another in the field, would not be drained from the carcass. This would violate the prohibition against eating blood (Ge 9:4).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(31) Ye shall be holy men unto me.Compare Exo. 19:6. The holiness really desired was holiness of heart and spirit. Outward ordinances could not effect this; but, to keep the thought perpetually before- mens minds, a network of external obligations was devised, whereof a specimen is given in the law which follows. The flesh of an animal torn by a carnivorous beast would be doubly unclean: (1) By contact with the unclean carnivorous beast; and (2) through not having all the blood properly drained from it. It was therefore not to be eaten by a Hebrew.
Ye shall cast it to the dogsi.e., ye shall do this rather than eat it. The flesh might probably be given, or even sold, to an alien. (Compare Deu. 14:21.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
31. Torn of beasts Such meat was likely to be left unfit for eating by the violent death of the animal, and the failure to pour out its blood . It exposed to the liability of eating flesh with the blood, which was most imperatively forbidden . See Lev 17:10-15.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Exo 22:31. And ye shall be holy men unto me See note on ch. Exo 19:6. As the prohibition of eating flesh torn by beasts, is immediately subjoined to these words, Le Clerc’s conjecture seems extremely probable, that holy men here signifies, consecrated, as priests, in holiness to me: it being likely that the priests only of the other nations, and of Egypt especially, abstained at all times from whatever was accidentally killed, or died of itself. Pythagoras, it is well known, derived his philosophy from the Egyptian priests; and he taught, that those who would duly qualify themselves for the worship of the gods, ought, among other things, to touch no dead body; and to abstain from flesh torn by beasts, and from that which dies of itself. Others of the heathens, as Calmet has well observed, had the same aversion to flesh torn by beasts. Phocylides thus enjoins,
“Abstain from flesh, that falls to beasts a prey, Detest and throw such noxious food away To dogs; let ravenous dogs devour such feasts As fair their nature: beasts are meat for beasts.” Precept. Poem. by HARTE.
Possibly this prohibition might, in some measure, be founded on the general law of abstinence from blood. In the Samaritan code it is, ye shall entirely cast it away, instead of, ye shall cast it to the dogs. (see Houbigant’s note.) But a remark made by the author of the Observations, would rather lead one to believe ours to be the true meaning: “The great external purity,” says he, “which is so studiously attended to by the modern eastern people, as well as the ancient, produces same odd circumstances in respect to their dogs. They do not suffer them in their houses, and even with care avoid their touching them in the streets, which would be considered as a defilement. One would imagine then, that, under these circumstances, as they do not appear by any means to be necessary in their cities, however important they may be to those who feed flocks, there should be very few of these creatures found in those places: they are there, notwithstanding, in great numbers, and crowd their streets. They do not appear to belong to particular persons, as our dogs do; nor to be fed distinctly by such as might claim some interest in them, but get their food as they can. At the same time, they consider it as right to take some care of them; and the charitable people among them frequently give money every week or month to butchers and bakers to feed them at stated times; and some leave legacies at their deaths for the same purpose.” This is Le Bruyn’s account; and Thevenot and Maillet mention something of the same sort. In like manner dogs seem to have been looked upon among the Jews in a disagreeable light, 1Sa 17:43. 2Ki 8:13 yet they had them in considerable numbers in their cities, but they were not shut up in their houses or courts, Psa 6:10. They seem to have been forced to seek their food wherever they could find it, Psa 59:15. To which I may add, that some care of them seems to be indirectly enjoined to the Jews in this verse; where, after prohibiting them to eat any flesh that is torn of beasts in the field, it is added, ye shall cast it to the dogs: Circumstances, which seem to be better illustrated by the abovementioned travellers into the East, than by any commentators that I know of.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Pe 1:15-16 .
REFLECTIONS
Let the perusal of those scriptures lead my soul to those devout reflections, that if the grace of God hath indeed appeared unto me, then hath it taught me, and by divine aid enabled me so to conduct myself by its holy power, that denying ungodliness and all worldly lusts, I should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. And if the grace of God hath indeed appeared unto me, then hath it taught me, that as the Lord is my portion, there is enough in him to satisfy all the desires of my soul. Dearest, and ever blessed Jesus, be thou all in all to my soul! Do thou keep me from all covetous and inordinate desires, bring every thought into the obedience of thyself, that, with simplicity and godly sincerity, I may have my conversation in the world, and in all things behave myself as becometh thy blessed Gospel.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Exo 22:31 And ye shall be holy men unto me: neither shall ye eat [any] flesh [that is] torn of beasts in the field; ye shall cast it to the dogs.
Ver. 31. Holy men. ] Heb., Men of holiness, which should run through our whole lives, as the woof doth through the web.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
men. Hebrew, plural of ‘ish or ‘enosh. App-14.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
holy: Exo 19:5, Exo 19:6, Lev 11:45, Lev 19:2, Deu 14:21, 1Pe 1:15, 1Pe 1:16
neither: Lev 17:15, Lev 17:16, Lev 20:25, Lev 22:8, Deu 14:21, Eze 4:14, Eze 44:31, Act 10:14, Act 15:20
Reciprocal: Gen 31:39 – torn of Lev 7:24 – beast Lev 11:40 – eateth Ezr 7:26 – whether it be Ezr 9:2 – the holy seed
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
SUNDRY LAWS FOR ISRAEL
If thou Thou shalt not Ye shall.
Exo 22:23; Exo 22:28; Exo 22:31
I. Restitution is one of the prime thoughts in this Lesson.Alas that this is far from being recognised by us Christians as it should be! But it is the first sign of a genuine work of grace. It is not enough to confess to God: we must also confess and make restitution to man. Men are very often kept from peace and trust, by their memory of some wrong, which they have not made right. But no amount of religious observance will compensate for the failure to adjust, so far as possible, the wrong-doing of the past. We must, of course, avoid becoming morbidly and nervously scrupulous. All this is unhealthy. There must be definite dealing with definite acts of wrong.
II. Mercy also shines in many of these enactments.God says, For I am gracious: that was a reason and a motive why they should be tender and gentle in their dealings with strangers; the defenceless; and the poor. Infraction of these commands was severely alluded to in after-days (Amo 2:6-8). We must not forget that God now demands of us that similar mercy be shown towards the weak and poor; as is enjoined in this chapter: and in this matter faithfulness greatly commends His children to Him.
III. Gods nearness is taught.He hears any cry that is raised, and He comes nigh to avenge the cause of the poor. He was the invisible King of Israel, who beheld each of His subjects with searching and minute inspection, judging the evil and the good, and interposing on the behalf of those who could not help themselves. This is the meaning of a Theocracy.
IV. Holiness was Gods prime requirement.Here first is the demand, Ye shall be holy men, which was destined to ring throughout the remaining books of Moses, and is the appeal of all Scripture. Holiness means separation from and to. When we yield ourselves only to God, we are weaned from, and lose our taste for, the things which once fascinated us.
The whole Lesson is full of sweet and profitable reading. Many of the laws breathe the spirit of the New Testament. Do we not sometimes raise and receive false reports, and circulate them? Are we not all influenced by the opinions and actions of the multitude? Do we exert ourselves to help those whom we hate, in their conflict with difficulties? Are we always careful to keep our hands free of anything false, or bribes? Do we never take advantage of those who may not be as well acquainted with our methods or language? Sometimes professing Christians take undue advantage of foreigners. Do we think enough of the poor, and of the rest required by our servants and animals?
Illustration
(1) Let us watch our speech, so that we take away no mans character by false accusation. Let us dare to stand for truth, though we stand alone. Let us make ourselves act charitably and generously, though it be toward the man who hates us, our rival and opponent. God will avenge us if we are wronged. We need not fret ourselves in any wise to do evil. Let us hold the balance evenly, giving to men their dues, irrespective of fear or favour. Side by side with this we must cultivate the spirit of mercy and of rest.
(2) It is most interesting to read these regulations which teach so clearly the lines on which we must proceed. Professing Christians do not always live up to them. Side by side with this stringency against sin, what tenderness is there toward the stranger, the widow, the fatherless, the poor! These enactments are still in force, and full often calamities of a literal and temporal kind overtake those who are oblivious to them. If any such oppressed ones read these words, let them be comforted by the assurance that when they cry God will hear, because He is gracious. This mercifulness extended to the relationship between the animals and their young. Maternal tenderness was to have some response from its young. Oh to be holy men, feeding on the Lamb and the Manna, and turning from all unclean food!
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Exo 22:31. Ye shall be holy unto me And one mark of that honourable distinction is appointed in their diet, which was, that they should not eat any flesh that was torn of beasts Both because the blood was not duly taken out of it, and because the clean beast was ceremonially defiled by the touch of the unclean.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
22:31 And ye shall be holy men unto me: neither shall ye eat [any] flesh [that is] torn of beasts in the field; ye shall cast it {l} to the dogs.
(l) And so have nothing to do with it.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Animal flesh torn in the field before humans ate it was unsuitable for Israelite consumption. Not only might the animal have died from a communicable disease, but second-rate food like this was inappropriate for people set apart to a holy God.