Exodus 22:16-21 - Homilies By J. Orr

Abominations.

This series of precepts deals with seduction, witchcraft, bestiality, and the sin of sacrificing to other gods than Jehovah. The case of the seducer might have been brought under the laws embodying the principle of restitution. It forms a transition to the others, in which we pass from the sphere of judicial right to what is negatively and positively due from Israel as "an holy people" to Jehovah.

1 . Seduction . Lewdness in every form is sternly reprobated by the law of Moses (of. Deuteronomy 22:13-30 ). The man who seduced an unbetrothed maid was to be compelled to marry her; or, if her parents refused, was to pay her a dowry.

2 . Witchcraft . With equal strictness was forbidden all trafficking, whether in pretence or in reality, with unholy powers. The crime—a violation of the first principles of the theocracy—was to be punished with death. There cannot be perfect love to God, and communion with him, and trafficking with the devil at the same time. The witchcraft condemned by the law was evil in itself, and was connected with foolish and wicked rites (cf. Deuteronomy 18:9-15 ).

3 . Bestiality . This, as an inversion of the order of nature, and in itself an act of the grossest abominableness, was "surely" to be punished with death.

4 . Sacrificing to other gods . Possibly this crime is mentioned here as, in a sense, the spiritual counterpart of the vices above noted, i.e; as involving