The Douay-Rheims with the Glossa Ordinaria

¹The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

²Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel. And thou shalt say to them: Be ye holy, because I the Lord your God am holy.

³Let every one fear his father, and his mother. Keep my sabbaths. I am the Lord your God.

v.3

VERS. 3.-- *Every one.* He builds upon the foundation: as if to say, be ye holy, that the Holy One may dwell in you; and pay the kindness of nature by honouring father and mother. *Keep my sabbaths.* Wishing to recapitulate the commandments of the law, that is, *Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal,* etc., etc., he says: *Keep my sabbaths.* For the true sabbath is to cease from every evil. Whence Moses: *Ye shall do no servile work therein*. *Keep my sabbaths.* God, wishing to teach us concerning the intelligible rest, and concerning the consummation of the world, when it is impossible to prepare food or to work, nor to be occupied about anything bodily, says through Moses: *Sabbaths today to the Lord, ye shall not find it in the field*, etc. Note that he does not say, sabbath, but *sabbaths,* because the intelligible rest is quiet and set free not from one thing, but from all carnal things: therefore in this place the name of sabbaths is first set down in divine Scripture, that thou mayest know that the sabbath is a full and perfect rest.

⁴Turn ye not to idols: nor make to yourselves molten gods. I am the Lord your God.

⁵If ye offer in sacrifice a peace offering to the Lord, that he may be favourable:

v.5

VERS. 5.-- *If ye shall offer,* etc. He goes over again almost all the chapters of the law, that he may fix the memory of them in his hearers; but especially the most necessary ones, such as this commandment which he set forth above, when he was treating of the sacrifices. He took the saving sacrifice, in which it is necessary to work the things which pertain to salvation; and that it may be acceptable, piety and chastity must be offered up. For this, according to the Apostle, is good and acceptable before God our Saviour, *who will have all men to be saved*. But to eat on the day of the offering and on the next is to work, in the present life, whatsoever pertains to salvation: for today and tomorrow are taken for the present age; whence James: *Ye who say: Today and tomorrow we will go into the city,* etc.. The third day, because on it the Lord rose from the dead, bears the figure of the age to come and of the resurrection, in which it will not be lawful to work, but to receive the recompense of works. He therefore who lives here as though he were to work there, as though he were to eat the sacrifice on the third day, is forbidden by the lawgiver to do this, because he leaves virtue imperfect, as though he could perfect it there.

⁶You shall eat it on the same day it was offered, and the next day. And whatsoever shall be left until the third day, you shall burn with fire.

⁷If after two days any man eat thereof, he shall be profane and guilty of impiety:

⁸And shall bear his iniquity, because he hath defiled the holy thing of the Lord. And that soul shall perish from among his people.

⁹When thou reapest the corn of thy land, thou shalt not cut down all that is on the face of the earth to the very ground: nor shalt thou gather the ears that remain.

v.9

VERS. 9.-- *When thou shalt reap,* etc. It is enjoined in the present chapter that we have love one toward another, that we be lovers of the poor and merciful toward them. For we ought to give to the needy, and not to exact debts by violence, and to grant the leavings of our goods, imitating God the giver of all things. Therefore he wills that they who reap or gather the vintage should leave something for the poor man and for the stranger, lest he seem ungrateful to the giver of all, who gave riches to some, and willed others to live upon the leavings of others; that so he might prove the stewardship of the rich, and the patience of the poor. For he does not cast off the poor and the strangers, for whom even in this way he has provided food. Whence he adds: *I am the Lord your God,* namely, who make men rich, who for you become poor, who because of the misery of the needy and the groaning of the poor will one day arise. *When thou shalt reap,* etc. He plainly shows that the doctors of the Jews do not take in the interpretation of the whole law, but leave certain things to the poor man and the stranger, that is, to the Gentiles, to whom it is said: *Blessed are the poor,* etc.. Who are also strangers, because they thrust themselves into the kindred of Abraham. What therefore is said: *Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not commit adultery,* let the doctors of the Jews reap; but the things which have a spiritual interpretation, such as the cleansings, the sacrifices and the like, let them yield to the doctors of the Church, and the things which fall from those reapers, that is, the things which they themselves do not understand.

¹⁰Neither shalt thou gather the bunches and grapes that fall down in thy vineyard: but shalt leave them to the poor and the strangers to take. I am the Lord your God.

¹¹You shall not steal. You shall not lie: neither shall any man deceive his neighbour.

¹²Thou shalt not swear falsely by my name, nor profane the name of thy God. I am the Lord.

¹³Thou shalt not calumniate thy neighbour, nor oppress him by violence. The wages of him that hath been hired by thee shall not abide with thee until the morning.

v.13

VERS. 13.-- *Thou shalt not do calumny.* All the things which are forbidden to be committed against a neighbour are to be referred to this one thing which was said: *Thou shalt not hurt thy neighbour.* For as to what follows: *Thou shalt not seize,* unless it be referred to this, that no hurt be done by seizing, it comes about that a man does hurt by not seizing, for the sword must be seized from a madman.

v.13

VERS. 13.-- *Neither shalt thou oppress by force,* etc. Little by little he instructs the hearer, and joins the things which seem small to great ones: so that they who are terrified by the appointed penalty of evils may abstain from the lesser. For they who are associated in the commandment, are so also in the penalty. For he who has offended in one is guilty of all. Therefore he joins force to calumny. Nor does it make a difference in what way a man loses his goods, whether by fraud, or by power, or by any other way whatever. *It shall not tarry,* etc. The wages, namely, on which perhaps he lives with wife and children and parents. If it is deferred, his living fails; even if he receive it on the morrow, he has suffered force and calumny, because meanwhile he had not that whereon to live. *The work of the hireling,* etc. The wages of the preacher are from the word of preaching: which ought not to tarry with us, that is, to be idle, until the morning, namely in the age to come, which succeeds this night, in which there is unquenchable light. For from the increase of the disciple grows the wages of the master.

¹⁴Thou shalt not speak evil of the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind: but thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, because I am the Lord.

¹⁵Thou shalt not do that which is unjust, nor judge unjustly. Respect not the person of the poor: nor honour the countenance of the mighty. But judge thy neighbour according to justice.

¹⁶Thou shalt not be a detractor nor a whisperer among the people. Thou shalt not stand against the blood of thy neighbour. I am the Lord.

¹⁷Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart: But reprove him openly, lest thou incur sin through him.

¹⁸Seek not revenge, nor be mindful of the injury of thy citizens. Thou shalt love thy friend as thyself. I am the Lord.

¹⁹Keep ye my laws. Thou shalt not make thy cattle to gender with beasts of any other kind. Thou shalt not sow thy field with different seeds. Thou shalt not wear a garment that is woven of two sorts.

²⁰If a man carnally lie with a woman that is a bondservant and marriageable, and yet not redeemed with a price, nor made free: they both shall be scourged: and they shall not be put to death, because she was not a free woman.

v.20

VERS. 20.-- *If a man shall sleep,* etc. Since he had forbidden beasts to be mingled with beasts of another kind, that is, that those who are under the yoke of Christ should take up the yoke of the law: he opportunely subjoined this, showing that even before the coming of Christ whosoever was outwardly mingled with the Jews had need of the sacrifice of the true ram. Note how great is the difference between liberty and servitude. For in a free woman betrothed the penalty of adultery is death, but in a bondwoman of marriageable age, and, according to the LXX, *kept for a man,* that is, betrothed, a sacrifice is commanded to be offered, not death to be inflicted. Yet these things are to be understood spiritually. *Of marriageable age.* LXX: *Kept for a man,* that is, the Synagogue kept for the law, which could not be betrothed to Christ before the letter of the law died. Whence: *Ye are dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye may be another's*. The bondwoman is the Synagogue, according to that: *Abraham had two sons, one of the bondwoman, and one of the free*. *They shall both be beaten.* LXX: *There shall be a visitation for them,* that is, they shall be freed from the servitude of the law, according to what is said to the children of Israel who were to be freed out of Egypt: *Visiting I have visited you.* *And they shall not die.* For although they acted according to the letter, not according to the spirit, because they were ignorant of the lawgiver's intention, yet they the more easily obtained pardon.

²¹And for his trespass he shall offer a ram to the Lord, at the door of the tabernacle of the testimony.

²²And the priest shall pray for him: and for his sin before the Lord: and he shall have mercy on him, and the sin shall be forgiven.

²³When you shall be come into the land, and shall have planted in it fruit trees, you shall take away the firstfruits of them. The fruit that comes forth shall be unclean to you: neither shall you eat of them.

v.23

VERS. 23.-- *When ye are entered,* etc. He continues in his purpose, showing that the Jews had not good fruit before the coming of Christ, when he says that the fruit is not to be eaten in the three years, nor is it clean, but is to be cleansed in the fourth year, nor is it said what the cleansing is. Spiritually therefore is that to be understood which is said. *When ye are entered into the land.* By the land he means the divine Scripture, which the Jews first received. Whence they were commanded to plant fruit-bearing trees. But the planting of trees is the meditation of the law and preaching, according to what is said: *I planted, Apollo watered,* etc.. The commandments were indeed good, like fruit-bearing trees, but they did not do what they owed, following only the letter. The fruit therefore, that is, the working of the law, was unclean for three years, from Abraham to David, from David to the transmigration of Babylon; thence to Christ, as Matthew distinguished. In the fourth year he commends the fruit of the law as holy and praiseworthy, yet not as being edible for the Jews as yet. For the fruit of the law in the fourth year, that is, in the coming of Christ, is holy and praiseworthy, which the Holy of holies made, whose works are praiseworthy and glorious. Whence also, over the paralytic carrying his bed, they glorified God *,* who gave such power to men: but the Jew did not yet eat, because he was not converted. But in the fifth year, that is, when the apostles preached, whosoever believed ate the fruit of it. *And ye shall plant,* etc. Fruit-bearing trees, etc., *as far as* to rejoice in the night of the present life.

²⁴But in the fourth year, all their fruit shall be sanctified, to the praise of the Lord.

²⁵And in the fifth year you shall eat the fruits thereof, gathering the increase thereof. I am the Lord your God.

²⁶You shall not eat with blood. You shall not divine nor observe dreams.

v.26

VERS. 26.-- *Ye shall not eat,* etc. He shaves away the whole leaven of the Jews and of the Gentiles. Whence now he forbids the servitude of the law, now the error of the Gentiles. Not to eat upon the mountains is not to be fed with proud thoughts, of which Isaiah says: *Every mountain and hill shall be brought low*. Not to augur by birds is not to attend to those things which snatch away the seed of piety. To shear the hair round is to consecrate one's thoughts to the demons. To shave the beard is to corrupt the perfection of virtue by working feignedly. Not to cut the flesh is not to take up delights, which both harm the soul and corrupt the body. The stigmata are wicked doctrine, which is fixed in the soul and is with difficulty done away. *Ye shall not augur,* etc. By the part he signifies the whole, condemning all superstitions of this kind. For he who takes care to observe such things seems to defame God, as though he had conferred more knowledge upon birds than upon men.

²⁷Nor shall you cut your hair roundwise: nor shave your beard.

²⁸You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh, for the dead: neither shall you make in yourselves any figures or marks. I am the Lord.

²⁹Make not thy daughter a common strumpet, lest the land be defiled, and filled with wickedness.

³⁰Keep ye my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary. I am the Lord.

³¹Go not aside after wizards: neither ask any thing of soothsayers, to be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God.

³²Rise up before the hoary head, and honour the person of the aged man: and fear the Lord thy God. I am the Lord.

³³If a stranger dwell in your land, and abide among you, do not upbraid hin:

³⁴But let him be among you as one of the same country. And you shall love him as yourselves: for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

³⁵Do not any unjust thing in judgment, in rule, in weight, or in measure.

v.35

VERS. 35.-- *Do not,* etc. In the foregoing he commands that justice be kept in judgment, here in weights and measures, and that we do not misuse to injustice the boundary-stones of justice: for these are the boundary-stones of sellers and buyers, as the laws are of judges; that men may beware of every injustice against a neighbour. For what to the rich man are the possessions of fields and the treasures of money, that to the poor man is a measure of wine and of wheat, and the like. *Do not,* etc. In the judgment of the mind we ought not to act unjustly, nor to corrupt the measures of natural justice, judging our own sins in one way and our neighbour's in another. *For with what judgment we shall have judged, it shall be judged also of us; and with what measure we shall have measured, it shall be measured again to us*.

³⁶Let the balance be just and the weights equal, the bushel just, and the sextary equal. I am the Lord your God, that brought you out of the land of Egypt.

³⁷Keep all my precepts, and all my judgments: and do them. I am the Lord.