Leviticus 21:9

9 Als nu de dochter van enigen priester zal beginnen te hoereren, zij ontheiligt haar vader; met vuur zal zij verbrand worden.

Leviticus 21:9 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 21:9

And the daughter of any priest
The Targum of Jonathan restrains it to one that is betrothed; but others, as Jarchi and Aben Ezra, whether betrothed or married; and all confess, as the former says, that the Scripture does not speak of one that is single or entirely free: but there is no exception in the text; and besides, the daughter of any man that was betrothed to a man, and guilty of the crime here spoken of, was to die, ( Deuteronomy 22:23 Deuteronomy 22:24 ) ; and therefore such a law respecting the priest's daughter would be needless; unless it can be thought that it was made merely for the sake of the different kind of death she was to be put to, and that burning was a more terrible one than stoning: if she profane herself by playing the whore;
which brings scandal and disgrace on any person, and much more on anyone that had the honour of being related to a person in such a sacred office, and the advantage of a more strictly religious education, and had eaten of the holy things in her father's house; all which were aggravations of her crime, and made it the more scandalous and reproachful to her: some render it, "when she begins to play the whore" ^F2; as soon as ever it is discovered in her, and she is taken in it; even for the first that she commits, she is not to be spared, but put to death: she profaneth her father:
which is another aggravation of her sin; she brings him under disgrace, disparages his office, and exposes him to censure, reproach, and ridicule, as not having taken care of her education, and taught her better, and kept her under restraints; men will upbraid him with it, saying, this is a priest's daughter that has committed this lewdness; nor will say of him, as Jarchi observes, cursed be he that begat her, and cursed be he that brought her up: she shall be burnt with fire;
not with hot melted lead poured down her mouth, but with faggots set about her; (See Gill on Leviticus 20:14); no punishment is here fixed for the person that lay with her, but, according to the Jewish canons ^F3, she was to be strangled.

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 (twnzl lxt yk) "cum coepit fornicari", Pagninus, Montanus; so Tigurine version.
F3 Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 10. sect. 1. Maimon. Issure Biah, c. 1. sect. 6.

Leviticus 21:9 In-Context

7 Zij zullen geen vrouw nemen, die een hoer of ontheiligde is, noch een vrouw nemen, die van haar man verstoten is; want hij is zijn God heilig.

8 Daarom zult gij hem heiligen, omdat hij de spijze uws Gods offert; hij zal u heilig zijn, want Ik ben heilig; Ik ben de HEERE, Die u heilige!

9 Als nu de dochter van enigen priester zal beginnen te hoereren, zij ontheiligt haar vader; met vuur zal zij verbrand worden.

10 En hij, die de hogepriester onder zijn broederen is, op wiens hoofd de zalfolie gegoten is, en wiens hand men gevuld heeft, om die klederen aan te trekken, zal zijn hoofd niet ontbloten, noch zijn klederen scheuren.

11 Hij zal ook bij geen dode lichamen komen; zelfs over zijn vader en over zijn moeder zal hij zich niet verontreinigen.