Exodus 22:31

31 -- And ye shall be holy men unto me; and ye shall not eat flesh torn in the field: ye shall cast it to the dog.

Exodus 22:31 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 22:31

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, ( 1 Peter 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, ( Leviticus 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 ( Matthew 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 ^F15.''

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FOOTNOTES:

F15 (mhde ti yhroboron) &c. Phocylides, ver. 136, 137.

Exodus 22:31 In-Context

29 -- Thou shalt not delay the fulness of thy [threshing-floor] and the outflow of thy [winepress]. The firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto me.

30 Likewise shalt thou do with thy calf, with thy sheep: seven days shall it be with its dam; on the eighth day thou shalt give it me.

31 -- And ye shall be holy men unto me; and ye shall not eat flesh torn in the field: ye shall cast it to the dog.