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.