Harrison: The holiness of God is reinforced by the drastic penalty prescribed for blasphemy. Adam Clarke wrote in his day (1830): “The Jews never pronounce this name, and so long has it been disused among them that the true pronunciation is now totally lost.” For some time, the letters YHWH were mistakenly pronounced as “Jehovah” instead of “Yahweh” (Yah-veh). The letters have been pronounced differently over the years. This is why there was confusion for many years about the exact pronunciation of the four letters that state the name of the covenant God of Israel (YHWH). Some say that the proper pronunciation of the name would be passed on from the high priest to his successor, with the former’s last breath. He was allowed to say it only once a year – on the Day of Atonement. 10), he did not have the proper respect for Yahweh, and did not sanctify Him in thought and speech as God required.ĭavid Guzik: By some accounts, only the Jewish high priest was allowed to pronounce the holy name of God (Yahweh). There is a closer connection between blasphemy against God and assault on humans and animals, the topics of the legislation in Leviticus 24:15–22, than we thought!Ĭonstable: Maybe since his father was an Egyptian (v. Because a curse was regarded as a real and potent weapon in ancient times, such an attack was not merely figurative. This reiterates the command of Exodus 22:28: “You shall not curse God, nor curse a ruler of your people” (NASB). Rather, he assaults the Lord by cursing him personally, as shown by the way the following legislation begins: “If anyone curses his God, he will be held responsible anyone who blasphemes the name of the LORD must be put to death” (Lev. Roy Gane: It is not that the half-Israelite invokes the name “YHWH” to curse his human antagonist, as the prophet Elisha did (2 Kings 2:24 cf. Laird Harris: The man may have engaged in some curse procedure to injure his opponent by a kind of hex in the name of the Lord, or it may have been an angry cursing of the Israelite man and his God. “And the son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name and cursed.” ![]() (:11a) The Infraction – Clear Attack on God’s Character and Authority “Now the son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the sons of Israel and the Israelite woman’s son and a man of Israel struggled with each other in the camp.”ī. (:10-12) THE FEAR OF GOD IS THE BEGINNING OF JUSTICE The basis for obedience to the law is the fear of the Lord, and people who blaspheme His holy name have no fear of God in their hearts. Wiersbe: It may seem strange to us that the Book of Leviticus is interrupted at this point to tell about a blasphemer who was judged, but the narrative is an illustration, not an interruption. By cursing “the Name,” the man was dishonoring the person and presence of the Lord as the Covenant Lord. The authority that the church possesses is derived from the Lord God himself, and the actions we take must be in accord with the will of the Lord. ![]() This is why the church baptizes “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). For a prophet or priest to speak or minister in the name of the Lord meant that the person was claiming the approval and authority of God (Deuteronomy 18:15–22). 16) was also indicative of his authority. Rather, in the Bible the existence of the Lord’s “Name” constituted the personhood and presence of the Lord (cf. 16)? The importance of God’s “Name” is not a mere word, and the blasphemy was not a matter of a ghastly four-letter word. Kenneth Mathews: Why, we might ask, was cursing the name of God so troubling that the man had to “be put to death” (v. 10) was a similar warning to the priests. This event was a warning to the people of the seriousness of sanctification, just as the death of Nadab and Abihu (ch. It also illustrates how God regarded those who despised the very standards He was giving. ![]() FOR THE PROTECTION OF SOCIETY, GOD’S STANDARD FOR CIVIL JUSTICE IS THAT THE PUNISHMENT MUST FIT THE CRIMEĬonstable: God evidently preserved the record of this significant incident involving a blasphemer, in Scripture, not only because it took place at the time God was revealing these standards of sanctification.
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