Левит 19:19

Русский синодальный перевод

Уставы Мои соблюдайте; скота твоего не своди с иною породою; поля твоего не засевай двумя родами семян ; в одежду изразнородных нитей, из шерсти и льна, не одевайся.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

thy cattle gender: These practices might have been considered as altering the original constitution of God in creation; and this is the view which the Jews, and also Josephus and Philo, take of the subject. There were, probably, also both moral and political reasons for these prohibitions. With respect to heterogenous mixtures among cattle, it was probably forbidden, to prevent excitements to the abominations condemned in the preceding chapter. As to seeds, in many cases, it would be highly improper to sow different kinds in the same plot of ground. If oats and wheat, for instance, were sown together, the latter would be injured, and the former ruined. This prohibition may therefore be regarded as a prudential agricultural maxim. As to different kinds of garments, the prohibition might be intended against pride and vanity in clothing. Genesis 36:24, 2 Samuel 13:29, 2 Samuel 18:9, 1 Kings 1:33, Ezra 2:66

mingled: Deuteronomy 22:9-11, Matthew 9:16, Matthew 9:17, Romans 11:6, 2 Corinthians 6:14-17, Galatians 3:9-11

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 22:11 - General Luke 5:36 - agreeth

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Ye shall keep my statutes,.... Those which follow, and which are of a different sort from what are last mentioned, of a moral nature, and are planted in the heart, as Aben Ezra says; are agreeably to the law and light of nature, and part of the work of the law written on the heart, as the apostle calls it, Romans 2:15; but the following are of positive institution, and depend upon the will of the lawgiver, the reasons of which are not so apparent and manifest; and therefore Jarchi calls them the decree of the king, who gives no reason for it; ordinances and appointments of a ceremonial kind, which, though there is a meaning in them, and a reason for them, yet not clear and plain:

thou shall not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind; or "cause [them] to gender" e for cattle do not usually of themselves gender with a diverse kind, unless directed and solicited to it, as a male of one kind with a female of another; for instance, an horse with a she ass, or an he ass with a mare, and even creatures that were like one another, yet of different kinds, were not to mix together; as a wolf and a dog, a hound and a fox, goats and roebucks, goats and sheep, a horse and a mule, a mule and an ass, an ass and a wild ass; for though they are like one another, they are of different kinds f: a creature thus gendered was not forbidden to be used, as a mule; and if a clean creature and gendered of clean ones, though of a different kind, it might be eaten, as Maimonides g affirms; for not the creature gendered was unlawful for use, but the act of causing to gender is what is forbidden: the design was to preserve the order of beings, and the nature of creatures as they were at the first creation; that there might be no change among them, or anything taken from or added to what God had made; not to separate what God had joined, or join what God had separated, which to do must reflect upon his wisdom; as also, that men and women, as Philo h observes, might abstain from unlawful converse, from unnatural lusts and mixtures; and as Ainsworth thinks, this was to lead Israel to the simplicity and sincerity of religion, and of all the parts and doctrines of the law and Gospel in their distinct kinds, as faith and works, to mingle which together in our justification before God is forbidden; or rather to teach the saints not to mix with the men of the world, in evil conversation, or in superstitious worship; to which may be added, to show that spiritual regeneration is not partly of corruptible and partly of incorruptible seed, nor partly of the will of man, and partly of the will of God; nor partly of the power of man, and partly of the power of God, but wholly of the Spirit and grace of God:

thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed: or seed of divers sorts, as wheat and barley, and which, according to the Jews i, was not mingled unless there be two grains of wheat and one of barley, or one of wheat and two of barley; or wheat, and barley, and rye: they also include herbs and trees in this law, and make an graft of them a forbidden mixture; hence, they say k, they do not ingraft one tree in another, nor one herb in another, nor a tree in an herb, nor an herb in a tree, of which they give instances: and there are various sorts of seeds, herbs, roots, and trees, which are and are not of divers kinds, and some that are alike and yet diverse; for they have a whole treatise of such like things, called "Celaim", or divers kinds: as to the mystical sense, the "field" may represent the church of God, which is not an open but an enclosed field, enclosed by the grace of God, and separated from others by it, well manured and cultivated by the Spirit of God, and through the word and ordinances, as means, in which manner of fruit and flowers grow, and is the property of Christ; see Song of Solomon 4:12; the seed may signify the word or doctrine of the Gospel, sown by the ministers of it, skilfully and plentifully, which should be pure and unmixed, not contradictory, nor inconsistent, but all of a piece; the doctrines of it, as those of election, justification, peace, pardon, and salvation, are to be represented, not as partly of works and partly of grace, but as entirely of the grace of God through Christ: or good and bad men may be signified by the mingled seed; good men, who are made so by the grace of God, and are the good seed, or the good ground which receives it, which hear the word, understand it, and bring forth fruit; bad men, such as are of bad principles and practices, these are not to be mixed together in a church state; bad men are neither to be received nor retained:

neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee; for, as Josephus l says, none but the priests were allowed to wear such a garment, and with which the Misnah m agrees; in which it is asserted, that the priests have no other clothing to minister in, in the sanctuary, but of woollen and linen; which seems to be a better reason of this prohibition than what Maimonides n gives, that it was on the account of idolatrous priests, who used to go clothed with such a garment, and a metal ring on their fingers: the Jewish tradition is, nothing is forbidden on account of divers kinds (i.e. in garments) but wool and flax; camels' wool, and sheep's wool, mixed together, if the greater part is camels', it is free, but if the greater part is sheep's wool, it is forbidden, if half and half, it is forbidden; and so flax and hemp mixed together; also that nothing is forbidden on such account but what is spun and wove o: the design of this, as of the other, seems to be in general to caution against unnatural lusts and impure mixtures, and all communion of good and bad men, and particularly against joining the righteousness of Christ with the works of men, in the business of justification: Christ's righteousness is often compared to a garment, and sometimes to line linen, clean and white; and men's righteousness to filthy rags, Revelation 19:8; which are by no means to be put together in the said affair; such who believe in Christ are justified by the obedience of one and not of more, and by faith in that obedience and righteousness, without the works of the law, Romans 5:19 Romans 3:28; to join them together is needless, disagreeable, and dangerous.

e תרביע "non facies coire", V. L. Pagninus, Drusius. f Misn. Gelaim, c. 1. sect. 6. g Hilchot Gelaim, c. 9. sect. 3. h De Special. Leg. p. 784. i Misn. ut supra, (f) sect. 9. k Misn. Celaim, c. 1. sect. 7, 8. l Antiqu. l. 4. c. 8. sect. 11. m Celaim, c. 9. sect. 1. n Moreh Nevochim, par. 3. c. 37. o Misn. ut supra, (k) c. 9. sect. 1. 8.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Linen and woolen - The original word is found only here and in Deuteronomy 22:11, where it is rendered “of divers sorts.” It may denote such tissues as linsey woolsey.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Leviticus 19:19. Gender with a diverse kind — These precepts taken literally seem to imply that they should not permit the horse and the she-ass, nor the he-ass and the cow, (as they do in the East,) to couple together; nor sow different kinds of seeds in the same field or garden; nor have garments of silk and woollen, cotton and silk, linen and wool, c. And if all these were forbidden, there must have been some moral reason for the prohibitions, because domestic economy required several of these mixtures, especially those which relate to seeds and clothing. With respect to heterogeneous mixtures among cattle, there is something very unnatural in it, and it was probably forbidden to prevent excitements to such unnatural lusts as those condemned in the preceding chapter, Leviticus 18:22-23. As to seeds, in many cases it would be very improper to sow different kinds in the same plot of ground. It would be improvident to sow oats and wheat together: the latter would be injured, the former ruined. The turnip and carrot would not succeed conjointly, where either of them separately would prosper and yield a good crop so we may say of many other kinds of seeds; and if this be all that is intended, the counsels are prudential agricultural maxims. As to different kinds of garments, such as the linsey woolsey, the prohibition here might be intended as much against pride and vanity as any thing else; for it is certain that both these articles may be so manufactured in conjunction as to minister to pride, though in general the linsey woolsey or drugget is the clothing of the poor. But we really do not know what the original word שעטנז shaatnez, which we translate linen and woollen, means: it is true that in Deuteronomy 22:11, where it is again used, it seems to be explained by the words immediately following, Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of linen and woollen together; but this may as well refer to a garment made up of a sort of patchwork differently coloured and arranged for pride and for show. A folly of this kind prevailed anciently in this very land, and I shall give a proof of it, taken from a sermon against luxury in dress, composed in the fourteenth century.

"As to the first sinne in superfluitie of clothing, soche that maketh it so dere, to the harme of the peple, nat only the cost of enbrauderlng, the disguised endenting, or barring, ounding paling, winding or bending and semblable wast of clothe in vanite. But there is also the costlewe furring in their gounes, so moche pounsing of chesel, to make holes; so moche dagging with sheres foorth; with the superfluitie in length of the forsaied gounes, - to grete dammage of pore folke. - And more ouer - they shewe throughe disguising, in departing of ther hosen in white and red, semeth that halfe ther members were slain. - They departe ther hosen into other colours, as is white and blewe, or white and blacke, or blacke and red, and so forth; than semeth it as by variaunce of colour, that the halfe part of ther members ben corrupt by the fire of Saint Anthony, or by canker, or other suche mischaunce."

The Parson's Tale, in Chaucer, p. 198. Urry's edit. The reader will pardon the antiquated spelling.

"What could exhibit," says Dr. Henry, "a more fantastical appearance than an English beau of the 14th century? He wore long pointed shoes, fastened to his knees by gold or silver chains; hose of one colour on the one leg, and of another colour on the other; short breeches which did reach to the middle of his thighs; a coat the one half white, the other half black or blue; a long beard; a silk hood buttoned under his chin, embroidered with grotesque figures of animals, dancing men, c., and sometimes ornamented with gold and precious stones." This dress was the height of the mode in the reign of King Edward III.

Something of the same kind seems to have existed in the patriarchal times witness the coat of many colours made by Jacob for his son Joseph. Genesis 37:3. Concerning these different mixtures much may be seen in the Mishna, Tract, Kilaim, and in Ainsworth, and Calmet on this place.