Thursday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time (June 10, 2021) Mat 5:20-26

20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Anger

21 You have heard that it was said to those of old, “You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.”

5 And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.

John Gill

And for your lifeblood I will require—And so is a reason of the preceding law, to teach men not to shed human blood; or though, “your lifeblood,” as Jarchi and Aben Ezra; though God had given them liberty to kill the creatures, and shed their blood, and eat them, yet he did not allow them to shed their own blood, or the blood of their fellow creatures; should they do this, he would surely make inquisition, and punish them for it:

From every beast I will require it—Should a beast kill a man, or be the instrument of shedding his blood, it should be killed for it; not by means of another beast, God so ordering it, as Aben Ezra suggests, but by the hands or order of the civil magistrate; which was to be done partly to show the great regard God has to the life of man, and partly to punish men for not taking more care of their beasts, as well as to be an example to others to be more careful, and to lessen, the number of mischievous creatures:

And from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man—Which may be reasonably supposed; for if it is required of a beast, and that is punished for the slaughter of a man, then much more a man himself, that is wilfully guilty of murder; and the rather, since he is by general relation a brother to the person he has murdered, which is an aggravation of his crime: or it may signify, that though he is a brother in the nearest relation, as his crime is the greater, he shall not go unpunished.

Rashi

And for your lifeblood—Although I have permitted you to take the life of cattle yet your lifeblood I will require from him who sheds his own lifeblood (see Bava Kamma 91b).

For your lifeblood—Even though one strangles himself (Bereishit Rabbah 34:13) so that no lifeblood flows from him.

From every beast—Because the generation of the flood sinned and they were therefore freely exposed to become food for wild beasts which would have power over them—as it is said (Psa 49:13, 21), “he is like the beasts that perish” (Shabbat 151b)—it was therefore necessary to proclaim a punishment against wild animals on their account.

And from man—From one who kills with premeditation, without witnesses, I will require it.

From his fellow man—From the one who loves him like a fellow man, and killed him accidentally, I will require it, unless he go into banishment and pray for forgiveness for his iniquity. For even one who kills another by accident needs atonement. If there are no witnesses to sentence him to banishment and he does not humble himself, the Holy One, blessed be he, will require it of him, as our Rabbis explain the text (Exo 21:13) “And God placed him into his hand,” in Treatise Makkot (Makkot 10b): The Holy One, blessed be he, causes them to meet at the same inn. The former in ascending a ladder falls upon the latter and kills him and has to go to banishment.

6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man,

by man shall his blood be shed,

for God made man in his own image.” GEN 9:5-6

John Gill

Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed—That is, he that is guilty of wilful murder shall surely be put to death by the order of the civil magistrate; so the Targum of Jonathan,

“by witnesses the judges shall condemn him to death,”

that is, the fact being clearly proved by witnesses, the judges shall condemn

“him to death,”

that is, the fact being clearly proved by witnesses, the judges shall pass the sentence of death upon him, and execute it; for this is but the law of retaliation, a just and equitable one, blood for blood, or life for life; though it seems to be the first law of this kind that empowered the civil magistrate to take away life; God, as it is thought, reserving the right and power to himself before, and which, for some reasons, he thought fit not to make use of in the case of Cain, whom he only banished, and suffered not others to take away his life, but now enacts a law, requiring judges to punish murder with death: and which, according to this law, ought never to go unpunished, or have a lesser punishment inflicted for it: the reason follows,

For God made man in his own image—Which, though sadly defaced and obliterated by sin, yet there are such remains of it, as render him more especially the object of the care and providence of God, and give him a superiority to other creatures; and particularly this image, among others, consists in immortality, which the taking away of his life may seem to contradict; however, it is what no man has a right to do.

Rashi

By man shall his blood be shed—If there are witnesses you kill him. Why? For God . . . in his own image (Bereishit Rabbah 34:14).

God made man—This verse is abbreviated and should be “the Maker made man”; there are many similar expressions in the Scriptures.

22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you,

John Gill

So if you are offering your gift at the altar—The Jews obliged such who had done any damage to their neighbours, by stealing from them, to make satisfaction before they brought their offering; concerning which they say,

“he that brings what he has stolen, before he brings his compensation, is right; he that brings his compensation, before he brings that which he has stolen, is not right.”

Again,

“they do not bring the compensation before the sum of what is stolen is returned, either to the owners, or to the priests.”

Some have thought Christ refers to this; only what they restrained to pecuniary damages, he extends to all sorts of offences. But not a compensation, but a freewill offering, seems to be designed by “the gift”: which, when a man either intended to bring, or was going to bring, or had already brought, as a voluntary sacrifice to be offered to God; and it came into his mind, that he had offended any man by showing any undue passion, or by any reproachful words, then he was to do what is advised in the following verse: “and there,” whilst going, or when at the altar,

Remember that your brother has something against you—Has anything to charge you with; any just ground of complaint against you; if you have done him any injury, or given him any offence: particularly, if he had at any time said Raca to him, or called him “fool” for those words have reference to what goes before, and are a corollary, or conclusion from them, as appears from the causal particle “so.”

24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. JOB 42:8

John Gill

Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams—Creatures used in sacrifice before the giving of the Levitical law (Gen 4:4; 8:20; 15:9); and the same number of the same creatures were offered by Balaam in the country of Moab, not far from where Job lived, nor at any great distance of time from his age (Num 23:1-2); and among the Gentiles in later times. And these were typical of Christ, being strong creatures, especially the bulls, and which were used for labour; and the number seven may point at the perfection of Christ’s sacrifice; to which these men were directed in their sacrifices to look for the complete atonement of their sins: now though they were not at their own dwellings, and could not take these out of their own herds and flocks, and Job had none, yet they could purchase them of others; and which having done, they are bid to do as follows:

And go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves—That is, by Job, who was to offer it for them in their name, and at whose hands the Lord would accept it, and for his sake. Job, as the head and master of his family, was disposed to sacrifice, as every such man did before the Aaronic priesthood took place (Job 1:5). Now this was doing Job a great deal of honour, both by calling him his servant, as before in Job 42:7, and twice more in this; which was plainly giving the cause on his side; confirming the character he always bore, and still retained; and declaring he had other thoughts of him than his friends had; as well by sending them to him with their sacrifices to offer for them; which was saying, that they had sinned, and must offer sacrifice, and that Job was in the right; and therefore must offer the sacrifice for them. This was putting them on a great piece of self-denial; that men, who were older than Job, great personages, heads of families, and who had been disposed to offer sacrifices in them, yet are now sent to Job to offer them for them; a man now in mean circumstances, and who in they had treated with great contempt; and he in his turn had used them as roughly. And it was also a trial of Job’s grace, and of his forgiving spirit, to do this for them, and pray to God on their behalf: and the Lord’s design in it was, to exercise the graces of them both, and to reconcile them to one another, and to himself;

And my servant Job shall pray for you—That their sacrifice might be accepted, and their sin pardoned. In this Job was a type of Christ, as he was in many other things; see the notes on Job 16:9-13; 30:8-10. There is an agreement in his name; Job, whether it signifies love or hatred, desired or hated, in both ways the etymology of it is given; it agrees with Christ, who is beloved of God and man, and the desire of all nations; who hates iniquity, and was hated for his inveighing against it. Job was a type of him in his threefold state; before his low estate, in it, and after it; see Php 2:6-10. In his temptations by Satan, and sufferings from men; and particularly in his office as a priest, who both offered himself a sacrifice for his people, and offers their services and sacrifices of prayer and praise to God; and who prayed for his disciples, and for all the Father has given him, for transgressors and sinners, and even for his enemies that used him ill;

For I will accept his prayer—Or his face, that is, hear his prayer, and grant what is asked by him; as well as accept his sacrifice;

Not to deal with you according to your folly—As all sin is, being committed against God, a breach of his law, and injurious to men themselves; see Deu 4:6; 32:6; Pro 8:36. Though here it seems to be restrained to their particular sin and folly in their dispute with Job; want of wisdom in them was discerned by Elihu (Job 32:7, 9). So it follows:

For you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has—And if by neglect of his advice, which would have been another instance of their folly, they had provoked the Lord to deal with them as their sin deserved, it must have gone hard with them. The Targum is,

“lest I should do with you ‘what would be’ a reproach”

(or disgrace); would put them to shame, and make them appear ignominious to men; as by stripping them of their substance and honour, and reducing them to the condition Job was in.

25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison.

26 Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

John Gill

Truly, I say to you—This may be depended upon, you may assure yourself of it, that

You will never get out—From prison,

Until you have paid the last penny—Or as the Ethiopic version reads it, “until you have exactly paid all”; which seems to express the inexorableness of the creditor, and the impossibility of the debtor’s release.