Wesley Corpus

Chapter V A command to remove the unclean out of the camp, ver. 1 - 4. Laws concerning restitution, ver. 5 - 10. The law concerning a woman suspected of adultery, ver. 11 - 31. That they defile not the camp - By which God would intimate the danger of being made guilty by other mens sins, and the duty of avoiding intimate converse with wicked men. I dwell - By my special and gracious presence. Any sin that men commit - Heb. any sins of men, that is, sins against men, as deceits or wrongs, whereby other men are injured, of which he manifestly speaks. Against the Lord - Which words may be added, to shew that such injuries done to men are also sins against God, who hath commanded justice to men, as well as religion to himself. Guilty - That is, shall be sensible of his guilt, convicted in his conscience. They shall confess their sin - They shall not continue in the denial of the fact, but give glory to God, and take shame to themselves by acknowledging it. The principal - That is, the thing he took away, or what is equivalent to it. And add - Both as a compensation to the injured person for the want of his goods so long, and as a penalty upon the injurious dealer, to discourage others from such attempts. No kinsman - This supposes the person injured to be dead or gone, into some unknown place, and the person injured to be known to the injurer. To the priest - Whom God appointed as his deputy to receive his dues, and take them to his own use, that so he might more chearfully and entirely devote himself to the ministration of holy things. This is an additional explication to that law, Lev 6:2, and for the sake thereof it seems here to be repeated. Unto the priest - To offer by his hands. Every man's hallowed things - Understand this not of the sacrifices, because these were not the priest's peculiar, but part of them was offered to God, and the remainder was eaten by the offerer as well as by the priest; but of such other things as were devoted to God, and could not be offered in sacrifice; as suppose a man consecrated an house to the Lord, this was to be the priest's.