Leviticus 24:14

Lev 24:14 Bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp; and let all that heard [him] lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him.

Ver. 14. And let all that heard him.] The Jews at this day abhor the blasphemies of Christians, so openly and ordinarily darted up with hellish mouths against God. The Turks punish their prisoners sorely, when as, through impatience or desperateness, they break out into them. {a}

{a} Spec. Europ.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Lev 24:14. Lay their hands upon his head — Whereby they gave public testimony that they heard this person speak such words, and did in their own and all the people’s names demand justice to be executed upon him, that by this sacrifice God might be appeased, and his judgments turned away from the people, upon whom they would certainly fall if he were unpunished. Stone him — The same punishment which was before appointed for those who cursed their parents.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

24:14 Those who heard a blasphemer curse were to lay their hands on his head. This indicated their own innocence by symbolically transferring the guilt (see 16:21), as well as their willingness to accept responsibility for the blasphemer’s death. A single witness was not enough to cause a man to die (see Num 35:30; Deut 17:2-7; Matt 18:16; 2 Cor 13:1; 1 Tim 5:19; Heb 10:28).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp--All executions took place without the camp; and this arrangement probably originated in the idea that, as the Israelites were to be "a holy people" [Deu 7:6; Deu 14:2, Deu 14:21; Deu 26:19; Deu 28:9], all flagrant offenders should be thrust out of their society.

let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head, &c.--The imposition of hands formed a public and solemn testimony against the crime, and at the same time made the punishment legal.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 14. Lay their hands upon his head] It was by this ceremony that the people who heard him curse bore their public testimony in order to his being fully convicted, for without this his punishment would not have been lawful. By this ceremony also they in effect said to the man, Thy blood be upon thy own head.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(14) Bring forth him that hath cursed.—The sentence which God now passes upon the blasphemer is that he should be conducted from prison outside the camp, where all unclean persons had to abide (Num_5:2-3), and where malefactors were executed (Heb_13:12-13).

Let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head.—That is, the witnesses who heard him blaspheme, and upon whose evidence he was convicted, and the judges who found him guilty, are to lay their hands upon the criminal’s head. Hence the Chaldee version translates it, “Let the witnesses who heard his blasphemy and the judges lay their hands upon his head.” This imposition of hands upon a criminal was peculiar to the blasphemer who was sentenced to death, and according to the Jewish canonists, the witnesses and the judges thereby declared that the testimony and the sentence were faithful and righteous, and at the same time uttered the solemn words, “Let thy blood be upon thine own head; thou hast brought this upon thyself.”

Let all the congregation stone him.—The witnesses, who are the representatives of the people, cast the first stone, and then all the people who stood by covered the convict with stones. (See Lev_20:2.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14. let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head] Cp. the inclusion of the witnesses in the account of the stoning of St Stephen (Act_7:58).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp,.... To show that he had no part nor lot in Israel, and that he was unworthy to be a member of their civil community, or of their church state; and, besides, the place of stoning, or where malefactors suffered any kind of death, was without the camp, as afterwards without the city, see Heb 13:12,

let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head; the Targum of Jonathan adds,"and the judges;''so Jarchi remarks, that they that "heard him" are the witnesses, and the word "all" comprehends the judges: Maimonides says (e) the same, and observes that hands were laid on no malefactor but the blasphemer; and this was done to show that the one had bore a faithful testimony, and the other had pronounced a righteous sentence on him; and that he had brought this guilt and punishment upon himself by his sin; wherefore it was usual for them to say, as the same writers observe,"thy blood be upon thine own head, and we not punished for thy death, which thou hast been the cause of to thyself:"

and let all the congregation stone him; which Aben Ezra interprets of the great men of Israel; nor can it be thought that every individual of the people could cast a stone at him, but it was to be done by some of them, in the presence of them all, or as many as could conveniently get together to behold it; and this was done to show their detestation of the sin, and to deter from the commission of it: it was the same kind of punishment that was ordered to be inflicted on him that cursed his father or mother, Lev 20:9; God, the God of mercy, requiring no sorer punishment, though it deterred a greater, for such a sin against himself, than against a common parent.

(e) Hilchot Obede Cochabim, c. 2. sect. 10.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Lay their hands upon his head - As a protest against the impiety of the criminal, symbolically laying the guilt upon his head. Compare the washing of hands, Deu 21:6; Mat 27:24.

Let all the congregation stone him - See Lev 20:2 note.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Head. To testify, that if they witness falsehood, they are willing to suffer the like punishment; and to beg that God would accept this victim, and not afflict all his people. (Tirinus)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

By

laying their hands upon his head they gave public testimony that they heard this person speak such words, and did in their own and in all the people’s names desire and demand justice to be executed upon him, that by this sacrifice God might be appeased, and his judgments turned away from the people, upon whom they would certainly fall if he were unpunished.

Stone him; the same punishment which was before appointed for those who cursed their parents, whereas it deserved a far more grievous death, Thus God in this life mixeth mercy with judgment, and punisheth men less than their iniquities deserve.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

14. Lay their hands upon his head — For the significance of this ceremony, in the case of a victim for the altar, see chap. Lev_1:4, note. In this particular case, the witnesses who heard the blasphemy were required to cast off the guilt which they had involuntarily contracted by transferring it to the head of the sinner. By laying their hands upon his head they gave back the infection which they had received. In later ages it was a Jewish practice, when a person heard blasphemy, to lay his hand on the offender’s head to symbolize his sole responsibility for the guilt, and to rise up and tear his robe, which might never again be mended. See Mat_26:65, note.

Let all the congregation stone him — Says Baumgarten: “According to the sentence of Jehovah, the whole congregation was to be regarded as participating in the crime of the individual, because every one was a living member of the whole. For this reason the punishment was committed to the whole congregation, who gave back to the criminal its share of the guilt by leading him out of the camp and putting him to death. Thus they wiped off sin from Israel.” By this requirement of “all the congregation,” we are taught that for the efficient execution of laws against immoralities there must be strong public sentiment in favour of such law behind the officers of justice. The divine method, which puts a stone into every man’s hand to cast at the criminal, also effectually protects the witnesses. When any community has a righteous abhorrence of drunkenness, licentiousness, profanity, and other vices, sufficient to move a large majority of the citizens personally to assist in their suppression, these foul blots will be almost entirely wiped away from that community. The practice of stoning for blasphemy was continued till the martyrdom of Stephen.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Lay their hands upon his head - Whereby they gave public testimony that they heard this person speak such words, and did in their own and all the peoples names, demand justice to be executed upon him, that by this sacrifice God might be appeased, and his judgments turned away from the people, upon whom they would certainly fall if he were unpunished. Stone him - The same punishment which was before appointed for those who cursed their parents.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

השמעים THEY THAT HEARD — This refers to the witnesses.

כל ALL [THOSE THAT HEARD] — 'all' serves to include the judges also (Sifra, Emor, Chapter 19 1).

את ידיהם [AND ALL THAT HEARD HIM SHALL LAY] THEIR HANDS [UPON HIS HEAD] — They said to him: your blood is upon your head; we do not deserve punishment on account of your death, for it was you yourself who brought it about (Sifra, Emor, Chapter 19 2).

כל העדה ALL THE CONGREGATION [SHALL CERTAINLY PELT HIM WITH STONES] — (This means: the witnesses shall stone him), all the congregation standing by (because it cannot possibly mean that all the 600,000 men comprising the whole of the congregation should stone him). From here, we may derive the legal principle that a man’s agent is as himself (i. e. that his actions are legally of the same effect as though they were carried out by those for whom he acts the order) (cf. Sifra, Emor, Chapter 19 23).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.