You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your cattle breed with another kind: you shall not sow your field with mixed seed: neither shall a garment of mixed linen and wool come upon you.
All Commentaries on Leviticus 19:19 Go To Leviticus 19
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Kind. Mules were therefore either brought from other countries, (3 Kings x. 28,) or they were produced by some of the same species, as, good authors assert, is frequently the case in Syria, Cappadocia (Pliny, viii. 44.; Pineda) (Tirinus)
Spencer (Leg. ii. 20,) says, without any proof, that this law had a reference to the impure conjunctions of animals, in honour of Venus and of Priapus.
Different seeds This law tends to recommend simplicity and plain-dealing in all things; and to teach the people not to join any false worship or heresy with the worship of the true God. (Challoner)
Draw not the yoke with infidels, 2 Corinthians vi. (Theodoret, q. 27.) These different colours were not in themselves evil, since they were used in the priests' vestments. They insinuate, that we must avoid schisms. (Worthington)
The sowing of different seeds tends to impoverish the soil. (Pliny, xviii. 10.) The Egyptians sowed various seeds on a board, covered with fine mould; and, observing which sort was destroyed by the heat of the sun in the dog-days, superstitiously refrained, that year, from sowing any of it, lest it should produce no crop. (Palladius)
Sorts. The Rabbins say of linen and wool, as Deuteronomy xxii. 11. They allow other sorts. Josephus ( iv. 8,) supposes, that garments of the former description were thus reserved for the priests alone. The Flamen, among the Romans, could not wear a woollen garment sowed with thread, without committing a sin; piaculum erat, says Servius. These precepts were to be literally observed, though they concealed a moral instruction of the greatest consequence, importing that all unnatural intercourse was to be avoided. Pythagoras conveyed his instructions under similar enigmatical expressions, saying, "we must not stir up the fire with a sword", as Solomon does likewise. (Proverbs xxx. 15 and Ecclesiasticus xii. 3, 6.) (Calmet)
