And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for them the LORD your God has chosen to minister unto him, and to bless in the name of the LORD; and by their word shall every controversy and every assault be tried:
All Commentaries on Deuteronomy 21:5 Go To Deuteronomy 21
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Judged. We see here again the great authority of the priests, chap. xvii. 9. Hebrew, "by their word shall every controversy and every stroke be tried "as the Protestants render it. (Haydock)
Some understand by stroke, the leprosy, of which they were undoubtedly the judges. But it is better to explain it of all wounds, and even of death, (Calmet) concerning which Moses is here speaking. (Haydock)
The Rabbins restrain the authority of priests as much as they can, to give greater power to their chimerical Sanhedrim. They pretend that here they had only to pronounce the blessing, ver. 8. Josephus ( iv. 8,) joins the magistrates with them in the whole ceremony. This awful meeting of so many people, tended to discover the authors of the murder, as all would naturally converse together on the subject, and each person declaring what he knew, some suspicions might at last be formed, which might by degrees lead to the detection. Josephus says rewards were proposed to any who might make a discovery. Draco decreed, that on the very day when a murder was announced, if the author was not known, the whole people (of Athens) should be purified. (Calmet)
Abulensis insinuates, that if the murderer was present in the crowd, he might be detected by blood gushing from the corpse of the deceased, as God often brings murder to light in a wonderful manner. (Cic. Div. i.) (Tirinus)
