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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Leviticus 22:24 - 22:24
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Castrated animals were not to be sacrificed, nor in fact to be kept in the land at all. מָעוּךְ compressus, θλιβίας, an animal with the stones crushed; כָּתוּת contusus, θλασίας, with them beaten to pieces; נָתוּק avulsus, σπάδων, with them twisted off; כָּרוּי excisus, τομίας or ἐκτομίας, with them cut off. In all these different ways was the operation performed among the ancients (cf. Aristot. hist. an. ix. 37, 3; Colum. vi. 26, vii. 11; Pallad. vi. 7). “And in your land ye shall not make,” sc., וגו מָעוּךְ, i.e., castrated animals, that is to say, “not castrate animals.” This explanation, which is the one given by Josephus (Ant. iv. 8, 40) and all the Rabbins, is required by the expression “in your land,” which does not at all suit the interpretation adopted by Clericus and Knobel, who understand by עָשָׂה the preparation of sacrifices, for sacrifices were never prepared outside the land. The castration of animals is a mutilation of God's creation, and the prohibition of it was based upon the same principle as that of mixing heterogeneous things in Lev 19:19.