Deuteronomy 23:7

Thou shall not abhor an Edomite,.... Or an Idumean, the descendants of Esau, whose name was Edom, Genesis 25:30 the Targum of Jonathan adds, "that comes to be made a proselyte"; he was not to be

Thou shalt not seek their peace nor their prosperity all thy days for ever. No JFB commentary on these verses.

An Edomite; the children of Edom; only the Amalekites are excepted by God’ s particular order, and upon special reason, . Thy brother, by Esau, Jacob’ s brother. Thou wast a stranger in his land, and didst receive habitation, protection, and provision from them a long time, which kindness thou must not forget for their following persecution. It is ordinary with great men and others, that one injury or offence blots out the remembrance of twenty courtesies; but God doth not deal so with us, nor will he have us to deal so with others, but commands us to overlook and forget injuries, and to remember kindnesses.

Deuteronomy 23:7 Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite; for he [is] thy brother: thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian; because thou wast a stranger in his land.Ver. 7. For he is thy brother.] And therefore to be borne with, though unkind and injurious. Howbeit, Fratrum concordia rara est: "A brother offended is harder to be won," saith the wise man, "than a strong city, and their contentions are like the bars of a castle." The dissension between England and Scotland consumed more Christian blood, wrought more spoil and destruction, and continued longer than ever quarrel we read of did between any two peoples of the world. The God of Peace prevent the like bloody dissensions again, now mightily endeavoured by the boutefeaus of both nations. Si collidimur, frangimur, If we clash, we perish: dissension is the mother of dissolution, of desolation. Thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian.] But learn of him to return one good turn for another. Egyptii dicuntur, praeter alias nationes, erga bene meritos de se grati; Existimant enim magnum vitae subsidium esse, gratiae retributionem, saith Diodorus. The Egyptians are said to be, above all others, a thankful people, and to look upon thankfulness as a main support of man’ s life. Because thou wast a stranger in his land.] Where, though thou meetest with much hardship, yet thou hadst kind entertainment at first, and after that a subsistence, such as it was. Our Henry VI is said to have been of that happy memory, that he never forgot anything but injuries. Elisha, by a noble revenge, bade set bread and water before the Syrians that came to surprise him. Daniel’ s Hist., 191. Diod. Sic., lib. i.

(7) Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite . . . an Egyptian.—The contrast between these and the Moabite and Ammonite is drawn rather well by Rashi in this passace. “Learn here,” he says, “that he who makes a man to sin, treats him worse than he who kills-him; for he that kills, kills only in this world, but he who causes him to sin, banishes him both from this world and from the world to come. Edom, therefore who met them with the sword (Numbers 21:18; Numbers 21:20) they must not abhor; nor, again, Egypt, that would have drowned them (Exodus 1:22); but those who made them to sin are to be abhorred of them, because of the counsel wherewith they counselled them to cause them to sin.” The counsel of Balaam and the whoredoms of Moab are referred to; the Midianites who joined in this effort had been chastised already (Numbers 31).

The Edomite, as descended from Esau the twin brother of Jacob (compare Deuteronomy 2:4), and the Egyptian, as of that nation which had for long shown hospitality to Joseph and his brethren, were not to be objects of abhorrence.

7. Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite — The Edomites, descendants of Esau, twin brother of Jacob, held closer relations to Israel.