was to be “an everlasting covenant” (Lev 24:8), i.e., a pledge or sign of the everlasting covenant, just as circumcision, as the covenant in the flesh, was to be an everlasting covenant (Gen 17:13).
verses 10-12
The account of the Punishment of a Blasphemer is introduced in the midst of the laws, less because “it brings out to view by a clear example the administration of the divine law in Israel, and also introduces and furnishes the reason for several important laws” (Baumgarten), than because the historical occurrence itself took place at the time when the laws relating to sanctification of life before the Lord were given, whilst the punishment denounced against the blasphemer exhibited in a practical form, as a warning to the whole nation, the sanctification of the Lord in the despisers of His name. The circumstances were the following: - The son of an Israelitish woman named Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan, and of an Egyptian whom the Israelitish woman had married, went out into the midst of the children of Israel, i.e., went out of his tent or place of encampment among the Israelites. As the son of an Egyptian, he belonged to the foreigners who had gone out with Israel (Exo 12:38), and who probably had their tents somewhere apart from those of the Israelites, who were encamped according to their tribes (Num 2:2). Having got into a quarrel with an Israelite, this man scoffed at the name (of Jehovah) and cursed. The cause of the quarrel is not given, and cannot be determined. נקב: to bore, hollow out, then to sting, metaphorically to separate, fix (Gen 30:28), hence to designate (Num 1:17, etc.), and to prick in malam partem, to taunt, i.e., to blaspheme, curse, = קבב Num 23:11, Num 23:25, etc. That the word is used here in a bad sense, is evident from the expression “and cursed,” and from the whole context of Lev 24:15 and Lev 24:16. The Jews, on the other hand, have taken the word נקב in this passage from time immemorial in the sense of ἐπονομάζειν (lxx), and founded upon it the well-known law, against even uttering the name Jehovah (see particularly Lev 24:16). “The name” κατ ̓ ἐξ. is the name “Jehovah” (cf. Lev 24:16), in which God manifested His nature. It was this passage that gave rise to the custom, so prevalent among the Rabbins, of using the expression “name,” or “the name,” for Dominus, or
