9 "'The daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by playing the prostitute, she profanes her father: she shall be burned with fire.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
And the daughter of any priest. The moderation and chastity (required in the priest ) is extended also to his daughter; and by synecdoche all that relates to good discipline is comprised under a single head; viz., that his children should be educated in the study of virtue, and in decent and pure morality. A heavy punishment is denounced against a priest's daughter if she should play the harlot, because sacrilege would be combined with her disgraceful licentiousness. But it is no light crime to violate God's sanctuary; and, if the priest had tolerated such an iniquity in his daughter, he would have been no severe avenger of the same turpitude in strangers; nay, he would not have been at liberty to punish crimes, unless he made a beginning in his own house.
burnt with fire - See the Leviticus 20:14 note.
She shall be burnt with fire - Probably not burnt alive, but strangled first, and then burnt afterward. Though it is barely possible that some kind of branding may be intended.
And the daughter of any priest,.... The Targum of Jonathan restrains it to one that is betrothed; but others, as Jarchi and Aben Ezra, whether betrothed or married; and all confess, as the former says, that the Scripture does not speak of one that is single or entirely free: but there is no exception in the text; and besides, the daughter of any man that was betrothed to a man, and guilty of the crime here spoken of, was to die, Deuteronomy 22:23; and therefore such a law respecting the priest's daughter would be needless; unless it can be thought that it was made merely for the sake of the different kind of death she was to be put to, and that burning was a more terrible one than stoning:
if she profane herself by playing the whore; which brings scandal and disgrace on any person, and much more on anyone that had the honour of being related to a person in such a sacred office, and the advantage of a more strictly religious education, and had eaten of the holy things in her father's house; all which were aggravations of her crime, and made it the more scandalous and reproachful to her: some render it, "when she begins to play the whore" (b); as soon as ever it is discovered in her, and she is taken in it; even for the first that she commits, she is not to be spared, but put to death:
she profaneth her father: which is another aggravation of her sin; she brings him under disgrace, disparages his office, and exposes him to censure, reproach, and ridicule, as not having taken care of her education, and taught her better, and kept her under restraints; men will upbraid him with it, saying, this is a priest's daughter that has committed this lewdness; nor will say of him, as Jarchi observes, cursed be he that begat her, and cursed be he that brought her up:
she shall be burnt with fire; not with hot melted lead poured down her mouth, but with faggots set about her; See Gill on Leviticus 20:14; no punishment is here fixed for the person that lay with her, but, according to the Jewish canons (c), she was to be strangled.
(b) "cum coepit fornicari", Pagninus, Montanus; so Tigurine version. (c) Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 10. sect. 1. Maimon. Issure Biah, c. 1. sect. 6.
The priests's family was also to lead a blameless life. If a priest's daughter began to play the whore, she profaned her father, and was to be burned, i.e., to be stoned and then burned (see Leviticus 20:14). כּהן אישׁ, a man who is a priest, a priest-man.
And the daughter - And by analogy his son also, and his wife, because the reason of the law here added, concerns all. And nothing is more common than to name one kind for the rest of the same nature, as also is done Leviticus 18:6. She profaneth her father - Exposeth his person and office, and consequently religion, to contempt.
*More commentary available at chapter level.