17:1 Thou shalt not sacrifice unto the LORD thy God [any] bullock, or sheep, wherein is {a} blemish, [or] any evilfavouredness: for that [is] an abomination unto the LORD thy God.
(a) You shall not serve God for selfish means as the hypocrites do.
17:1 Bullock or sheep - Either greater or smaller sacrifices, all being comprehended under the two most eminent kinds.
17:1-7 No creature which had any blemish was to be offered in sacrifice to God. We are thus called to remember the perfect, pure, and spotless sacrifice of Christ, and reminded to serve God with the best of our abilities, time, and possession, or our pretended obedience will be hateful to him. So great a punishment as death, so remarkable a death as stoning, must be inflicted on the Jewish idolater. Let all who in our day set up idols in their hearts, remember how God punished this crime in Israel.
