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Deuteronomy Chapter
Twenty-seven
Deuteronomy 27
Chapter Contents
The law to be written on stones in the promised land. (1-10)
The curses to be pronounced on mount Ebal. (11-26)
Commentary on Deuteronomy 27:1-10
(Read Deuteronomy 27:1-10)
As soon as they were come into Canaan, they must set up a
monument, on which they must write the words of this law. They must set up an
altar. The word and prayer must go together. Though they might not, of their
own heads, set up any altar besides that at the tabernacle; yet, by the
appointment of God, they might, upon special occasion. This altar must be made
of unhewn stones, such as they found upon the field. Christ, our Altar, is a
stone cut out of the mountain without hands, refused by the builders, as having
no form or comeliness, but accepted of God the Father, and made the Head of the
corner. In the Old Testament the words of the law are written, with the curse
annexed; which would overcome us with horror, if we had not, in the New
Testament, an altar erected close by, which gives consolation. Blessed be God,
the printed copies of the Scriptures among us, do away the necessity of such
methods as were presented to Israel. The end of the gospel ministry is, and the
end of preachers ought to be, to make the word of God as plain as possible.
Yet, unless the Spirit of God prosper such labours with Divine power, we shall
not, even by these means, be made wise unto salvation: for this blessing we
should therefore daily and earnestly pray.
Commentary on Deuteronomy 27:11-26
(Read Deuteronomy 27:11-26)
The six tribes appointed for blessing, were all children
of the free women, for to such the promise belongs, Galatians 4:31. Levi is here among the rest.
Ministers should apply to themselves the blessing and curse they preach to
others, and by faith set their own Amen to it. And they must not only allure
people to their duty with the promises of a blessing, but awe them with the
threatenings of a curse, by declaring that a curse would be upon those who do
such things. To each of the curses the people were to say, Amen. It professed
their faith, that these, and the like curses, were real declarations of the
wrath of God against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, not one jot of
which shall fall to the ground. It was acknowledging the equity of these
curses. Those who do such things deserve to fall, and lie under the curse. Lest
those who were guilty of other sins, not here mentioned, should think
themselves safe from the curse, the last reaches all. Not only those who do the
evil which the law forbids, but those also who omit the good which the law
requires. Without the atoning blood of Christ, sinners can neither have
communion with a holy God, nor do any thing acceptable to him; his righteous
law condemns every one who, at any time, or in any thing, transgresses it.
Under its awful curse we remain as transgressors, until the redemption of
Christ is applied to our hearts. Wherever the grace of God brings salvation, it
teaches the believer to deny ungodliness and wordly lusts, to live soberly,
righteously, and godly in this present world, consenting to, and delighting in
the words of God's law, after the inward man. In this holy walk, true peace and
solid joy are to be found.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Deuteronomy》
Deuteronomy 27
Verse 2
[2] And
it shall be on the day when ye shall pass over Jordan unto the land which the
LORD thy God giveth thee, that thou shalt set thee up great stones, and
plaister them with plaister:
On that day —
About that time, for it was not done 'till some days after their passing over.
Verse 3
[3] And thou shalt write upon them all the words of this law, when thou art
passed over, that thou mayest go in unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth
thee, a land that floweth with milk and honey; as the LORD God of thy fathers
hath promised thee.
This law —
The law properly so called, that is, the sum and substance of the precepts or laws
of Moses, especially such as were moral, particularly the decalogue.
Write it, that thou mayest go in — As the condition of thy entering into the land. For since Canaan is
given only by promise, it must be held by obedience.
Verse 4
[4]
Therefore it shall be when ye be gone over Jordan, that ye shall set up these
stones, which I command you this day, in mount Ebal, and thou shalt plaister
them with plaister.
Mount Ebal —
The mount of cursing. Here the law is written, to signify that a curse was due
to the violators of it, and that no man could expect justification from the
works of the law, by the sentence whereof all men are justly accused, as being
all guilty of the transgression of it in one kind and degree or other. Here the
sacrifices are to be offered, to shew that there is no way to be delivered from
this curse, but by the blood of Christ, which all these sacrifices did typify,
and by Christ's being made a curse for us.
Verse 6
[6] Thou
shalt build the altar of the LORD thy God of whole stones: and thou shalt offer
burnt offerings thereon unto the LORD thy God:
Whole stones —
Rough, not hewed or polished. By the law written on the stones, God spake to
them: by the altar and sacrifices upon it, they spake to God: and thus was
communion kept up between them and God.
Verse 9
[9] And Moses and the priests the Levites spake unto all Israel, saying, Take
heed, and hearken, O Israel; this day thou art become the people of the LORD
thy God.
The people of the Lord — By thy solemn renewing of thy covenant with him.
Verse 12
[12]
These shall stand upon mount Gerizim to bless the people, when ye are come over
Jordan; Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Joseph, and Benjamin:
Upon mount Gerizzim —
These words may be rendered beside or near to mount Gerizzim. There were in
Canaan two mountains that lay near together, with a valley between, one called
Gerizzim, the other Ebal. On the sides of these which faced each other, all the
tribes were to be drawn up, six on a side, so that in the valley they came near
each other, so near that the priests standing between them, might be heard by
them that were next them on both sides. Then one of the priests, or perhaps
more, at some distance from each other, pronounced with a loud voice, one of
the curses following. And all the people who stood on the foot and side of
mount Ebal, (those farther off taking the signal from those who were nearer)
said Amen! Then the contrary blessing was pronounced, "Blessed is he that
doth so or so:" To which all who stood on the foot and side of mount
Gerizzim, said, Amen! Simeon - All these were the children of the free-women,
Leah and Rachel, to shew both the dignity of the blessings above the curses,
and that the blessings belong only to those who are evangelically such, as this
is expounded and applied, Galatians 4:22, even to those that receive the
Spirit of adoption and liberty. Joseph is here put for both his sons and tribes
Manasseh and Ephraim, which are reckoned as one tribe, because Levi is here
numbered; but when Levi is omitted, as it is where the division of the land is
made, there Manasseh and Ephraim pass for two tribes.
Verse 13
[13] And
these shall stand upon mount Ebal to curse; Reuben, Gad, and Asher, and
Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.
To curse — Of
the former tribes, 'tis said, they stood to bless the people: of these, that
they stood to curse. Perhaps the different way of speaking intimates, That
Israel in general were an happy people, and should ever be so, if they were
obedient. And to that blessing, they on mount Gerizzim said, Amen! But the
curses come in, only as exceptions to the general rule: "Israel is a
blessed people: but if there be any even among them, that do such and such
things, they have no part or lot in this matter, but are under a curse."
This shews how ready God is to bestow the blessing: if any fall under the
curse, they bring it on their own head. Four of these are children of the
bond-woman, to shew that the curse belongs to those of servile and disingenuous
spirits. With these are joined Reuben, who by his shameful sin fell from his
dignity, and Zebulun, the youngest of Leah's children, that the numbers might
be equal.
Verse 14
[14] And
the Levites shall speak, and say unto all the men of Israel with a loud voice,
The Levites —
Some of the Levites, namely, the priests, who bare the ark, as it is expressed Joshua 8:33, for the body of the Levites stood
upon mount Gerizzim, Deuteronomy 27:12. But these stood in the valley
between Gerizzim and Ebal, looking towards the one or the other mountain as
they pronounced either the blessings or the curses.
Verse 15
[15]
Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image, an abomination unto
the LORD, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and putteth it in a secret
place. And all the people shall answer and say, Amen.
Cursed —
The curses are expressed, but not the blessings. For as many as were under the
law, were under the curse. But it was an honour reserved for Christ to bless
us; to do that which the law could not do. So in his sermon on the mount, the
true mount Gerizzim, we have blessings only.
The man —
Under this particular he understands all the gross violations of the first
table, as under the following branches he comprehends all other sins against
the second table.
Amen —
'Tis easy to understand the meaning of Amen to the blessings. But how could
they say it to the curses? It was both a profession of their faith in the truth
of it, and an acknowledgment of the equity of these curses. So that when they
said Amen, they did in effect Say, not only, it is certain it shall be so, but
it is just it should be so.
Verse 16
[16]
Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother. And all the people
shall say, Amen.
Light —
Or, despiseth in his heart: or reproacheth or curseth, secretly: for if the
fact was notorious, it was punished with death.
Verse 17
[17]
Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour's landmark. And all the people shall
say, Amen.
Out of the way —
That misleadeth simple souls, giving them pernicious counsel, either for this
life, or for the next.
Verse 24
[24]
Cursed be he that smiteth his neighbour secretly. And all the people shall say,
Amen.
Smiteth —
That is, killeth. This includes murder under colour of law, which is of all
others the greatest affront to God. Cursed therefore is he that any ways
contributes to accuse, or convict, or condemn an innocent person.
Verse 26
[26]
Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And all
the people shall say, Amen.
Confirmeth not —
Or, performeth not. To this we must all say, Amen! Owning ourselves to be under
the curse, and that we must have perished for ever, if Christ had not redeemed
us from the curse of the law, by being made a curse for us.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Deuteronomy》
27 Chapter 27
Verse 2-3
That thou shalt set up great stones.
Memorial pillars
On the boundary line between European and Siberian Russia there is
a square pillar of brick bearing on one side the coat-of-arms belonging to the
province of Perm in Europe, and on the other side the coat-of-arms belonging to
the province of Tobolsk in Asia. That pillar has more sorrowful associations
than any other pillar in the world. For many years the exiles to Siberia had to
pass it, and there bade a long farewell to home and country. Strong men wept;
some pressed their faces to the loved soil they were leaving, some collected a
little earth to take with them to their new abodes, and some passionately
kissed the European side of the pillar. The plaister on the bricks was covered
with inscriptions, plaintive and pathetic as the epitaphs in a graveyard. Moses
thought of pillars which were to have not a mournful, but a joyful
significance. The stones were afterwards set up by the people as memorials of
God’s work on their behalf. The stones were to be a perpetual memorial of
indebtedness to God for rescue from slavery and guidance to prosperity and
honour. The disciples of Christ have experienced a change wonderful as that
experienced by the Israelites. They have passed from bondage to liberty, from
darkness to light, from moral debasement to spiritual glory. They are not to
boast as if by their own endeavours they had wrought out the salvation in which
they rejoice, but gratefully to confess that God has made them what they are.
They are themselves to be monuments of God’s power such as all can see and
understand. Something more is needed from them than activity in setting up
great stones as abiding witnesses of the great revolution in their life. They
are to stand before the world as witnesses of God’s saving, hallowing work in
the human soul. The stones the Israelites were to set up were to be plaistered,
and the law written on the plaister. There was a deep significance in the words
thus inscribed. The people would be reminded by them that though they were out
of the wilderness they had not ceased to be under the law. The horrors of Egyptian
slavery would have been better for them than luxurious life in Canaan
unrestricted by Divine precepts. The written stones were an attestation of
God’s supremacy over them, and as a restraint from the moral laxity to which
they would be tempted when at ease amid “the limpid wells and orchards green”
and all the other charms of the land “where Abraham fed his flock of yore.” The
disciples of Christ are to be as pillars inscribed with the law of the Lord.
They do not bear the words of the ceremonial law, nor are they under direct
obligation to bear those of the social law enacted in the wilderness. It is the
moral law they bear as a sacred inscription on their life. Special prominence
is to be given to the two great commandments, love to God and love to man,
which, according to the teaching of Jesus, include the whole of the Decalogue.
Faith in Christ does not mean freedom from the law as a rule of life. Truth,
honesty, amiability are as much required in members of the Church as if those
qualities were the sole condition of salvation: evangelical righteousness
implies practical righteousness. (J. Marrat.)
Verse 9-10
Obey the voice of the lord thy god.
Of obedience to God’s revealed will
I. What is the
rule of obedience? The written Word.
II. What are the
right ingredients in our obedience to make it acceptable?
1. Obedience must be free and cheerful, else it is penance, not
sacrifice (Isaiah 1:19). Willingness is the soul of
obedience; God sometimes accepts of willingness without the work, but never of
the work without willingness. Cheerfulness shows that there is love in the
duty; and love doth to our services, as the sun doth to the fruits, mellow and
ripen them and make them come off with a better relish.
2. Obedience must be devout and fervent: the heart must boil over
with hot affections in the service of God.
3. Obedience must be extensive, it must reach to all God’s commands (Psalms 119:6). True obedience runs
through all duties of religion, as the blood through all the veins, or the sun
through all the signs of the zodiac.
4. Obedience must be sincere--namely, we must aim at the glory of God
in it, in religion the end is all. The end of our obedience must not be to stop
the mouth of conscience, or to gain applause, but that we may grow more like
God, and bring more glory to God.
5. Obedience must be in and through Christ, “He made us accepted in
the Beloved.”
6. Obedience must be constant, “Blessed is he who doeth righteousness
at all times.” True obedience is not like an high colour in a fit, but it is a
right sanguine; it is like the fire on the altar which was always kept burning.
III. Whence is it
that men do not obey God?
1. The not obeying of God is for want of faith: “Who hath believed
our report?” Did men believe sin were so bitter that hell followed at the heels
of it, would they go on in sin? Did they believe there were such a reward for
the righteous that godliness were gain, would they not pursue it?
2. The not obeying God is for want of self-denial. God commands one
thing, and men’s lusts command another, and they will rather die than deny
their lusts; now, if lust cannot be denied God cannot be obeyed.
IV. What are the
great arguments or incentives to obedience?
1. Obedience makes us precious to God; we shall be His favourites (Exodus 19:5; Isaiah 43:3).
2. There is nothing lost by obedience. To obey God’s will is the way
to have our will. (T. Watson.)
Implicit obedience
Implicit obedience is our first duty to God, and one for which
nothing else will compensate. If a lad at school is bidden to cipher, and
chooses to write a copy instead, the goodness of the writing will not save him
from censure. We must obey whether we see the reason or not; for God knows
best. A guide through an unknown country must be followed without demur. A
captain, in coming up the Humber or Southampton Water, yields complete
authority to the pilot. A soldier in battle must fight when and where he is
ordered; when the conflict is over he may reflect upon and perceive the wisdom
of his commander in movements that at the time of their execution were
perplexing. The farmer must obey God’s natural laws of the seasons if he would
win a harvest; and we must all obey God’s spiritual laws if we would reap
happiness here and hereafter.
Obedience proceeding from love
The son of a poor man that hath not a penny to give or leave him,
yields his father obedience as cheerfully as the son of a rich man that looks
for a great inheritance. It is, indeed, love to the father, not wages from the
father, that is the ground of a good child’s obedience. If there were no heaven
God’s children would obey Him; and though there were no hell yet would they do
their duty; so powerfully doth the love of the Father constrain them. (J.
Spencer.)
Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour’s landmark.
The landmarks of faith
The landmarks of faith are just the truth which God has revealed
to men, and the duty which He requires of them. Among the sins, the criminality
of which it was the will of God should be deeply impressed on the minds of the
children of Israel, that of removing the ancient landmarks was one. The
reference manifestly is to landmarks that were set up, when the land of Canaan
was divided among the tribes and families of Israel; to determine the
boundaries of the portion belonging to each individual family, or tribe. This
is a kind of crime which is spoken of and pointedly prohibited in other parts
of Scripture as well as that quoted above. (Proverbs 22:28.) God saw meet to employ
men of high character in the division made of the land, and that division He so
sanctioned that it was His will that it should be maintained throughout the
successive generations of Israel. But however great a crime it was to remove
any of these landmarks, the criminality of the removal of such landmarks and
its evil consequences were exceedingly small compared with the guilt that has
been and is being contracted by the removal of the landmarks of faith. The
dishonour done to God, and the injury to society by the one form of wickedness,
is as nothing compared with the other. Of this there is ample illustration and
confirmation furnished in the past history of our fallen world. The landmarks
of faith were set up progressively by God Himself in the special revelation which
He was pleased to give to men regarding His own character and will in relation
to doctrine and practice; to the truth to be believed and the duty to be
performed to Him and to one another. In most cases, though not in all, the
removal of those Divinely erected landmarks has been a gradual process. Of
Abraham God said, “I know him, that he will command his children and his
household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and
judgment” (Genesis 18:19). By this patriarch we can
have no doubt the landmarks of faith as to truth and duty were faithfully set
up in his household, both by precept and instruction, commended by the best
example. But except in the line of Jacob, how speedily did these come to be
removed among all the other branches of his posterity. His son Ishmael, and his
children by Keturah, as well as Isaac, were no doubt highly favoured in their
early years with the advantages of earnest paternal counsel. Reminiscences of
this behoved to follow them to their respective places of sojourn and location.
But the light which might thus shine for a time became gradually more and mole
obscure, till at length there was scarcely anything left to distinguish them
from the other branches of Noah’s descendants, who had at an earlier date sunk
into that state of moral debasement which is inseparable from idolatry. How
brief the time during which these landmarks stood up erect in the days of David
and the first years of the reign of his son Solomon! In the history of Judah we
see the same issues realised so far as a similar course was pursued in that
kingdom; and in the conduct of the Jews after their restoration from the
Babylonish captivity, when the landmarks of faith were set up anew among
them--by such notable instruments as Ezra and Nehemiah--and to which they bound
themselves to adhere by solemn covenant. How soon did they also fall back and
become hardened in unbelief. Again, at the era of the glorious Reformation from
Popery, God graciously interposed for a blissful restoration of the widely
obliterated landmarks of faith in a number of the nations of Europe.
Distinguished instruments were simultaneously raised up in different countries,
by whom these were anew set up in a remarkable degree of conformity to the
Divine pattern. These, alas, have been, to a very lamentable extent,
practically removed in all the Reformed Churches on the Continent--in France,
Switzerland, Holland, and Germany. (Original Secession Magazine.)
Amen.
Amen
I. A lesson of
acquiescence in the Divine law. “Amen” is understood to denote truth or
certainty. Such, without doubt, was its signification here. The leading
principles of the moral law were then being enunciated, in the hearing of all
the people, and in token that these met with their acquiescence, they were to
superadd the emphatic “Amen.” Now, every believer knows that the God in whom we
live and move, is a God of infinite holiness, and that the Scripture is filled
with precepts which every responsible creature is bound to carry into hourly
practice. “Be ye holy, for I am holy”--“Cursed is everyone that continueth not
in all things written in the book of the law to do them--“Except your
righteousness shall exceed”--such are precepts whose import may not be
misunderstood, leaving it as one of the dearest and most intelligible of Gospel
maxims that to God’s moral law the Christian is called upon to append his
sanction--his solemn “Amen.”
1. The Christian Church is not placed under the law, as a covenant of
works. An acquiescence, therefore, in the moral law, or of our saying “Amen” to
every one of its precepts, does not imply that we have elevated these to be the
conditions of our salvation, or the grounds of an acceptance before God.
2. This does not stand in the way of an acknowledging the surpassing
excellency of every such precept. The law may in itself be good and holy,
although we cannot keep it--just as the light of the sun’s meridian splendour
may be pure and glorious, although there are eyes too weak to bear it. And this
we affirm.
3. We must consider the law as still the rule of our life. Our
inability to realise the lofty standard of holiness indicated in the Decalogue,
no more releases us from our obligation to perform it, than the mere
declaration of bankruptcy cancels a debt, discharges the conscience from the
duty of paying it, should there be ability to do so at any future time, or
authorises a man to contract fresh obligations with the secret purpose of
getting quit of them by a similar process.
4. As Christians, we are necessarily anticipating a restoration to
that moral perfection which the law requires.
II. A lesson of
conformity to the Divine method of salvation. Momentous, of course, are the
effects which ensue upon the acceptance or rejection, but everyone who listens
to the overtures of the Gospel does so in the attitude of an independent and
rational being. There is no restraint, no compulsion. “My son, give Me thine
heart,” is, indeed, the impressive demand; but we ought to know, that if we
choose to risk the fearful consequences of embracing the alternative, there is
no constraining influence compelling us to believe against our will. The thing,
indeed, is impossible. Faith is a voluntary, act; and this is the most
important principle suggested by the text, that to God’s method of salvation,
our heart, in the hour of regeneration, must respond with an unreserved and
cordial “Amen.”
III. A lesson of
submission to God’s providential dispensations. It is obvious to even the
natural judgment of man, that, of all methods of meeting the calamities which
flesh is heir to, the worst is to murmur and oppose. Not only does this involve
the turpitude of virtual rebellion against the authority of heaven; it
positively adds to and renders more poignant the distresses we are called upon
to endure. It were folly to imagine, for a single instant, that affliction can
be thereby either mitigated or removed. The dying soldier may cherish the
fiercest resentment against the enemy who has smitten him, but that resentment
will not heal the deadly wound. The chances are that death will be thereby
precipitated. So is it with our calamities. Whether we will or no, these will
descend upon us; and our spiritual enemies can desire no greater victory over
us than that these should crush and drive us to despair. Submission, then, is
the lesson inculcated upon us by the afflictive dispensations of God. Whatever
these may be, let the tendency of the Christian’s heart be to acknowledge them
with a cordial “Amen.” Peace will be his in the present. He will experimentally
know the meaning of that apostolic paradox, “Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing”;
in the world’s chastisements realise a pledge of his heavenly Father’s love;
and anticipate with gladness unspeakable the approval of that blissful era when
“God the Lord shall wipe away,” etc.
IV. A lesson of
confidence in the Divine promises and of assurance regarding the execution of
the Divine purposes. (James Cochrane, M. A.)
That maketh the blind to
wander out of the way.--
Against imposing on the ignorant
In this chapter, curses are pronounced against several heinous
crimes, such as idolatry, contempt of parents, murder, rapine, and the like;
and amongst these crimes is mentioned this, of causing the blind to go out of
their way; a wickedness of a singular nature, and which one would not expect to
find in this list of vicious actions. It is a crime which is seldom committed;
there are few opportunities for it; there is little temptation to it: it is
doing mischief for mischief’s sake, an enormity to which few can easily bring
themselves. We may therefore reasonably suppose that more is intended than
barely to condemn those who should lead a blind man out of his way. And what
that may be, it is not difficult to discover. Blindness in all languages is put
for error and ignorance; and, in the style of the Scriptures, ways and paths,
and walking, running, going, wandering astray, stumbling, falling, mean the
actions and the behaviour of men. These obvious observations will lead us to
the moral, mystical, spiritual, and enlarged sense of the law, or commination;
and it is this: Cursed is he who imposeth upon the simple, the credulous, the
unwary, the ignorant, and the helpless; and either hurts, or defrauds, or deceives,
or seduces, or misinforms, or misleads, or perverts, or corrupts and spoils
them.
1. As to the ministers of the Gospel, they may be said to mislead the
blind when, instead of endeavouring to instruct and amend their hearers, they
deal in false opinions, or unintelligible doctrines, or unprofitable disputes,
or uncharitable reproofs, or personal reflections, or flattery, or in any
subjects foreign from religion and void of edification; much more when they
teach things of an evil tendency, and which may have a bad influence on the
minds and manners of the people.
2. In all our worldly affairs and intercourse with others, as we
ought to act fairly, justly towards every person, so more especially ought we
to behave towards those whom we might injure with impunity, that is, without
danger of being called to account for it in this life.
3. As nations subsist by trade, so trade subsists by integrity. In
commerce upright dealing is an indispensable duty, and defrauding is a vice.
But if it be a fault to make unreasonable advances in our dealings even with
those who are skilful as ourselves, it is far worse to impose upon the ignorant
and the necessitous, and to wrong those who have a good opinion of us, and
place an entire confidence in us.
4. Of the same bad nature is giving wrong counsel and hurtful advice,
knowingly and wilfully, to those who have an opinion of our superior skill, and
apply to us for direction. As likewise all dishonesty in offices of trust and
confidence.
5. To take bad courses, to keep bad company, to be vicious amongst
the vicious, dissolute amongst the dissolute--this is confessedly a great
fault. But yet there is a greater, which is, to seek out the weak, the young,
the ignorant, the unsteadfast, to instill bad principles into them, to entice
them to sin, to spoil an honest disposition, to seduce an innocent mind, to rob
an unspotted person of virtue, of honour and reputation, of peace of mind, of a
quiet conscience, and perhaps of all happiness present and future. This is not
an ordinary offence; it is to be agents and assisters to the devil, and to do
his work and imitate his example. It is a crime attended with this terrible
circumstance, that even repentance itself can be attended with no suitable
reparation to the injured person. (J. Jortin, D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》