Ex. xxxiii. 12, 17. Numb. xxxi. 17.TO KNOW. I know thee by Name, I know thee very particularly, I know who thou art: Thou art my peculiar Servant, whom I have named. It is God who speaks thus to Moses. Otherwise; I have called thee to my Service by Name. Kill every Woman that hath known Man: All the married Women, and those who are not Virgins. Thus; Adam cognovit uxorem suam; Virum non cognosco; Rex non cognovit eam. All these Expressions describe in a decent Manner the Act of Marriage.
To know the Lord, to know the Way and Judgments of the Lord. And in a contrary Jer. xxxi. 34. Hosea xiii. 4, &c.Sense, they have not known the Lord, nor his Ways, does not signify a mere speculative Knowledge, but a practical Knowledge accompanied with Actions, and with Charity. The Ox knoweth his Master, but Hosea xiii. 5.Israel doth not know him. Is. i. 3.
I did know thee in the Wilderness; I chose thee for my People, and gave my Law to Amos iii. 2.thee in the Wilderness. And Amos; You only have I known of all the Families of the Earth. You only have I taken for my People. Hosea viii. 4.And again; They have made Princes, and I knew it not. They have set themselves over my People without my Mission or Consent.
I do not know thee, I know not who thou art; that is to say, I have nothing to do with thee, I design to treat you as a Stranger, as an indifferent Person, as one whom I have never seen.
To know denotes frequently the View of any Thing with Approbation, Esteem and Friendship. The Lord knoweth the Ways of the Righteous, Ps. i. 6. The Lord knoweth the Days of the Upright. Ps. xxxvii. 18. And, the Lord knoweth the Ways which are on the right Hand, he approves, he loves them. Prov. iv. 271.
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Footnotes
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Translators’ note. The Author’s Citation is here taken from the Vulgate, wherein the 27th Verse is inserted with Additions which the Translator has copied from the Septuagint, but are not to be found in the Original Hebrew; this concludes the Chapter with the Words following ,הסר רגלך מרעand the English Version accordingly with these, remove thy Foot from Evil. The Septuagint continue; ὁδοὺς γὰρ τὰς ἐκ δεξιῶν οἶδεν ὁ Θεὸς, and so on. ↩