Ver. 6. If thy brother, &c.— To convince them of the high duty they owed to God, and to shew them that this law ought to be executed in its utmost rigour against a sin which struck at the very foundation of their religion and government, Moses puts the case in the strongest manner; that if the nearest and dearest relation and friend should entice a man to the worship of false gods, he was to have no mercy upon the enticer, but was to put him to death, ver. 9. The reason of the thing, however, shews that these two circumstances were to be understood: first, that the seducer be convicted by two sufficient witnesses before the proper magistrates, see Numbers 35:30; 2nd, that the offender obstinately persist to defend idolatry in spite of admonition: for who can doubt but that a father, for instance, might save the life of his son, in case he brought him to timely repentance? Therefore the rabbis very justly supply these two mitigations of the law. In the words of this verse we have a fine idea of friendship: thy friend which is as thine own soul; a faithful friend is another self: the same spirit seems to animate two persons who love cordially, and according to the laws of piety and virtue. Such was the language of Pythagoras, and of Aristotle, copied, most probably, from this of Moses, the eloquence and energy of which was not to be effaced by them. A modern poet, speaking of two friends, says beautifully:
"Like objects pleas'd them, and like objects pain'd ——'Twas but one soul that in two bodies reigned." See STILLINGFLEET'S Essay on Conversation.