The priests shall not eat of any thing that is dead of itself, or torn, whether it be fowl or beast.
Ver. 31. The priests shall not eat, &c.] They shall not be greedy of filthy lucre, nor oppressive. Popish priests made so much gain of the dead, and so "devoured widows' houses," under a pretence of dirges, trentals, masses for the dead, &c., that there was a necessity in, this kingdom of a statute of mortmain a to restrain them.
a The figurative use is often based on the notion that the ‘dead hand' means the posthumous control exercised by the testator over the uses to which the property is to be applied. ŒD