And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.
Ver. 4. See thou tell no man] Christ despised popular applause, accounting it no other than a little stinking breath. Some do all for a name. But we have not so learned Christ. His treasures were hidden, Colossians 2:3. He sought not himself, but to set up him that sent him, John 8:50 .
Show thyself to the priest] That they may see that I am He that should come, that Jehovah the physician, that "Sun of righteousness with health under his wings," &c.; that I came not to destroy the law, as they slanderously give out, but to fulfil it, that God may be glorified and the mouth of malice stopped.
Offer the gift, &c.] This is that peppercorn a we pay to God, who is content that we have the benefit of his favours, so he may have the glory of them. Not lepers only, but all sorts, after sickness, were bound to offer to God the ransom of their lives, Exodus 30:11,16. Hezekiah made a song and left it to posterity, for a seal of his thankfulness. Heathens in this case would consecrate something to their gods, to their Teraphim. The very word in Greek that signifies to heal (framed from Teraphim) signifies first to worship and serve God (θεραπευειν), so showing us what they were wont to do in case of cure. But today sciopato il morbo, fraudato il santo, as the Italian proverb hath it. Sick men recovered, deal as shipwrecked men escaped; they promise God, as he in Erasmus' Naufragium did the Virgin, a picture of wax as big as St Christopher, but when he came to shore would not give a tallow candle. This is a cursed kind of deception, Malachi 1:14 .
a The dried berry of Black Pepper. Formerly often, and still sometimes, stipulated for as a quit-rent or nominal rent ŒD