If any man trespass against his neighbour,.... By being unfaithful in a trust committed to him, or the like:
and an oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear; he denying that ever anything was committed to his trust, and there being no witnesses of it, the judge obliges him to take an oath he never had any:
and the oath come before thine altar in this house; where it was taken, as in the presence of God, and as appealing to him: hence in corrupt times they came to swear by the altar, Matthew 23:20 and so the Heathens used to take their oaths in the temples of their gods, and at their altars, as the instances of Callicrates c and Hannibal d show, and others Grotius refers to; yea, they also laid hold on the altar, at least touched it when they swore e to give the greater sanction to the oath.
c Cornel. Nep. Vit. Dion. l. 10. c. 8. d Ib. Hannibal. l. 23. c. 2. e Vid. Lydii Dissert de Jurament. c. 4. sect. 7.