“You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the LORD.
32. Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head. God teaches us that some sparks of His majesty shine forth in old men, whereby they approach to the honor of parents. It is not my purpose to gather quotations from profane authors in reference to the honor due to the old; let it suffice that what God here commands is dictated by nature itself.
Here is, I. A law for the preserving of the honour of the time and place appropriated to the service of God, Lev 19:30. This would be a means to secure them both from the idolatries and superstitions of the heathen and from all immoralities in conversation. 1. Sabbaths must be religiously observed, and not those times mentioned (Lev 19:26) to which the heathen had a superstitious regard. 2.
Commenting on Leviticus 19:30-37
Thou shall rise up before the hoary head,.... Or "before old age" (q), which may be discerned by the hoary or grey hairs upon the head; that is, before a grey-headed man, or an old man, and one was reckoned so when he was of seventy years of age; for so it is said (r), one of sixty years is arrived to old age, and...