Leviticus 20

Leviticus 20:3

3. And I will set my face &c.] There are two cases, in which the offender here described might escape punishment; either the crime could not be legally proved, or the magistrate might be remiss in punishing. The Divine Lawgiver here obviates both, and declares that, in such cases, the offender shall suffer death by God’s own hand, in an extraordinary manner. He supplies the first defect in these words, “I will set My face against &c.” and the second at ver. 4, 5. Bp. Warburton.

— to defile my sanctuary.] It was a defilement of the sanctuary of God, and a profanation of His holy name, to prefer another place of sacrifice, and to pay divine honours to such abominable idols. Dr. Wells.

Leviticus 20:4

4. — if the people — hide their eyes from the man,] If they connive at what he does, and dissemble their knowledge of it. Bp. Patrick.

Before CHRIST 1490. a Chap. 18. 21. Divers laws and ordinances. Before CHRIST 1460. b Chap. 11. 44. & 19. 2.

Leviticus 20:9

9.— every one that curseth his father or his mother]

Every one that revileth or speaketh reproachfully of father or mother. Bp. Hall. See note on Deut. xxvii. 16.

One of the crimes which the Jewish law punished with peculiar severity, was disobedience to parents. “Every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death.” And again, “If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, &c.” See Deut. xxi. 18—21. Undoubtedly in thus enforcing filial obedience, the Jewish law laid the foundation of every virtue. He who despises parental instruction, tramples on parental authority, and feels no gratitude for parental affection in his earlier years, will probably as his passions strengthen, and his depraved habits grow inveterate, trample on the authority of laws both human and divine, and requite with ingratitude all the benefits which man can confer, and all the blessings which the Divinity bestows. But in establishing this important principle, we see nothing harsh or overstrained: the parents have no such arbitrary authority as under the Roman law, which armed the father with the absolute right of life and death over his children, and even allowed him to sell them three times over: a power which lasted during their whole lives, or ended only with the third sale. Nor was such extreme parental power deemed unreasonable in Greece; where it was maintained, that the power of a father of a family over his slaves and children was absolute. On the contrary, in the Jewish law, all is just and moderate. The offence

of cursing a father or mother implies such hardened impiety, as well as such extreme contempt and malignity towards the authors of our existence, as strikes the heart with horreur, and indicates the greatest moral depravity. Equally worthy of reprobation and punishment is persevering and obstinate stubbornness and rebellion, against that exercise of parental authority which would restrain drunkenness and debauchery: and when such disobedience was investigated by a solemn and publick trial, and established by a judicial conviction, it surely merited infamy and death; so that “all Israel might hear and fear, and put away evil from among them.” Dr. Graves. See note on Deut. xxi. 18.

— his blood shall be upon him.] He shall be guilty of his own death. Bp. Kidder. The peculiar meaning of this phrase is, he shall perish by his own fault, and therefore his blood, that is, his death, shall not be vindicated; the blood of an innocent man, who was slain, was said to be on the murderer, that is, was to be avenged. Bp. Patrick.

Our Saviour cites this law, in opposition to an evil practice of the Jews, at Matt. xv. 4; Mark vii. 10.

Leviticus 20:12

12.— they have wrought confusion:] They have perverted the order of nature which God hath appointed. Bp. Patrick.

Leviticus 20:18

18. And if a man &c.] This is to be understood of wilful and presumptuous acts: he that did the same unawares was not liable to the same severity, chap. xv. 24. Bp. Kidder.

Divers laws and ordinances. eth his near kin: they shall bear their iniquity.

Leviticus 20:20

20. — they shall die childless.] Some interpret this to mean that they shall not be suffered to live till they have children. It seems better to understand in the literal sense, that they shall not have any children, which are declared blessings by the Author of nature. Biblioth. Bibl.

Leviticus 20:25

25. Ye shall therefore put difference] We observe in every part of the law a wise provision for keeping the Israelites a separate people, by forbidding them to conform to the rites and customs of other people, and enjoining such a distinction of meats and sacrifices, as must prevent all intimacy between them, and in some instances create in the heathens an abhorrence of them; for they were commanded to abstain from meats which others ate, and to sacrifice and eat what others worshipped. This was the reason given for that command of clean or unclean creatures, by God Himself: and it is probable that for this very reason the law condescends to such little things, as the fashion of their dress, their beards, &c. that God might in every respect distinguish and make them known from all other people, and so prevent all mixture and confusion. Dr. T. Burnett.

Leviticus 20:27

27. A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, &c.] On the principle which pervades the whole Jewish law, of preserving the allegiance due to the Supreme Jehovah; resorting or pretending to resort to supernatural agency, in order to discover or control future events, as it implied a dependence on inferior spirits, was a violation of allegiance to the true and only God, who declared Himself the peculiar guardian of this people; ever ready to assist them in any distress, and communicate to them any necessary information as to futurity, when piously and humbly consulted according to the regulations of His

law, Numb. vii. 89; and xxvii. 21, compared with Josh. ix. 14; Judg. i. 1; and 2 Sam. v. 23. Hence those, who had, as they asserted or supposed, “familiar spirits,” those who practised “enchantments” or witchcraft, were to be punished with death. Dr. Groves.

Women have been generally more addicted to these arts and practices than men, and men are generally tender of the other sex, and willing to shew them mercy; on which account, women are distinctly mentioned in the wording of this law. Biblioth. Bibl.

Chap. XXI. ver. 1. — There shall none be defiled for the dead] The priests, being specially dedicated to the service of God, were not to do any thing in administering about a dead body, which would make them legally unclean and polluted. An exception to the general rule is made (ver. 2.) in the case of near relations. Bp. Patrick. On this point, both the Greeks and Romans copied from the Mosaick law. The Flamen Dialis, particularly, among the Romans, was never permitted to touch a corpse, or to come where the ashes of the dead were deposited: the Pontifex Maximus was not allowed so much as to look on a dead body. Biblioth. Bibl. The Jewish priests were forbidden (as the Hebrews say) to come within four cubits of a dead body, or to enter into the house where it lay. Lewis.