Leviticus 18

Laws enjoining the Israelites not to live after the customs, or manner of the Egyptians, and Canaanites, v. 1, etc. but according to God’s institution, 4. to beware of incestuous copulations, and marriages, 6. of lying with a menstruous woman, 19. and of adultery, 20. not to offer one’s children to Molech, 21. to abhor all unnatural copulation, 22. together with the reasons for confirmation of these Laws, 24.

1. Moreover the LORD spoke to Moseh, saying:

2. Speak unto the children of Israel, and say to them: I am the LORD thy God. [i.e. that God whom ye ought to obey as your onely God and Saviour, and who is able and ready to reward the obedient, and to punish the disobedient.]

3. Ye shall not do after the works of the Egyptian land, wherein ye have dwelt; neither shall ye do after the worship of the Land of Canaan; whither I do bring you, and (ye) shall not walk in their institutions. [thus their abominable customs are called, which through the general use and connivance, had gotten such a vogue and swing among the same Nations, that they were held and observed as so many Laws and solemn Institutions: Compare below, verse 30. and chapter 20. verse 23.]

4. My Rights shall ye do, and my Institutions shall ye keep, for to walk therein, I am the LORD your God.

5. Yea my Institutions and my Rights shall ye keep; That man which doth the same, shall live by them; [This sentence teacheth three things: 1 The perfection of the doctrine of the Law: 2 The righteousness of the works. 3. The reward promised to that righteousness; the reward is of mere grace, through the expiation of Christ, embraced by faith, Isaiah 53:11. Romans 3:20, 21, 22, 23, etc. Compare Deut. 6. the Annotations on verse 25.] I am the LORD.

6. No man shall [Heb. man, man, shall not, i.e. no man shall; for these ensuing Laws address themselves peculiarly to the men; yet so as by necessary consequence, the womankind is included] approach to any of near kin to his flesh, [the word used for near kin in the Hebrew, is common indeed to both sexes, but here it is taken for the female, and extended to the degrees of kindred and alliance here set down, and those which may be included through conformity of such kindred and alliance] for to uncover the shame: [Heb. nakedness, and so in the sequel. This is a modest phrase, signifying that which the Scripture elsewhere, calleth, to know, or acknowledge one. See Gen. 4. on verse 1. or to uncover the seam of one’s garment, Deuteronomy 22:30. and 27. 20.] I am the LORD.

7. Thou shalt not uncover the shame of thy father, and the shame of thy mother: [The particle and serveth here for explaining, in lieu of, to wit, for the fathers shame and the mothers shame are taken here for one and the same: see also verse 8. and 16. Item chapter 20. 11.] she is thy mother, [i.e. thou art born of her: and understand consequently the same of the father, who may not uncover the shame of his daughter, for that he is her father, and she born of him.] thou shalt not uncover her shame.

8. Thou shalt not uncover the shame of the wife of thy father: [i.e. of thy step-mother: nor consequently the step-fathers: for under one example, the like degrees are comprehended] it is the shame of thy father. [to whom alone it is lawful to uncover the same]

9. The shame of thy sister, the daughter of thy father, [Being thy half sister, viz. by the father’s side] or of the daughter of thy mother, [thy half sister by the mother’s side] born at home, [i.e. in a lawful marriage] or born abroad; [i.e. unlawfully. Others take it thus: that God forbids in general to marry the sister, whether she be thy fathers daughter, born at home, i.e. thy full sister, by father and mother: or the daughter of thy mother, born abroad, i.e. thy half sister by the mothers side; as verse 11. it is forbidden to marry the half sister by the father side] their shame thou shalt not uncover.

10. The shame of the daughter of thy son, or of the daughter of thy daughter, [and so downwards in the right line, of all the children of thy children] their shame thou shall not uncover: for they are thy children. [i.e. they are issued and born of thyself by means of thy children.]

11. The shame of the daughter of the wife of thy father, (she is thy sister) her shame thou shalt not uncover.

12. Thou shalt not uncover the shame of thy father, [viz. of her which is thy aunt, by the fathers side; as in the next verse the Aunt by the mothers side is spoken of] she is thy father’s near kin.

13. Thou shalt not uncover the shame of the sister of thy mother, for she is thy mother’s near kin.

14. thou shalt not uncover the shame of the brother of thy father; [i.e. of the wife of thy father’s brother; as the words explain it, whose shame is called the uncles shame, as being one flesh with him] thou shalt not approach to his wife, [viz. to have carnal ‘ communion with her, see Gen. 20. on verse 4.] she is thy Aunt. [viz. in Law, or by alliance; who was likewise forbidden to marry the cousin or nephew of the deceased; wherefore it was yet more unlawful for uncle and niece to marry together.]

15. Thou shalt not uncover the shame of thy daughter in law: she is thy sons wife, thou shalt not uncover her shame. [In like manner was it unlawful for the son in law to marry the mother in law, below chapter 20. 14.]

16. Thou shalt not uncover the shame of the wife of thy brother: [From this law was excepted afterwards the case of a brother’s dying without male-issue; for then the next brother or kinsman was to marry the widow of the deceased, to raise seed to his brother, Deuteronomy 25:5. Matth. 22. 24. By this law it followeth necessarily, that a woman being married to the one brother, she may not marry the other, after the former’s decease; and conformably, a man being married to one sister, he may not after her death, marry the other,] it is the shame of thy brother.

17. Thou shalt not uncover the shame of a woman and her daughter: the daughter of her son, nor the daughter of her daughter thou shalt not take, for to uncover her shame : [Understand here the step daughter, and the step-son, and the children come forth by them; from whom the step-father, and step-grand-father were to abstain, as of their own children, and children’s children] they are near kin, it is a vile deed.

18. Also thou shalt take no wise unto her sister; [This Law is by some understood thus: that a man ought not to have two wives together in marriage; for howbeit, that some of the fore-fathers did so, and God bore with them in that time, yet it was not so from the beginning, as Christ teacheth, Matth. 19. 8. out of Genesis 2:24. and in the New Testament it is quite abolished. Divers nevertheless understand the word sister here in the proper sense, for the wives own sister. Otherwise the word sister is taken sometimes in the larger sense, intimated before, for one, not born of the same natural parents, but barely for another woman, and the word sister is used for the word other, Exodus 26:3. Ezekiel 1:9. and 3. 13., & c] for to distress (her), [i.e. to shame, spite, and vex her, which commonly happeneth, where there are more wives than one. See 1 Samuel 1. much more where two sisters are coupled together thus, as may be seen in Jacobs case, Gen. 30.] by uncovering her shame besides her, in her life (time). [If this be understood of the proper or true sister, then these words may serve to aggravate the distress, which she is to undergo by her own sister, during her life. Hence consequently cannot be inferred, that the man may marry the other sister, the former, his wife, being dead; whereof see above on verse 16.]

19. Neither shalt thou approach to the wife in the separation of her uncleanness, [i.e. when she is to be separated by reason of her monthly course. See above chapter 12. 2. and chapter 15. 24, 25.] for to uncover her shame.

20. And thou shalt not lie with thy neighbour’s wife for seeding to become unclean with her, [or, to be defiled with her). [Heb. and to the wife of thy neighbor shalt thou not give the by-lying for seed, or seeding, & c. and so then in the sequel.]

21. And of thy seed thou shalt not give to pass through (the fire) for Molech; [Thus was the Idol of the Ammonites called, known likewise by the name of Milcom, 1 kings 11. 5, 7. for whose honour and worship the parents caused their own children to be burned alive; or at leastwise (as some do write) to pass betwixt two great flaming-fires, to be cleansed and purified thereby, as they conceived; the practice whereof God expressly forbiddeth here. See likewise below chapter 20. verse 2. Deuteronomy 18:10. 2 Kings 17:17. and 23. 10.] and the name of thy God thou shalt not prophane’, (or, un-hallow) [i.e. not dishonor the same, by doing or committing that which he forbiddeth, and omitting, or not heeding that which he commandeth. Compare below, chapter 22. 2. Thus God’s Institutions and Sabbath are said to be prophaned, Psalms 89:32. Nehemiah 13:17.] I am the LORD.

22. Thou shalt not lie by mankind, (or, a male person] with woman-like copulation [i.e. as men lie with women; so below chapter 20. verse 13.] that is an abomination.

23. Also thou shalt lie by no beast, to become unclean (or, be defiled) therewith: a woman likewise shall not stand before the a beast, for to have to do with it; it is an abominable mixture. [Or, an horrible confounding and disturbing of the order instituted by God in Nature, and a monstrous confusion of all modesty and honestly.

24. Defile not your selves with any of these; for the Heathen, whom I cast out from your face, are defiled with all these.

25. So that the Land is unclean, (polluted) and I do visit its iniquity over it : [i.e. I am now punishing the same for its iniquity: so Isaiah 26:21. Jeremiah 36:31. See gen. 21. on verse 1.] and the Land speweth out its inhabitants. [The Hebrew Verb here doth properly signify to cast, or vomit through loathing, when the stomach abhorreth and cannot bear what is presented to it; which comparatively is spoken of a Land, aggrieved which comparatively is spoken of a Land, aggrieved and troubled with vile and abominable inhabitants. So below ver. 28. and chapter 20. 22.]

26. But ye shall keep (observe) my Institutions and my Rights; and do nothing of all these abominations, inborn, nor stranger, that sojourneth in the midst of you.

27. For the men of this Land which were before you, did all these abominations, and the Land is become unclean.

28. That that Land do not spue you out, when ye shall have polluted it, as it hath spued out the people which were before you.

29. For whosoever shall do any of these abominations: those souls that do them, shall be expiated (or, cut off) out of the midst of their people. [By this and divers other places, it plainly appeareth, that the Hebrew Verb here used, doth likewise of times include and comprehend an opprobrious coporal and mortal punishment.]

30. Therefore shall ye keep my command, [Heb. keeping, observation, i.e. that which I have commanded you to keep and observe. So also, Genesis 26:5. Elsewhere this word is rendered watch, guard, as Num. 3. ver. 7, & c. See the Annot. there] that ye do nothing of those abominable institutions, [Heb. institutions of abominations. See above on verse 2.] which were done before you, and defile not yourselves with them: I am the LORD your God.