E x1 18:1-18. Unlawful connections. x2 18:19-30. Unlawful lusts. x3 19:1-37. Unlawful practices. x4 20:1-27. Unlawful defilements.
1490 B.C.
Leviticus 18)
1: And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, (see 5:14)
2: "Speak to the sons of Israel, and say to them, 'I am the Lord
your God.
3: After the doings of the land of Egypt (i.e. all the abominable practices of the Canaanitish nations [v.27], for which they were cut off, Rom. 1:23-29), wherein you all dwelt, shall you all not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, to which place I bring you, shall you all not do: neither shall you all walk in their statutes.
4: You all shall do My judgments
(= regulations), and keep My ordinances (= statutes), to walk therein: I am the Lord your God.
5: You all shall therefore keep My statutes, and My regulations: which if a man (= human) do them, he shall live in them: I am the Lord. (= "live again" in resurrection life [Rev.20:5]. The Chaldee paraphrase = "shall live by them to life eternal". Sol. Jarchi, "Live in the world that is to come".Cp. the other passages where "live" is used in this sense: Ezek. 13:21; 20:11. Luke 10:28. Rom. 10:5. Gal. 3:12. Neh. 9:29. Hab. 2:4. Rom. 1:17. Heb. 10:38 &c. In this sense the verb is used more often than is generally though. Cp. Isa. 26:19; 38:16; 55:3. Ezek. 18:19; 33:19; 37:3,5,6,14. Hos. 6:2. Amos 5:4 &c. The spiritual authorities of the second temple so interpreted the phrase. Thus "eternal life", by faith, is set in contrast with eternal life by works.)
6: None of you (= "no man whatsoever", the absence of the words "of the house of Israel", as in 17:3,8,13, shows that strangers are included in this law) shall approach to any that is near of kin to him (Heb. "the remainder of his flesh" [Gen. 2:23], i.e. "his own flesh", or relatives. Cp. vv.12,13,17. For emphasis), to uncover their nakedness: I am the Lord.
7: The nakedness of your father (see Gen. 19:31-38), or the nakedness of your mother, shall you not uncover: she is your mother; you shall not uncover her nakedness.
8: The nakedness of your father's wife (see Gen. 35:22. 2 Sam. 16:20-23. 1 Kings 2:17, and 1 Cor. 5:1-5) shall you not uncover: it is your father's nakedness. (See 20:11)
9: The nakedness of your sister (see Gen.20:12. 2 Sam. 13:12,16,20), the daughter of your father, or daughter of your mother, whether she be born at home, or born abroad, even their nakedness you shall not uncover.
10: The nakedness of your son's daughter, or of your daughter's daughter, even their nakedness you shall not
uncover: for theirs is your own nakedness.
11: The nakedness of your father's wife's daughter (Heb. always means "stepmother", see v.8; 20:11), begotten of your father, she is your sister, you shall not uncover her nakedness.
12: You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's sister (see Ex. 6:20): she is your father's near kinswoman.
13: You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister: for she is your mother's near kinswoman.
14: You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's brother, you shall not approach to his wife: she is your aunt.
15: You shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter in law: she is your son's wife; you shall not uncover her nakedness.
16: You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother's wife: it is your brother's nakedness.
17: You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, neither shall you take her son's daughter, or her daughter's daughter, to uncover her nakedness; for they are her near kinswomen: it is lewdness. (Heb. zimmah, meditated wickedness, plotted, planed, and designed; wicked, of lewd purpose, especially of sins of unchastity)
18: Neither shall you take a wife to her sister, to vex her, to uncover her nakedness, beside the other in her life time.
x² y¹ 19-24-. Commands.
z¹ -24,25. Reason.
y² 26. Command.
z² 27-29. Reason.
y³ 30. Command.
19: Also you shall not approach to a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness.
20: Moreover you shall not lie carnally with your neighbor's wife, to defile yourself with her.
21: And you shall not let any of your children pass through the fire to Molech (i.e. into his arms, from which the child passed through the fire to him. Molech always has the article, except 1 Kings 11:7, which is probably a copyist's omission, denoting the king, of the king-idol. See v.21; 20:23,4,5. See seq. 2 Kings 23:10. Jer. 32:35. The Massorites pointed it Molech, to assimilate it to "shameful thing", but omitted to do so in Isa.30:33 and 57:9, which they left melech = king. It should read Molech in these two passages also. This was a live child for sacrifice. Cremation is o.k. for persons who are dead already in this day and age of exorbitant funeral expenses), neither shall you profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.
22: You shall not lie with mankind, as with
womankind: it is a thing to be abhorred. (Referring to the sin of Sodom, which place it's name, Gen. 19:5. Cp.20:13. Judg. 19:22. 1 Kings 14:24)
23: Neither shall you lie with any beast to defile yourself therewith (this was part of the religious worship of the Egyptians): neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion.
24: Defile not yourselves in any of these things:
for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you:
25: And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the perverseness thereof upon it, and the land itself
vomits out her inhabitants. (Cp. "spewed" v.28. From the beginning, the earth has shared the consequences of man's guilt [Gen.3:17. Rom.8:19-22]. Since it yields no fruit when man yields no obedience; and defiled when man is defiled [Deut. 11:17]. Is blessed when man is blessed [Lev.25:19; 26:4. Deut. 32:43. Mourns when man sins [Isa. 24:4,5]. Glad when God avenges His People [Ps. 96:11-13.)
26: You all shall therefore keep My statutes and My regulations, and shall not commit any of these abominations (= things to be abhorred); neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourns among you:
27: {For all these things to be abhorred have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;} (These "doings" are specially legislated against, because these were corruptions pertaining to the origin and character of the Nephilim. See Gen. 6:2. These formed the nations of Canaan, and this was why they had to be destroyed by the sword of Israel, as those in the days of Noah had to be destroyed by the Flood. Verses 24 & 25 are emphasized by the other way of putting facts)
28: That the land not spew (= vomit) you out also, when you all defile it, as it vomited out the nations that were before you.
29: For whosoever shall commit any of these things to be abhorred, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people.
30: Therefore shall you all keep My charge, that you all commit not any one of these abominable statutes (because they were enactments of the land, cp. v.3. The word is rendered "statutes" in Deut. 6:24; 16:12; and 26:16), which were committed before you, and that you all defile not yourselves therein: I am the Lord your God.' " (This body of laws, chapter 18, is emphasized and solemnized by beginning and ending with the same expression.)