Leviticus 18:27

. 22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. 23 Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion. 24 Defile not ye 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 iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. 26 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you: 27 (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;) 28 That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you. 29 For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people. 30 Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the LORD your God. Here is, I. A law to preserve the honour of the marriage-bed, that it should not be unseasonably used (v. 19), nor invaded by an adulterer, v. 20. II. A law against that which was the most unnatural idolatry, causing their children to pass through the fire to Moloch, v. 21.

18:1-30 Unlawful marriages and fleshly lusts. - Here is a law against all conformity to the corrupt usages of the heathen. Also laws against incest, against brutal lusts, and barbarous idolatries; and the enforcement of these laws from the ruin of the Canaanites. God here gives moral precepts. Close and constant adherence to God's ordinances is the most effectual preservative from gross sin. The grace of God only will secure us; that grace is to be expected only in the use of the means of grace. Nor does He ever leave any to their hearts' lusts, till they have left him and his services.

For all these abominations have the men of the land done,.... The then present inhabitants of Canaan, who dwelt in it before the Israelites came into it; these were guilty of unclean copulations, of incestuous, marriages, of fornication and adultery, and of bestiality and idolatry: which were before you; lived in the land before them, had long dwelt there, but now about to be cast out for their sins; and therefore they who were going to succeed them should take warning by them, lest, committing the same sins, they should be cast out likewise: and the land is defiled; See Gill on Leviticus 18:25.

The land designed and consecrated for His people by Yahweh Leviticus 25:23 is here impersonated, and represented as vomiting forth its present inhabitants, in consequence of their indulgence in the abominations that have been mentioned. The iniquity of the Canaanites was now full. See Genesis 15:16 ; compare Isaiah 24:1-6 . The Israelites in this place, and throughout the chapter, are exhorted to a pure and holy life, on the ground that Yahweh, the Holy One, is their God and that they are His people. Compare Leviticus 19:2 . It is upon this high sanction that they are peremptorily forbidden to defile themselves with the pollutions of the pagan. The only punishment here pronounced upon individual transgressors is, that they shall "bear their iniquity" and be "cut off from among their people." We must understand this latter phrase as expressing an "ipso facto" excommunication or outlawry, the divine Law pronouncing on the offender an immediate forfeiture of the privileges which belonged to him as one of the people in covenant with Yahweh. See Exodus 31:14 note. The course which the Law here takes seems to be first to appeal to the conscience of the individual man on the ground of his relation to Yahweh, and then Leviticus 20 to enact such penalties as the order of the state required, and as represented the collective conscience of the nation put into operation.

(27) For all these abominations. —Though the contents of this verse are substantially the same as those in Leviticus 18:24-25 , yet the wording is different. In the former the Israelites are exhorted not to pollute themselves as the different tribes or nations have both polluted themselves and the land, whilst here the inhabitants of Canaan are more specifically described as having practised the abominations. The repetition of the same sentiments in diiferent words, as is frequently the case in Hebrew, is designed to impart emphasis. The parentheses are unnecessary.

25. therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it; and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants—The Canaanites, as enormous and incorrigible sinners, were to be exterminated; and this extermination was manifestly a judicial punishment inflicted by a ruler whose laws had been grossly and perseveringly outraged. But before a law can be disobeyed, it must have been previously in existence; and hence a law, prohibiting all the horrid crimes enumerated above—a law obligatory upon the Canaanites as well as other nations—was already known and in force before the Levitical law of incest was promulgated. Some general Iaw, then, prohibiting these crimes must have been published to mankind at a very early period of the world's history; and that law must either have been the moral law, originally written on the human heart, or a law on the institution of marriage revealed to Adam and known to the Canaanites and others by tradition or otherwise.

In the concluding exhortation God pointed expressly to the fact, that the nations which He was driving out before the Israelites (the participle משׁלּח is used of that which is certainly and speedily coming to pass) had defiled the land by such abominations as those, that He had visited their iniquity and the land had spat out its inhabitants, and warned the Israelites to beware of these abominations, that the land might not spit them out as it had the Canaanites before them. The pret. ותּקא ( Leviticus 18:25 ) and קאה ( Leviticus 18:28 ) are prophetic (cf. Leviticus 20:22-23 ), and the expression is poetical. The land is personified as a living creature, which violently rejects food that it dislikes. "Hoc enim tropo vult significare Scriptura enormitatem criminum, quod scilicet ipsae creaturae irrationales suo creatori semper obedientes et pro illo pugnantes detestentur peccatores tales eosque terra quasi evomat, cum illi expelluntur ab ea" (C. a Lap.).

[Reformed Biblical] Nor any stranger, in nation or religion, of what kind soever. For though they might not force them to submit to their religion, yet they might restrain them from the public contempt of the Jewish laws, and from the violation of natural laws, which besides the offence against God and nature, were matters of evil example and consequence to the Israelites themselves. Leviticus 18:27 Leviticus 18:28 Leviticus 18:29 To wit, by death to be inflicted by the magistrates, as it is apparent in case of idolatry with Moloch or other false gods; and in case of the magistrates neglect, by God himself. This phrase therefore of cutting off is to be understood variously, as many other phrases are, either of ecclesiastical, or civil and corporal punishment, according to the differing natures of the offences for which it is inflicted. Leviticus 18:30 ## Leviticus 19:1 LEVITICUS CHAPTER 19 Israelites must be holy, Lev_19:1,2; must honour their parents, and keep sabbaths, Lev_19:3; shun idolatry, Lev_19:4; duly to stay and eat their peace-offerings, Lev_19:5-8; in harvest-time leave gleanings for the poor and stranger, Lev_19:9,10; not steal, deceive, or lie, Lev_19:11; nor swear falsely, Lev_19:12; nor defraud, rob , or detain, Lev _19:13; nor curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling-block before the blind, Lev_19:14; nor judge unjustly, Lev_19:15; nor be tale-bearers; nor bear false witness against their neighbour, Lev_19:16; but rebu

[Reformed Biblical] r; understand of the proselytes; either of the proselytes of the gate, who were obliged to observe the precepts of Noah, whereof this was one; or of the proselytes of righteousness, or converts to the Jewish religion; for other strangers were allowed to eat suc h things, Deu_14:21. Leviticus 17:16 i.e. The punishment of it, and therefore must offer a sacrifice for it. Lev_5:1,2 7:18 ## Leviticus 18:1 LEVITICUS CHAPTER 18 Israelites not to live after the customs of the Egyptians or Canaanites, but according to God’s institutions, Lev_18:1-5. To abstain from incestuous marriages, Lev_18:6-18; and copulation with a menstruous woman, Lev_18:19; and adultery, Lev_18:20; and offering children to Moloch, Lev_18:21; and all unnatural copulation with man or beast, Lev_18:22,23. These things the nations do; and the land is defied, and God is provoked; and they who do those things shall die: but God was their Lord, Lev_18:24- 30. Leviticus 18:2 Your Sovereign and Lawgiver. This is oft repeated here, because the things here forbidden were practised and allowed by the Gentiles, to whose custom he here opposeth Divine authority, and t heir obligation

[Bible] 17:12. Therefore I have said to the children of Israel: No soul of you, nor of the strangers that sojourn among you, shall eat blood. 17:13. Any man whosoever of the children of Israel, and of the strangers that sojourn among you, if by hunting or fowling, he take a wild beast or a bird, which is lawful to eat, let him pour out its blood, and cover it with earth. 17:14. For the life of all flesh is in the blood. Therefore I said to the children of Israel: you shall not eat the blood of any flesh at all, because the life of the flesh is in the blood, and whosoever eateth it, shall be cut off. 17:15. The soul that eateth that which died of itself, or has been caught by a beast, whether he be one of your own country or a stranger, shall wash his clothes and himself with water, and shall be defiled until the evening: and in this manner he shall be made clean. 17:16. But if he do not wash his clothes, and his body, he shall bear his iniquity. Leviticus Chapter 18 Marriage is prohibited in certain degrees of kindred: Anda all unnatural lusts. 18:1. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 18:2. Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: I am the Lord your God. 18:3. You shall not do according to the custom of the land of Egypt, in which you dwelt: neither shall you act according to the manner of the country of Chanaan, into which I will bring you. Nor shall you walk in their ordinances. 18:4. You shall do my judgments, and shall observe my precepts, and shall walk in them. I am the Lord your God. 18:5. Keep my laws and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them, I am the Lord. 18:6. No man shall approach to her that is near of kin to him, to uncover her nakedness. I am the Lord. 18:7. Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness of thy mother: she is thy mother, thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. 18:8. Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's wife: for it is the nakedness of thy father.