Leviticus 20:19

20:10-27 These verses repeat what had been said before, but it was needful there should be line upon line. What praises we owe to God that he has taught the evil of sin, and the sure way of deliverance from it! May we have grace to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things; may we have no fellowship with unfruitful works of darkness, but reprove them.

And thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother's sister, nor of thy father's sister,.... An aunt either by mother or father's side, against which the law is, Leviticus 18:13 , for he uncovereth his near kin; as an aunt is to a man, and so an uncle to a woman, and both equally criminal; for it is a rule that holds good in all those cases, though not expressed, that what is binding upon one sex is upon the other, being in the same degree of relation, whether of consanguinity or affinity: they shall bear their iniquity; "both" of them, as the Vulgate Latin version, the man and his aunt, and so a woman and her uncle: the guilt of their sin shall be upon them, and the punishment of it be inflicted on them; either they should be cut off from their people, as before, or be childless, as in the following instances.

7-19. Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy—The minute specification of the incestuous and unnatural crimes here enumerated shows their sad prevalence amongst the idolatrous nations around, and the extreme proneness of the Israelites to follow the customs of their neighbors. It is to be understood, that, whenever mention is made that the offender was "to be put to death" without describing the mode, stoning is meant. The only instance of another form of capital punishment occurs in Le 20:14, that of being burnt with fire; and yet it is probable that even here death was first inflicted by stoning, and the body of the criminal afterwards consumed by fire (Jos 7:15).

No civil punishment, on the other hand, to be inflicted by the magistrate or by the community generally, was ordered to follow marriage with an aunt, the sister of father or mother ( Leviticus 20:19 , cf. Leviticus 18:12-13 ), with an uncle's wife ( Leviticus 20:20 , cf. Leviticus 18:4 ), or with a sister-in-law, a brother's wife ( Leviticus 20:21 , cf. Leviticus 18:16 ). In all these cases the threat is simply held out, "they shall bear their iniquity," and (according to Leviticus 20:20 , Leviticus 20:21 ) "die childless;" that is to say, God would reserve the punishment to Himself (see at Leviticus 18:14 ). In the list of punishments no reference is made to intercourse with a mother ( Leviticus 18:7 ) or a granddaughter ( Leviticus 18:10 ), as it was taken for granted that the punishment of death would be inflicted in such cases as these; just as marriage with a daughter or a full sister is passed over in the prohibitions in ch. 18.

Rom . 109 ‘Now leaven is itself the offspring of corruption, and corrupts the lump ( φύραμα ) with which it is mixed’); and so in the NT. it becomes a figure of corrupt teaching or practice, Matthew 16:6 (= Mark 8:15 = Luke 12:1 ), 11: St Paul twice quotes the saying, ‘A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump’ ( 1 Corinthians 5:6 , Galatians 5:9 ), with reference to moral corruption: and in 1 Corinthians 5:7-8 , with evident reference to the injunction here, bids Christians ‘clear away the old leaven,’ and ‘keep the feast’ of their Passover, Christ (i.e. live the Christian life), with the ‘unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.’ that soul shall be cut off from Israel ] a formula, with slight variations (as he or that man for that soul ; and from his father’s kin or from the congregation for from Israel ), very common in P: v. 19, Genesis 17:14 , Exodus 30:37-38 ; Exodus 31:14 , Leviticus 7:20-21 ; Leviticus 7:25 ; Leviticus 7:27 ; Leviticus 17:4 ; Leviticus 17:9 ; Leviticus 18:29 ; Leviticus 19:8 ; Leviticus 20:17-18 ; Leviticus 22:3 ; Leviticus 23:29 , Numbers 9:13 ; Numbers 15:30-31 ; Numbers 19:13 ; Numbers 19:20 † (cf. with the first person, I will cut off …, Leviticus 17:10 ; Leviticus 20:3 ; Leviticus 20:5-6 †; I will destroy …, Leviticus 23:30 †). The offence for which this is the penalty is usually neglect of some ceremonial observance, and only occasionally a moral offence, or idolatry.

[Reformed Biblical] is, Those idols and idolatries will defile you and make you worse, but I only and my service will sanctify you and make you better. Leviticus 20:9 For, or, surely, as that particle, chi, is oft used, as Job_8:6 20:20. So there needs no dispute about the connexion, or what this is a reason of. Curseth; which is not meant of every perverse expression, but of bitter reproaches or imprecations. Or his mother; Heb. and put for or, as hath been noted before. ## His blood shall be upon him; he is guilty of his own death; he deserves to die for so unnatural a crime. Leviticus 20:10 Leviticus 20:11 Leviticus 20:12 By perverting the order which God hath appointed, and mixing the blood which God would have separated, and making the same offspring both his own immediate child and his grandchild, ## they have wrought confusion. Leviticus 20:13 Except the one party was forced by the other. See Deu_22:25. Leviticus 20:14 ## It is wickedness, i.e. abominable and extraordinary wickedness, as the singularity of the punishment showeth. ## Both he and they; either, or both or all of them, if they consented to it. Leviticus 20:15 Partly, for the prevention of monstrous births; partly, to blot out the memory of so loathsome a crime; and partly, th at by so severe a punishment of that creature which was only a passive instrument to man’s sin,

[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

And if the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes from that man, when he giveth of his seed unto Molech, that they kill him not, then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go a whoring after him, to commit whoredom with Molech, from among their people. -- And the soul that turneth unto necromancers and unto soothsayers, to go a whoring after them, I will set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people. Hallow yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am Jehovah your God. And ye shall observe my statutes, and do them: I am Jehovah who hallow you. Whatever man revileth his father and his mother shall certainly be put to death: he hath reviled his father and his mother; his blood is upon him. And a man that committeth adultery with a man`s wife, who committeth adultery with his neighbour`s wife, — the adulterer and the adulteress shall certainly be put to death. And a man that lieth with his father`s wife hath uncovered his father`s nakedness: both of them shall certainly be put to death; their blood is upon them. And if a man lie with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall certainly be put to death: they have wrought confusion; their blood is upon them. And if a man lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall certainly be put to death; their blood is upon them.