Bible Commentaries
Leviticus 18

Introduction

CHAP. XVIII.

The prohibited degrees of marriage: several acts of impurity are forbidden.

Before Christ 1490.

Verse 5

Leviticus 18:5. Which if a man do, he shall live in them— That the primary sense of these words refers to that temporal life and prosperity which God promised to the Jews as the consequence of their obedience, there can be no question; see Deuteronomy 30:15-16; Deu 32:47 compared with Proverbs 3:2; Proverbs 3:35. That they have a secondary sense of a sublimer import, referring to spiritual life, there can also be no question with those who consider in what manner they are used in the New Testament. See Matthew 18:8-9; Matthew 19:17. Luke 10:28. Romans 10:5; Romans 10:21.

REFLECTIONS.—The moral precepts are binding, though the ceremonial are abolished. Such are the injunctions here given. God, as the Lord, has a right to command obedience: as our God, reconciled in Jesus Christ, has every reason to expect it. They were going into a land as idolatrous as that out of which they came; and as they were but too prone to their old practices, they had need of repeated solemn warnings. Note; Because sin has such deep hold on our hearts, and old habits are so hardly eradicated, we have need of line upon line, and precept upon precept. God charges them to remember his commandments to do them, and promises a happy and long life to the obedient. They, who in simplicity follow God, will find themselves no losers thereby.

Verse 6

Leviticus 18:6. None of you, &c.— Improper and incestuous marriages, which were extremely common, not only among the Egyptians and Canaanites, but other Eastern idolaters, are here first prohibited. There were to be no marriages between those who were near of kin. The word שׁאר sheir, denotes cosanguinity. For the best comment on this chapter, we refer to Grotius de Jur. Bell. & Pacis, lib. 2: cap. 5.

Verse 21

Leviticus 18:21. Thou shalt not, &c.— This prohibition being delivered more at large in the 20th chapter, we refer to it. A commentator, however, observes on this passage, that "Moloch was a name common to all the gods, as also Baal, under which name the Gentiles worshipped some eminent daemon or hero, but most commonly the sun, in some symbol or image; see Jeremiah 19:5; Jeremiah 32:35. They were forbidden the burning their children alive, which was a magical rite performed by the heathens to their gods, in time of adversity; to which the passage in Mich. Lev 6:7 alludes. They were also forbidden the leading their children through the fire, by which rite the idolatrous used to purify or initiate their children. The Zabii also used this rite in their worship of the fire and sun."

Neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God— Any sort of idolatry was highly profaning the name of God, by communicating that worship, which was only due to Him, for his holiness and incommunicable eminency. See Ezekiel 20:39; Ezekiel 43:7-8.

Verse 25

Leviticus 18:25. The land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants— One cannot conceive a stronger figure. The land, by an elegant prosopopaeia, is personified, and represented as so sensible of the loathsome wickedness of her inhabitants, as to nauseate them on that account, and to cast them as offensive from her stomach. See Lev 18:28 in which it is to be wished that the word vomit had been retained, as well as in other similar passages; see ch. Leviticus 20:22.Revelation 3:16; Revelation 3:16; Revelation 3:22. What an idea does all this give us of idolatry, which sanctified such horrid and detestable practices!

Verse 30

Leviticus 18:30. Abominable customs— Hebrew, statutes of abomination; whereby, says Dr. Beaumont, are meant sinful practices, which, through custom, grew to be as laws among them. It is to be observed, that God, who is no respecter of persons, threatens to the Israelites the same ejection from the land, out of which the Canaanites were now about to be expelled, if they committed similar offences; Leviticus 18:28. And as they did commit such offences, so were they punished. See Jeremiah 9:19. Ezekiel 36:17-19. And hence we see the reasons and necessity of these laws.

REFLECTIONS.—1. It is among the dire proofs of the desperate corruptness of man's nature that ever such wretches should exist, or that such prohibitions should be necessary. 2. The offender was to be cut off: not only his body doomed to death, but his soul and body, most probably, to everlasting burnings. The fire of lust, and the fire of hell, are kindled for each other. 3. The nation shall be destroyed where such abominations are committed. They themselves are going to Canaan, to be God's executioners on that devoted people, for these very sins; and therefore, with such an instance before them, they need take warning not to defile themselves with such wickedness; for if they did, they would sink in the same destruction. Note; Nothing fills up the measure of a nation's guilt faster than these abominable and unnatural lusts. 4. Here is a solemn charge to keep God's ordinances, and avoid these hateful customs. Note; The world we live in, is like Canaan, and its customs scarcely less detestable. We have need to tremble, lest we swim with the stream, and lose the horror of sin by beholding the commonness of the practice; from which nothing can so effectually preserve us, as a constant attention to God's word, and daily application for his grace, to keep us from the pollutions that are in the world through lust. And in this way we shall find such genuine pleasures to be enjoyed, as will make us loath the deceitful and soul-destroying pleasures of sin.