THE THIRD BOOK OF

MOSES,
called
L E V I T I C U S

Leviticus 18

1The Israelites must not follow the practices of Egypt and Canaan, but the ordinances of God. 6Unlawful marriages. 19Unlawful lusts.


1AND the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

2Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am 1the LORD your God.

1 Namely, that God Whom ye ought to obey as your only God and Savior, and Who is able and ready to reward the obedient, and to punish the disobedient.

3After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their 2ordinances.

2 Thus their abominable customs are called, which through the general use and connivance had gotten such a vogue and swing among the said nations that they were held and observed as so many laws and solemn institutions. Compare verse 30 and Lev. 20:23.

4Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the LORD your God.

5Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: whicha if a 3man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD.

a Ezek. 20:11, 13; Rom. 10:5; Gal. 3:12.

3 This sentence teaches three things: 1. the perfection of the doctrine of the law; 2. the righteousness of the works; 3. the reward promised by God to that righteousness, but since corrupt man is destitute of that righteousness, the reward is of mere grace, through the expiation of Christ, embraced by faith, Isa. 53:11; Rom. 3:20, 21, 22, 23, etc. Compare the annotation at Deut. 6 on verse 25.

64None of you shall approach to any that is 5near of kin to him, to uncover their 6nakedness: I am the LORD.

4 Hebr. man, man shall not, etc., that is, no man; for, these ensuing laws address themselves peculiarly to the men, yet, so as by necessary consequence, the womankind is included.

5 The word, used for near of kin in the Hebrew, is common indeed to both sexes, but here it is taken for the female and extends to the degrees of kindred and alliance here set down, and those which may be included through conformity of such kindred and alliance.

6 This is a modest manner of speech, signifying that which the Scripture elsewhere calls, to know one. See Gen. 4 on verse 1. Nor discover his father’s skirt is a similar manner of speech, Deut. 22:30; 27:20.

7The nakedness of thy father, 7or the nakedness of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover: 8she is thy mother; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.

7 The particle or serves here for explaining, in lieu of to wit, for, the father’s nakedness and the mother’s nakedness are taken here for one and the same. See also verses 8, 16.

8 That is, thou art born of her; and understand consequently the same of the father, who may not uncover the nakedness of his daughter, for that he is her father, and she is born of him.

8The nakedness of thy father’s 9wife shalt thoub not uncover: it is thy father’s 10nakedness.

9 That is, of your stepmother; so also of your stepfathers; for, under one example similar degrees are comprehended.

b Lev. 20:11; 1 Cor. 5:1.

10 To whom alone it is lawful to uncover the same.

9The nakedness of thy sister, the 11daughter of thy father, or daughter of thy 12mother, whether she be born 13at home, or born 14abroad, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover.

11 Being thy half sister, namely, by the father’s side.

12 Thy half sister by the mother’s side.

13 That is, in a lawful marriage.

14 That is, unlawful. Others take it thus: God forbids in general to marry the sister, whether she be thy father’s daughter, born at home, that is, thy full sister, by father and mother, or the daughter of thy mother, born abroad, that is, thy half-sister by the mother’s side; as verse 11 it is forbidden to marry the half-sister by the father’s side.

10The nakedness of thy 15son’s daughter, or of thy daughter's daughter, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover: for 16theirs is thine own nakedness.

15 And so downwards in the right line, of all the children of thy children.

16 That is, they are issued and born of thyself by means of thy children.

11Thec nakedness of thy father's wife's daughter, begotten of thy father, she is thy sister, thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.

c Lev. 20:17.

12Thoud shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father’s 17sister: she is thy father's near kinswoman.

d Lev. 20:19.

17 Namely, of her who is thine aunt by the father’s side, as in the next verse is spoken of the aunt by the mother’s side.

13Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother's sister: for she is thy mother's near kinswoman.

14Thoue shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father’s 18brother, thou shalt not 19approach to his wife: she is thine 20aunt.

e Lev. 20:20; Ezek. 22:11.

18 That is, of the wife of thy father’s brother, as the words explain it, whose nakedness is called the uncle’s nakedness, as being one flesh with him.

19 Namely, to have carnal communion with her. See Gen. 20 on verse 4.

20 Namely, 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.

15Thou shaltf not uncover the nakedness of thy daughter in law: 21she is thy son's wife; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.

f Lev. 20:12.

21 In like manner it was unlawful for the son-in-law to marry the mother-in-law, Lev. 20:14.

16Thoug shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother’s 22wife: it is thy brother's nakedness.

g Lev. 20:21.

22 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, Deut. 25:5; Mat. 22:24. By this law it follows necessarily that a woman, being married to the one brother, she may, after his decease, not marry the other, and likewise a man, being married to one sister, he may not after her death marry the other.

17Thouh shalt not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, neither shalt thou take her son’s 23daughter, or her daughter's daughter, to uncover her nakedness; for they are her near kinswomen: it is wickedness.

h Lev. 20:14.

23 Understand here the stepdaughter and the stepson, and the children come forth by them; from whom the stepfather and the step-grandfather were to abstain, as of their own children, and children’s children.

18Neither shalt 24thou take a wife to her 25sister, to 26vex her, to uncover her nakedness, beside the other 27in her life time.

24 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 forefathers did so and God bore with them in that time, yet it was not so from the beginning, as Christ teaches, Mat. 19:8, out of Gen. 2:24, and it is quite abolished in the New Testament. Nevertheless many understand the word sister here in the proper sense, for the wife’s own sister.

25According to the first explanation, the word sister would here not mean that she is born from the same natural parents, but is merely another woman, as it is thus taken for the word another in Exod. 26:3; Ezek. 1:9; 3:13, etc.

26 That is, to shame, spite and vex her, which commonly happens 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 Jacob’s case, Genesis 30.

27 If this is 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. Consequently it cannot be inferred, that the man, after the death of his wife, may marry the other sister. Whereof see on verse 16.

19Also thou shalti not approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is put 28apart for her uncleanness.

i Lev. 20:18.

28 That is, when she is to be separated by reason of her monthly course. See Lev. 12:2; 15:24, 25.

2029Moreoverj thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour's wife, to defile thyself with her.

29 Hebr. And to thy neighbor's wife thou shalt not give thy carnal union for seed or seeding. Also often in the sequel.

j Lev. 20:10.

21Andk thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to 30Molech, neither shalt thou 31profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.

k Lev. 20:2; Deut. 18:10; 2 Kings 17:17; 23:10.

30 Thus was the idol of the Ammonites called, known likewise by the name of Milcom, 1 Kings 11:5, 7, for whose honor and worship the parents caused their own children to be burned alive, or, at least (as some do write) to pass between two great flaming fires, (as they conceived) to be cleansed and purified thereby; whereof God expressly forbids the practice. See likewise Lev. 20:2; Deut. 18:20; 2 Kings 17:17; 23:10.

31 That is, not dishonour the same, by doing or committing what He forbids, and omitting what He commands. Compare Lev. 22:2. Thus God’s institutions and sabbath are said to be profaned, Neh. 13:17; Psalm 89:31.

22Thou shalt not lie withl mankind, as 32with womankind: it is abomination.

l Lev. 20:13.

32 That is, as men lie with women. So Lev. 20:13.

23Neitherm shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is 33confusion.

m Lev. 20:15, 16.

33 Or, an horrible confounding and disturbing of the order instituted by God in nature, and a monstrous confusion of all modesty.

24Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you:

25And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit 34the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself 35vomiteth out her inhabitants.

34 That is, I am now punishing the same for its iniquity; so Isa. 26:21; Jer. 36:31. See Gen. 21 on verse 1.

35 The Hebrew verb here properly signifies to cast, or vomit through loathing when the stomach abhors and cannot bear what is presented to it, which comparatively is spoken of a land aggrieved and troubled with vile and abominable inhabitants. So verse 28 and Lev. 20:22.

26Ye shall thereforen 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:

n Lev. 20:22.

27(For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;)

28That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you.

29For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off 36from among their people.

36 By this and several other places it appears plainly that the Hebrew verb here used does likewise oftentimes include and comprehend an opprobrious corporal and mortal punishment.

30Therefore shall ye keep mine 37ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these 38abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the LORD your God.

37 Hebr. keeping, observation, that is, what I have commanded you to keep and observe. So also Gen. 26:5. Elsewhere this word is rendered charge, as Num. 3:7, etc. See there the annotation.

38 Hebr. institutions of abominations. See on verse 3.