32 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Leviticus 18 In this chapter the Israelites are directed in general not to imitate the customs and practices of the Egyptians and Canaanites, but to keep the ordinances, statutes, and judgments of the Lord, Leviticus 18:1; and they are instructed particularly to avoid incestuous marriages, Leviticus 18:6; carnal copulation with a...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... He continued speaking to him, after he had delivered to him the laws respecting the day of atonement, and the bringing of the sacrifices to the door of the tabernacle, and particularly concerning the Israelites not worshipping devils, as they had done in Egypt: the Lord proceeds to deliver out others, the more...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
Here is, I. A general law against all conformity to the corrupt usages of the heathen, ver. 1-5. II. Particular laws, 1. Against incest, ver. 6-18. 2. Against beastly lusts, and barbarous idolatries, ver. 19-23. III. The enforcement of these laws from the ruin of the Canaanites, ver. 24-30. Cautions against Idolatrous Practices. (b. c. 1490.) 1...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Speak unto the children of Israel,.... To the heads of their tribes, that they might deliver to them the following laws; or Moses is bid to publish them among them, either by word of mouth, or by writing, or both: and say unto them, I am the Lord your God; with which they were to be introduced; showing the right he had to enact and enjoin such...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do,.... Where they had dwelt many years, and were just come out from thence, and where they had learned many of their evil practices; not only their idolatrous ones referred to in the preceding chapter, which it is certain they followed, Ezekiel 20:7; but also their immoral...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Ye shall do my judgments,.... Which are just and right, and according to the rules of justice and equity; these are things, as Jarchi observes, which are said in the law with judgment, or are laws framed with the highest reason, even by the judgment of God himself, whose judgment is always according to truth: Aben Ezra thinks, these are the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments,.... The same as before; these they were to keep in their minds and memories, and to observe them and do them: which if a man do he shall live in them; live a long life in the land of Canaan, in great happiness and prosperity, see Deuteronomy 30:20; for as for eternal life, that was never...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him,.... Or to all "the rest of his flesh" (t), which together with his make one flesh, who are of the same flesh and blood with him, and are united together in the bonds of consanguinity; and such, with respect to a man, are his mother, sister, and daughter; his mother, of whom he was born,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
The nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness of thy mother, shall thou not uncover,.... By uncovering a father's nakedness is not meant anything similar to what befell Noah, which Ham beheld with pleasure, and the other two sons of Noah studiously and with reverence to their father covered; nor any sodomitical practice of a son with his father;...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
The nakedness of thy father's wife shalt thou not uncover,.... That is, who is indeed a man's father's wife, but not his own mother, but a stepmother or mother-in-law; or otherwise this law would coincide with the former; a man lying with such an one is accursed by the law, Deuteronomy 27:23; such an incestuous copulation was that of Reuben with...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
The nakedness of thy sister,.... To lie with one in so near a relation is exceeding criminal, and for which the law curses a man, Deuteronomy 27:22; and to marry her is not lawful; for though it was necessary for the propagation of mankind that a man should marry his sister, for who else could Cain and Abel marry? yet afterwards, when there was an...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
The nakedness of thy son's daughter, or of thy daughter's daughter,.... A man might not marry his granddaughter, whether a descendant of his son or of his daughter, nor any further off descending from him in a right line, not his great-granddaughter, and so on; and if he might not marry his granddaughter, much less his own daughter, as Jarchi...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
The nakedness of thy father's wife's daughter,.... Either the daughter of his father by another wife, which seems to be countenanced by what follows: begotten of thy father, she [is] thy sister; but then this coincides with what is prohibited, Leviticus 18:9, "the daughter of thy father"; that is, by another woman than a man's mother, only with...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's sister,.... His aunt by his father's side, an instance of which we have in Amram, Exodus 6:20; and Maimonides says (i), an aunt was forbidden whether she was a father's sister in lawful wedlock or in fornication: she [is] thy father's near kinswoman; or, the rest of thy father (k); the residue...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother's sister,.... Which is the same relation as before, an aunt by the mother's side; wherefore, if such a marriage was unlawful, this must also, and for the same reason: for she [is] thy mother's near kinswoman; the same phraseology is used here as in the preceding verse; [See comments on Leviticus...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's brother,.... Which Gersom understands of committing sodomy with him, on which account he was doubly guilty, partly because of lying with a male, and partly because of uncovering the nakedness of his father's brother; but it rather seems at first sight as if the sense was, that a woman should not...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thou shall not uncover the nakedness of thy daughter in law,.... Shall not he with her in his son's lifetime, or marry her after his death: she [is] that son's wife; and so one flesh with him, and who is of the same flesh and blood with his father, and therefore the nearness of the relation forbids such incestuous copulation or marriage: thou...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother's wife,.... Neither debauch her nor after the death of the brother marry her, that is, unless he dies without issue; and then, by another law, he was obliged to marry her, Deuteronomy 25:5; hence the Targum of Jonathan adds; by way of explanation. "in the life of thy brother, or after his death,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thou shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter,.... That is, if a man marries a woman, and she has a daughter, which is the man's daughter-in-law, after the death of his wife he may not marry this daughter; for this daughter is of the same flesh with her mother, who became one flesh with the man she married, and therefore his...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister,.... Both of them together, as Jarchi; two sisters at one and the same time; so the Targum of Jonathan, "a woman in the life of her sister thou shall not take;'' that is, in marriage, that sister being his wife; for the sense of the Targumist can never be that a man might not take a woman for his wife,...