886 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Ye shall not eat [anything] with the blood,.... Or upon, over, or by the blood (s), for this law seems different from that in Genesis 9:4, and from those in Leviticus 3:17; and is variously interpreted by the Jewish writers; some of not eating flesh, the blood not being rightly let out of it, as not being thoroughly cleared of it (t), and so comes...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Ye shall not round the corners of your heads,.... The extremities of the hairs of the head, round about, on the forehead, temples, and behind the ears; this is done, as Jarchi says, when any one makes his temples, behind his ears, and his forehead alike, so that the circumference of his head is found to be round all about, as if they had been cut...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead,.... Either with their nails, tearing their cheeks and other parts, or with any instrument, knife, razor, c. Jarchi says, it was the custom of the Amorites, when anyone died, to cut their flesh, as it was of the Scythians, as Herodotus (d) relates, even those of the royal family for a king...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Do not prostitute thy daughter, to cause her to be a whore,.... Not by delaying to marry her, which is the sense the Jews give (l), but it refers to a wicked practice among the Phoenicians or Canaanites, Athanasius (m) speaks of, whose women used to prostitute themselves in the temples of their idols; and to such filthy services, in a religious...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Ye shall keep my sabbaths,.... By attending to the worship and service of God on sabbath days, they and their children would be preserved from the idolatry of the Gentiles, and all the filthy practices attending it: and reverence my sanctuary; and not defile it by such impurities as were committed in the temples of idols: the sanctuary being an...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Regard not them that have familiar spirits,.... The word used signifies "bottles", and that sort of diviners here intended go by this name, either because what they sat on when they divined was in the form of a bottle, or they divined by one, or they were swelled and inflated as bottles when they delivered out their answers, or spoke as out of a...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thou shall rise up before the hoary head,.... Or "before old age" (q), which may be discerned by the hoary or grey hairs upon the head; that is, before a grey-headed man, or an old man, and one was reckoned so when he was of seventy years of age; for so it is said (r), one of sixty years is arrived to old age, and one of seventy to grey hairs....
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And if a stranger sojourn with you in your land,.... Ben Gersom, and others, understand this of a proselyte of righteousness, who was circumcised, and in all things conformed to the Jewish religion; but it may be interpreted of a proselyte of the gate, who was not an idolater, since he is described as one sojourning with them, and indeed of any...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
[But] a stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you,.... Especially if a proselyte of righteousness; for then he enjoyed the same privileges, civil and religious, the Israelites did, for there was one law for them both, Exodus 12:49: and thou shalt love him as thyself; and show it by doing all the good things for him...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment,.... This is repeated from Leviticus 19:15; and in order to lead on to some other laws and instructions; though Aben Ezra thinks this is said in connection with the preceding words, and in reference to the stranger, agreeably to Deuteronomy 1:16; but Jarchi refers it to what follows concerning weights and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Just balances, just weights,.... Which were for such sort of things as were bought and sold by weight, and these were to be according to the custom and usage which universally obtained among them, or were fixed and settled by them; they were to be neither lighter nor heavier; they were not to have one sort to buy with, and another to sell with,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Therefore shall ye observe all my statutes, and all my judgments,.... Delivered in this and the preceding chapters, and elsewhere, whether ceremonial or judicial, or moral, as there were of each, which had been delivered to them; and which are all comprehended in these two words, "statutes", or ordinances, which were the determinations of his...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Leviticus 20 In this chapter several laws are, repeated, enforced with a penalty annexed to them, and the breach them made capital, to deter from it, as giving seed to Molech, Leviticus 20:1; going after such that have familiar spirits, or are wizards, Leviticus 20:6; by shunning which, and other sins, a regard would be shown to...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... After he had delivered the above laws to him in the preceding chapter, he added penalties, to many of them, or declared what punishment should be inflicted on the transgressors of them: saying; as follows.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Again thou shalt say to the children of Israel,.... The body of the people by their elders, and the heads of their tribes; for the following laws were binding on them all: whosoever [he be] of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel; everyone of the people of Israel, of whatsoever age, sex, or condition of life: and not...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And I will set my face against that man,.... Express resentment, anger, wrath, and indignation at him, see Psalms 34:16: and will cut him off from among his people: that is, supposing him to have been guilty of the above horrid crime, and there being not sufficient evidence given of it by witnesses, or the magistrates negligent in doing their...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And if the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes from the man,.... That is, the people of the house of Israel, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan; if the friends, relations, and neighbours of such a man, though they know what he is about to do, or has done, yet they shut their eyes wilfully, or look another way; or, however, wink and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then I will set my face against that man,.... That man that sees him do the fact, and winks at it, or the judge that connives at him, and will not condemn him, as well as the man that has committed the iniquity: and against his family; either the family of the witness, who could and should have testified against him, or of the judge negligent of...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
The soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits,.... The man or woman that has respect unto them, seeks after them, and inquires of them, in order to get knowledge of things: and after wizards who pretend to tell fortunes, and discover lost and stolen goods, [See comments on Leviticus 19:31]; to go a whoring after them; for to consult...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Sanctify yourselves therefore,.... By abstaining from such impious and idolatrous practices, and separating themselves from all that gave into them, as well as by observing the holy commandments of the Lord; otherwise internal sanctification is not the work of man, but of the Lord himself, as in Leviticus 20:8: and be ye holy; or a separate people...