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Leviticus 18

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Call to Embrace God's Statutes 1–5

1
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
2
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am the LORD your God. ​
3
After 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 ordinances. ​
4
Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the LORD your God.
5
Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD. ​

Prohibited Sexual Relations (Incest) 6–18

6
None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the LORD. ​
7
The nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover: she is thy mother; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.
8
The nakedness of thy father's wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father's nakedness. ​
9
The nakedness of thy sister, the daughter of thy father, or daughter of thy mother, whether she be born at home, or born abroad, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover.
10
The nakedness of thy son's daughter, or of thy daughter's daughter, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover: for theirs is thine own nakedness.
11
The nakedness of thy father's wife's daughter, begotten of thy father, she is thy sister, thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.
12
Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's sister: she is thy father's near kinswoman.
13
Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother's sister: for she is thy mother's near kinswoman.
14
Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's brother, thou shalt not approach to his wife: she is thine aunt.
15
Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy daughter in law: she is thy son's wife; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.
16
Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother's wife: it is thy brother's nakedness. ​
17
Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, neither shalt thou take her son's daughter, or her daughter's daughter, to uncover her nakedness; for they are her near kinswomen: it is wickedness.
18
Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister, to vex her, to uncover her nakedness, beside the other in her life time. ​

Warning Against Other Abominations 19–23

19
Also thou shalt not approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness. ​
20
Moreover thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour's wife, to defile thyself with her.
21
And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD. ​
22
Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. ​
23
Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion. ​

The Consequences of Defiling the Land 24–30

24
Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you: ​
25
And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. ​
26
Ye shall therefore 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:
27
(For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;)
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That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you.
29
For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people. ​
30
Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the LORD your God.

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for Leviticus 18

Verse 2

I am the LORD your God — The declaration opens the chapter here, returns in v.4 and closes it in v.30, so every command between rests on it. It is the declaration with which the LORD takes Israel for a people: ‘I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God’ (Ex 6:7). It also grounds the call to holiness: ‘for I am holy’ (Lev 11:44).

Verse 3

the doings of the land of Egypt — ‘Doings’ is ma’aseh, works. Two lands are named: Egypt, ‘wherein ye dwelt’, and Canaan, ‘whither I bring you’. ‘Ordinances’ (chuqqot) is the word rendered ‘statutes’ in v.5, so the nations’ statutes stand against the LORD’s. ‘Ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out’ (20:23).

Verse 5

he shall live in them — The promise is attached to doing: ‘which if a man do’. The LORD repeats it of the law given in the wilderness: ‘which if a man do, he shall even live in them’ (Ezek 20:11). Christ answers the lawyer, ‘this do, and thou shalt live’ (Luke 10:28). Paul sets the clause beside ‘The just shall live by faith’ (Gal 3:11–12).

Verse 6

to uncover their nakedness — ‘Near of kin’ is she’er basar, nearness of flesh. ‘Approach’ is qarab, to draw near. The phrase ‘uncover… nakedness’ (galah ervah) is the chapter’s formula for sexual union, and it recurs in every verse from here to v.19. The verse itself ends ‘I am the LORD’, the seal also on vv.5, 21 and 30.

Verse 8

thy father’s wife — ‘It is thy father’s nakedness’ gives the reason: husband and wife are ‘one flesh’ (Gen 2:24), so her nakedness is his. Moses repeats the rule in Deut 22:30, ‘nor discover his father’s skirt’, and curses its breach (Deut 27:20). Paul meets such a case at Corinth, ‘that one should have his father’s wife’ (1 Cor 5:1).

Verse 16

thy brother’s wife — The reason is that of v.8: ‘it is thy brother’s nakedness’. The one case the law sets apart is Deut 25:5–6, where a brother has died with ‘no child’ and the firstborn of the surviving brother ‘shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead’. John told Herod, ‘It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother’s wife’ (Mark 6:18).

Verse 18

a wife to her sister, to vex her — Tsarar, to bind tight, to distress; its noun tsarah is also the word for a rival wife. Jacob’s marriage to Leah and Rachel (Gen 29:28) is the earlier case in Scripture, and ‘Rachel envied her sister’ (Gen 30:1). ‘In her life time’ limits the rule to the sister still living.

Verse 19

put apart for her uncleanness — Niddah, separation or impurity, the term of Lev 15:19, ‘she shall be put apart seven days’. Lev 15:24 says that a man who lies with her is ‘unclean seven days’, and Lev 20:18 sets the penalty of being ‘cut off from among their people’ on both. Ezekiel lists it among the sins of Jerusalem (Ezek 22:10).

Verse 21

to Molech — Molek, ‘king’. He is ‘the abomination of the children of Ammon’ (1 Kgs 11:7), and Josiah defiled Topheth so that no man might make his son or daughter ‘to pass through the fire to Molech’ (2 Kgs 23:10). The penalty was stoning (Lev 20:2). To ‘profane’ (chalal) the name is to treat it as common; Lev 20:3 says it profanes ‘my holy name’.

Verse 22

it is abomination — To’evah, the word the chapter uses for these acts and for the customs of the nations alike (vv.26, 27, 29, 30). ‘Mankind’ is zakar, a male, and Lev 20:13 repeats the law with its penalty. Paul names ‘men with men’ (Rom 1:27) and ‘abusers of themselves with mankind’ (1 Cor 6:9), then says to the church: ‘such were some of you: but ye are washed’ (1 Cor 6:11).

Verse 23

it is confusion — Tebel, a mixing, found only here and in Lev 20:12, of a man with his daughter in law. The rule binds both sexes: ‘neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto’. The penalty for either is death (Ex 22:19; Lev 20:15–16).

Verse 24

the nations are defiled which I cast out — Tame, to make unclean, is used of the people (v.24), of the nations, and of the land (vv.25, 27). Deut 18:12 gives the same cause: ‘because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out’. The judgment was delayed: ‘the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full’ (Gen 15:16).

Verse 25

the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants — Qo, to vomit; the image returns in v.28, where Israel is warned that the land ‘spue not you out also… as it spued out the nations that were before you’, and in Lev 20:22. The land is ‘defiled’ by the conduct of its people, as Jeremiah says of Israel: ‘ye entered, ye defiled my land’ (Jer 2:7).

Verse 29

shall be cut off from among their people — Karath, to cut off. The same penalty falls on the one who gives his seed to Molech (Lev 20:3, ‘I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off’). ‘Abominations’ (to’evah) gathers the chapter’s laws under the word first used in v.22, and ‘the souls that commit them’ makes the penalty personal.