LEVITICUS CHAPTER 18 Israelites not to live after the customs of the Egyptians or Canaanites, but according to God's institutions, LEVITICUS 18:1. To abstain from incestuous marriages, LEVITICUS 18:6; and copulation with a menstruous woman, LEVITICUS 18:19; and adultery, LEVITICUS 18:20; and offerin... [ Continue Reading ]
Your Sovereign and Lawgiver. This is oft repeated here, because the things here forbidden were practised and allowed by the Gentiles, to whose custom he here opposeth Divine authority, and their obligation to obey his commands.... [ Continue Reading ]
EGYPT AND CANAAN: these two nations he mentions, because their habitation and conversation among them made their evil example in the following matters more dangerous. But under them he includes all other nations, as he elsewhere expresseth it. In their ordinances, or statutes; either because their l... [ Continue Reading ]
My judgments and mine ordinances; mine universally, DEUTERONOMY 27:26 GALATIANS 3:10; for though the words be indefinite, the matter is necessary; and mine solely, DEUTERONOMY 6:13, compared with MATTHEW 4:10, and therefore those that here follow, though you do not see the particular reason of some... [ Continue Reading ]
HE SHALL LIVE IN THEM; not only happily here, but also eternally hereafter, as it is expounded MATTHEW 19:17 ROMANS 10:5. This is added as a powerful argument why they should follow God's commands rather than men's examples, because their life and happiness depends upon the one, not the other. And t... [ Continue Reading ]
NONE, Heb. _no man_, For though the women also be bound by this law, yet the men alone are mentioned, both because they are most active in the choice of their yoke-fellows, and therefore most likely to transgress these laws, and because they having authority over the women, could have the greater in... [ Continue Reading ]
OF THY FATHER, OR OF THY MOTHER, Heb. _and of thy mother_, put for _that is_, or _to wit_, as it is oft used. Here it notes that the nakedness of the father, and the nakedness of the mother, are one and the same thing, because they two are one flesh, and therefore her nakedness is his also; which fu... [ Continue Reading ]
i.e. Thy step-mother. Examples of this are GENESIS 35:22, GENESIS 49:4 1 CORINTHIANS 5:1. IT IS THY FATHER'S NAKEDNESS, by interest and relation; that which he only may uncover.... [ Continue Reading ]
THY SISTER, by both parents. THE DAUGHTER OF THY FATHER, or DAUGHTER OF THY MOTHER; thy sister by either of thy parents. WHETHER SHE BE BORN AT HOME, to wit, of thy father by another wife, whom he hath taken into his house. Or born abroad; either of thy mother, by another, whether a former or a seco... [ Continue Reading ]
And consequently of all thy children and children's children, and all downwards; for they are a part of thyself, as coming out of thy loins, and out of thy wife, whose nakedness is thine own.... [ Continue Reading ]
BEGOTTEN OF THY FATHER, or, _being akin to thy father_. He seems to speak of the daughter of the father's brother by his wife, whom the father here spoken of, being brother to the deceased person, married by virtue of that law, DEUTERONOMY 25:5, by which marriage there was a near kindred contracted... [ Continue Reading ]
Thy aunt by the father's side, as the next verse speaks of the aunt by the mother's side. If Amram's example be alleged to the contrary, SEE POOLE ON "EXODUS 6:20". THY FATHER'S NEAR KINSWOMAN, Heb. _thy father's flesh_, a member and product of the same flesh from which thy father came.... [ Continue Reading ]
No text from Poole on this verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
OF THY FATHER'S BROTHER, i.e. of his wife, as the next words explain it. And as a man may not marry his aunt, so neither may a woman marry her uncle, there being altogether the same distance in kindred, and the selfsame reason of the law. And for the examples of Abraham, Amram, Othniel, &c., to the... [ Continue Reading ]
No text from Poole on this verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
Neither in his lifetime, nor after his death, and therefore a woman might not marry her husband's brother, nor might a man marry his wife's sister, either before or after his wife's death, for so all the prohibitions are to be understood; which will give light to LEVITICUS 18:18. But God, who can un... [ Continue Reading ]
OF A WOMAN AND HER DAUGHTER, to wit, thy step-daughter, and so thy step-son's daughter, &c. IT IS WICKEDNESS; because they are very near to thy wife by consanguinity, as coming directly from her; and therefore they are as near to thee by affinity, which binds as much as consanguinity; the wife, who... [ Continue Reading ]
The word SISTER is here understood, either, 1. Properly, so some; whence others infer that it is lawful to marry one's wife's sister after the wife's death. Or, 2. Improperly for any other woman, as not only persons, but things, of the same kind are oft called _sisters_ and _brethren_, of which se... [ Continue Reading ]
No, not to thy own wife. See EXODUS 12:2, EXODUS 15:24,25. This was not only a ceremonial pollution, but an immorality also, whence it is put amongst gross sins, EZEKIEL 18:6. There is also a natural turpitude in this action. And therefore it is now unlawful under the gospel.... [ Continue Reading ]
No text from Poole on this verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
PASS THROUGH THE FIRE this was done two ways; either, 1. By burning them in the fire, of which see 2 KINGS 3:27 2 CHRONICLES 28:3 PSALMS 106:37,38 ISA 57:5. Or, 2. By making them pass between two great fires, which was a kind of illustration or consecration of them to that god; which latter seems t... [ Continue Reading ]
No text from Poole on this verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
A horrible confusion of the natures which God hath distinguished, and of the order which God hath appointed, and an overthrow of. all bounds of religion, honesty, sobriety, and modesty.... [ Continue Reading ]
IN ALL THESE, to wit, above-mentioned sins. Whence it is apparent that the several incests here prohibited are not only against the positive and particular law given by God to the Jews, but also against the general law and light of nature. And therefore the law about these things was one of the seve... [ Continue Reading ]
I DO VISIT; I am now visiting, or about to visit, i. e. to punish. See ISAIAH 26:21. THE LAND ITSELF VOMITETH OUT HER INHABITANTS, as no less burdens to the earth than corrupted food is to the stomach. See JEREMIAH 9:19 MICAH 2:10.... [ Continue Reading ]
NOR ANY STRANGER, in nation or religion, of what kind soever. For though they might not force them to submit to their religion, yet they might restrain them from the public contempt of the Jewish laws, and from the violation of natural laws, which besides the offence against God and nature, were mat... [ Continue Reading ]
No text from Poole on this verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
No text from Poole on this verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
To wit, by death to be inflicted by the magistrates, as it is apparent in case of idolatry with Moloch or other false gods; and in case of the magistrates neglect, by God himself. This phrase therefore of cutting off is to be understood variously, as many other phrases are, either of ecclesiastical,... [ Continue Reading ]
No text from Poole on this verse.... [ Continue Reading ]