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The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 17:11
The sanctity of the atoning blood. No act was more strongly denounced than that of eating any manner of blood. The man guilty of that deed, whether an Israelite or a stranger sojourning in the land, was threatened with…
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 17:12
This verse emphatically restates that the atoning power of the blood, as being the seat of life, is the reason that the eating of it is forbidden, and the same statement is repeated in a different connexion in Leviticus…
Matthew Henry on Leviticus 18:1-30
Here is a law against all conformity to the corrupt usages of the heathen. Also laws against incest, against brutal lusts, and barbarous idolatries; and the enforcement of these laws from the ruin of the Canaanites. God…
Cautions against Idolatrous Practices. (b. c. 1490.)
CAUTIONS AGAINST IDOLATROUS PRACTICES. (B. C. 1490.) After divers ceremonial institutions, God here returns to the enforcement of moral precepts. The former are still of use to us as types, the latter still binding as l…
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 18:1-5
Obedience enjoined. A nation's importance is not to be reckoned according to its size, but more according to the character of its people and of the great men who have belonged to it. That must ever be a distinguished na…
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 18:1-30
PART III. SECTION III. EXPOSITION MORAL UNCLEANNESS AND ITS PUNISHMENT. This being the subject of the three following chapters (chapters 18-20), they naturally form a sequence to chapters 11-17, which have dealt with ce…
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 18:1-5
Form an introduction to the Hebrew code of prohibited degrees of marriage and of forbidden sins of lust. The formal and solemn declaration, I am the Lord your God, is made three times in these five verses. This places b…
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 18:1-18
The restraints thrown about marriage by God's Law are not meant to confine within the narrowest limits that which is a necessary evil, but to guard a holy institution, and prevent its being corrupted by abuse. Manichaea…
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 18:1-30
Unworldliness. cf. Romans 12:2. The next element in the morality required of the Lord's people is non-conformity to this world. We are such imitative creatures that we are prone to do as our neighbours do, without quest…
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 18:1-30
Abominable doings. This chapter contains laws against abominations practiced by the heathen, together with reasons why they must be avoided by the people of God. Foremost amongst these reasons is— I. THAT THEY ARE FORBI…
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 18:1-4
Two aspects of sin. There are many ways in which sin may be regarded. Directed by these words, we may look at it in— I. ITS UGLY ASPECT AS SEEN IN HUMAN ILLUSTRATIONS. The children of Israel were warned to separate them…
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 18:1-30
Leviticus 18:5, "Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the Lord." I. THE TRUE MORALITY IS BASED UPON THE TRUE RELIGION. 1. Special need of insisting on thi…
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 18:5
Life in obedience. The Apostle Paul, both in his letter to the Romans (Romans 10:5), and in that to the Churches of Galatia (Galatians 3:12), brings this passage to prove that salvation under the Law was by obedience ra…
Incest Defined and Forbidden; Against Marrying Near Relations. (b. c. 1490.)
INCEST DEFINED AND FORBIDDEN; AGAINST MARRYING NEAR RELATIONS. (B. C. 1490.) These laws relate to the seventh commandment, and, no doubt, are obligatory on us under the gospel, for they are consonant to the very light a…
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 18:6
The next thirteen verses contain the law of incest, or the prohibited degrees of marriage. The positive law of marriage, as implanted in the human heart, would be simply that any man of full age might marry any woman of…
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 18:6-23
Impurity-its extent and source. There are times when and conditions under which it is both our right and our duty to speak on this subject. We may offend delicacy by speech, and must therefore be careful what we say. Bu…
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 18:9
In the third place, incest with a sister is forbidden, and it is specifically stated that under the term "sister" is meant the half-sister, the daughter of thy father, or … thy mother,… born at home, as would naturally…
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 18:10
The fourth case of incest which is prohibited is that with a granddaughter, whether the daughter of son or daughter, for, as they are descended from the grandfather, their's is thine own nakedness.
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 18:11
Incest with a half-sister on the father's side is again forbidden. Perhaps "the prohibition refers to the son by a first marriage, whereas Leviticus 18:9 treats of the son by a second marriage" (Keil).
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 18:12-15
Fifthly, incest with a paternal or maternal aunt is forbidden; sixthly, with an aunt by marriage; seventhly, with a daughter-in-law. The last of these finds its place in Ezekiel's catalogue of abominations (Ezekiel 22:1…
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 18:16
The eighth ease of incest is intercourse with a brother's wife. Yet this is commanded under certain circumstances in the Book of Deuteronomy, and was practiced in patriarchal times (Genesis 38:8). The following are the…
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 18:17
The ninth form of incest prohibited is intercourse with a stepdaughter, or step-granddaughter, or mother-in-law. The expression made use of, Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, covers the c…
The Pulpit Commentary on Leviticus 18:18
Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister, to vex her, to uncover her nakedness, beside the other in her life time. Do these words refer to the marriage of two sisters or not? It has been passionately affirmed that t…
Laws against Iniquity. (b. c. 1490.)
LAWS AGAINST INIQUITY. (B. C. 1490.) Here is, I. A law to preserve the honour of the marriage-bed, that it should not be unseasonably used (Leviticus 18:19), nor invaded by an adulterer, Leviticus 18:20. II. A law again…