Leviticus 20

AND the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel Here follow the punishments of the crimes forbidden in the former chapters., Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers Not only such as were Proselytes, but all others, these being gross immoralities and such as the precepts of Noah reached to, and such as the laws of nature and nations obliged them to. And therefore the toleration of such actions was not only against reason of state and the interest of the commonwealth of Israel, and dangerous to the infection and destruction of the Israelites by the imitation of such examples, but also against the light of nature and laws of humanity. that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech Or to any other Idol, for the reason of the law equally concerns all. See Levit. 18. 21., he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones.

And I will set my face against that man (i. e.) Deal with him as an enemy, and make him a monument of my justice either by punishing him immediately and eminently, when the Magistrate cannot or will not do it, or by adding to his corporal punishments my curse upon his soul and name. See Lev. 17. 10., and will cut him off from among his people From the number of his people, of what nation or kindred soever he was, or, from the land of the living.: because he has given of his seed unto Molech, to defile my sanctuary Which was done by this wickedness, either because such persons did, for the cover of their Idolatry, come into Gods Sanctuary, as the rest did: See Lev. 15. 31. or because the Sanctuary was and was said to be defiled by gross abominations committed in that city or land where Gods Sanctuary was: or because by these actions they did pronounce and declare to all men that they esteemed the sanctuary and service of God abominable and vile, by preferring such odious and pernicious Idolatry before it., and to prophane my holy Name Partly by despising it themselves, and partly by disgracing it to others and giving them occasion to blaspheme it, and to abhor the true religion, because they saw it deserted and condemned by those that best knew it and once embraced it..

And if the people of the land do any wayes hide their eyes from the man (i. e.) Wink at his fault, and forbear to accuse and punish him. Compare Act. 17. 30., when he giveth of his seed unto Molech, and kill him not

Then I will set my face against that man, and against his family (i. e.) Either 1. his posterity, whom God threatned to punish for their fathers Idolatry, Exod. 20. Or 2. his people, as that word is used, Ier. 8. 3. Mic. 2. 3. to wit, the people of that land, who by their connivance make themselves guilty of his sin, ver. 4. Or 3. his disciples and followers, who are oft called the sons or children of their masters. And so it may be seem to be explained in the following words, all that go a whoring after him, as the first clause which concerns the head or chief person himself, I will set my face against that man, is explained by these words, I will cut him off., and will cut him off, and all that go a whoring after him, to commit whoredom with Molech, from among their people.

And. the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits and after wizards, to go a whoring after them To seek knowledge or counsel or help from them., I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people.

Sanctifie your selves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am LORD your God.

And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them: I am the LORD which sanctifie you (i. e.) Who separated you from all nations and from their impurities and Idolatries to be a peculiar people to my self, and therefore I will not suffer you to follow their examples. Or, who really sanctify you, and give you my grace to do what I require, i. e. to keep my statutes. Or the argument is this, Those idols and Idolatries will defile you and make you worse, but I only and my service will sanctify you and make you better..

For Or, surely, as that praticle, chi, is oft used, as Iob 8. 6. and 20. 20. So there needs no dispute about the connexion, or what this is a reason of. every one that curseth Which is not meant of every perverse expression, but of bitter reproaches or imprecations. his father, or Heb. and put for or, as has been noted before. his mother, shall be surely put to death: he has cursed his father, or his mother, his blood shall be upon him He is guilty of his own death: he deserves to die for so unnatural a crime..

And the man that committeth adultery with another mans wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbours wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

And the man that lieth with his fathers wife, has uncovered his fathers nakedness: both of them shall surely be put to death, their blood shall be upon them.

And if a man lie with his daughter in law, both of them shall surely be put to death: they have wrought confusion By perverting the order which God has appointed, and mixing the blood which God would have separated, and making the same off-spring both his own immediate child and his grandchild., their blood shall be upon them.

If a man lie also with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death Except the one party was forced by the other. See Deut. 22. 25.; their blood shall be upon them.

And if a man take a wife, and her mother, it is wickedness (i. e.) Abominable and extraordinary wickedness, as the singularity of the punishment shows.: they shall be burnt with fire, both he and they Either, or both or all of them, if they consented to it., that there be no wickedness among you.

And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and ye shall slay the beast Partly for the prevention of monstrous Births, partly to blot out the memory of so loathsome a crime, and partly that by so severe a punishment of that creature which was only a passive instrument to mans sin, men might be assured that a more dreadful punishment than corporal death was reserved for them, if they repented not..

And if a woman approach unto any beast, and lie down thereto, thou shalt kill the woman and the beast: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

And if a man shall take his sister, his fathers daughter, or his mothers daughter, and see her nakedness Seeing is here understood, either 1. properly, and so God would cut off the occasions of further filthiness. Or rather 2. improperly for touching her or lying with her; for 1. the sense of seeing is o... t put for other sences, as for hearing, Ger 42. 1. compared with Act. 7. 12. Exod. 2.... 18. Rev. 1. 12. and for touching, as Ioh. 2.... 25, 29. 2. that act is expressed by words parallel to this of seeing, as by or discovering, and by knowing, Gen. 4. 1. 3. so it is directly explained in the following words, uncovered which manifestly signifies lying with her..... it is not probable that an equal punishment dest sight, and to the highest act of filthiness. 5. nor seems there to be any reason why this crime should be restrained to this rather than to any other relations, when it was as great yea a greater crime in some other relations., and she see his nakedness, it is a wicked thing, and they shall be cut off in the sight of their people (i. e.) Publickly, for the terrour and caution of others.: he has uncovered his sisters nakedness, he shall bear his iniquity.

And if a man shall lie with a woman Wittingly and willingly. See on Lev. 15. 24. and 18. 19. having her sickness (i. e.) her monethly infirmity., and shall uncover her nakedness: he has discovered her fountain Or her issue. Thus the fountain of blood in Mark 5. 29. is the issue of blood, Luk. 8. 44. the fountain put for the stream, the cause for the effect, which is common., and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood: and both of them shall be cut off from among their people.

And thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mothers sister, nor of thy fathers sister: for he uncovereth his near kin: they shall bear their iniquity.

And i... a man shall lie with his uncles wife, he has uncovered his uncles nakedness: they shall bear their sin, they shall die childless (i. e.) Either shall be speedily cut off ere they can have a child by that incestuous conjunction, that the remembrance of the fact may be blotted out: or, if this seem a less crime than most of the former incestuous mixtures, because the relation is more remote, and therefore the Magistrate shall forbear to punish it with death, yet they shall either have no children from such an unlawful bed, or their children shall die before them, Hos. 9. 11, 12. or shall not be reputed their genuine children, but bastards, and therefore excluded from the congregation of the Lord, Deut. 23. 2..

And if a man shall take his brothers wife Except in the case allowed by God, Deut. 25. 5.; it is an unclean thing An abominable thing, like the uncleanness of a menstruous woman, which is oft expressed by this word: Heb a separation, or removing, i. e. a thing deserving separation or exclusion from society with others, or a thing to be removed out of sight or out of the world.: he has uncovered his brothers nakedness, they shall be childless.

Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: that the land whither I bring you to dwell therein, spue you not out.

And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.

But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk, and honey: I am the LORD your God, which have separated you from other people By my special grace and favour vouchsafed to you above all people in glorious and miraculous works wrought for you and among you, and in ordinances and other singular priviledges and blessings imparted to you, all which calls for your special love and service..

Ye shall therefore put difference between clean beasts, and unclean, and between unclean fowls and clean: and ye shall not make your souls abominable by beast, or by fowl, or by any manner of living thing that creepeth on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean (i. e.) As things which by my sentence I have made unclean, and which you must avoid as such..

And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine.

A man also, or woman that has a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them.