John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.

John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.

Leviticus 18:1



INTRODUCTION TO LEVITICUS 18



In this chapter the Israelites are directed in general not to imitate the customs and practices of the Egyptians and Canaanites, but to keep the ordinances, statutes, and judgments of the Lord, Le 18:1; and they are instructed particularly to avoid incestuous marriages,

Le 18:6; carnal copulation with a menstruous woman, Le 18:19; adultery, Le 18:20; letting any of their seed pass through the fire to Molech, Le 18:21; sodomy, Le 18:22; and bestiality,

Le 18:23; and they are deterred from these things by observing to them the pollution and destruction which they brought on the inhabitants of Canaan, and would bring the same on them should they commit them, Le 18:24.



Ver. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... He continued speaking to him, after he had delivered to him the laws respecting the day of atonement, and the bringing of the sacrifices to the door of the tabernacle, and particularly concerning the Israelites not worshipping devils, as they had done in Egypt: the Lord proceeds to deliver out others, the more effectually to guard against both the immoral and idolatrous practice, of the Egyptians and Canaanites:



saying, as follows.





Leviticus 18:2



Ver. 2. Speak unto the children of Israel,.... To the heads of their tribes, that they might deliver to them the following laws; or Moses is bid to publish them among them, either by word of mouth, or by writing, or both:



and say unto them, I am the Lord your God; with which they were to be introduced; showing the right he had to enact and enjoin such laws, since he was Jehovah, the Being of beings, and from whom they received their beings; their sovereign Lord and King, who had a right to rule over them, and command what he pleased; and also the obligation they lay under to him to regard them, and yield a cheerful obedience to them, since he was their God, not only that had made them, but had redeemed them out of Egypt; and who had made a covenant with them, and had taken special care of them, and had bestowed many wonderful favours on them; and for this purpose is this phrase often used in this chapter, and very frequently in the next. See Le 18:2.





Leviticus 18:3



Ver. 3. After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do,.... Where they had dwelt many years, and were just come out from thence, and where they had learned many of their evil practices; not only their idolatrous ones referred to in the preceding chapter, which it is certain they followed, Eze 20:7; but also their immoral practices, particularly respecting incestuous marriages, after insisted on, some of which were established by a law among them; so Diodorus Siculus relates {q}, that it passed into a law with the Egyptians, contrary to the common custom of all others, that men might marry their own sisters; which is one of the incestuous marriages taken notice of in this chapter, and forbid:



and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: which land had been promised to their ancestors and to them long ago, and whither they were now going under divine direction and guidance, to inherit it, and are here particularly warned of the evil practices among them, that they might avoid them: Maimonides {r} says, these are what our Rabbins call "the ways of the Amorites" (the principal people of the nations of the land of Canaan), and which, he adds, are as branches of the magic art; namely, such which do not follow from natural reason, but from magical operation, and depend upon the dispositions and orders of the stars, and so were necessarily led to worship them: hence, they say, in whatsoever is anything of medicine, in it is nothing of the way of the Amorites; by which they mean nothing else than this, that everything is lawful in which there appears a natural reason for it; and on the contrary, all others are unlawful: but here respect is had not to magical operations but to incestuous marriages, which prevailed among that people, and which they might have received from their ancestor Canaan, who learned them from his father Ham, of whom Berosus {s} writes, that even before the flood he corrupted mankind; asserting and putting it in practice, that men might lie with their mothers, sisters, daughters, and with males and brutes, or any other, for which he was cast out by Noah:



neither shall ye walk in their ordinances: which they ordained, appointed, and settled, for they were such a people the Psalmist speaks of, which framed mischief or wickedness by a law, Ps 94:2; so Diodorus Siculus says of the incestuous marriage before referred to, and which the above writer, Berosus, derives from Ham their ancestor, that they are said nomoyethsai, "to pass into a law"; but Aben Ezra puts another sense on these words, let no man use himself to walk in this way until it becomes an ordinance or statute unto him; custom is second nature, and in course of time has the force of a law, wherefore bad customs should be strictly guarded against.



{q} Bibliothec. l. 1. p. 23. {r} Moreh Nevochim, par. 3. c. 37. {s} Antiqu. l. 3. fol. 25.





Leviticus 18:4



Ver. 4. Ye shall do my judgments,.... Which are just and right, and according to the rules of justice and equity; these are things, as Jarchi observes, which are said in the law with judgment, or are laws framed with the highest reason, even by the judgment of God himself, whose judgment is always according to truth: Aben Ezra thinks, these are the judicial laws in Ex 21:1; but though they may include them, they have more particular respect to the following laws:



and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: which he had ordained and appointed of his own will and pleasure, which Jarchi calls the decree of the king, or which he decreed and determined as a king, having absolute power over his subjects to enact and enjoin what he pleased; wherefore some think these refer to ceremonial laws, which depended upon the will of the lawgiver, and were not founded in any natural sense or reason, wherefore it follows:



I [am] the Lord your God: who had a right to make what laws he pleased, being their Sovereign, and which they in gratitude as well as in justice ought to obey, he being their God, their covenant God, who had done great and good things for them.





Leviticus 18:5



Ver. 5. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments,.... The same as before; these they were to keep in their minds and memories, and to observe them and do them:



which if a man do he shall live in them; live a long life in the land of Canaan, in great happiness and prosperity, see De 30:20; for as for eternal life, that was never intended to be had, nor was it possible it could be had and enjoyed by obedience to the law, which fallen man is unable to keep; but is what was graciously promised and provided the covenant of grace, before the world was, to come through Christ, as a free gift to all that believe in him, see Ga 3:11; though some Jewish writers interpret this of eternal life, as Jarchi, Aben Ezra, and Ben Gersom:



I [am] the Lord; that has enjoined these statutes and judgments, and promised life to the doers of them, able and faithful to perform what is promised.





Leviticus 18:6



Ver. 6. None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him,.... Or to all "the rest of his flesh" {t}, which together with his make one flesh, who are of the same flesh and blood with him, and are united together in the bonds of consanguinity; and such, with respect to a man, are his mother, sister, and daughter; his mother, of whom he was born, his sister, who lay in and sprung from the same "venter" he did, and his daughter, who is his own flesh; and with respect to a woman, her father brother, and son, who are in the same degree of relation, and both sexes are included in this prohibition; for though in the original text it is "a man, a man" {u}, yet as it takes in every man, so every woman: hence, as Jarchi observes, it is expressed in the plural number, "do not ye approach", to caution both male and female; and it is also understood by the Talmudists {w} of Gentiles as well as Israelites, for they ask, what is the meaning of the phrase "a man, a man?" the design of it is, they say, to comprehend the Gentiles, who are equally cautioned against incests as the Israelites; and indeed the inhabitants of the land of Canaan are said to defile the land with the incests and other abominations hereafter mentioned, and for which they were driven out of it: now when man and woman are forbidden to "approach" to those of the same flesh and blood with them, the sense is not that they may not come into each other's company, or make use of any civil or friendly salutations, or have a free and familiar conversation with each other, provided that modesty and chastity be preserved; but they are not so to draw near as to lie with, or have carnal knowledge of one another, in which sense the phrase is used,

Ge 20:4; or to tempt to it or solicit it, and as it follows, which explains the meaning of it,



to uncover [their] nakedness; that is, those parts, which, by a contrary way of speaking, are so called, which should never be naked or exposed to view; but should be always covered, as nature teaches to do, and as our first parents did, when they perceived themselves naked, and were ashamed, Ge 3:7: this phrase signifies the same as to lie with another, or have carnal knowledge of them, wherefore the following laws are generally understood of incestuous marriages; for if such an action is not to be done between persons standing in such a relation, as here in general, and afterwards more particularly described, then there ought to be no intermarriages between them; and if such marriages are forbidden, and such actions unlawful in a married state, then much more in an unmarried one; wherefore the several following instances are so many breaches of the seventh command, Ex 20:14, and so many explications and illustrations of it, and consequently of a moral nature, and binding upon all men, Jews and Gentiles:



I [am] the Lord; that gave this caution, and enjoined this prohibition, and would greatly resent and severely revenge the neglect of it: the particulars follow.



{t} wrvb rav lk la "ad omnes reliquias carnis suae", Montanus; "ad quascunque reliquias carnis suae", Tigurine version. {u} vya vya "vir, vir", Montanus, Vatablus, Drusius. {w} T. Bab. Sanhedrim, fol. 57. 2. T. Hieros. Kiddushin, fol. 58. 2, 3.





Leviticus 18:7



Ver. 7. The nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness of thy mother,

shall thou not uncover,.... By uncovering a father's nakedness is not meant anything similar to what befell Noah, which Ham beheld with pleasure, and the other two sons of Noah studiously and with reverence to their father covered; nor any sodomitical practice of a son with his father; as Gersom interprets it; but the same is meant by both phrases, and the words are by many interpreters thus rendered, "the nakedness of thy father, that is {x}, the nakedness of thy mother thou shalt not uncover": for what is the mother's is the father's, and uncovering the one is uncovering the other; wherefore the mother only is made mention of in the next clause, where the reason of this prohibition is given:



she [is] thy mother, thou shalt not uncover her nakedness; that is, not lie with her, nor marry her, because she is his mother that bore him, of whom he was born, and therefore ought not to become his wife, or be taken into his bed; such a marriage must be incestuous and shocking; such were the marriages of Oedipus with his mother Jocasta, and of Nero with Agrippina; though the words will bear another sense, that a woman may not marry her father, which may be meant by the first clause, nor a man his mother, intended in the next; and where indeed it is not expressed, females in the same degree of relation are included with the males, and under the same prohibition; and so the Targum of Jonathan explains this, a woman shall not have to do with her father, nor a man with his mother; as Lot's two daughters had with him, and the Persians with their mothers; among whom such incestuous marriages and copulations were frequent, and especially among their Magi {y} who might not perform their office unless they had lain with their mothers, sisters, and daughters {z}, or were begotten in such incest {a}: a man guilty of such incestuous copulations was cursed by the law of Moses,

De 27:20; this is contrary to nature, what the brute creation abhors; a camel will not cover its dam: Aristotle {b} reports of one who was betrayed into it by his keeper, who, after he had discovered it, fixed his teeth in him and slew him; and he also relates of a horse after that he had ignorantly done the same, ran away in great haste and cast himself down from a precipice headlong.



{x} twrew "id est, nuditatem vel pudenda", Vatablus, Fagius, Piscator. {y} Sex. Empir. Pyrrh. l. 3. c. 24. {z} Patricides apud Selden. de jure natur. Gent. l. 5. c. 11. p. 624. {a} "Nam magus ex matre et gnato nascatur oportet." Catull. Epigr. 91. {b} Hist. Animal. l. 9. c. 47.





Leviticus 18:8



Ver. 8. The nakedness of thy father's wife shalt thou not uncover,.... That is, who is indeed a man's father's wife, but not his own mother, but a stepmother or mother-in-law; or otherwise this law would coincide with the former; a man lying with such an one is accursed by the law,

De 27:23; such an incestuous copulation was that of Reuben with Bilhah, and Absalom with his father's concubines or secondary wives, and such an incestuous marriage was that of the Corinthians, 1Co 5:1; and of Antiochus Soter, king of Syria, with Stratonice his mother-in-law {c}: and even it was criminal to do this after a father's death, as Jarchi interprets it; and though she was only betrothed, and not married, and the father dead after such betrothing; as Gersom; nay, though she was divorced by the father, yet was not lawful for the son to have, no, not after his death:



it is thy father's nakedness; being espoused to him, and so one flesh with him; and the son and father being one flesh, such a mixture must be unlawful; and since then the nakedness of a mother-in-law is the father's, then surely that of an own mother's must be so likewise, which confirms a sense given of it in Le 18:7: Cicero {d} exclaims against such marriages as incredible and unheard of, as instances of unbridled lust and singular impudence.



{c} Vid. Julian. in Misopogon, p. 72, &c. {d} Orat. 14. pro A. Cluentio Avito.





Leviticus 18:9



Ver. 9. The nakedness of thy sister,.... To lie with one in so near a relation is exceeding criminal, and for which the law curses a man,

De 27:22; and to marry her is not lawful; for though it was necessary for the propagation of mankind that a man should marry his sister, for who else could Cain and Abel marry? yet afterwards, when there was an increase of mankind, and there were people enough remote from each other, it became unlawful for persons in such near ties of consanguinity to marry with each other; though the Egyptians did, in imitation of Isis and Osiris {e}, and so the Persians, following the example of Cambyses {f}:



the daughter of thy father, or the daughter of thy mother; whether she is a sister both by father and mother's side, or whether only by the fathers side and not the mother's, as Sarah was to Abraham, Ge 20:12; or only by the mother's side and not the father's:



[whether she be] born at home or born abroad; not whether born and brought up in his and her father's house, or born and brought up in another place and province; though there were some, as Aben Ezra observes, that so interpreted it, according to the sense of the word in

Ge 50:23; but rather the sense is, as that writer gives it, whether born according to the law of the house of Israel, after espousals and marriage, or without it; that is, whether begotten in lawful marriage or not, whether a legitimate offspring or spurious, born in adultery and whoredom, whether on the father or mother's side; so the Targum of Jonathan, whom thy father begat of another woman, or of thy mother, or whom thy mother bore or brought forth, of thy father, or of another man; and to the same purpose Onkelos:



[even] their nakedness thou shalt not uncover; neither lie with, or have carnal knowledge of, nor marry one or the other.



{e} Diodor. Sicul. l. 1. p. 23. {f} Herodot. Thalia, sive, l. 3. c. 31.





Leviticus 18:10



Ver. 10. The nakedness of thy son's daughter, or of thy daughter's daughter,.... A man might not marry his granddaughter, whether a descendant of his son or of his daughter, nor any further off descending from him in a right line, not his great-granddaughter, and so on; and if he might not marry his granddaughter, much less his own daughter, as Jarchi observes, for the relation is still nearer; therefore that being prohibited, this in course must, though not mentioned:



[even] their nakedness thou shalt not uncover; neither debauch nor marry such an one:



for theirs [is] thine own nakedness; which sprung from his, being the descendants either of his son or daughter; the Targum of Jonathan is,



"for they are as thy nakedness,''



his own flesh and blood.





Leviticus 18:11



Ver. 11. The nakedness of thy father's wife's daughter,.... Either the daughter of his father by another wife, which seems to be countenanced by what follows:



begotten of thy father, she [is] thy sister; but then this coincides with what is prohibited, Le 18:9, "the daughter of thy father"; that is, by another woman than a man's mother, only with this difference, that there is added, or "daughter of thy mother", that is, by another man than a man's own father; so that there is a prohibition of a sister whether by father or mother's side; here only as by the father's side, and so is only a part of that law; and, as some think, is for the confirmation of it, as Aben Ezra observes; or else the sense, as he thinks, is, that if a man marries a woman, and she has a little daughter by a former husband, that daughter may not be given in marriage to his son; and so the Septuagint version finishes this clause first, before it gives the other, which it considers as distinct from it, thus, "the shame of thy father's, wife's daughter thou shalt not uncover"; and then makes a distinct law of the latter; "she that is begotten of thy father is thy sister, thou shalt not uncover her shame"; but then this last falls in with Le 18:9, the Sadducees, as Aben Ezra also observes, by whom he means the Karaites, interpret it not of a mother's daughter, but of one brought up and educated by a man's father, and so is his adopted daughter, whom his son might not marry; and thus with the Romans it is said {g}, that adoptive kindred hindered marriage between parents and children altogether; and among brethren so far forth as the loss of freedom did not intervene: some understand this law in this light, as De Dieu, that in Le 18:9; the son of a second marriage is forbidden to marry with an half sister of the first marriage, whether she is the father's daughter, that is, which the father had by his deceased wife, or the mother's daughter, that is, which his mother had by a deceased husband; but here the son of a first marriage is forbidden with a half sister of a second marriage, which his mother-in-law has bore to his father, and is therefore called "the daughter of thy father's wife"; that is, of thy stepmother, but so the same may be said to be "begotten of thy father"; and therefore one begotten in a former marriage may not be understood; but then as this forbids the marriage of a brother with a sister, that is, of the same father, though not of the same mother, it falls in within the former law; wherefore some {h} have been of opinion, that this law forbids a man to marry the daughter of a woman whom his father has taken to wife, who was his deceased brother's wife, upon the law in

De 25:5; by which marriage she became the father's daughter, and the son's sister; wherefore they take the phrase, "begotten of thy father", to signify "being akin" to thy father; which, if it can be established, makes a distinct law: Jarchi observes, on this phrase, "the daughter of thy father's wife",



"this teaches that a man is not guilty concerning his sister that is by an handmaid or stranger; therefore it is said, the daughter of thy father's wife, namely, one that was fit for marriage.''



thou shalt not uncover her nakedness; See Gill on "Le 18:9".



{g} Paulus in Mosaic. & Roman. Leg. Collat. tit. 6. a Pithaeo. {h} Bertram. Lucubrat. Franktal. c. 6. Pool in loc.





Leviticus 18:12



Ver. 12. Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's sister,.... His aunt by his father's side, an instance of which we have in Amram, Ex 6:20; and Maimonides says {i}, an aunt was forbidden whether she was a father's sister in lawful wedlock or in fornication:



she [is] thy father's near kinswoman; or, the rest of thy father {k}; the residue of his flesh, one of the same flesh and blood with him; wherefore, as he could not marry her himself, so his son likewise was too near akin to enter into such a relation with her.



{i} Hilchot Issure Biah, c. 2. sect. 5. {k} Kyba rav "reliquiarum patris tui", Tigurine version.





Leviticus 18:13



Ver. 13. Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother's sister,.... Which is the same relation as before, an aunt by the mother's side; wherefore, if such a marriage was unlawful, this must also, and for the same reason:



for she [is] thy mother's near kinswoman; the same phraseology is used here as in the preceding verse; See Gill on "Le 18:12"; and by the same rule a woman might not marry her uncle, whether by father or mother's side, the relation being the same, and this reaches to great-uncle and great-aunt; instances of women marrying their uncles, and men their aunts, among the Heathens, have been given, as among the Persians and Lacedaemonians by Herodotus {l}, and among the Romans by Tacitus {m}, but were, in his time, new things with the latter.



{l} Erato, sive, l. 6. c. 71. Polymnia, sive, l. 7. c. 224, 239. {m} Annal. l. 12. c. 5, 6, 7.





Leviticus 18:14



Ver. 14. Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's brother,.... Which Gersom understands of committing sodomy with him, on which account he was doubly guilty, partly because of lying with a male, and partly because of uncovering the nakedness of his father's brother; but it rather seems at first sight as if the sense was, that a woman should not marry her father's brother, that is, her uncle, as a man might not marry his aunt, whether by father or mother's side, as in

Le 18:12; but Jarchi directs to a better sense than either, when he asks, what is his nakedness? in answer to which he recites the following clause as explanative of it:



thou shall not approach to his wife; in the use of the bed, as the Targum of Jonathan adds, that is, to lie with her, her husband being living, or to marry her, he being dead:



she [is] thine aunt: even as a father's or mother's sister, only they are aunts by blood, this by marriage or affinity: in the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan it is, she is the wife of thy father's brother; and as Aben Ezra, she is accounted as thine aunt, and so marriage with her prohibited; and the same holds good of a father's brother's wife, which being not mentioned, the same writer says, we have need of the tradition which expresses that and also of a father's sister's husband; for if marriage with a father's brother's wife is unlawful, then marriage with a father's sister's husband must be so too; for a father's sister's husband stands in the same degree or line of affinity as a father's brother's wife; and it is a sure rule, that in whatsoever degree or line of affinity males are forbid to marry females, in the same females are forbid to marry males.





Leviticus 18:15



Ver. 15. Thou shall not uncover the nakedness of thy daughter in law,.... Shall not he with her in his son's lifetime, or marry her after his death:



she [is] that son's wife; and so one flesh with him, and who is of the same flesh and blood with his father, and therefore the nearness of the relation forbids such incestuous copulation or marriage:



thou shall not uncover her nakedness; or have carnal knowledge of her, whether in the life or after the death of his son, even then marriage with her is not lawful.





Leviticus 18:16



Ver. 16. Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother's wife,.... Neither debauch her nor after the death of the brother marry her, that is, unless he dies without issue; and then, by another law, he was obliged to marry her, De 25:5; hence the Targum of Jonathan adds; by way of explanation.



"in the life of thy brother, or after his death, if he has children,''



but then that law was but an exception from this general rule, and so did not make it void in other respects, but bound it the more strongly; and besides, it was a special and peculiar law to the Jews, until the Messiah came to make it manifest of what tribe and family he came; and the reason of it ceasing, the law itself is ceased, and so neither binding on Jews nor Gentiles: hence John the Baptist boldly told Herod to his face, that it was not lawful for him to have his brother's wife

Mt 14:3; and even such marriages were condemned by the very Heathens: Dionysius Halicarnassensis {n} relates, that Lucius Tarquinius, Superbus, his brother being removed by poison, took Tullia to wife, whom his brother Aruntus had before married; but the historian calls it anosion gamon, "an unholy marriage", and abominable both among Greeks and Barbarians: Plutarch also reports {o}, that Marcus Crassus married the wife of his deceased brother; but such marriages are condemned by the same writer, as they are by the ancient Christians in their councils and canons {p}; now by this same law, if it is not lawful for a man to have his brother's wife, then it is not lawful for her to have her sister's husband; or, in other words, if it is not lawful for a woman to marry two brothers, then it is not lawful for a man to marry two sisters: the case of Jacob will not countenance such a marriage, since he was imposed upon and deceived; and such marriages have also been disapproved of by the Heathens and Christians: Honorius the emperor married two daughters of Stilico, one after another, but the unhappy exit of both sisters showed that those marriages were not approved of by God, for they both died premature deaths, leaving no children {q};



it [is] thy brother's nakedness; that is, his wife is, being by marriage one flesh with him, and his brother being so to him, the relation is too near to intermarry, and more especially when there is issue by the first, which connects them strongly.



{n} Hist. l. 4. {o} In Vita M. Crassi. {p} Canon Apostol. can. 19. Concil. Neocaesar. can. 2. {q} Zonaras, l. 3. apud Zanchium de Sponsalibus, l. 4. c. 1. p. 786.





Leviticus 18:17



Ver. 17. Thou shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter,.... That is, if a man marries a woman, and she has a daughter, which is the man's daughter-in-law, after the death of his wife he may not marry this daughter; for this daughter is of the same flesh with her mother, who became one flesh with the man she married, and therefore his relation to her daughter is too near to marry her: Jarchi says, if he does not marry the woman, but only deflower her, it is free for him to marry her daughter; but Aben Ezra says, if he has lain with the mother, the daughter is forbidden; however, if he married either of them, the other was forbidden; he could not marry them both, neither in the lifetime of them both, nor after the death of either of them:



neither shalt thou take her son's daughter, or her daughter's daughter, to uncover her nakedness; not any of her granddaughters, either in the line of her son or daughter; that is, might not lie with either of them, or marry them, and much less then marry her own daughter, these being a further remove from her:



[for] they [are] her near kinswomen; one or other of them, even every one of them, "the rest" and residue "of her" {r}, of her flesh, who together made one flesh with her; and therefore not to be married to her husband, either in her life, or after her death:



it [is] wickedness: a very great wickedness, abominable in the sight of God, and to be detested by man as vile and impious; it is whoredom, as the Targum of Jonathan renders it.



{r} hnh hrav "reliquiae sunt ipsae", Tigurine version.





Leviticus 18:18



Ver. 18. Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister,.... Both of them together, as Jarchi; two sisters at one and the same time; so the Targum of Jonathan,



"a woman in the life of her sister thou shall not take;''



that is, in marriage, that sister being his wife; for the sense of the Targumist can never be that a man might not take a woman for his wife, she having a sister living, but not to take one sister to another, or marry his first wife's sister, whether, as Maimonides {s} says, she was sister by father or mother's side, in marriage or in fornication:



to vex [her], to uncover her nakedness; two reasons are given, why, though polygamy, or having more wives than one, was connived at, yet it was not allowed that a man should have two sisters; partly, because they would be more apt to quarrel, and be more jealous and impatient of one another, if more favour was shown or thought to be shown to one more than another; and partly, because it was a filthy and unbecoming action to uncover the nakedness of one, or lie with one so nearly related to his wife:



besides her in her life [time]; from whence some have concluded, and so many of the Jewish writers {t}, that a man might marry his wife's sister after her death, but not while she was living; but the phrase, "in her lifetime", is not to be joined to the phrase "thou shall not take a wife"; but to the phrases more near, "to vex her in her lifetime", or as long as she lived, and "to uncover her nakedness by her" {u}, on the side of her, as long as she lived; for that a wife's sister may be married to her husband, even after her death, cannot be lawful, as appears from the general prohibition, Le 18:6; "none of you shall approach to him that is near of kin to him"; and yet it is certain that a wife's sister is near akin to a man; and from the prohibition of marriage with an uncle's wife, with the daughter of a son-in-law, or of a daughter-in-law, Le 18:14; now a wife's sister is nearer of kin than either of these; and from the confusion that must follow in case of issue by both, not only of degrees but appellation of kindred; one and the same man, who as a father of children, and the husband of their mother's sister, stands in the relation both of a father and an uncle to his own children; the woman to the children of the deceased sister stands in the relation both of a stepmother, and of a mother's sister or aunt, and to the children that were born of her, she stands in the relation both of a mother and an uncle's wife; and the two sorts of children are both brethren and own cousins by the mother's side, but of this See Gill on "Le 18:16" for more; some understand this of a prohibition of polygamy, rendering the words, "thou shall not take one wife to another"; but the former sense is best; polygamy being not expressly forbidden by the law of Moses, but supposed in it, and winked at by it; and words of relation being always used in all these laws of marriage, in a proper and not in an improper sense: there is a pretty good deal of agreement between these laws of Moses and the Roman laws; by an edict of Dioclesian and Maximian {w}, it was made unlawful to contract matrimony with a daughter, with a niece, with a niece's daughter, with a grandmother, with a great-grandmother, with an aunt by the father's side, with an aunt by the mother's side, with a sister's daughter, and a niece from her, with a daughter-in-law to a second husband, with a mother-in-law, with a wife or husband's mother, and with a son's wife; and several of these laws are recommended by Phocylydes, an Heathen poet, at least in a poem that hears his name; and the marriage of a wife's sister after her death has been condemned by several Christian councils {x}.



{s} Hilchot Issure Biah, c. 2. sect. 9. {t} Misn. Yebamot, c. 4. sect. 13. Vajikra Rabba, sect. 22. fol. 164. 1. Peaicta, Ben Gersom in loc. {u} hyle "apud vel prope eam"; so le is sometimes used; see Nold. part. Concord. Ebr. p. 691. {w} Apud Mosaic. & Roman. Leg. Collat. ut supra. (tit. 6. a Pithaeo) {x} Concil. Illiber. can. 61. Aurat. can. 17. Auxer. can. 30.





Leviticus 18:19



Ver. 19. Also thou shall not approach unto a woman,.... Not even a man to his own wife, and much less to another woman:



to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness; in her monthly courses; and the time of her separation from her husband on that account was seven days, Le 15:19; if a man lay with a woman when in such circumstances, they were both to be cut off from their people, Le 20:18; and such an action is reckoned among sins, and uncleanness of the worst sort, Eze 22:10.





Leviticus 18:20



Ver. 20. Moreover, thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour's wife,.... Which is adultery, and a breach of the seventh command,

Ex 20:14:



to defile thyself with her; not only adultery is a defiling a man's wife, as it is sometimes called, but the adulterer defiles himself: all sin is of a defiling nature, but especially this, which defiles a man both in soul and body, and brings a blot and stain upon his character, which shall not be wiped off, Pr 6:32.





Leviticus 18:21



Ver. 21. And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through [the fire] to Molech,.... The name of an image or idol, according to Aben Ezra, who observes, that their wise men interpret it as a general name for everyone whom they made to reign over them; and it is right, he says, that it is the abomination of the children of Ammon, and so the same with Milcom, 1Ki 11:5; and with Baal, as appears from Jer 32:35; and they are both of much the same signification, the one signifies a king, the other a lord; and perhaps is the same with the Melicarthus of Sanchoniatho {y}, who is also Hercules; to whom Pliny says {z} that the Phoenicians offered human sacrifices every year: of Molech,

See Gill on "Jer 7:31" see Gill on "Am 1:13"; by "seed" is meant children and offspring; and because the word "fire" is not in the original text, some, as Aben Ezra observes, explain the phrase, "let to pass through", of their causing them to pass from the law of God to the religion of Molech, or of devoting them to his service and worship; but the word "fire" is rightly supplied, as it may be from De 18:10; and the same writer says, the phrase to pass through is the same as to burn; but though this they sometimes did, even burn their infants, and sacrificed them to idols, 2Ch 28:3; yet this seems to be something short of that, and to be done in the manner, as Jarchi and other Jewish writers {a} relate; who say, the father delivered his son to the priests (of Molech) and they made two great fires, and caused the son to pass on foot between the two fires, which was a kind of a lustration, and so of a dedication of them to the idol; though it must be owned that both were done; yea, that both the phrases of passing through the fire, and of burning, are used promiscuously of the same, see 2Ki 16:3; compared with 2Ch 28:3 and also Eze 16:20; and they might be both done at different times, or the one previous and in order to the other; and perhaps they might cause the child so often and so long to pass through the fire, as that at last it was burnt and destroyed:



neither shall thou profane the name of thy God; who had given them children, and to whom they ought to have devoted them, and in whose service they should have trained them up to the honour of his name; but instead of that profaned it, by the above idolatrous and cruel usages:



I [am] the Lord; who would avenge such a profanation of his name.



{y} Apud, Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 1. p. 38. {z} Nat. Hist. l. 36. c. 5. {a} Ben Melech in loc. Kimchii Sepher Shorash. rad. Klm.





Leviticus 18:22



Ver. 22. Thou shall not lie with mankind as with womankind,.... By carnal knowledge of them, and carnal copulation with them, and mixing bodies in like manner: this is the sin commonly called sodomy, from the inhabitants of Sodom, greatly addicted to it, for which their city was destroyed by fire: those that are guilty of this sin, are, by the apostle, called "abusers of themselves with mankind", 1Co 6:9;



it [is] abomination; it is so to God, as the above instance of his vengeance shows, and ought to be abominable to men, as being not only contrary to the law of God, but even contrary to nature itself, and what is never to be observed among brute creatures.





Leviticus 18:23



Ver. 23. Neither shall thou lie with any beast, to defile thyself therewith,.... A female one, as Aben Ezra notes, as a mare, cow, or ewe, or any other beast, small or great, as Ben Gersom, or whether tame or wild, as Maimonides {b}; and even fowls are comprehended, as the same writers observe:



neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: that is, stand before a beast, and by a lascivious and obscene behaviour solicit the beast to a congress with her, and then lie down after the manner of four-footed beasts, as the word signifies, that it may have carnal copulation with her: for a man to lie with a beast is most shocking and detestable, but for a woman to solicit such an unnatural mixture is most horrible and astonishing: perhaps reference may be had to a most shocking practice among the Egyptians, from among whom the Israelites were lately come, and whose doings they were not to imitate,

Le 18:3; and which may account for this law, as Bishop Patrick observes: at Mendes, in Egypt, a goat was worshipped, as has been remarked Le 18:7; and where the women used to lie with such creatures, as Strabo {c} and Aelianus {d} from Pindar have related; yea, Herodotus {e} reports, of his own knowledge, that a goat had carnal copulation with a woman openly, in the view of all, in his time; and though that creature is a most lascivious and lustful one, yet, as Bochart {f} from Plutarch has observed, when it is provoked by many and beautiful women, is not inclined and ready to come into their embraces, but shows some abhorrence of it: nature in brutes, as that learned man observes, is often more prevalent in them than in mankind:



it [is] confusion; a mixing of the seed of man and beast together, a blending of different kinds of creatures, a perverting the order of nature, and introducing the utmost confusion of beings, from whence monsters in nature may arise.



{b} Hilchot Issure Biah, c. 1. sect. 16. {c} Geograph. l. 17. p. 551. {d} De Animal. l. 7. c. 19. {e} Euterpe, sive, l. 2. c. 46. {f} Hierozoic. par. 1. l. 2. c. 53. col. 642.





Leviticus 18:24



Ver. 24. Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things,.... In incestuous copulations and marriages, in adultery, corporeal and spiritual, and bestiality:



for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you; that is, the seven nations of the land of Canaan, which God was about to eject out of their land to make room for the Israelites, and that on account of the above shocking vices which abounded among them; so that in some sense the land they dwelt upon was defiled by them, and called for vengeance on them, as even loathing its inhabitants, as afterwards suggested.





Leviticus 18:25



Ver. 25. And the land is defiled,.... The inhabitants of it, with the immoralities and idolatries before mentioned:



therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it; or punish the inhabitants that are on it for their sins:



and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants; as a stomach loaded with corrupt and bad food it has taken in, nauseates it, and cannot bear and retain it, but casts it up, and never receives it again; so the land of Canaan is represented as loathing its inhabitants, and as having an aversion to them, and indignation against them, and as not being able to bear them, but entirely willing to be rid of them and throw them out of their places in it, never to be admitted more, being as nauseous and as useless as the cast of a man's stomach; see Re 3:16.





Leviticus 18:26



Ver. 26. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments,.... Before observed to them, whether of a ceremonial nature, and enjoined them according to his sovereign will and pleasure; or of a moral nature, and founded in justice and equity, and so worthy of their regard, and obligatory upon them; as well as in their own nature they recommended themselves to their regard, as being the reverse of those loathsome and abominable things before dehorted from:



and shall not commit [any] of these abominations; such as incest, adultery, idolatry, and bestiality, which are in themselves abominable things, execrable to God, and to be detested by men:



[neither] any of your own nation; that belonged to any of their own tribes, or should be born to them in the land of Canaan when they came thither, and were properly natives of it:



nor any stranger that sojourneth among you; any proselyte, and especially a proselyte of righteousness, who conformed to the Jewish religion, and had laid himself under obligation to do everything that was binding upon an Israelite.





Leviticus 18:27



Ver. 27. For all these abominations have the men of the land done,.... The then present inhabitants of Canaan, who dwelt in it before the Israelites came into it; these were guilty of unclean copulations, of incestuous, marriages, of fornication and adultery, and of bestiality and idolatry:



which [were] before you; lived in the land before them, had long dwelt there, but now about to be cast out for their sins; and therefore they who were going to succeed them should take warning by them, lest, committing the same sins, they should be cast out likewise:



and the land is defiled; See Gill on "Le 18:25".





Leviticus 18:28



Ver. 28. That the land spew not you out also, when ye defile it,.... By sinning on it, and so rendering it obnoxious to the curse of God, as the whole earth originally was for the sin of man; and so be cast out of it, as Adam was out of paradise, and as the Israelites might expect to be cast out of Canaan, as the old inhabitants of it had been:



as it spewed out the nations that [were] before you; which for the certainty of it is spoken of as done, though it was as yet future; and what the Lord did is ascribed to the land, the more to aggravate their crying sins and abominations, for which the land mourned, and which it could not bear.





Leviticus 18:29



Ver. 29. For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations,.... Before particularly forbid, any of them, be it which it will, they all being very heinous and vile, and especially these last mentioned:



even the souls that commit [them]; whether male or female, as Jarchi observes; for the above things concern them both for the most part, however some one, and some another; and though most, if not all the said crimes are committed by the members of the body, yet since under the influence and direction of the soul, the commission of them is attributed to that, and the punishment threatened respects both:



shall be cut off from among the people; be removed from their church state, and deprived of ecclesiastical privileges, and from their civil state, and reckoned no more of the commonwealth of Israel; and if known and convicted, to be punished by the civil magistrate, and if not, by the immediate hand of God.





Leviticus 18:30



Ver. 30. Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance,.... Whatever the Lord appointed them and commanded, whether contained in this chapter, or elsewhere:



that [ye] commit not [anyone] of these abominable customs; for attending to the ordinances of God, and a close in them, they would be preserved from the commission of such abominable things, and giving in to such detestable customs as before warned against:



which were committed before you; by the inhabitants of Canaan; and by the punishment on them for them they might be deterred from doing the same:



and that ye defile not yourselves therein; for though the land is so often said to be defiled, yet, properly speaking, and chiefly, it was the inhabitants that were defiled by their abominable customs; and so would the Israelites also, should they observe the same, and thereby become abominable in the sight of God, and incur his displeasure, and be liable to his vengeance:



I [am] the Lord your God; who had a sovereign authority over them, and a right to give out what commands he pleased, both negative and affirmative; and to whom they were under obligations to obey, as the God of nature and providence, from whom they had their beings, and were supported in them, and as their covenant God, who had bestowed special and spiritual favours on them.

 

John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.

Leviticus 19:1



INTRODUCTION TO LEVITICUS 19



This chapter contains various laws, ceremonial and moral, tending to the sanctification of men, in imitation of the holy God, Le 19:1; as concerning the reverence of parents, and observing the sabbaths,

Le 19:3; against idolatry, Le 19:4; about offering and eating of peace offerings, Le 19:5; concerning harvest and gleaning of fields and vineyards, Le 19:9; respecting the breach of several of the commandments of the law, as the eighth, ninth, and third, particularly, Le 19:11; and others relating to the ill usage of the deaf and blind, and having respect to persons rich or poor in judgment, and acting the part of a tale bearer among people,

Le 19:14; and bearing hatred and ill will to any of their neighbours, Le 19:17; and others forbidding mixtures in the generation of cattle, sowing fields, and wearing apparel, Le 19:19; and concerning the punishment of a man that lay with a bondmaid, and the offering he should bring for his atonement, Le 19:20; then follow certain laws concerning fruit trees, when the fruit of them should be eaten, Le 19:23; and concerning eating with blood, using enchantments, and observing times, and managing the hair of the head and beard, and avoiding to make any marks, prints, and cuttings in the flesh for the dead, Le 19:26; a caution not to prostitute a daughter to whoredom, and to observe the sabbath, and reverence the sanctuary of God, and pay no regard to wizards and familiar spirits,

Le 19:29; to show reverence to ancient persons, and not to vex and distress strangers, Le 19:32; and to do no injustice in weight and measure, Le 19:35; all which instructions are to be carefully observed, and put in execution, Le 19:37.



Ver. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... About the same, or quickly after he had delivered the above laws to him; and there are many in this chapter, which were before given, and here repeated:



saying; as follows.





Leviticus 19:2



Ver. 2. Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel,.... They could not be all spoke to together, but tribe after tribe, or family after family; or rather the heads of the tribes, and at most the heads of families were convened, and the following instructions were given, to be communicated to their respective tribes and families. Jarchi says this section was spoken in the congregation, because the greater part of the body of the law, or the more substantial parts of it, depend upon it; and indeed all the ten commandments are included in it, with various other laws, both judicial and ceremonial. Aben Ezra remarks, that all the congregation are spoken to, to include the proselytes, because they had been warned of incests, as the Israelites, in the preceding chapter, See Gill on "Le 18:26";



and say unto them, ye shall be holy: a separate people from all others, abstaining from all the impurity and idolatry they are cautioned against in the foregoing chapter, and observing the holy precepts expressed in this:



for I the Lord your God [am] holy; in his nature, essence, originally, independently, immutably, and perfectly; and the more holy they were, the more like they would be to him; See Gill on "Le 11:44" and

See Gill on "Le 11:45"; where the same words are used, after the laws given about creatures clean and unclean to be eaten, as here, after those about impure copulations and incests.







Leviticus 19:3



Ver. 3. Ye shall fear every man his mother and his father,.... This has respect to the fifth command, which is the first with promise, and is here referred to first, because a man has his beginning in the world from his parents, and by them he is trained up in the observance of all the other laws of God, equally to be respected; and the fear of them is not servile, but filial, joined with love and affection to them, and includes an inward esteem and reverence of them, an outward respect unto them, a readiness to obey their commands, and giving due and equal honour unto them; See Gill on "Ex 20:12"; Pythagoras, Phocylides, and other Heathens, next to honouring God, exhort to the honour and reverence of parents:



and keep my sabbaths; this is expressed in the plural number, because there were various sabbaths. The seventh day sabbath, and the seventh year sabbath, and the jubilee, which was once in seven times seven years; the seventh day sabbath is chiefly meant: this follows upon the other, because it lay upon parents to teach their children the observance of the sabbath, and to train them up in it; and indeed the fear of them greatly depends on it, for children that are sabbath breakers have seldom much respect to their parents; and besides this suggests, that though children are to honour, reverence, and obey their parents, yet not in anything that is contrary to the laws of God; and, particularly should they suggest to them that sabbaths were not to be observed, they should not hearken to them:



I [am] the Lord your God; that gave them their being, parents being but instruments, and who had a right to enjoin them what laws he pleased; and among the rest had ordered them to observe the sabbath, and which in gratitude they were obliged unto, as well as in point of duty.





Leviticus 19:4



Ver. 4. Turn ye not unto idols,.... From the one only true and living God to them that are not gods, as the word used signifies, who are nothing; for, as the apostle says, an idol is nothing in the world, 1Co 8:4, is of no worth and value, of no consequence and importance, of no avail and usefulness to its devotees; wherefore to turn from the true God to such as these is the greatest stupidity, as well as wickedness: or "look not" at them {g} for help or assistance, for they are not able to give it: and to look at them so as to view them attentively, and consider their likeness, the Jews say {h} is forbidden; and even in the heart and mind, as Aben Ezra observes, to have respect unto them was not right; or in the thoughts, as Gersom:



nor make to yourselves molten gods; of gold, silver, or brass, melted and cast into a mould, as the golden calf was, to which respect may be had. These laws have a respect unto the first and second commandments,

Ex 20:3:



I [am] the Lord, your God; who only is to be worshipped, and who has forbid the making and worshipping any image, molten or graven, and who will therefore resent idolatry of every sort, and punish for it.



{g} wnpt la "ne respiciatis", Montanus, Tigurine version, Drusius. {h} Pesichta, Maimonides.





Leviticus 19:5



Ver. 5. And if ye offer a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord,.... Which were of three sorts, a thanksgiving, a vow, and a voluntary offering, Le 7:11; the latter seems to be here meant, as appears by what follows:



ye shall offer it at your own will; a voluntary freewill offering, of their own accord, and not by force, as Aben Ezra; and in such offerings they were left to their liberty to offer what they pleased, it might be of the flock, or of the herd, a male or a female, Le 3:1. The Targum of Jonathan is



"for your acceptation;''



that is, that should be offered, and in such a manner as to be accepted of you with God; which sense is countenanced by Le 19:7; and becomes acceptable, when what follows about eating them is attended to.





Leviticus 19:6



Ver. 6. It shall be eaten the same day ye offer it, and on the morrow,.... The meaning is, that if it could be, it was best to eat it all up the same day it was offered, but if not, the remainder was to be eaten on the morrow, but by no means to be kept any longer; this shows that that sort of peace offering is intended, which was either a vow or a voluntary offering, Le 7:16; and the Jews gather from hence, that sacrifices were to be slain in the day, and not in the night {i};



and if ought remain unto the third, it shall be burnt with fire; as it is ordered, Le 7:16; that so the owner might have no profit by it, and therefore be under no temptation to keep it longer than the fixed time.



{i} Bartenora in Misn. Zebachim, c. 13. sect. 7. & Misn. Yoma, c. 8. sect. 1.





Leviticus 19:7



Ver. 7. And if it be eaten at all on the third day,.... Or "in eating be eaten" {k} any of it be eaten, the least bit of it:



it [is] abominable; it is as any common thing, as if it was no sacrifice; yea, as if it was corrupt and putrefied flesh; nay, as what is abominable to God: and therefore it follows,



it shall not be accepted; of the Lord, but rejected, his will not being attended to.



{k} lkay lkah "comedendo, comedetur", Drusius.





Leviticus 19:8



Ver. 8. Therefore [everyone] that eateth it shall bear his iniquity,.... Be chargeable with sin, be pronounced guilty, and endure the punishment, which is cutting off, Le 7:20:



because he hath profaned the hallowed thing of the Lord; the flesh of the peace offerings, by keeping it longer than the fixed time for it, when it was liable to corruption and putrefaction; for after the inwards and the fat of them were offered, as Aben Ezra says, the flesh was holy, and to be eaten as an holy thing, and within the time the law required, or otherwise it was profaned and polluted:



and that soul shall be cut off from among his people; be deprived of his civil and religious privileges, or be punished by the hand of the civil magistrate, or else by the immediate hand of God.





Leviticus 19:9



Ver. 9. And when ye reap the harvest of your land,.... Of the land of Canaan, when come into it, which having sown, and it was harvest, either barley harvest or wheat harvest, or both, and especially the latter, to which reaping seems best to agree:



thou shall not wholly reap the corner of the field; but a part was to be left for the poor. This follows upon the peace offerings: and, as Aben Ezra observes, as the fat of them was to be given to God, so somewhat of the harvest was to be given for the glory of God to the poor and stranger. In the Misnah is a whole treatise, called "Peah", which signifies "the corner", in which there are many decisions concerning this affair; and among the rest, whereas it is not fixed in the law how large the corner should be, what quantity should be left, how many ears of corn, or what a proportion of the field, this is there determined by the wise men, who say, they do not leave less than a sixtieth part; for though they say there is no measure (certain) for the corner, yet the whole is according to the largeness of the field, or according to the multitude of the poor, or according to the plenty of the increase {l}, so that, as these were, more or less were left: and though the place to be left is called a corner, it was a matter indifferent in what part of the field it was; for so it follows, they give (or leave) the corner at the beginning of the field, or in the middle {m}; and Ben Gersom observes, that the corner was at the end of the field, where the harvest is finished; and it is plain where the harvest is finished, he says, the corner should be left; for the law does not precisely determine, only that part of the corner should be left to the poor; and it is of no consequence to the poor whether it is in the middle of the field or in the end of it; but Maimonides {n} thinks it was to be left at the end of the field, that the poor might know where to come for it: and in the above treatise the times are also set when the poor should come and gather it, which they might not do at any time; and there were three times on a day they had leave to come, in the morning, in the middle of the day, and at the evening sacrifice {o}, i.e. about three o'clock in the afternoon; the morning was appointed, as the commentators say {p}, for the sake of women that had young children, who were then asleep, the middle of the day for the sake of nurses, and the evening for the sake of ancient persons:



neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest; ears of corn which fall from the hand or sickle of the reaper, or in gathering the reaps to bind up in sheaves. In the above treatise it is asked, what is a gleaning? that which falls in reaping; if the reaper reaps his handful, or plucks up an handful, and a thorn strikes him, and it falls out of his hand to the ground, lo, it is the owner's; but if out of the middle of his hand, or out of the middle of the sickle, it is the poor's; if from the further part of his hand, or of the sickle, it is the owner's; but if from the top of his hand (or tip of his fingers) or the point of the sickle, it is the poor's {q}: and it is further said {r},



"two ears are a gleaning, but three are not,''



and so Jarchi on the text, that is, when three fall together; this is according to the school of Hillel, but according to the school of Shammai, if there were three ears that fell together, they were the poor's, if four they belonged to the owner.



{l} Misn. Peah, c. 1. sect. 2. {m} Ibid. sect. 3. {n} Hilchot Mattanot Anayim, c. 2. sect. 12. {o} Misn. Peah. c. 4. sect. 5. {p} Maimon & Bartenora in ib. {q} Ib. sect. 10. {r} Maimon. & Bartenora in Misn. Peah, c. 6. sect. 5.





Leviticus 19:10



Ver. 10. And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard,.... Or cut off the little clusters which are, as Aben Ezra observes, like an infant, as the word signifies, infant clusters, which were small in comparison of the large ones, as infants are to men; those which had but a grape or two, or very few upon them, were not to be cut off, but left for the poor: and Gersom says, if the whole vine consisted of such clusters, it all belonged to the poor:



neither shall thou gather [every] grape of thy vineyard; every particular single grape; these were such as were left on the vine after the large clusters were gathered, and a man upon viewing it again might not gather such as had only a single grape or two upon them; for the Misnic doctors say {s}, two grapes or berries make a "peret" (the word here rendered "every grape"), but three do not; so that if there were three grapes upon a cluster it was the owner's, and might be gathered, but if fewer, then it belonged to the poor; or this may be understood {t} also of such single grapes that fell to the ground in gathering, which might not be taken up by the owners, but were to be left to the poor; and, as Gersom says the grape gatherers might not put a bushel under the vines in the time of gathering, to catch the single grapes that fell:



thou shall leave them for the poor and stranger: for the poor Israelite, and the stranger that sojourns with you, as Aben Ezra interprets it; the stranger intends a proselyte, not a proselyte of the gate, but a proselyte of righteousness, as Gersom and it is a rule laid down by Maimonides {u}, that every stranger spoken of concerning the gifts of the poor is no other than a proselyte of righteousness, one that has been circumcised upon embracing the Jewish religion, and agreeing to conform to all the laws and rituals of it; though the same writer observes, that they do not restrain the poor of the Gentiles from these gifts, but they are in general included among the poor of Israel; and they come and take them because of the ways of peace; for the sake of peace, to promote peace and harmony among them:



I [am] the Lord your God; that gave them fields and vineyards, and times of harvest, and vintage, and blessed them with fruitful seasons, and therefore had a right to require such things of them; and they were in duty and gratitude bound to observe his commands; and this shows his regard unto, and concern for the poor, and that he is the father and patron of them.



{s} Maimon. & Bartenora in Misn. Peah, c.6. sect. 5. {t} So it is interpreted by R Sol. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 59. 1. {u} Mattanot Anayim, c. 1. sect. 9.





Leviticus 19:11



Ver. 11. Ye shall not steal,.... Which is the eighth command;

See Gill on "Ex 20:15"; though Jarchi thinks something different from that law is here intended; that this is a caution against stealing of money, that in the decalogue against stealing of souls, or men. And it may be observed, that one is expressed in the singular number, the other in the plural, as here, and takes in more; not the actual thief only, but he that sees and is silent, who, as Aben Ezra observes, is even as the thief; and perhaps this follows upon the preceding laws, to suggest, that he that deprives the poor of the corner of the field, and of the gleaning Of the harvest and vintage, is as if he robbed; and the last mentioned writer seems to make the force of this depend on that: and Maimonides {w} on the above law observes, that he that put a basket under a vine, in the time of gathering grapes, robbed the poor:



neither deal falsely; in any respect defrauding and over reaching in trade and commerce, particularly not being faithful to a trust committed to them; so Aben Ezra restrains it to what is deposited with a man to keep, which he denies he ever had; and he observes, that he that knows it, and does not bear witness of it, is as he that deals falsely; and such an one, according to a former law, having sworn falsely, and, when convicted, was obliged to restore the principal, and add a fifth part, and bring a trespass offering to make atonement for his sin likewise, Le 6:2:



neither lie one to another; in common speech and conversation, in trade and business, and particularly by demanding money of a man who never had anything of him, as Aben Ezra; and who owes him nothing, and yet affirms, with a lie, that he is indebted to him, and insists on payment.



{w} Mattanot Anayim, c. 4. sect. 16.





Leviticus 19:12



Ver. 12. And ye shall not swear by my name falsely,.... Or "to a falsehood" {x}, to any of the above cases; as that a man has not the deposit of another's in his hands, when he has; or that such a man owes him so much money, when he does not, or any other false thing. Stealing, dealing falsely, lying, and false swearing, are mentioned together, as following one another, and as tending to lead on, the one to the other, as Jarchi observes;



"if thou stealest, this will lead thee on to deal falsely, and then to lie, and after that to swear;''



and who further remarks, because it may be thought a man is guilty only because of the proper name (of God he may swear by); therefore to comprehend all the surnames (or epithets of God, such as gracious, merciful, &c.) it is said, "ye shall not swear by, my name falsely": every name which is mine, by which he is called; and so Gersom, any epithet or attribute of his, or any word or phrase by which he is described, as he that made the heavens, or that dwelleth in the heavens, or liveth for ever and ever, and the like; and the word being of the plural number, ye shall not swear, takes in, as Aben Ezra thinks, him that causes to swear, as well as him that swears:



neither shall thou profane the name of thy God: through swearing falsely by it, or through any rash or vain oath in common conversation; not only perjury in a court of judicature, but all profane oaths, curses, and imprecations are forbidden, as breaches of the third command, which this refers to; See Gill on "Ex 20:7":



I [am] the Lord; whose name is holy, and who can and will revenge every abuse of it in a profane way, and to the injury of men.



{x} rqvl "ad fallaciam ullam", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; so Ainsworth.





Leviticus 19:13



Ver. 13. Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob [him],.... Not defraud him secretly, nor rob him openly and by force, as Aben Ezra; not defraud him in buying and selling, in retaining wages due to him, and refusing to return to him what has been committed to trust, or to repay him what has been borrowed of him: the Vulgate Latin is, "thou shall not calumniate [him]", or get anything from him, by raising a calumny upon him; nor rob him by coming into his house, or entering into his fields, and taking away his goods, or his cattle without his will, and in a forcible manner; or by meeting him on the highway and demanding his money, and taking it from him:



the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning; unless he that is hired agrees to it; for then it may be kept two or three days, or a week, or for whatsoever time may be agreed upon between them: this must be understood of one that is hired by the day, whose wages are due at night, and who may want his money to buy food for his family, and therefore should not without his consent be detained from him; and not of one that is hired by the week, or by the year, whose wages are not due until the end of the week or year for which he is hired; and the Jewish writers {y} observe, that this Scripture speaks of a day hireling, or a day labourer, whose wages became due at night; as another Scripture, De 24:15; speaks of a night hireling, or a night labourer, whose hire is not due until the pillar of the morning arises, or the sun is up, and therefore it must be paid him before it goes down; to detain the wages of such, or defraud them of it, is a very crying sin; see Jer 22:13.



{y} Vid. Misn. Bava Metzia, c. 9. sect. 11. & Maimon. & Bartenora in ib. Jarchi & Ben Gersom in loc.





Leviticus 19:14



Ver. 14. Thou shalt not curse the deaf,.... Who are naturally so, born deaf, or become so through some accident, and cannot hear what is objected to them, and they are cursed for; and so cannot reply in their own defence, and remove the calumny cast upon them, if it be such which is the cause of their being cursed; and therefore there is something mean and base as well as wicked in cursing such: the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan render it, "him that heareth not", and respects any absent person who is not within the hearing of the curse, and so equally incapable of answering for himself as a deaf man: Gersom observes, that this is a caution not to curse any Israelite; for if we are cautioned, says he, not to curse a deaf man who hears not, and therefore cannot be moved at it, much less should we curse him that is not deaf, from whence quarrels and fightings arise:



nor put a stumblingblock before the blind: to cause him to fall; and in this negative is implied, that a man should be serviceable and helpful to the blind as much as may be; as to lead, and guide, and direct them in the way, and not put them out of it, as well as not do anything to cause them to stumble in it; Jarchi and Ben Gersom interpret this figuratively, of ignorant persons imposed upon by the bad advice of others: on the other hand, agreeably to this sense, Job says, he was "eyes to the blind", Job 29:15; gave good advice to the ignorant, instructed them what ways and methods to take to do themselves justice, or obtain it, which otherwise they knew not:



but shalt fear thy God: who, as Aben Ezra observes, can punish thee by making thee deaf and blind also; by striking them with deafness and blindness at once; wherefore the awe and fear of God should be on persons, and make them cautious and fearful how they abused those in such circumstances:



I [am] the Lord; the Lord God, omnipresent and omniscient, that hears when the deaf are cursed, though they do not; and sees the stumblingblocks laid before the blind, and knows who laid them, though they do not, and will revenge such abuses and injuries: the apostle seems to have respect to this law in Ro 14:13.





Leviticus 19:15



Ver. 15. Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment,.... This is said with respect to judges and witnesses, as Aben Ezra notes; that the one should not bear false witness in a court of judicature to the perversion of justice, and the other should not pronounce an unrighteous sentence, justifying the wicked and condemning the righteous:



thou shalt not respect the person of the poor; that is, in judgment, or in a court of judicature, when a cause of his is brought before it; though privately his person may be respected, and he relieved in his distress as a poor man; but in a court of justice his person and character as a poor man are not to be regarded; the cause is not to be given either for him or against him on that account, without regard to the justice and equity of it; he may be pitied in other respects but in a cause between him and another, even a rich man, not pity, but justice, must take place, See Gill on "Ex 23:3":



nor honour the person of the mighty; not fear to put him to shame and blushing, by giving the cause against him, if he is in the wrong; his riches, his grandeur, his honour, must not came into any account, or have any weight or influence on the court to pervert justice: the Jewish writers, particularly Maimonides {z} suggest that there was to be no difference between a rich man and a poor man while their cause was trying; that they were to be clothed either both in a rich habit, or both in a mean one; and that their posture was to be alike, whether sitting or standing; as well as that no favour should be shown to one more than to another; as that one might have liberty to speak as much and as long as he pleased, and the other bid to be short; or the one be spoken tenderly to, and the other harshly:



[but] in righteousness shall thou judge thy neighbour; be he rich or poor, doing justice to both, and showing no partiality to either; see

Pr 18:5.



{z} Hilchot Sanhedrin, c. 21. sect. 1, 2, 3.





Leviticus 19:16



Ver. 16. Thou shall not go up and down [as] a talebearer among thy people,.... The word used signifies a merchant, and particularly one that deals in drugs and spices, and especially a peddler in those things, that goes about from place to place to sell them; and such having an opportunity and making use of it to carry stories of others, and report them to their disadvantage, hence it came to be used for one that carries tales from house to house, in order to curry favour for himself, and to the injury of others; and such a man is a detestable person, and ought not to be encouraged, see 1Ti 5:13;



neither shall thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour; either by bearing a false testimony, whereby his blood is in danger of being shed when innocent; or by being silent, and not hearing a testimony for him, whereby the shedding of his innocent blood might have been prevented; either way may be interpreted standing against it: the Jewish writers think, that a man by this law, is bound to do all he can to preserve the life of his neighbour, when it is by any means in danger, by drowning, or by thieves and wild beasts, so Jarchi:



I [am] the Lord; the just and righteous One, who will resent and punish for all unjust proceedings in courts of judicature, secret tale bearing, doing any injury to another, or not preventing it when in the power of his hands.





Leviticus 19:17



Ver. 17. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart,.... Although no hatred may be expressed either by words or deeds, yet being in the heart is a breach of the sixth command, see Mt 5:21; and of this a man may be guilty, when he does not attempt to save the life of his neighbour, either by bearing a testimony for him, or by delivering from danger, as preserving him from drowning, from wild beasts and thieves, as in Le 19:16; or when he does not reprove him for sin, as in the next clause, but suffers him to go on in it to his ruin, either of which by interpretation is an hatred of him:



thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, for any sin committed by him, though secretly, yet known; which rebuke should be private, and repeated as may be found necessary, and given gently in meekness and tenderness:



and not suffer sin upon him; unconvinced of, unrepented of and persisted in, which may prove of fatal consequence to him; and therefore to let him alone, and go on in it without telling him of it, and reproving him for it, would be so far from acting the kind and friendly part, and showing him love and respect, that it would be an evidence of hating him at heart, at least it might be strongly suspected: or, "and not bear sin for him" {a}; become a partner with him in his sin, and so become liable to bear punishment for it; which is a strong reason for reproving sin, in a proper manner, lest we should be partakers of other men's sins; see 1Ti 5:20.



{a} ajx wyle avt al "ne feras propter eum peccatum", Tigurine version; so Sept. Syr. Ar. Targum Jonathan, Aben Ezra, Ainsworth.





Leviticus 19:18



Ver. 18. Thou shalt not avenge,.... That is, not avenge ourselves on him that has done us an ill thing, but leave it to him to whom vengeance belongs, see Ro 12:19; which is done when a man does an ill thing for another, or denies to grant a favour which he has been denied by another; Jarchi thus illustrates it, one says to him (his neighbour) lend me thy sickle; he answers, no (I will not); on the morrow (the neighbour comes, who had refused, and) says to him, lend me thy hatchet; he replies, I will not lend thee, even as thou wouldest not lend me; this is vengeance: this was reckoned mean and little, a piece of weakness with the very Heathens {b}:



nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people; those of the same place, city, or kingdom; or "not observe" {c} the injury done, take no notice of it, nor lay it up in the mind and memory, but forget it; or "not keep" {d} or retain enmity, as the Targum of Jonathan supplies it; and so do an ill turn, or refuse to do a good one; or if that is done, yet upbraids with the former unkindness; for upbraiding with unkindness shows that a grudge is retained, though the suit is not denied:



but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; sincerely and heartily, as a man loves himself, doing all the good to him as a man does to himself, or would have done to himself, and hindering all the mischief done to him he would have himself preserved from: Jarchi observes, that it was a saying of R. Akiba, that this is



"the great universal in the law,''



and it does indeed comprehend the whole of the second table of the law, and is the summary of it, and is pretty much the same our Lord says of it, that it is the second and great commandment, and like unto the first, on which two all the law and the prophets hang, Mt 22:37; and so the Apostle Paul makes all the laws of the second table to be comprehended in this, Ro 13:9;



I [am] the Lord; the Creator of all men, and who has commanded them to love one another, and to whom alone vengeance belongs, and who expects obedience to the above laws of his.



{b} -----quippe minuti, &c. Juvenal. Satyr. 13. {c} rjt alw "et non observabis", Montanus. {d} "Non servabis", Pagninus, Drusius; "neque iram asservato"; Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.





Leviticus 19:19



Ver. 19. Ye shall keep my statutes,.... Those which follow, and which are of a different sort from what are last mentioned, of a moral nature, and are planted in the heart, as Aben Ezra says; are agreeably to the law and light of nature, and part of the work of the law written on the heart, as the apostle calls it, Ro 2:15; but the following are of positive institution, and depend upon the will of the lawgiver, the reasons of which are not so apparent and manifest; and therefore Jarchi calls them the decree of the king, who gives no reason for it; ordinances and appointments of a ceremonial kind, which, though there is a meaning in them, and a reason for them, yet not clear and plain:



thou shall not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind; or "cause [them] to gender" {e} for cattle do not usually of themselves gender with a diverse kind, unless directed and solicited to it, as a male of one kind with a female of another; for instance, an horse with a she ass, or an he ass with a mare, and even creatures that were like one another, yet of different kinds, were not to mix together; as a wolf and a dog, a hound and a fox, goats and roebucks, goats and sheep, a horse and a mule, a mule and an ass, an ass and a wild ass; for though they are like one another, they are of different kinds {f}: a creature thus gendered was not forbidden to be used, as a mule; and if a clean creature and gendered of clean ones, though of a different kind, it might be eaten, as Maimonides {g} affirms; for not the creature gendered was unlawful for use, but the act of causing to gender is what is forbidden: the design was to preserve the order of beings, and the nature of creatures as they were at the first creation; that there might be no change among them, or anything taken from or added to what God had made; not to separate what God had joined, or join what God had separated, which to do must reflect upon his wisdom; as also, that men and women, as Philo {h} observes, might abstain from unlawful converse, from unnatural lusts and mixtures; and as Ainsworth thinks, this was to lead Israel to the simplicity and sincerity of religion, and of all the parts and doctrines of the law and Gospel in their distinct kinds, as faith and works, to mingle which together in our justification before God is forbidden; or rather to teach the saints not to mix with the men of the world, in evil conversation, or in superstitious worship; to which may be added, to show that spiritual regeneration is not partly of corruptible and partly of incorruptible seed, nor partly of the will of man, and partly of the will of God; nor partly of the power of man, and partly of the power of God, but wholly of the Spirit and grace of God:



thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed: or seed of divers sorts, as wheat and barley, and which, according to the Jews {i}, was not mingled unless there be two grains of wheat and one of barley, or one of wheat and two of barley; or wheat, and barley, and rye: they also include herbs and trees in this law, and make an graft of them a forbidden mixture; hence, they say {k}, they do not ingraft one tree in another, nor one herb in another, nor a tree in an herb, nor an herb in a tree, of which they give instances: and there are various sorts of seeds, herbs, roots, and trees, which are and are not of divers kinds, and some that are alike and yet diverse; for they have a whole treatise of such like things, called "Celaim", or divers kinds: as to the mystical sense, the "field" may represent the church of God, which is not an open but an enclosed field, enclosed by the grace of God, and separated from others by it, well manured and cultivated by the Spirit of God, and through the word and ordinances, as means, in which manner of fruit and flowers grow, and is the property of Christ; see So 4:12; the seed may signify the word or doctrine of the Gospel, sown by the ministers of it, skilfully and plentifully, which should be pure and unmixed, not contradictory, nor inconsistent, but all of a piece; the doctrines of it, as those of election, justification, peace, pardon, and salvation, are to be represented, not as partly of works and partly of grace, but as entirely of the grace of God through Christ: or good and bad men may be signified by the mingled seed; good men, who are made so by the grace of God, and are the good seed, or the good ground which receives it, which hear the word, understand it, and bring forth fruit; bad men, such as are of bad principles and practices, these are not to be mixed together in a church state; bad men are neither to be received nor retained:



neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee; for, as Josephus {l} says, none but the priests were allowed to wear such a garment, and with which the Misnah {m} agrees; in which it is asserted, that the priests have no other clothing to minister in, in the sanctuary, but of woollen and linen; which seems to be a better reason of this prohibition than what Maimonides {n} gives, that it was on the account of idolatrous priests, who used to go clothed with such a garment, and a metal ring on their fingers: the Jewish tradition is, nothing is forbidden on account of divers kinds (i.e. in garments) but wool and flax; camels' wool, and sheep's wool, mixed together, if the greater part is camels', it is free, but if the greater part is sheep's wool, it is forbidden, if half and half, it is forbidden; and so flax and hemp mixed together; also that nothing is forbidden on such account but what is spun and wove {o}: the design of this, as of the other, seems to be in general to caution against unnatural lusts and impure mixtures, and all communion of good and bad men, and particularly against joining the righteousness of Christ with the works of men, in the business of justification: Christ's righteousness is often compared to a garment, and sometimes to line linen, clean and white; and men's righteousness to filthy rags, Re 19:8; which are by no means to be put together in the said affair; such who believe in Christ are justified by the obedience of one and not of more, and by faith in that obedience and righteousness, without the works of the law, Ro 5:19 Ro 3:28; to join them together is needless, disagreeable, and dangerous.



{e} eybrt "non facies coire", V. L. Pagninus, Drusius. {f} Misn. Gelaim, c. 1. sect. 6. {g} Hilchot Gelaim, c. 9. sect. 3. {h} De Special. Leg. p. 784. {i} Misn. ut supra, ({f}) sect. 9. {k} Misn. Celaim, c. 1. sect. 7, 8. {l} Antiqu. l. 4. c. 8. sect. 11. {m} Celaim, c. 9. sect. 1. {n} Moreh Nevochim, par. 3. c. 37. {o} Misn. ut supra, ({k}) c. 9. sect. 1. 8.





Leviticus 19:20



Ver. 20. And whosoever lieth carnally with a woman,.... Has carnal knowledge of her: a man and woman are expressed, signifying those that are of age, Aben Ezra observes, that according to the mystical exposition of these words, this same carnally lying is as of divers kinds, of a free man with a bondwoman, and so follows upon the above law and in connection with it: the woman is described as one



that [is] a bondmaid; either meaning a Canaanitish maid, as Jarchi, or an Israelitish one, as Aben Ezra, whom her father had sold, Ex 21:7;



betrothed to her husband: to an Hebrew servant, as Jarchi, or who was promised marriage, either by her master or his son, as Aben Ezra,

Ex 21:8;



and not at all redeemed, nor freedom given her: or redeemed and not redeemed, as Jarchi; or, as the Targum of Jonathan, not yet redeemed with an entire redemption (or wholly redeemed) with silver, nor a writing of her freedom given her, part of the redemption price being paid, but not the whole; so that she was, as Jarchi and Ben Gersom express it, half a bondmaid and half free:



she shall be scourged; and not he, as the Targum of Jonathan and Jarchi remark, though the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "both shall be beaten"; and the original text does not clearly determine it whether one or both should be scourged, since it may be rendered, "there shall be a scourging" {o}; and seeing both were guilty of sin, it is reasonable to suppose that both should be scourged, but this is contrary to the sense of the Jewish writers; so Kimchi {p} observes, the word is hyht in the singular number and feminine gender, and not in the plural; wherefore, according to the simple sense, she is to be beaten, and not he to be beaten; and this was done with the thong of an ox's hide, as is the sense of the word used, according to Gaon, and so some in Aben Ezra; and so it is remarked in the Misnah {q}, all the uncleannesses, whether of a man or woman, are alike as to stripes and sacrifice, but with respect to a bondmaid, he (i.e. God) hath not made the man equal to the woman as to stripes, nor the woman to the man as to sacrifice:



they shall not be put to death, because she was not free; otherwise adultery was punished with death of both parties, when committed with a woman married to an husband, De 22:22; and she a free woman, but this not being so, were not guilty of death, because, as Jarchi says, her espousals were no espousals, whereas they would had she been free, and so have been guilty of death: this difference the law made between a bond and free woman, but in Christ Jesus and under the Gospel dispensation there is no difference, Ga 3:28.



{o} hyht trqb "vapulatio erit", Fagius, Vatablus, Ainsworth; "flagellatio adhibetor"; Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. {p} Sepher Shorash. rad. rqb. {q} Ceritot, c. 2. sect. 4.





Leviticus 19:21



Ver. 21. He shall bring his trespass offering unto the Lord,.... To the priest of the Lord, to offer it for him; he, and not she, as the Targum of Jonathan has it; See Gill on "Le 19:20":



unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation; where all offerings were to be brought, Le 17:4;



[even] a ram for a trespass offering; which was the usual creature for such a sacrifice, Le 5:15; the woman was not obliged to bring any, she being a bondmaid; and so having nothing of her own, but what was her master's, her circumstances are considered, and scourging was sufficient.





Leviticus 19:22



Ver. 22. And the priest shall make an atonement for him,.... By offering his sacrifice for him, typical of the atoning sacrifice of Christ:



with the ram of his trespass offering before the Lord; presented before him at the door of the tabernacle, and offered up on his altar:



for his sin which he hath done; or "sinned", which is so expressed, according to Jarchi, to take in his sin, whether done ignorantly or presumptuously:



and the sin which he hath done shall be forgiven him; upon the atonement made, as all the sins of God's people are forgiven through Christ, upon the foot of his atoning sacrifice, see Heb 9:22.





Leviticus 19:23



Ver. 23. And when ye shall come into the land,.... The land of Canaan, whither they were now going:



and shall have planted all manner of trees for food; such that brought forth fruit that was eatable, as figs, grapes, olives, &c. so that all such trees as did not bear fruit fit for man's food came not under the following law; nor such as grew up of themselves and were not planted; nor such as were planted for any other use than for fruit; nor such as were planted by the Canaanites before the Israelites came into their land; for so say the Jews, what were planted for an hedge or for timber are free from the law; and add, at the time our fathers came into the land, what they found planted was free, what they planted, though they had not subdued it (the land), was bound:



then ye shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised; not fit to be eaten, but to be taken off and cast away as the foreskin of the flesh:



three years it shall be as uncircumcised unto you, it shall not be eaten of; which was a provision partly for the benefit of fruit trees newly planted, whose fruit, when they first bear, gardeners frequently take off immediately, and do not suffer them to grow to any perfection, by which means a tree will grow stronger, and will bear more and better fruit another year; and partly for the health of man, which physical reason is given by Aben Ezra, who observes that the fruit that comes unto the third year there is no profit by it, but is hurtful; and chiefly because, as it is proper that the first fruits should be given to the Lord before any is eaten, so it is right that it should be given seasonably, and when it is brought to its perfection: three years were to be reckoned, as Jarchi and Ben Gersom say, from the time the tree was planted.





Leviticus 19:24



Ver. 24. But in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be holy,.... Separated and devoted to the service of God, to be given to the priest, or to be bought again of him; wherefore the Targum of Jonathan adds, at the end of the verse, "redeemed from the priest", a redemption price being given to the priest; and, as Jarchi observes, as the tithe was not eaten without the walls of Jerusalem, but by redemption, even so likewise this:



to praise the Lord [withal]; for his abundant goodness in blessing and making the trees fruitful, and bringing their fruit unto perfection; and by devoting the first fruits to God, his name was praised and glorified, as well as by eating them with joy and gladness before the Lord in Jerusalem.





Leviticus 19:25



Ver. 25. And in the fifth year shall ye eat of the fruit thereof,.... And so in all succeeding years as long as the tree lasted and bore:



that it may yield unto you the increase thereof; may be so abundantly blessed, and produce so large an increase as to answer the three years' want of any fruit from it, and the dedication of the fruit of the fourth year to the Lord:



I [am] the Lord your God; who has promised this increase, is both able and faithful to make it good.





Leviticus 19:26



Ver. 26. Ye shall not eat [anything] with the blood,.... Or upon, over, or by the blood {s}, for this law seems different from that in Ge 9:4, and from those in Le 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 under the notion of things strangled; others of not eating of sacrifices until the blood stands in the basin {u}; and others of not eating any flesh whose blood is not sprinkled on the altar, if near the holy place {w}: some think it refers to the custom of murderers who eat over the person slain, that the avengers of the slain may not take vengeance on them, supposing something superstitious in it, because of what follows {x}; though it rather has respect to an idolatrous practice of the Zabians, as Maimonides {y} informs us, who took blood to be the food of devils, and who used to take the blood of a slain beast and put it in a vessel, or in a hole dug in the earth, and eat the flesh sitting round about the blood; fancying by this means they had communion with devils, and contracted friendship and familiarity with them, whereby they might get knowledge of future things; See Gill on "Eze 33:25":



neither shall ye use enchantment; soothsaying or divination by various creatures, as by the weasel, birds, or fishes, as the Talmudists {z}; or rather by serpents, as the word used is thought to have the signification of; or by any odd accidents, as a man's food falling out of his mouth, or his staff out of his hand, or his son calling after him behind, or a crow cawing to him, or a hart passing by him, or a serpent on his right hand and a fox on his left, or one says, do not begin (any work) tomorrow, it is the new moon, or the going out of the sabbath {a}:



nor observe times; saying, such a day is a lucky day to begin any business, or such an hour an unlucky hour to go out in, as Jarchi, taking the word to have the signification of times, days, and hours, as our version and others; but Aben Ezra derives it from a word which signifies a cloud, and it is well known, he says, that soothsayers view and consult the clouds, their likeness and motion; but some of the ancient writers, as Gersom observes, derive it from a word which signifies an eye, and suppose that such persons are intended who hold the eyes of people, cast a mist before them, or use some juggling tricks whereby they deceive their sight.



{s} Mdh le "super sanguine", Montanus, Munster; "super sanguinem", Fagius. {t} Joseph. Antiqu. l. 6. c. 6. sect. 4. T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 63. 1. {u} Targum Jon. in loc. T. Bab. Sanhedrin, ib. {w} Aben Ezra in loc. {x} Baal Hatturim in loc. {y} Moreh Nevochim, par. 3. c. 46. {z} T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 66. 1. Jarchi in loc. {a} Kimchi, Sepher Shorash. rad. vxn.





Leviticus 19:27



Ver. 27. 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 as with a bowl; and so the Arabians cut their hair, as Herodotus {b} reports, See Gill on "Jer 9:26";



neither shall thou mar the corners of thy beard; by shaving them entirely; Jarchi and other Jewish writers say, there are five of them, two on the right, as Gersom reckons them, one on the upper jaw, the other on the nether, and two over against them on the left, and one in the place where the nether jaw joins the right to the left, the chin; the same observes, that it was the manner of idolaters to do the above things; and Maimonides {c} is of opinion that the reason of the prohibition is, because the idolatrous priests used this custom; but this law does not respect priests only, but the people of Israel in general; wherefore rather it was occasioned by the Gentiles in common cutting their hair, in honour of their gods, as the Arabians did, as Herodotus in the above place relates, in imitation of Bacchus, and to the honour of him; and so with others, it was usual for young men to consecrate their hair to idols; but inasmuch as such practices were used on account of the dead, as Aben Ezra observes, it seems probable enough that these things are forbidden to be done on their account, since it follows,



{b} Thalia, sive, l. 3. c. 8. {c} Moreh Nevochim, par. 3. c. 37. Hilchot Obede Cochabim, c. 12. sect. 1.





Leviticus 19:28



Ver. 28. 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 they cut off a part of the ear, shaved the hair round about, cut the arms about, wounded the forehead and nose, and transfixed the left hand with arrows; and so the Carthaginians, who might receive it from the Phoenicians, being a colony of theirs, used to tear their hair and mouths in mourning, and beat their breasts {e}; and with the Romans the women used to tear their cheeks in such a manner that it was forbid by the law of the twelve tables, which some have thought was taken from hence: and all this was done to appease the infernal deities, and to give them satisfaction for the deceased, and to make them propitious to them, as Varro {f} affirms; and here it is said to be made "for the soul", for the soul of the departed, to the honour of it, and for its good, though the word is often used for a dead body: now, according to the Jewish canons {g}, whosoever made but one cutting for a dead person was guilty, and to be scourged; and he that made one for five dead men, or five cuttings for one dead man, was obliged to scourging for everyone of them:



nor print any marks upon you; Aben Ezra observes, there are some that say this is in connection with the preceding clause, for there were who marked their bodies with a known figure, by burning, for the dead; and he adds, and there are to this day such, who are marked in their youth in their faces, that they may be known; these prints or marks were made with ink or black lead, or, however, the incisions in the flesh were filled up therewith; but this was usually done as an idolatrous practice; so says Ben Gersom, this was the custom of the Gentiles in ancient times, to imprint upon themselves the mark of an idol, to show that they were his servants; and the law cautions from doing this, as he adds, to the exalted name (the name of God): in the Misnah it is said {h}, a man is not guilty unless he writes the name, as it is said,

Le 19:28; which the Talmudists {i} and the commentators {k} interpret of the name of an idol, and not of God:



I [am] the Lord; who only is to be acknowledged as such, obeyed and served, and not any strange god, whose mark should be imprinted on them.



{d} Melpomene, sive, l. 4. c. 71. {e} Alex. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 3. c. 7. {f} Apud Servium in Virgil. Aeneid. 3. {g} Misn. Maccot, c. 3. sect. 5. {h} Ibid. sect. 6. {i} T. Bab. Maccot, fol. 21. 1. {k} Jarchi, Maimon. Bartenora, & Ez Chayim in Misn. ut supra. ({g})





Leviticus 19:29



Ver. 29. 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 way, the Israelites, in imitation of them, are forbid to expose their daughters: such filthy practices, under a notion of religion, were committed at Babylon, Corinth, and other places;

See Gill on "Mic 1:7";



lest the land fall to whoredom, and the land become full of wickedness: of the wickedness of whoredom, both corporeal and spiritual, fornication and idolatry; both of which would be promoted by such abominable practices, and in process of time the land be filled with them.



{l} Targ. Jon. in loc. T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 76. 1. {m} Contra Gentes, p. 21.





Leviticus 19:30



Ver. 30. 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 holy place, sacred to him whose name is holy and reverend, and where was the seat of his glorious Majesty, and therefore not to be defiled by fornication or idolatry, or by doing anything in it unseemly and unbecoming, See Gill on "Mr 11:16":



I [am] the Lord; who had appointed the observance of the sabbath day, and dwelt in the sanctuary, and therefore expected that the one would be kept and the other reverenced, and neither of them polluted.





Leviticus 19:31



Ver. 31. 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 bottle or hollow place; hence they are called masters or mistresses of the bottle: they seem to be the same with the ventriloquists, and so the Septuagint version here calls them; such whose voice seemed to come out of their bellies, and even the lower parts of them; and such was the Pythian prophetess at Delphos, and very probably the maid in the times of the apostles, who had a spirit of divination, or of Python,

Ac 16:16; and so the words may be rendered here, "look not to the Python" {n}, or those who have the spirit of Python; so Jarchi from the Misnah {o} interprets the word here used, "Baal Ob" or the master of the bottle, this is Python, one that speaks from under his arm holes:



neither seek after wizards; such as pretend to a great deal of knowledge, as the word signifies; such as are called cunning men, who pretend to know where lost or stolen goods are, and to tell people their fortunes, and what will befall them hereafter:



to be defiled by them; for by seeking to them, and believing what is said by them, and trusting thereunto, and expecting events answerable to their predictions, they would be guilty of a gross sin, and so bring pollution and guilt on them; according to the Jewish canons {p}, such sort of persons as are cautioned against were to be stoned, and they that consulted them to be reproved;



I [am] the Lord your God; who only is to be regarded and sought unto for advice and assistance; see Isa 8:19.



{n} tbah la wnpt la "ne respiciatis ad Pythonas", Montanus; so Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. {o} Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 7. sect. 7. {p} lbid.





Leviticus 19:32



Ver. 32. 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. Fagius relates, that according to the tradition of the Hebrews, a young man was obliged to rise up when an ancient man was at the distance of four cubits from him, and to sit down again as soon as he had passed by him, that it might appear it was done in honour of him. And this was not only observed among the Jews, but anciently among Heathens, who reckoned it abominable wickedness, and a capital crime, if a young man did not rise up to an old man, and a boy to a bearded person {s}. Herodotus {t} reports, that the Egyptians agreed in this with the Lacedaemonians, and with them only of the Grecians, that the younger, when they met the elder, gave them the way and turned aside, and when coming towards them rose up out of their seat; and this law was enjoined them by Lycurgus, and which Aelianus {u} commends as of all the most humane. And this respect to ancient persons is due to them from younger persons, because of their having been in the world before them, and of their long continuance in it, and because of the favour and honour God has bestowed upon them in granting them long life, as also because of the experience, knowledge, and wisdom, they may be supposed to have attained unto: the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan restrain this to such as are expert in the law; so Jarchi says, there is no old man but he that has acquired wisdom; but it seems not to be the intention of this law to limit the respect to such only; though it must be allowed that ancient persons, who are wise and good, are worthy of special regard, see Pr 16:31;



and honour the face of the old man; who for the wrinkles of it, and his withered countenance, might be liable to be despised. The Targum of Jonathan interprets it, the face of a wise man, which agrees with what is observed before; and so Jarchi, Ben Gersom, and other Jewish writers explain it; and the former asks, what is this honour? he may not sit in his place, nor contradict his words. All this may be applied to elders by office, as well as in age, to magistrates, masters, and teachers; and particularly, as Ben Gersom observes, this may admonish us to give honour to God, who is the Ancient of days, who always was, and ever will be:



and fear thy God, I [am] the Lord; who has commanded such reverence of ancient persons, and will punish for any marks of irreverence shown them; and who is himself to be feared and reverenced above all, being, from everlasting to everlasting, God, and whose name is holy and reverend.



{q} hbyv ynpm "ante canitiem", Pagninus; so Tigurine version, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. {r} Pirke Abot, c. 5. sect. 21. {s} "Improbitas illo fuit", &c. Juvenal. Satyr. 13. v. 53, 54, 55, 56. {t} Euterpe, sive, l. 2. c. 80. {u} Hist. Animal. l. 6. c. 61.





Leviticus 19:33



Ver. 33. 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 stranger, who for a time was providentially cast among them:



ye shall not vex him: with hard and grievous words, upbraiding him with his former ignorance and idolatry, and saying unto him, as Jarchi observes, yesterday thou wast a worshipper of idols, and now thou comest to learn the law; nor distress him by any means in business, or with law suits; See Gill on "Ex 22:21".





Leviticus 19:34



Ver. 34. [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, Ex 12:49:



and thou shalt love him as thyself; and show it by doing all the good things for him they would have done for themselves in like circumstances:



for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: and therefore knew what hardships such were exposed unto; and it became them to put on bowels of compassion, and show pity to those in a like condition, and particularly consider, as Jarchi suggests, that they were idolaters there also, and therefore ought not to upbraid strangers with their former idolatry:



I [am] the Lord your God; who showed kindness to them when strangers in Egypt, and had brought them out of that land, and therefore ought to obey his commands, and particularly in this instance.





Leviticus 19:35



Ver. 35. Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment,.... This is repeated from Le 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 De 1:16; but Jarchi refers it to what follows concerning weights and measures, and observes, that a measurer is a judge; and if he acts deceitfully, he perverts judgment, and does that which is detestable and abominable, and is the cause of the five following things said of a judge; he defiles the land, and profanes the name of God, and causes the Shechinah or divine Majesty to remove, or causes Israel to fall by the sword, or carries them captive out of their land:



in meteyard, in weight, or in measure; the first of these, according to Jarchi, signifies the measure of land, of fields, &c. and so likewise of anything that is measured, not only by the rod or line, but by the yard or ell, as cloth and other things, whether broad or narrow, that are measured in their length; and the second may respect the weight of all sorts of things that are weighed in scales, as money in former times, as well as various sorts of goods; and the last has respect to the measure of both dry and liquid things, by the bushel, peck, quart, pint, &c.





Leviticus 19:36



Ver. 36. 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, which was not just, and was an abomination to the Lord, Pr 11:1; for "weights", it is in the original text "stones", for those were formerly used in weighing, and were with us: hence it is still in use to say, so much by the stone. And according to Maimonides {w}, the Jews were not to make their weights neither of iron, nor of lead, nor of the rest of metals, lest they should rust and become light, but of polished rock, and the like;



a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have; the first of these was the measure of things dry, as corn, and the like, the latter of things liquid, as oil and wine; the one held three seahs or pecks, or ten omers, Ex 16:36; or, according to a nicer calculation, the ephah held seven gallons, two quarts, and half a pint; and the other, according to some, held three quarts; but, as more exactly calculated, it held a wine gallon, and a little more than a quart, See Gill on "Ex 30:24". Some Jewish writers {x} refer this to words, promises, and compacts, expressed by yea and nay, which they were to abide by; that their yea should be yea, and their nay, nay, Mt 5:37; that their affirmation should be just, and so their negation:



I [am] the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt; and therefore were under great obligations to observe his commands, as follows.



{w} Hilchot Genibah, c. 8. sect. 4. {x} Torath Cohanim apud Yalkut in loc. Maimon. & Bartenora in Misn. Sheviith, c. 10. sect. 9.





Leviticus 19:37



Ver. 37. 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 sovereign will, and of mere positive institution; and "judgments", which were such laws as respected their civil or religious conduct, formed according to the rules of justice and equity: "all" and everyone of which were to be "observed", taken notice of, and regarded, in order to be put in practice, as follows:



and do them; act according to them, in civil, moral, and religious life:



I [am] the Lord; who enjoined all these things, and had a right to do so, and expected obedience to them, which it was right fit that they should give.

 

John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.

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