Levitico 18:9 Commento

Here is, I. A general law against all conformity to the corrupt usages of the heathen (Lev 18:1-5). II. Particular laws, 1. Against incest (Lev 18:6-18). 2. Against beastly lusts, and barbarous idolatries (Lev 18:19-23). III. The enforcement of these laws from the ruin of the Canaanites (Lev 18:24-30).

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, Lev 18:1; and they are instructed particularly to avoid incestuous marriages, Lev 18:6; carnal copulation with a menstruous woman, Lev 18:19; adultery, Lev 18:20; letting any of their seed pass through the fire to Molech, Lev 18:21; sodomy, Lev 18:22; and bestiality, Lev 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, Lev 18:24.

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, Deu 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, Gen 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 Gen 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.

The people are commanded to avoid the doings of the Egyptians and Canaanites, Lev 18:1-3. They are to do God's judgments, and to keep his ordinances, that they may live, Lev 18:4, Lev 18:5. Marriages with those who are near of kin are prohibited, Lev 18:6. None to marry with his mother or step-mother, Lev 18:7, Lev 18:8; with his sister or step-sister, Lev 18:9; with his grand-daughter, Lev 18:10; nor with the daughter of his step-mother, Lev 18:11; nor with his aunt, by father or mother, Lev 18:12, Lev 18:13; nor with his uncle's wife, Lev 18:14; nor with his daughter-in-law, Lev 18:15; nor sister-in-law, Lev 18:16; nor with a woman and her daughter, son's daughter, or daughter's daughter, Lev 18:17; nor with two sisters at the same time, Lev 18:18. Several abominations prohibited, Lev 18:19-23, of which the Canaanites, etc., were guilty, and for which they were cast out of the land, Lev 18:24, Lev 18:25. The people are exhorted to avoid these abominations, lest they be treated as the ancient inhabitants of the land were treated, and so cast out, Lev 18:26-28. Threatenings against the disobedient, Lev 18:29, and promises to the obedient, Lev 18:30.

UNLAWFUL MARRIAGES. (Lev. 18:1-30) I am the Lord your God--This renewed mention of the divine sovereignty over the Israelites was intended to bear particularly on some laws that were widely different from the social customs that obtained both in Egypt and Canaan; for the enormities, which the laws enumerated in this chapter were intended to put down, were freely practised or publicly sanctioned in both of those countries; and, indeed, the extermination of the ancient Canaanites is described as owing to the abominations with which they had polluted the land.

By the sister, the daughter of father or mother, we are to understand only the step-or half-sister, who had either the same father or the same mother as the brother had. The clause, "whether born at home or born abroad," does not refer to legitimate or illegitimate birth, but is to be taken as a more precise definition of the words, daughter of thy father or of thy mother, and understood, as Lud. de Dieu supposes, as referring to the half-sister "of the first marriage, whether the father's daughter left by a deceased wife, or the mother's daughter left by a deceased husband," so that the person marrying her would be a son by a second marriage. Sexual intercourse with a half-sister is described as חסד in Lev 20:17, and threatened with extermination. This word generally signifies sparing love, favour, grace; but here, as in Pro 14:34, it means dishonour, shame, from the Piel חסּד, to dishonour.