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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 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, Deu 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) "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.

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.