Leviticus 18:16

_THOU SHALT NOT UNCOVER THE NAKEDNESS OF THY FATHER'S SISTER: SHE IS THY FATHER'S NEAR KINSWOMAN._ NO JFB COMMENTARY ON THESE VERSES....

16._Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother’s wife_. They are bad (92) interpreters who raise a controversy on this passage, and expound it, that a brother’s wife must not be taken from his bed, or, if she be divorced, that manage with her would be unlawful whilst her husband was still alive; for it is incongruous to twist into different senses declarations which are made in the same place, and in the same words. God forbids the uncovering of the turpitude of the wife of a father, an uncle, and a son; and when He lays down the same rule respecting a brother’s wife in the very same words, it is absurd to invent a different meaning for them. If, therefore, it be not lawful to marry the wife of a father, a son, an uncle, or a nephew, we must. hold precisely the same opinion with respect to a brother’s wife, concerning whom an exactly similar law is enacted in the same passage an...

Verse Leviticus 18:16. _THY BROTHER'S WIFE_] This was an illegal marriage, unless the brother died _childless_. In that case it was not only lawful for her to marry her brother-in-law, but _he_ was _obliged_ by the law, Deuteronomy 25:5, to take her to wife....

THY BROTHER’S WIFE - That is, if she had children. See Deuteronomy 25:5. The law here expressed was broken by Antipas in his connection with Herodias Matthew 14:3....

PART III. SECTION III. EXPOSITION MORAL UNCLEANNESS AND ITS PUNISHMENT. This being the subject of the three following chapters (chapters 18-20), they naturally form a sequence to chapters 11-17, which have dealt with ceremonial uncleanness and its purification. It is a remarkable thing that, except by implication in connection with the sin offerings and the trespass offerings and the ceremonies of the Day of Atonement, there has not yet been a single moral precept, as such, in the Book of Leviticus, and there has been very little recognition of sin as distinct from pollution. All has been ceremonial. But the ceremonial is typical of the moral, and from the consideration of ceremonial uncleanness and its remedy, we now proceed to the consideration of moral uncleanness and its penalty. It is to be noticed

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, Deuteronomy 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...

V. PRACTICAL HOLINESS IN DAILY LIFE 1. Different Unholy Relationships CHAPTER 18 _ 1. Separation and obedience (Leviticus 18:1)_ 2. Unholy relationships (Leviticus 18:6) 3. Vile and abominable practices (Leviticus 18:19) 4. Judgment threatened (Leviticus 18:24) This section of Leviticus contains the words of Jehovah addressed to His people, whom He had redeemed and in whose midst He dwelt. They are to be a holy people. About thirty times in this section we find the solemn word “I am Jehovah. Ye shall be holy: for I, Jehovah your God, am holy.” This is Jehovah's cal

FORBIDDEN DEGREES OF MARRIAGE. After a general preface (Leviticus 18:6) the relationships are given in detail. The phrase uncover the nakedness is almost confined to Leviticus 17-20, Ezek., and Genesis 9. No penalties or consequences are given, though reasons are sometimes added (_e.g._ Leviticus 18:14; Leviticus 18:16 f.). Two special cases should be noticed; prohibition of marriage with a father's wife (Leviticus 18:8), which has often been familiar in Oriental royal families (_cf._ 1 Kings 2:22), and of levirate marriages ...

Laws dealing with various Moral Subjects These three chs. contain features common to two or all three of them, which are found nowhere else in the Pentateuch. Such are (1) a collection of laws combined with a hortatory introduction and summary (Leviticus 18:1-5; Leviticus 18:24-30; Leviticus 19:2; Leviticus 19:37; Leviticus 20:1-8; Leviticus 20:22-26), (2) the prohibition of magic ...

PROHIBITED MARRIAGE RELATIONSHIPS 18:6-18 TEXT 18:6-18 6 None of you shall approach to any that are near of kin to him, to uncover _their_ nakedness: I am Jehovah. 7 The nakedness of thy father, even the nakedness of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover: she is thy mother; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. 8 The nakedness of thy father's wife shalt thou not uncover; it is thy father's nakedness. 9 The nakedness of thy sister, the daughter of thy father, or the daughter of thy mother, whether born at home, or born abroad, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover. 10 The nakedness of thy son's daughter, or thy daughter's daughter, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover: for theirs is thine own nakedness. 11 The nakedness of thy father's wife's daughter, begotten of thy father, she is thy sister, thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. 12 Thou shalt not uncover the nake...