Leviticus 18:24

_DEFILE NOT YE YOURSELVES IN ANY OF THESE THINGS: FOR IN ALL THESE THE NATIONS ARE DEFILED WHICH I CAST OUT BEFORE YOU:_ In all these the nations are defiled ... Ancient history gives many appalling proofs that the enormous vices described in this chapter were very prevalent-nay, were regularly practiced from religious motives in the temples of Egypt and the groves of Canaan; and it was these gigantic social disorders that occasioned the expulsion of which the Israelites were, in the hands of a righteous and retributive Providence, the appointed instruments (Genesis 15:16). The strongly figurative language of 'the land itself vomiting out her inhabitants,' as the stomach disgorges a deadly poison, shows the hopeless depth of their moral corruption. Verse 30. THEREFORE SHALL YE KEEP MINE ORDINANCE. In giving the Israelites these particular institutions, God w

Leviticus 18:24._Defile not yourselves in any of these things_. An old proverb (62) says, that good laws have sprung from evil habits; and God reminds us that for this reason He has been induced expressly to advert to these disgusting and wicked things; for the monstrosities which He mentions would have been concealed in eternal silence had not necessity compelled Him to bring them to light. But since the Canaanitish nations had advanced to such a pitch of licentiousness, that the prodigious sins, which else would have been better concealed, had been but too familiarly known from their wicked habits, God warns His people to beware of their fatal examples. First, when He says that these abominations prevailed amongst the Gentiles, He indicates that evil habits by no means avail as an excuse; nay, that public consent is in vain alleged in defense of v

The land designed and consecrated for His people by Yahweh Leviticus 25:23 is here impersonated, and represented as vomiting forth its present inhabitants, in consequence of their indulgence in the abominations that have been mentioned. The iniquity of the Canaanites was now full. See Genesis 15:16; compare Isaiah 24:1. The Israelites in this place, and throughout the chapter, are exhorted to a pure and holy life, on the ground that Yahweh, the Holy One, is their God and that they are His people. Compare Leviticus 19:2. It is upon this high sanction that they are peremptorily forbidden to defile themselves wi

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

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....

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

EPILOGUE. These sins mean defilement for those who commit them, whether Canaanites or Israelites, and also for the land itself. Hence the land also must be punished, and will vomit out its inhabitants as so much unclean or noisome food (_cf._ Ezekiel 36:6 ff., Ezekiel 36:17). Leviticus 18:26 is parallel to Leviticus 18:30, which forms an impressive conclusion to the whole chapter; Leviticus 18:29, however, where alone in this chapter an actual punishment is stated, is rather in the manner of Leviticus 17 and Leviticus 20....

See general note at the beginning of the ch. These _vv._are probably expanded from earlier materials. After the warning in Leviticus 18:24 the standpoint changes, and the remainder of the passage is a reflection on the past, the verbs being really in the past tense, _were_defiled, _was_defiled, I _visited_, (the land) _vomited_....

SOLEMN WARNING 18:24-30 TEXT 18:24-30 24 Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out from before you; 25 and the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land vomiteth out her inhabitants. 26 Ye therefore shall keep my statutes and mine ordinances, and shall not do any of these abominations; neither the home-born, nor the stranger that sojourneth among you 27 (for all these abominations have the men of the land done, that were before you, and the land is defiled); 28 that the land vomit not you out also, when ye defile it, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. 29 For whosoever shall do any of these abominations, even the souls that do them shall be cut off from among their people. 30 Therefore shall ye keep my charge, that ye practise not any of these abominable cust...

LAW OF FORBIDDEN DEGREES OF MARRIAGE, AND OF CHASTITY 3. Some of the unions here forbidden as incestuous were permitted among the nations of antiquity. The early Egyptians, e.g. permitted marriage with a full sister. Abraham married his half-sister (Genesis 20:12), a practice here forbidden (Leviticus 18:9; Leviticus 18:11). 6. UNCOVER _their_ NAKEDNESS] i.e. marry....