11 And a man that lieth with his father's wife hath uncovered his father's nakedness: both of them shall certainly be put to death; their blood is upon them.
12 And if a man lie with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall certainly be put to death: they have wrought confusion; their blood is upon them.
13 And if a man lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall certainly be put to death; their blood is upon them.
14 And if a man take a wife and her mother, it is infamy: they shall burn him and them with fire, that there be no infamy among you.
15 And if a man lie with a beast for copulation, he shall certainly be put to death; and ye shall kill the beast.
16 And if a woman approach unto any beast to gender therewith, thou shalt kill the woman and the beast: they shall certainly be put to death; their blood is upon them.
17 And if a man take his sister, his father's daughter, or his mother's daughter, and see her nakedness, and she see his nakedness, that is a disgrace; and they shall be cut off before the eyes of the children of their people: he hath uncovered his sister's nakedness; he shall bear his iniquity.
18 And if a man shall lie with a woman in her infirmity, and uncover her nakedness, her flux doth he lay bare, and she hath uncovered the fountain of her blood; and both of them shall be cut off from among their people.
19 And the nakedness of thy mother's sister, and of thy father's sister shalt thou not uncover; for he hath laid naked his near relation: they shall bear their iniquity.
20 And if a man lie with his aunt, he hath uncovered his uncle's nakedness: their sin shall they bear: they shall die childless.
21 And if a man take his brother's wife, it is an unclean thing: he hath uncovered his brother's nakedness: they shall be childless.
22 And ye shall observe all my statutes, and all mine ordinances, and do them, that the land whither I bring you to dwell therein vomit you not out.
23 And ye shall not walk in the customs of the nation which I am casting out before you; for all these things have they done, and they became an abomination to me.
24 And I have said unto you, Ye shall possess their land, and I will give it unto you for a possession; a land flowing with milk and honey: I am Jehovah your God, who have separated you from the peoples.
25 And ye shall make a separation between the clean beast and the unclean, and between the unclean fowl and the clean, and ye shall not make yourselves an abomination by beast, or by fowl, or by anything that creepeth on the ground which I have separated for you, declaring [it] as unclean.
26 And ye shall be holy unto me; for I Jehovah am holy, and have separated you from the peoples to be mine.
27 And if there be a man or a woman in whom is a spirit of Python or of divination, they shall certainly be put to death: they shall stone them with stones; their blood is upon them.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Leviticus 20
Commentary on Leviticus 20 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 20
The laws which before were made are in this chapter repeated and penalties annexed to them, that those who would not be deterred from sin by the fear of God might be deterred from it by the fear of punishment. If we will not avoid such and such practices because the law has made them sin (and it is most acceptable when we go on that principle of religion), surely we shall avoid them when the law has made them death, from a principle of self-preservation. In this chapter we have,
Lev 20:1-9
Moses is here directed to say that again to the children of Israel which he had in effect said before, v. 2. We are sure it was no vain repetition, but very necessary, that they might give the more earnest heed to the things that were spoken, and might believe them to be of great consequence, being so often inculcated. God speaketh once, yea, twice, and what he orders to be said again we must be willing to hear again, because for us it is safe, Phil. 3:1.
Lev 20:10-21
Sins against the seventh commandment are here ordered to be severely punished. These are sins which, of all others, fools are most apt to make a mock at; but God would teach those the heinousness of the guilt by the extremity of the punishment that would not otherwise be taught it.
Lev 20:22-27
The last verse is a particular law, which comes in after the general conclusion, as if omitted in its proper place: it is for the putting of those to death that dealt with familiar spirits, v. 27. It would be an affront to God and to his lively oracles, a scandal to the country, and a temptation to ignorant bad people, to consult them, if such were known and suffered to live among them. Those that are in league with the devil have in effect made a covenant with death and an agreement with hell, and so shall their doom be.
The rest of these verses repeat and inculcate what had been said before; for to that unthinking forgetful people it was requisite that there should be line upon line, and that general rules, with their reasons, should be frequently insisted on, for the enforcement of particular laws, and making them more effectual. Three things we are here reminded of:-