26 You shall be holy to me: for I, Yahweh, am holy, and have set you apart from the peoples, that you should be mine.
"Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and tell them, 'You shall be holy; for I Yahweh your God am holy.
"'Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am Yahweh your God.
The four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around about and within. They have no rest day and night, saying, "Holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy{TR and NU read "holy" 3 times instead of 9.} is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come!"
For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God: Yahweh your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth.
and Yahweh has declared you this day to be a people for his own possession, as he has promised you, and that you should keep all his commandments; and to make you high above all nations that he has made, in praise, and in name, and in honor; and that you may be a holy people to Yahweh your God, as he has spoken.
Exalt Yahweh our God. Worship at his footstool. He is Holy!
Exalt Yahweh, our God. Worship at his holy hill, For Yahweh, our God, is holy!
get out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us."
who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works.
"To the angel of the assembly in Philadelphia write: "He who is holy, he who is true, he who has the key of David, he who opens and no one can shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says these things:
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:-