Chapter 18:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Exodus Numbers
Leviticus 18
A prohibition of conformity to the heathens, ver. 1-5.
Particular laws against incest, ver. 6-18. Against unnatural lusts
and barbarous idolatries, ver. 19-23. Enforced from the
destruction of the Canaanites, ver. 24-30.
Verse 2. Your God - Your sovereign, and lawgiver. This is often
repeated because the things here forbidden were practiced and
allowed by the gentiles, to whose custom he opposes divine
authority and their obligation to obey his commands.
Verse 3. Egypt and Canaan - These two nations he mentions, because
their habitation and conversation among them made their evil
example in the following matters more dangerous. But under them
he includes all other nations.
Verse 4. My judgments - Though you do not see the particular reason of
some of them, and though they be contrary to the laws and usages
of the other nations.
Verse 5. He shall live in them - Not only happily here, but eternally
hereafter. This is added as a powerful argument why they should
follow God's commands, rather than mens examples, because
their life and happiness depend upon it. And though in strictness,
and according to the covenant of works they could not challenge
life for so doing, except their obedience was universal, perfect,
constant and perpetual, and therefore no man since the fall could
be justified by the law, yet by the covenant of grace this life is
promised to all that obey God's commands sincerely.
Verse 6. To uncover their nakedness - I think Mark. Free has made it
highly probable, that this phrase does not mean marriage, but
fornication, throughout this chapter. So it unquestionably means
in the twentieth chapter.
Verse 16. Thy brother's wife - God afterwards commanded, that in one
case, a man should marry his brother's widow.
Verse 18. Thou shalt not take a wife to her sister - Perhaps this text doth
not simply forbid the taking one wife to another, but the doing it
in such a manner or for such an end, that he may vex or punish, or
revenge himself of the former; which probably was a common
motive amongst that hardhearted people to do so.
Verse 19. As long as she is set apart - No not to thy own wife. This was
not only a ceremonial pollution, but an immorality also, whence it
is put amongst gross sins, Ezek. xviii, 6. And therefore it is now
unlawful under the gospel.
Verse 21. Pass through fire - This was done, either by burning them in
the fire, or by making them pass between two great fires, which
was a kind of consecration of them to that God. Moloch - Called
also Milcom, was an idol chiefly of the Ammonites. He seems to
be the Saturn of the heathens, to whom especially children and
men were sacrificed. This is mentioned, because the neighbours of
Israel were most infected with this idolatry, and therefore they are
particularly cautioned against it, though under this one instance all
other idols and acts, or kinds of idolatry, are manifestly
comprehended and forbidden.
Verse 25. I visit - I am about to visit, that is, to punish.
Verse 26. Nor any stranger - In nation or religion, of what kind soever.
For though they might not force them to submit to their religion,
yet they might restrain them from the publick contempt of the
Jewish laws, and from the violation of natural laws, which,
besides the offense against God and nature, were matters of evil
example to the Israelites themselves.
Verse 29. Cut off - This phrase therefore of cutting off, is to be
understood variously, either of ecclesiastical, or civil punishment,
according to the differing natures of the offenses for which it is
inflicted.
Chapter 18:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Exodus Numbers
This version of Wesley's Notes on the Bible is a derivative of an electronic version, Copyright 1997, by Sulu D. Kelley. All rights reserved. Used by permission. It may not be modified or used commercially without permission of Wesleyan Heritage Publishing and Sulu Kelley. A special thanks to Mr. Kelley and Wesleyan Heritage Publishing for permission to create and post this version of Wesley's Notes on the Bible.
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