Abominable customs— Hebrew, statutes of abomination; whereby, says Dr. Beaumont, are meant sinful practices, which, through custom, grew to be as laws among them. It is to be observed, that God, who is no respecter of persons, threatens to the Israelites the same ejection from the land, out of which the Canaanites were now about to be expelled, if they committed similar offences; Leviticus 18:28. And as they did commit such offences, so were they punished. See Jeremiah 9:19. Ezekiel 36:17-19. And hence we see the reasons and necessity of these laws.
REFLECTIONS.—1. It is among the dire proofs of the desperate corruptness of man's nature that ever such wretches should exist, or that such prohibitions should be necessary. 2. The offender was to be cut off: not only his body doomed to death, but his soul and body, most probably, to everlasting burnings. The fire of lust, and the fire of hell, are kindled for each other. 3. The nation shall be destroyed where such abominations are committed. They themselves are going to Canaan, to be God's executioners on that devoted people, for these very sins; and therefore, with such an instance before them, they need take warning not to defile themselves with such wickedness; for if they did, they would sink in the same destruction. Note; Nothing fills up the measure of a nation's guilt faster than these abominable and unnatural lusts. 4. Here is a solemn charge to keep God's ordinances, and avoid these hateful customs. Note; The world we live in, is like Canaan, and its customs scarcely less detestable. We have need to tremble, lest we swim with the stream, and lose the horror of sin by beholding the commonness of the practice; from which nothing can so effectually preserve us, as a constant attention to God's word, and daily application for his grace, to keep us from the pollutions that are in the world through lust. And in this way we shall find such genuine pleasures to be enjoyed, as will make us loath the deceitful and soul-destroying pleasures of sin.