Leviticus 20:1-27 - Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

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Bible Comments

Leviticus 20:2. Molech. See on Leviticus 18:21.

Leviticus 20:3. I will cut him off. Ahaz gave his son to Molech, and the Lord afflicted his reign with miseries.

Leviticus 20:7. Sanctify yourselves be ye holy; in the disposition of your minds, says Maimonides, and from heretical notions in doctrine. Secondly, from all corporeal pollutions, as it is said “their filthiness is in their skirts.” Thirdly, from exterior defilement by contact, for the words of the law suffer no pollution. See that excellent work, the late Dr. James Townley's More Nevochim.

REFLECTIONS.

We are here struck with the equity of God's laws. Having before prohibited the sacrificing of children to Molech, he here in the most peremptory language sentences the offender to death; for when it is said his blood shall be upon him, lapidation is mostly understood. The equity of the punishment is founded on the profaneness and cruelty it attached to the name of God, by giving all persons of humanity a horror of the Lord's worship.

In like manner, he who should arrive at such a degree of depravity as to curse his parents, incurred the same penalty. The blessings of the covenant were entailed from the parents to the children; and the base man who recoiled on his parents a most ungrateful curse, forfeited all those blessings, and justly subjected himself to die, that no malediction might rest upon the country.

The adulterer next hears his sentence from the Judge of all the earth. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. All nations have agreed to punish robbers with death: and where is the robbery to be compared with adultery? Other robbers boldly act in a professional way; but the wretch guilty of this crime is mostly introduced into the family as the husband's friend; and then basely robs him of his honour, and for ever deprives him of domestic happiness. It is true the rulers of Israel, after a time, relaxed in the execution of those laws: but God, who is longsuffering, to give men time for repentance, did not, by permitting the accumulation of crimes, at all remit the rigours of his law. It appears from the small number of the Jews who returned from Babylon, that nine tenths had perished for their sins. Hence it would have been infinitely better to have eradicated the weeds in their earliest growth, than suffered them to overrun the heritage of God. Against the infliction of capital punishment for atrocious crimes, some are very ready to plead for mercy, and to urge the divine example in the case of David; and it must be admitted, where repentance is genuine, that the Lord is very merciful and gracious: but where men are strangers to repentance, and where the morals of a whole nation are in danger, it is safer to preserve the innocent than to protect the guilty. Hence the divine law respecting adultery, incest, and all the crimes which cover human nature with horror and shame, are wise and salutary in their operation. They secure the honour of God, they bridle the lawless passions of men, they extend the arm of protection to the weaker branches of society, and in every view are worthy of christian nations to adopt.

Related Commentaries of Leviticus 20:1

Leviticus 20:1-27

1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

2 Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones.

3 And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people; because he hath given of his seed unto Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name.

4 And if the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes from the man, when he giveth of his seed unto Molech, and kill him not:

5 Then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go a whoring after him, to commit whoredom with Molech, from among their people.

6 And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people.

7 Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the LORD your God.

8 And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them: I am the LORD which sanctify you.

9 For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him.

10 And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

11 And the man that lieth with his father's wife hath uncovered his father's nakedness: both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

12 And if a man lie with his daughter in law, both of them shall surely be put to death: they have wrought confusion; their blood shall be upon them.

13 If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

14 And if a man take a wife and her mother, it is wickedness: they shall be burnt with fire, both he and they; that there be no wickedness among you.

15 And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and ye shall slay the beast.

16 And if a woman approach unto any beast, and lie down thereto, thou shalt kill the woman, and the beast: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

17 And if a man shall take his sister, his father's daughter, or his mother's daughter, and see her nakedness, and she see his nakedness; it is a wicked thing; and they shall be cut off in the sight 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 having her sickness, and shall uncover her nakedness; he hath discovereda her fountain, and she hath uncovered the fountain of her blood: and both of them shall be cut off from among their people.

19 And thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother's sister, nor of thy father's sister: for he uncoverethb his near kin: they shall bear their iniquity.

20 And if a man shall lie with his uncle's wife, he hath uncovered his uncle's nakedness: they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless.

21 And if a man shall take his brother's wife, it is an unclean thing: he hath uncovered his brother's nakedness; they shall be childless.

22 Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: that the land, whither I bring you to dwell therein, spue you not out.

23 And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.

24 But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey: I am the LORD your God, which have separated you from other people.

25 Ye shall therefore put difference between clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean fowls and clean: and ye shall not make your souls abominable by beast, or by fowl, or by any manner of living thing that creepethc on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean.

26 And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine.

27 A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them.