Leviticus 20:4-27
however ....... shut <05956> [hide.]
death <04191> [and kill.]
set <07760> [I will.]
clan <04940> [against his.]
prostitution .... prostitution <02181> [whoring.]
spirits <0178> [familiar.]
prostitution <02181> [go.]
cut ... off <03772> [cut him.]
In the days of Moses, superstition was almost the {sensus communis} of the human race, which then made severe punishment necessary: by means of the Christian dispensation such errors are now exploded, the cultivation of philosophy and natural history having harmonised and contributed their feebler share of light, so that we no longer have to deplore mischiefs occasioned by the silly curiosity attempting to unfold future events.
sure <08104> [And ye.]
sanctifies <06942> [sanctify.]
curses .............. cursed <07043> [curseth.]
The term {yekallel} signifies not only to curse, but to speak contemptuously, disrespectfully, or to make light of a person: so that all speeches which have a tendency to lessen our parents in the eyes of others, or to render their judgment, piety, etc., suspected or contemptible, is here included; though the act of cursing, or of treating the parent with injurious or opprobrious language, is what is particularly intended. He who conscientiously keeps the fifth commandment, can be in no danger of the judgment here denounced.
blood <01818> [his blood.]
commits adultery ........ adulterer .... adulteress <05003> [the adulterer.]
blood <01818> [their.]
sexual <07901> [lie.]
perversion <08397> [confusion.]
woman <0802> [a wife.]
burned <08313> [burnt.]
woman ............... woman <0802> [And if a woman.]
We are assured by Herodotus (in Euterp.) that the abominations here referred to existed among the Egyptians, and even formed part of their superstitious religious system, and we have reason to believe that they were not uncommon among the Canaanites. (See ch. 18:24, 25). Need we wonder then, that God should have made laws of this nature, and appointed the punishment of death for these crimes? This one observation will account for many of those strange prohibitions which we find in the Mosaic law.
animal ............... animal <0929> [and the beast.]
menstruating <01739> [having.]
laid bare <06168> [discovered. Heb. made naked.]
mother's <0517> [mother's.]
has laid bare .......... punishment <06168> [uncovereth.]
aunt <01733> [uncle's wife.]
childless <06185> [childless.]
brother's .......... brother's <0251> [his brother's.]
indecency <05079> [an unclean thing. Heb. a separation.]
[statues.]
regulations <04941> [judgments.]
vomit <06958> [spue you.]
statutes <02708> [in the manners.]
disgust <06973> [therefore.]
said <0559> [But I. See on]
land <0776> [a land.]
Milk and honey were the chief dainties of the ancients as they are now among the Arabs, particularly the Bedouins. Hence not only the Hebrews, but also the Greeks and Romans, painted the highest pleasantness and fertility by an abundance of milk and honey. The image used in the text, and frequently by ancient authors on similar subjects, is a metaphor, derived from a breast, producing copious streams of milk.
apart <0914> [which.]
distinguish ......................................... distinguished <0914> [put difference.]
detestable <08262> [abominable.]
creeps <07430> [creepeth. or, moveth.]
Lord <03068> [the Lord.]
apart <0914> [severed.]
spirit <0178> [a familiar.]
blood <01818> [their blood.]
