Matthew Poole and continuators on Leviticus 20

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.

Here follow the punishments of the crimes forbidden in the former chapters.

Not onely such as were Proselytes, but all others, these being gross immoralities▪ and such as the precepts of Noah reached to, and such as the laws of nature and nations obliged them to. And therefore the toleration of such actions was not onely against reason of state and the interest of the commonwealth of Israel, and dangerous to the infection and destruction of the Israelites by the imitation of such examples, but also against the light of nature and laws of humanity.

Or to any other Idol, for the reason of the law equally concerns all. See Levit. 18. 21.

Marginal references: chap. 18. 21.; Deut. 18. 10. 2 Kin. 17. 17. and 23. 10. Jer. 32. 35.

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 prophane my holy Name .

(i. e.) Deal with him as an enemy, and make him a monument of my justice▪ either by punishing him immediately and eminently, when the Magistrate cannot or will not do it, or by adding to his corporal punishments my curse upon his soul and name. See Lev. 17. 10.

From the number of his people, of what nation or kindred soever he was, or, from the land of the living.

Which was done by this wickedness, either because such persons did, for the cover of their Idolatry, come into Gods Sanctuary, as the rest did: See Lev. 15. 31. or because the Sanctuary was and was said to be defiled by gross abominations committed in that city or land where Gods Sanctuary was: or because by these actions they did pronounce and declare to all men that they esteemed the sanctuary and service of God abominable and vile, by preferring such odious and pernicious Idolatry before it.

Partly by despising it themselves, and partly by disgracing it to others and giving them occasion to blaspheme it, and to abhor the true religion, because they saw it deserted and condemned by those that best knew it and once embraced it.

4 And if the people of the land do any wayes hide their eyes from the man , when he giveth of his seed unto Molech, and kill him not [illegible: 1 word]

(i. e.) Wink at his fault, and forbear to accuse and punish him. Compare Act. 17. 30.

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.

(i. e.) Either 1. his posterity, whom God threatned to punish for their fathers Idolatry, Exod. 20. Or 2. his people, as that word is used, Ier. 8. 3. Mic. 2. 3. to wit, the people of that land, who by their connivance make themselves guilty of his sin, ver. 4. Or 3. his disciples and followers, who are oft called the sons or children of their masters. And so it may be seem to be explained in the following words, all that go a whoring after him, as the first clause which concerns the head or chief person himself, I will set my face against that man, is explained by these words, I will cut him off.

Marginal references: Exod. 20. 5.

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.

To seek knowledge or counsel or help from them.

Marginal references: chap. 19. 31.

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

(i. e.) Who separated you from all nations and from their impurities and Idolatries to be a peculiar people to my self, and therefore I will not suffer you to follow their examples. Or, who really sanctify you, and give you my grace to do what I require, i. e. to keep my statutes. Or the argument is this, Those idols and Idolatries will defile you and make you worse, but I onely and my service will sanctify you and make you better.

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 .

Or, surely, as that praticle, chi, is oft used, as Iob 8. 6. and 20. 20. So there needs no dispute about the connexion, or what this is a reason of.

Which is not meant of every perverse expression, but of bitter reproaches or imprecations.

Heb. and put for or, as hath been noted before.

He is guilty of his own death: he deserves to die for so unnatural a crime.

Marginal references: Exod. 21. 1[illegible: 1+ letters]. Deut. 2[illegible: 1+ letters]. 16. Prov. 20. 20. Mat. 15. 4,

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.

By perverting the order which God hath appointed, and mixing the blood which God would have separated, and making the same off-spring both his own immediate child and his grandchild.

Marginal references: chap. 18. 15. Deut. 27. 23.

13 If a man lie also 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.

Except the one party was forced by the other. See Deut. 22. 25.

Marginal references: chap. 18. 22.

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.

(i. e.) Abominable and extraordinary wickedness, as the singularity of the punishment sheweth.

Either, or both or all of them, if they consented to it.

Marginal references: chap. 18. 17;

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

Partly for the prevention of monstrous Births, partly to blot out the memory of so loathsome a crime, and partly that by so severe a punishment of that creature which was onely a passive instrument to mans sin, men might be assured that a more dreadful punishment than corporal death was reserved for them, if they repented not.

Marginal references: chap. 18. 23. Deut. 27. 21.

17 And if a man shall take his sister, his fathers daughter, or his mothers 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 sisters nakedness, he shall bear his iniquity.

Seeing is here understood, either 1. properly, and so God would cut off the occasions of further filthiness. Or rather 2. improperly for touching her or lying with her; for 1. the sence of seeing is o[illegible: 1+ letters]t put for other sences, as for hearing, Ger▪ 42. 1. compared with Act. 7. 12. Exod. 2[illegible: 1+ letters]. 18. Rev. 1. 12. and for touching, as Ioh. 2[illegible: 1+ letters]. 25, 29. 2. that act is expressed by words parallel to this of seeing, as by [illegible: 1 word] or discovering, and by knowing, Gen. 4. 1. 3. so it is directly explained▪ in the following words, [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] uncovered [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] ▪ which manifestly signifies lying with her. [illegible: 1+ letters]. it is not probable that an equal punishment [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] dest sight, and to the highest act of filthiness. 5. nor seems there to be any reason why this crime should be restrained to this rather than to any other relations, when it was as great yea a greater crime in some other relations.

(i. e.) Publickly, for the terrour and caution of others.

Marginal references: chap. 18. 9; Deut. 27. 23.

18 And if a man shall lie with a woman having her sickness , and shall uncover her nakedness: he hath discovered her fountain , and she hath uncovered the fountain of her blood: and both of them shall be cut off from among their people.

Wittingly and willingly. See on Lev. 15. 24. and 18. 19.

(i. e.) her monethly infirmity.

Or her issue. Thus the fountain of blood in Mark 5. 29. is the issue of blood, Luk. 8. 44. the fountain put for the stream, the cause for the effect, which is common.

Marginal references: chap. 18. 19. See ch. 15. 24.; Heb. made naked.

20 And i[illegible: 1+ letters] a man shall lie with his uncles wife, he hath uncovered his uncles nakedness: they shall bear their sin, they shall die childless .

(i. e.) Either shall be speedily cut off ere they can have a child by that incestuous conjunction, that the remembrance of the fact may be blotted out: or, if this seem a less crime than most of the former incestuous mixtures, because the relation is more remote, and therefore the Magistrate shall forbear to punish it with death, yet they shall either have no children from such an unlawful bed, or their children shall die before them, Hos. 9. 11, 12. or shall not be reputed their genuine children, but bastards, and therefore excluded from the congregation of the Lord, Deut. 23. 2.

Marginal references: chap. 18. 14.

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

Except in the case allowed by God, Deut. 25. 5.

An abominable thing, like the uncleanness of a menstruous woman, which is oft expressed by this word: Heb▪ a separation, or removing, i. e. a thing deserving separation or exclusion from society with others, or a thing to be removed out of sight or out of the world.

Marginal references: chap. 18. 16.; Heb. a separation.

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 .

By my special grace and favour vouchsafed to you above all people in glorious and miraculous works wrought for you and among you, and in ordinances and other singular priviledges and blessings imparted to you, all which calls for your special love and service.

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 creepeth on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean .

(i. e.) As things which by my sentence I have made unclean, and which you must avoid as such.

Marginal references: chap. 11. 2. Deut. 14. 4.; Or, moveth.