Leviticus Chapter 20 · Matthew Poole

Leviticus 20:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Israelites must not offer their children to Molech on pain of death,

Leviticus 20:1-3; which if not inflicted by the magistrate, shall be by God himself,

Leviticus 20:4 ,5. The same against running after soothsayers,

Leviticus 20:6; against cursers of parents,

Leviticus 20:9; against adulterer,

Leviticus 20:10, or incestuous and unlawful copulation with women, men, or beasts,

Leviticus 20:11-21. They must put a differencebetween clean and unclean,

Leviticus 20:22-26. Soothsayers to be stoned,

Leviticus 20:27.

No text from Poole on this verse.

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.

The strangers;

not only 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 only 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.

Unto Molech,

or to any other idol; for the reason of the law equally concerns all. See

Leviticus 18:21.

Leviticus 20:3 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. I will set my face against that man,

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

Leviticus 17:10.

From among his people;

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

To defile

my sanctuary, which was done by this wickedness, either because such persons did, for the cover of their idolatry, come into God’s sanctuary, as the rest did; see

Leviticus 15:31; or because the sanctuary was, and was said to be, defiled by gross abominations committed in that city or land where God’s 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.

And to profane my holy name;

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.

Leviticus 20:4 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: i.e. Wink at his fault, and forbear to accuse and punish him. Compare

Acts 17:30.

Leviticus 20:5 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. Against his family,

i.e. either,

1. His posterity, whom God threatened to punish for their father’s idolatry,

Exo 20. Or,

2. His people, as that word is used,

Jeremiah 8:3 Micah 2:3, to wit, the people of that land, who by their connivance make themselves guilty of his sin,

Leviticus 20:4. Or,

3. His disciples and followers, who are oft called the sons or children of their masters. And so it may 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.

Leviticus 20:6 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 go a whoring after them;

to seek knowledge, or counsel, or help from them.

Leviticus 20:7 Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the LORD your God. No text from Poole on this verse.

Leviticus 20:8 And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them: I am the LORD which sanctify you. i.e. Who separated you from all nations, and from their impurities and idolatries, to be a peculiar people to myself, 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 only and my service will sanctify you and make you better.

Leviticus 20:9 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. For, or, surely, as that particle,

chi, is oft used, as

Job 8:6 20:20. So there needs no dispute about the connexion, or what this is a reason of. Curseth; which is not meant of every perverse expression, but of bitter reproaches or imprecations.

Or his mother; Heb.

and

put for

or, as hath been noted before.

His blood shall be upon him;

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

Leviticus 20:10 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. No text from Poole on this verse.

Leviticus 20:11 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. No text from Poole on this verse.

Leviticus 20:12 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 offspring both his own immediate child and his grandchild,

they have wrought confusion.

Leviticus 20:13 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. Except the one party was forced by the other. See

Deu 22:25.

Leviticus 20:14 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. It is wickedness,

i.e. abominable and extraordinary wickedness, as the singularity of the punishment showeth.

Both he and they;

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

Leviticus 20:15 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 only a passive instrument to man’s sin, men might be assured that a more dreadful punishment than corporal death was reserved for them, if they repented not.

Leviticus 20:16 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. No text from Poole on this verse.

Leviticus 20:17 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. 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 sense of

seeing

is oft put for other senses, as for

hearing,

Genesis 42:1, compared with

Acts 7:12 Exodus 20:18 Revelation 1:12; and for

touching, as

John 20:25 ,29.

2. That act is expressed by words parallel to this of

seeing, as by

uncovering, or

discovering, and by

knowing,

Genesis 4:1.

3. So it is directly explained in the following words,

he hath uncovered his sister’s nakedness,

which manifestly signifies lying with her.

4. It is not probable that an equal punishment would have been appointed to an immodest 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.

In the sight of their people, i.e. publicly, for the terror and caution of others.

Leviticus 20:18 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. If a man shall lie with a woman,

wittingly and willingly. See on

Leviticus 15:24 18:19.

Her sisters,

i.e. her monthly infirmity. Her fountain, or her issue. Thus the fountain of blood in

Mark 5:29, is

the issue of blood,

Luke 8:44, the fountain put for the stream, the cause for the effect, which is common.

Leviticus 20:19 And thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother's sister, nor of thy father's sister: for he uncovereth his near kin: they shall bear their iniquity. No text from Poole on this verse.

Leviticus 20:20 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. 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,

Hosea 9:11 ,12; or shall not be reputed their genuine children, but bastards, and therefore excluded from the congregation of the Lord,

Deu 23:2.

Leviticus 20:21 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. Except in the case allowed by God,

Deu 25:5.

An unclean thing;

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.

Leviticus 20:22 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. No text from Poole on this verse.

Leviticus 20:23 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. No text from Poole on this verse.

Leviticus 20:24 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 privileges and blessings imparted to you, all which calls for your special love and service.

Leviticus 20:25 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.

Leviticus 20:26 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. No text from Poole on this verse.

Leviticus 20:27 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. No text from Poole on this verse.