Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 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.
They shall die childless – Either the offspring should not be regarded as lawfully theirs, nor be entitled to any hereditary privileges, or they should have no blessing in their children.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
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, Deu 23:2.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
20. they shall die childlessEitherby the judgment of God they shall have no children, or their spuriousoffspring shall be denied by human authority the ordinary privilegesof children in Israel.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And if a man shall lie with his uncle’s wife,…. His uncle being dead, and he marry her, which is forbidden, Le 18:14;
he hath uncovered his uncle’s nakedness: his wife’s, which was his, and therefore the kindred too near for a man to marry in, and such a copulation must be incestuous:
they shall bear their sin; “both” of them, as the Vulgate Latin, as before, Le 20:19; the punishment of it, as follows:
they shall be childless; which Jarchi and other Jewish writers interpret, if they had any children at this time, that is, by a former marriage, they should die and be buried before them, which was reckoned a great punishment, see Jer 22:30.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(20) His uncles wife.See Lev. 18:14.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
20. They shall die childless Childlessness was at once a severe punishment in the eyes of the Hebrews, as a dishonour to a woman and the greatest misfortune to a house. It was also a protection against that physical and mental degeneracy which incest entails upon offspring. But Michaelis softens the penalty by asserting that it does not mean that God would miraculously prevent procreation, but only that the children of these parents should not be put to their account in the public registers; so that in a civil sense they would be childless. His proof is derived from Jer 22:30. But the declaration of Michaelis that the offspring would be ascribed to the deceased brother does not cover the case, for both the wife and second husband were to die childless. Hence we cannot adopt this interpretation without bastardizing the children, which is worse than nonexistence or death in infancy.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
20. Severed you that ye should be mine There can be no appropriation without separation. Consecration to Christ implies a death unto sin. Oehler wisely remarks that kadosh, the Hebrew for the word holy, “where it is a designation of a divine attribute, there evidently lies in it primarily a negative element, by which it designates a state of apartness, God raising himself above all others.” The connexion of thought in this verse may be thus expressed: “I am holy, and so I have separated you from among the nations to be mine.” Nothing created is in itself holy, though it is innocent. Holiness in a creature always involves an act of self-determination, and an act of the divine will in the completion of a perfection of life both inwardly and outwardly. “It is certain that in the biblical conception of society a very broad distinction is made between the people of God and all other people. This again is not arbitrary; it comes out of the very nature of the separating God himself. It is only because God is different from all other gods that his people are different from all other people. Monasticism is not taught by this text. Men are to move up and down in the world transacting all its usual business, and yet so to do the work of life as to exert a benign influence, and fill other men with encouragement to move in an upward direction.” Joseph Parker.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Lev 20:20. They shall die childless Whatever be the precise mode in which this curse was to be executed, whether by the entire withholding of children, or the speedy cutting them off when born; it affords us a striking proof of the Divinity of the Jewish law: for, to give or withhold children being in the power of the Divine Providence only, no impostor would have added such a sanction, the impotency of which a little time must have fully detected.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Lev 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.
Ver. 20. See on Lev 18:1-30 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
sin = penalty. Put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Cause). App-6.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
uncle’s wife: Lev 18:14
childless: Job 18:19, Psa 109:13, Jer 22:30, Luk 1:7, Luk 1:25, Luk 23:29
Reciprocal: Exo 28:43 – bear not iniquity Lev 17:16 – General Num 9:13 – bear his sin Num 18:22 – bear sin Luk 20:29 – and died
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Lev 20:20. They shall die childless Both shall be speedily cut off ere they can have a child by that incestuous conjunction; or, if this seem a less crime than most of the former incestuous mixtures, and therefore the magistrate 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.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
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 {g} childless.
(g) They shall be cut off from their people, and their children shall be taken as bastards, and not counted among the Israelites.