Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Leviticus 18:2
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am the LORD your God.
2. Purity in remoter relationships.
The first Pentad: Relationships through marriage, Lev 18:16-19.
The second Pentad: Purity outside of the family, Lev 18:20-23.
To the exhortation concluding with ‘I am the Lord your God’ ( Lev 18:30) he would add Lev 19:2 b, ‘Ye shall be holy,’ etc.
The arrangement in this ch. is better than in ch. 20, and the cases dealt with are more numerous. Ch. 20 contains no parallels to Lev 18:7; Lev 18:10; Lev 18:17 b, Lev 18:18, and has therefore been taken as representing an earlier code. On the other hand ch. 20, unlike ch. 18, mentions penalties for the offences, while such indications as it affords by the juxtaposition of ‘you’ in Lev 20:14 b, Lev 20:15 b, and ‘thou’ in Lev 20:16; Lev 20:19, and the duplicate clauses in Lev 18:10 suggest that whatever age may be ascribed to the code in ch. 20, as compared with that which appears in ch. 18, the former has at any rate been subjected to later editing.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I am, the Lord your God – The frequent repetition of this formula in these parts of the Law may be intended to keep the Israelites in mind of their covenant with Yahweh in connection with the common affairs of life, in which they might be tempted to look at legal restrictions in a mere secular light.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Your Sovereign and Lawgiver. This is oft repeated here, because the things here forbidden were practised and allowed by the Gentiles, to whose custom he here opposeth Divine authority, and their obligation to obey his commands.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2-4. I am the Lord your GodThisrenewed mention of the divine sovereignty over the Israelites wasintended to bear particularly on some laws that were widely differentfrom the social customs that obtained both in Egypt and Canaan; forthe enormities, which the laws enumerated in this chapter wereintended to put down, were freely practised or publicly sanctioned inboth of those countries; and, indeed, the extermination of theancient Canaanites is described as owing to the abominations withwhich they had polluted the land.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Speak unto the children of Israel,…. To the heads of their tribes, that they might deliver to them the following laws; or Moses is bid to publish them among them, either by word of mouth, or by writing, or both:
and say unto them, I am the Lord your God; with which they were to be introduced; showing the right he had to enact and enjoin such laws, since he was Jehovah, the Being of beings, and from whom they received their beings; their sovereign Lord and King, who had a right to rule over them, and command what he pleased; and also the obligation they lay under to him to regard them, and yield a cheerful obedience to them, since he was their God, not only that had made them, but had redeemed them out of Egypt; and who had made a covenant with them, and had taken special care of them, and had bestowed many wonderful favours on them; and for this purpose is this phrase often used in this chapter, and very frequently in the next. See Le 18:2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(2) I am the Lord your God.The Lord is their recognised and sole sovereign, the children of Israel are therefore bound to obey His precepts, and not be led astray by the customs or statutes which prevailed among the people whose country they are to possess. Moreover, as He is holy, the Israelites, by faithfully obeying His sacred laws, will attain to that holiness which will bring them in communion with Him in whose image they were created. This phrase, which is so emphatically repeated twice more in this chapter (Lev. 18:4; Lev. 18:30), has only been used once before in this book. (See Lev. 11:44.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
THE VICES OF EGYPT AND CANAAN PROHIBITED, Lev 18:1-5.
2. I am the Lord In giving commandments, the authority of the Lawgiver is made prominent. See Lev 11:44, note.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Command To Obey Yahweh Their God Whose Commands Bring Life ( Lev 18:2-5 ).
Lev 18:2
“Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, I am Yahweh your God.”
What follows very much has the covenant in mind. God stresses constantly, as He did at the giving of the covenant (Lev 20:2), that He is Yahweh their God, and that He therefore expects their response. Note that these words are directed solely at the people. This continues from now until Lev 20:27, and then from Leviticus 23 onwards.
Lev 18:3
“You shall not do after the doings of the land of Egypt, in which you dwelt, and you shall not do after the doings of the land of Canaan, to which I will bring you, nor shall you walk in their statutes.”
Because He is Yahweh their God, and because they are His, they are not to live as others live and do as others do. They are not to follow the doings of the land of Egypt. They are not to follow the doings of the land of Canaan. Nor when he has brought them there are they to walk in their statutes, their behavioural rules that were recorded and required of men. They are rather to do as He requires.
Particularly are they not to follow their attitudes towards sexual relationships. Both the Egyptians and the Canaanites allowed sexual relationships and marriage within some of the degrees described below, and the Canaanites especially were free with their sexual favours, but Israel was not to be so.
This was particularly important in view of the conglomerate nature of ‘the children of Israel’. All among them were used to living in accordance with differing long established and varying customs picked up in Egypt, and previously in Canaan and other places. They were a total mixture of customs. But now they were to put all those behind them and begin to follow Yahweh’s statutes and ordinances. The new beginning established at Sinai had to be seen as pre-eminent. The past must be put behind them.
Lev 18:4
“My ordinances shall you do, and my statutes shall you keep, to walk in them. I am Yahweh your God.”
Rather are they to do the ordinances and judgments that He has required of them, given them in judgments, or caused to be written as their guide (see Exo 17:14; Exo 24:4; Exo 34:27; Num 33:1-2; Deu 31:9), and to follow His demands and declarations, and walk in His ways. And they are to do this because He is Yahweh their God, their Great Deliverer.
We are reminded by this that we too when we become Christians have become a new creation (2Co 5:17). We too have to put aside the old ways and walk as new men and women (Eph 4:22-32; Col 3:5-11; Gal 2:20).
Lev 18:5
“You shall therefore keep my statutes, and my ordinances, which if a man do, he shall live in them. I am Yahweh.”
For it is in keeping those statutes and ordinances that they will find life. First of all they will avoid the danger of dying because of sin (compare Exo 28:35; Exo 28:43; Exo 30:20-21; Lev 8:35; Lev 10:6-7; Lev 10:9; Lev 15:31; Lev 16:2; Lev 16:13). Secondly they will live in prosperity and blessing, for in Deuteronomy the idea of life and prosperity go very much together (Deu 30:15-16). The blessings of Deu 28:1-14 were to be for those who ‘lived’. And thirdly elsewhere in Leviticus it is stressed that they would enjoy the abundant blessings of God. ‘If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments and do them, then I shall give you rains in their season, and the land will yield its abundant produce and the trees of the field will bear their fruit. And your threshing will last for you until grape gathering, and grape gathering will last until sowing time, and you will eat your food to the full and live securely in your land’ (Lev 26:3-5).
So fullness of life, He tells us, results from knowing God and walking in His ways. This was also the essential message of the writer of Ecclesiastes (Ecc 2:24-26; Ecc 3:22; Ecc 5:18-19; Ecc 11:9) as he sought to understand the meaning of life. He pointed to the free and happy life under God available to those who trusted in Him. And that was the life that the Law was intended to give, as the people responded to God in love and worship and sought eagerly to do what pleased Him and to enjoy the good things in life that He gave them.
This was not saying that the Law could ‘give life’ as we might understand it. It very much could not. It could only show the life that should be lived. It could show what life was. It was the God of the covenant Who could give life, Who could renew His spirit within them (Psa 51:10; Psa 139:7; Psa 143:10 compare Num 11:25), Who could give them clean hearts if they sought them (Psa 51:10; Eze 18:31). For the purpose of the ordinances was that they should constantly be returned to cleanness, and to a sense of a right relationship with God. The one who had raised up Abraham, Who had raised up Jacob, could also constantly raise them up. This is the message that the prophets would remind them of again and again. But it was true from the beginning. And through this they could live according to His covenant and enjoy His fullness of blessing. They would ‘live in them’.
Relationships Which Are Forbidden.
But central to this fullness of life were satisfactory family relationships. If they wished to enjoy ‘life’ these were vital. Living in a patriarchal society where the wider family lived in close relationships with each other, and where authority was vested in the wider family and very much determined by status in the household, there was the greatest possible danger among such families, knowing the propensities of men, that the closeness of their relationships in their living together could produce sexual problems, and that those could then produce situations that struck at the very roots of the family and of authority. Men’s lusts would be able to destroy families and especially womenfolk. They could also make life very difficult for everybody in a constant changing of relationships. They could in effect destroy ‘life’.
This was especially true because men who were in positions of authority in the family could, without these regulations, have enforced their will sexually and caused untold hurt within their own family circles. Without regulation children especially would clearly be vulnerable to those whom they loved and who were responsible for their protection. It was therefore necessary to have strict rules to control these relationships, to prevent them getting out of hand, and to so legislate that such aberrations should not even be thought of.
Practically speaking there were a number of good reasons why the relationships that follow were to be carefully regulated and any stepping across the boundary avoided, even if the assumption is that marriage, albeit often ‘forced’ marriage, was mainly in view by the perpetrators. They could produce complications in status and in inheritance, cause deep rows, division and distress within families, result in huge tensions, destroy inter-relationships, foster discrimination and jealousies between blood relations, produce insecurity and uncertainty in family life, encourage constant distrust and fear, leave young children very vulnerable, and cause much bad blood and hurt which might affect a number of generations. They could destroy the stability, trust and love of the family. Such practises could also have been carried out deliberately in order to concentrate wealth and power within a few families to the general harm of the nation (compare the inter-marriage policy of Abraham’s family in order to maintain status).
In most cases they were also totally unseemly anyway, denoting total lack of what was decent and natural (like boiling a kid in its mother’s milk was to be unthinkable because it went against nature), and underlying them were also no doubt a recognition by God of the genetic problems that could arise. But above all they are a reminder that we are not just to be free to follow ‘love’ (or lust) but must first do what is seemly and considerate for all. There are things that come before ‘love’. The family unity must not be destroyed for the selfish gratification of the few. That is why rigid barriers were and are necessary.
Where Christian standards of marriage and life, based on these words, have held sway, these relationships described have not outwardly seemed much of a problem. They have simply not been openly breached (although much has gone on under cover which we would be ashamed to talk about if we knew of it). But now that in many countries sex has become a free for all once again they have again begun to raise their heads, and many families are being affected, and many people hurt, by uncouth sexual behaviour in lands once thought of as ‘Christian’.
The problem of incestuous relationships was acknowledged elsewhere in the ancient world, but in a wide variety of ways and with varying penalties, many not very severe. It was, therefore, often not treated too seriously and never dealt with in detail in quite this way. This is thus a rare attempt to formalise in depth how such relationships should be viewed.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Lev 18:2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am the LORD your God.
Ver. 2. I am the Lord your God. ] Your Maker and Master.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
children. Hebrew sons.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Lev 18:4, Lev 11:44, Lev 19:3, Lev 19:4, Lev 19:10, Lev 19:34, Lev 20:7, Gen 17:7, Exo 6:7, Exo 20:2, Psa 33:12, Eze 20:5, Eze 20:7, Eze 20:19, Eze 20:20
Reciprocal: Lev 18:30 – I am
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Lev 18:2. Your God Your sovereign and lawgiver. This is often repeated, because the things here forbidden were practised and allowed by the Gentiles, to whose custom he opposes divine authority and their obligation to obey his commands.