Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Leviticus 18:30
Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that [ye] commit not [any one] of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I [am] the LORD your God.
Verse 30. Shall ye keep mine ordinance] The only way to be preserved from all false worship is seriously to consider and devoutly to observe the ordinances of the true religion. He who in the things of God goes no farther than he can say, Thus it is written, and thus it behoves me to do, is never likely to receive a false creed, nor perform a superstitious act of worship.
1. How true is that word, The law of the Lord is PERFECT! In a small compass, and in a most minute detail, it comprises every thing that is calculated to instruct, direct, convince, correct, and fortify the mind of man. Whatever has a tendency to corrupt or injure man, that it forbids; whatever is calculated to comfort him, promote and secure his best interests, that it commands. It takes him in all possible states, views him in all connections, and provides for his present and eternal happiness.
2. As the human soul is polluted and tends to pollution, the great doctrine of the law is holiness to the Lord: this it keeps invariably in view in all its commands, precepts, ordinances, rites, and ceremonies. And how forcibly in all these does it say, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength; and thy neighbour as thyself! This is the prominent doctrine of the preceding chapter; and this shall be fulfilled in all them who believe, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to them that believe.
Reader, magnify God for his law, for by it is the knowledge of sin; and magnify him for his Gospel, for by this is the cure of sin. Let the law be thy schoolmaster to bring thee to Christ, that thou mayest be justified by faith; and that the righteousness of the law may be fulfilled in thee, and that thou mayest walk, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
30. Therefore shall ye keep mineordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customsIngiving the Israelites these particular institutions, God was onlyre-delivering the law imprinted on the natural heart of man; forthere is every reason to believe that the incestuous alliances andunnatural crimes prohibited in this chapter were forbidden to all menby a law expressed or understood from the beginning of the world, orat least from the era of the flood, since God threatens to condemnand punish, in a manner so sternly severe, these atrocities in thepractice of the Canaanites and their neighbors, who were not subjectto the laws of the Hebrew nation.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance,…. Whatever the Lord appointed them and commanded, whether contained in this chapter, or elsewhere:
that [ye] commit not [anyone] of these abominable customs; for attending to the ordinances of God, and a close in them, they would be preserved from the commission of such abominable things, and giving in to such detestable customs as before warned against:
which were committed before you; by the inhabitants of Canaan; and by the punishment on them for them they might be deterred from doing the same:
and that ye defile not yourselves therein; for though the land is so often said to be defiled, yet, properly speaking, and chiefly, it was the inhabitants that were defiled by their abominable customs; and so would the Israelites also, should they observe the same, and thereby become abominable in the sight of God, and incur his displeasure, and be liable to his vengeance:
I [am] the Lord your God; who had a sovereign authority over them, and a right to give out what commands he pleased, both negative and affirmative; and to whom they were under obligations to obey, as the God of nature and providence, from whom they had their beings, and were supported in them, and as their covenant God, who had bestowed special and spiritual favours on them.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(30) Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance. As God is no respecter of persons, and as He will assuredly visit His own people with the same punishment which He inflicted upon the former occupants of the laud, the Israelites are to take special care to keep inviolate His ordinances.
Commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you. Better, Do not any one of these abominable statutes which were done, as the Authorised Version translates the word in Deu. 6:24; Deu. 16:12; Deu. 26:16. These abominations were not practised simply as customs, but were legally enacted as statutes of the land, and formed part of their religious institutions (see Lev. 18:3). A similar state of degeneracy is described by Isaiah, who tells us that the Divine statutes, which is the same word used in the passage before us, were changed. By deviating here from the usual rendering of this phrase the Authorised Version mars the import of the passage.
I am the Lord your God.This is the declaration with which this group of laws was introduced. Its repetition at the end imparts peculiar solemnity to these enactments. (See Lev. 18:1.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Lev 18:30. Abominable customs Hebrew, statutes of abomination; whereby, says Dr. Beaumont, are meant sinful practices, which, through custom, grew to be as laws among them. It is to be observed, that God, who is no respecter of persons, threatens to the Israelites the same ejection from the land, out of which the Canaanites were now about to be expelled, if they committed similar offences; Lev 18:28. And as they did commit such offences, so were they punished. See Jer 9:19. Eze 36:17-19. And hence we see the reasons and necessity of these laws.
REFLECTIONS.1. It is among the dire proofs of the desperate corruptness of man’s nature that ever such wretches should exist, or that such prohibitions should be necessary. 2. The offender was to be cut off: not only his body doomed to death, but his soul and body, most probably, to everlasting burnings. The fire of lust, and the fire of hell, are kindled for each other. 3. The nation shall be destroyed where such abominations are committed. They themselves are going to Canaan, to be God’s executioners on that devoted people, for these very sins; and therefore, with such an instance before them, they need take warning not to defile themselves with such wickedness; for if they did, they would sink in the same destruction. Note; Nothing fills up the measure of a nation’s guilt faster than these abominable and unnatural lusts. 4. Here is a solemn charge to keep God’s ordinances, and avoid these hateful customs. Note; The world we live in, is like Canaan, and its customs scarcely less detestable. We have need to tremble, lest we swim with the stream, and lose the horror of sin by beholding the commonness of the practice; from which nothing can so effectually preserve us, as a constant attention to God’s word, and daily application for his grace, to keep us from the pollutions that are in the world through lust. And in this way we shall find such genuine pleasures to be enjoyed, as will make us loath the deceitful and soul-destroying pleasures of sin.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
REFLECTIONS
READER! when you have perused this chapter, pause and contemplate with me, to what an awful state of sin and corruption is our nature fallen! Is it possible to consider these precepts as truly necessary to have been given, to consider our nature universally capable of perpetrating such horrid crimes and bestialities, without being smitten with a deep sense of our miserable state by reason of the fall. Is the hand that now writes, and the eye that now reads, equally full of the same malignity, unless restrained from these several corruptions by Almighty grace? Dearest and ever-blessed JESUS! how increasingly precious ought to be thy person and holiness in the conscious sense of sin to all thy people! Oh! may it be my happiness to be drawn the nearer to thee, from the conviction of my want of thee. LORD, enable me to mortify the deeds of the body by thy HOLY SPIRIT, that I may live! And while beholding, as I do, in the polluted sinful world around me, the many deplorable instances of sin and uncleanness among the ungodly; may I feel the sweetness of that blessed scripture, brought home personally to my heart, and speaking to my own experience: And such were some of you. But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name of the LORD JESUS, and by the SPIRIT of our GOD.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Lev 18:30 Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that [ye] commit not [any one] of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I [am] the LORD your God.
Ver. 30. These abominable customs. ] Heb., Statutes of abominations. Their evil customs became as laws: that tyrant of three letters, Mos, had made them so.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
keep Mine ordinance. This is the Figure of speech Polyptoton (App-6) = “observe My observance”, but, Eng. keep My charge.
customs = statutes: because they were legal enactments of the land, Compare Lev 18:3. The word is rendered “statutes” in Deu 6:24; Deu 16:12, and Deu 26:16.
I am the LORD your God. This body of laws (Lev 18) is emphasized and solemnized by beginning and ending with the same expression. Figure of speech Epanadiplosis. See App-6.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
abominable: Lev 18:3, Lev 18:26, Lev 18:27, Lev 20:23, Deu 18:9-12
that ye defile: Lev 18:24
I am: Lev 18:2, Lev 18:4
Reciprocal: Exo 29:46 – I am 2Ch 15:8 – abominable idols Jer 10:3 – customs Eze 18:17 – that hath not Rom 12:2 – be not Heb 9:1 – had