Leviticus 18:22

Lev 18:22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it [is] abomination.

Ver. 22. Thou shalt not lie with mankind.] The Sodomites’ sin. {Gen 19:5} {See Trapp on "Gen 19:5"} This, say the Hebrews, was Ishmael’s sporting with Isaac: and this, say others, was the sin of Joseph’s brethren, the evil report whereof he brought to his father. A sad report it was surely to our King Henry I, that was brought him concerning his eldest son, William, who, crossing the seas from France to England, was with many other gallants cast away by shipwreck, being Sodomitica labe infecti fere omnes, saith Guliel. Parisiensis, almost all of them infected with this abomination of going after strange flesh. {Jdg 1:7-8}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18:22 In Gen 1:31, God pronounced all things good. This yielded a theology of the created order where good is defined by what God created and by the way he intended it to function. Part of this “good” was the creation of woman as man’s companion (Gen 2:22-24). Marriage forms a microcosm of the human race, which stands as the corporate bearer of God’s image. Sin, introduced by the Fall (Gen 3), disrupted the created order. Homosexuality is but one example of sinful violation of God’s order; it is tied to the rejection of God by fallen humanity (Rom 1:25-32). • The Hebrew word translated detestable (to‘ebah) indicates strong disapproval and disgust (Lev 20:13; see also 18:26-30).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 22. With mankind] This abominable crime, frequent among the Greeks and Romans as well as the Canaanites, may be punished with death in this country.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(22) As with womankind.—This was the sin of Sodom (Gen_19:5), whence it derived its name, and in spite of the penalty of death enacted by the Law against those who were found guilty of it (see Lev_20:13), the Israelites did not quite relinquish this abominable vice (Jdg_19:22; 1Ki_14:24), to which the surrounding nations were addicted and which was so prevalent in the time of the Apostles (Rom_1:27; 1Co_6:9; Gal_5:19; 1Ti_1:10). By the law of Christ those who are guilty of this sin are excluded from the kingdom of God (1Co_6:9-10), whilst the laws of civilised Europe rightly inflict the severest penalties upon offenders of this kind.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Thou shall not lie with mankind as with womankind,.... By carnal knowledge of them, and carnal copulation with them, and mixing bodies in like manner: this is the sin commonly called sodomy, from the inhabitants of Sodom, greatly addicted to it, for which their city was destroyed by fire: those that are guilty of this sin, are, by the apostle, called "abusers of themselves with mankind", Co1 6:9,

it is abomination; it is so to God, as the above instance of his vengeance shows, and ought to be abominable to men, as being not only contrary to the law of God, but even contrary to nature itself, and what is never to be observed among brute creatures.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Abomination, punished so severely in the Sodomites, Genesis xix. Yet, even the philosophers of Greece were not at all ashamed of it. Bardesanes assures us, that the eastern nations punished it with death, and would not allow the guilty the honours of burial. Those beyond the Euphrates were so shocked at it, that they would kill themselves if they were only accused of such a crime. (Ap. Eusebius, præp. vi. 10.)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

22. Lie with mankind, as with womankind — The whole heathen world, according to St. Paul, (Rom_1:27, note,) corroborated by the ancient historians and all modern travellers, was more or less addicted to the disgusting vice of paederastia, or boy love, a crime against nature, “male on male performing the unseemliness,” which Christianity has banished. To this loathsome form of sensuality Roman poets once unblushingly sung praises. Read Virgil’s Second Eclogue.

Abomination — The Hebrew word occurs one hundred and sixteen times, and always expresses the loathsome and disgusting aspects of crimes and criminals.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The fourth prohibition forbids the sin of Sodom. (see Gen_19:5 Jud_1:11:22 Rom_1:27 1Co_6:9 1Ti_1:10) The penalty is death. (Lev_20:13)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

This would be perversion

Here "perversion" refers to a violation of the natural order of things as Yahweh intended them to be.

translationWords

had relations with

evil

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Now the reason for the prohibitions against lying carnally with a male, or an animal, is well-known, as it is an abominable act and is not for the preservation of the human species, because [the copulation] of [male and male or of] man and animal will not beget offspring. And Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra commented: “Since we find [Lot’s daughter using] the expression, Behold, ‘shachavti’ (I lay) yesternight with my father, [and she did not say, nishkavti, in the passive, or “Behold, shachav imi avi, — my father lay with me,” this shows that the term shachav, although in the active form, refers to the person who commits that act as well as the passive partner who permits herself or himself to be thus abused]; thus it follows that the verse, And with a male ‘lo thishkav’ (thou shalt not lie), constitutes a prohibition both against the one who actively commits pederasty, and against the one who permits himself to be thus abused.” [Thus far are the words of Ibn Ezra.] But if it be as Ibn Ezra said, why is the woman not included in the verse, And thou shalt not lie with any beast, [and it is clear that she is not so included from the fact that Scripture had to continue, Neither shall any woman stand before a beast, to lie down thereto], for women are included in all admonitions of the Torah? Rather, the use of the expression, Behold, ‘shachavti’ (I lay) yesternight with my father is due to the fact that it was Lot’s daughters who, through lying with him, [were instrumental in that affair] in order to beget seed of him. As is known, the seed comes either from the movement of the whole body, just as foam is formed in the mouths of galloping horses, or it is brought forth in the veins nearby [the sexual organ], where it gathers by the continuing motion thereof until it is emitted. Were they then not to have lain with Lot, his seed would not have come forth, for in his drunkenness he was like a silent stone.

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.