Leviticus 20:22

The last verse is a particular law, which comes in after the general conclusion, as if omitted in its proper place: it is for the putting of those to death that dealt with familiar spirits, Lev 20:27. It would be an affront to God and to his lively oracles, a scandal to the country, and a temptation to ignorant bad people, to consult them, if such were known and suffered to live among them. Those that are in league with the devil have in effect made a covenant with death and an agreement with hell, and so shall their doom be.

The rest of these verses repeat and inculcate what had been said before; for to that unthinking forgetful people it was requisite that there should be line upon line, and that general rules, with their reasons, should be frequently insisted on, for the enforcement of particular laws, and making them more effectual. Three things we are here reminded of:-

I. Their dignity. 1. They had the Lord for their God, Lev 20:24. They were his, his care, his choice, his treasure, his jewels, his kingdom of priests (Lev 20:26): That you should be mine. Happy the people, and truly great, that are in such a case. 2. Their God was a holy God (Lev 20:26), infinitely advanced above all others. His holiness is his glory, and it was their honour to be related to him, while their neighbours were the infamous worshippers of impure and filthy spirits. 3. The great God had separated them from other people (Lev 20:24), and again, Lev 20:26. Other nations were the common; they were the enclosure, beautified and enriched with peculiar privileges, and designed for peculiar honours; let them therefore value themselves accordingly, preserve their honour, and not lay it in the dust, by walking in the way of the heathen.

II. Their duty; this is inferred from their dignity. God had done more for them than for others, and therefore expected more from them than from others. And what is it that the Lord their God requires, in consideration of the great things done and designed? 1. You shall keep all my statutes (Lev 20:22); and there was all the reason in the world that they should, for the statutes were their honour, and obedience to them would be their lasting comfort. 2. You shall not walk in the manners of nations, Lev 20:23. Being separated from them, they must not associate with them, nor learn their ways. The manners of the nations were bad enough in them, but would be much worse in God's people. 3. You shall put a difference between clean and unclean, Lev 20:25. This is holiness, to discern between things that differ, not to live at large, as if we might say and do any thing, but to speak and act with caution. 4. You shall not make your souls abominable, Lev 20:25. Our constant care must be to preserve the honour, by preserving the purity, of our own souls, and never to do any thing to make them abominable to God and to our own consciences.

III. Their danger. 1. They were going into an infected place (Lev 20:24): You shall inherit their land, a land flowing with milk and honey, which they would have the comfort of if they kept their integrity; but, withal, it was a land full of idols, idolatries, and superstitious usages, which they would be apt to fall in love with, having brought from Egypt with them a strange disposition to take that infection. 2. If they took the infection, it would be of pernicious consequence to them. The Canaanites were to be expelled for these very sins: They committed all these things, therefore I abhorred them, Lev 20:23. See what an evil thing sin is; it provokes God to abhor his own creatures, whereas otherwise he delights in the work of his hands. And, if the Israelites trod in the steps of their impiety, they must expect that the land would spue them out (Lev 20:22), as he had told them before, Lev 18:28. If God spared not the natural branches, but broke them off, neither would he spare those who were grafted in, if they degenerated. Thus the rejection of the Jews stands for a warning to all Christian churches to take heed lest the kingdom of God be taken from them. Those that sin like others must expect to smart like them; and their profession of relation to God will be no security to them.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Lev 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.

Ver. 22. See on Lev 18:1-30

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.

Verse 22. The land, whither I bring you to dwell therein, spue you not out.] See this energetic prosopopoeia explained in the note on Le 18:25. From this we learn that the cup of the iniquities of the Canaanitish nations was full; and that, consistently with Divine justice, they could be no longer spared.

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

(22) Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes.—Like the prohibitions (see Lev_18:26-30), the penalties here enacted for transgressing them conclude with an appeal to the Israelites to keep the Divine precepts, and not to be guilty of the crimes for which the former inhabitants of the land have been cast out.

That the land . . . spue you not out.—Better, lest the land . . . vomit you out, as in Lev_18:28. For this figure of speech see Lev_20:25 of the same chapter.

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

22–24. An exhortation fundamentally in agreement with Lev_18:24-30.

The idea of a separation from other nations is prominent in connexion with that of holiness.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes,.... All the ordinances, institutions, and appointments of God, whether observed in this chapter or elsewhere, but particularly those concerning incestuous marriages and unlawful copulations:

and all my judgments, and do them; all the laws and commandments of God, founded injustice and judgment, and according to the rules thereof; or else, as Aben Ezra, the judgments of punishment, or the penalties annexed to the above laws, which were carefully to be observed, and put into execution, to deter from the transgression of them:

that the land, whither I bring you to dwell therein, spew you not out; as the stomach does its food when it is loathsome and nauseous to it, and it cannot bear it; see Lev 18:25.

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

The ground is here again stated on which all these laws of holiness should be obeyed. See Lev 18:24-30 note.

Lev 20:24

Compare the margin reference.

Lev 20:25, Lev 20:26

The distinction between clean and unclean for the whole people, and not for any mere section of it, was one great typical mark of “the kingdom of priests, the holy nation.” See the Lev 11:42 note.

Lev 20:25

Any manner of living thing that creepeth - Rather, any creeping thing; that is, any vermin. See Lev 11:20-23. The reference in this verse is to dead animals, not to the creatures when alive.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

22. Spew you not out — See Lev_18:25; Lev_18:28, notes.

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

Vers. 22, 23. The fact of the nations of Canaan being abhorred by God because they committed all these things shows that the Levitical code forbidding all these things was no part of any special law for that nation alone, hut a republication of that Law which is binding on all nations because written on the conscience. The prohibited degrees in the Book of Leviticus form a part of the moral, not of the ceremonial, law, and are, therefore, of permanent and universal, not only of temporary and national, obligation.

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

The list of punishments concludes, like the prohibitions in Lev 18:24., with exhortations to observe the commandments and judgments of the Lord, and to avoid such abominations (on Lev 18:22 cf. Lev 18:3-5, Lev 18:26, Lev 18:28, Lev 18:30; and on Lev 18:23 cf. Lev 18:3 and Lev 18:24). The reason assigned for the exhortations is, that Jehovah was about to give them for a possession the fruitful land, whose inhabitants He had driven out because of their abominations, and that Jehovah was their God, who had separated Israel from the nations. For this reason (Lev 18:25) they were also to sever (make distinctions) between clean and unclean cattle and birds, and not make their souls (i.e., their persons) abominable through unclean animals, with which the earth swarmed, and which God had "separated to make unclean," i.e., had prohibited them from eating or touching when dead, because they defiled (see ch. 11). For (Lev 18:26) they were to be holy, because Jehovah their God was holy, who had severed them from the nations, to belong to Him, i.e., to be the nation of His possession (see Exo 19:4-6).

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

Admonition to Holiness

v. 22. Ye shall therefore keep all My statutes and all My judgments, both general and special, and do them, that the land whither I bring you to dwell therein spue you not out, Lev 18:25-28.

v. 23. And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation which I cast out before you, the nation of the Canaanites with all its branches; for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them. This implies that the sins enumerated in the list above were offenses against the natural law, against the summary of God’s will as it was implanted in the hearts of men at the beginning. They were unnatural sins and vices.

v. 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, of unusual fruitfulness. I am the Lord, your God, which have separated you from other people, to be a peculiar people, and one distinguished in His service.

v. 25. Ye shall therefore put difference between clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean fowls and clean, observe the distinctions set forth in Chapter 11; 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.

v. 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. "The sacred observance of the laws of food was thus a constant reminder for Israel of its theocratic sanctity and dignity. " (Lange. )

v. 27. A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, that consults with the spirits of the dead or practices necromancy, shall surely be put to death; they shall stone them with stones; their blood shall be upon them. In this way every defilement through idolatrous abominations was prevented, and Israel was kept consecrated for the service of the Lord.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

the land into which I am bringing you to live will not vomit you up

This phrase describes the land as a vomiting person who needs to reject bad food. Instead of rejecting bad food, the land rejects the people and removes them. See how you translated this metaphor in Leviticus 18:25. AT: "the land to which I am bringing you will not reject you" (See: Metaphor and Personification)

You must not walk in

Doing the actions of idol worshipers is spoken of as walking in their ways. AT: "you must not follow" (See: Metaphor)

drive out

"remove"

translationWords

statute

obey

walk

nation

cast out

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