John Gill's Bible Commentary Ver. 9. The nakedness of thy sister , etc.] To lie with one in so near a relation is exceeding criminal, and for which the law curses a man, ( Deuteronomy 27:22); and to marry her is not lawful; for though it was necessary for the propagation of mankind that a man should marry his sister, for who else could Cain and Abel marry? yet afterwards, when there was an increase of mankind, and there were people enough remote from each other, it became unlawful for persons in such near ties of consanguinity to marry with each other; though the Egyptians did, in imitation of Isis and Osiris f627 , and so the Persians, following the example of Cambyses f628 : the daughter of thy father, or the daughter of thy mother ; whether she is a sister both by father and mother’s side, or whether only by the fathers side and not the mother’s, as Sarah was to Abraham, ( Genesis 20:12); or only by the mother’s side and not the father’s: [whether she be] born at home or born abroad ; not whether born and brought up in his and her father’s house, or born and brought up in another place and province; though there were some, as Aben Ezra observes, that so interpreted it, according to the sense of the word in ( Genesis 50:23); but rather the sense is, as that writer gives it, whether born according to the law of the house of Israel, after espousals and marriage, or without it; that is, whether begotten in lawful marriage or not, whether a legitimate offspring or spurious, born in adultery and whoredom, whether on the father or mother’s side; so the Targum of Jonathan, whom thy father begat of another woman, or of thy mother, or whom thy mother bore or brought forth, of thy father, or of another man; and to the same purpose Onkelos: [even] their nakedness thou shalt not uncover ; neither lie with, or have carnal knowledge of, nor marry one or the other.
Matthew Henry Commentary
- Unlawful marriages and fleshly lusts.
--Here is a law against all conformity to the corrupt usages of the heathen. Also laws against incest, against brutal lusts, and barbarou idolatries; and the enforcement of these laws from the ruin of the Canaanites. God here gives moral precepts. Close and constant adherenc to God's ordinances is the most effectual preservative from gross sin The grace of God only will secure us; that grace is to be expected onl in the use of the means of grace. Nor does He ever leave any to their hearts' lusts, till they have left him and his services _________________________________________________
Original Hebrew ערות6172 אחותך269 בת1323 אביך1 או176 בת1323 אמך517 מולדת4138 בית1004 או176 מולדת4138 חוץ2351 לא3808 תגלה1540 ערותן׃6172
