Holly Bible - KJV with Concise Commentaries by Z Selam - HTML preview
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his life to the grace of Christ, and not to the merit of his own works; see Ga 3:21,22. The just shall live, but they shall live by faith, by virtue of their union with Christ, who is their life.
5 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if
a man do, he shall live in them: I am the Lord.
6 None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to
uncover their nakedness: I am the Lord.
That which is forbidden as to the relations here specified is approaching to them to uncover their nakedness, Le 18:6.
1. It is chiefly intended to forbid the marrying of any of these relations. Marriage is a divine institution; this and the sabbath, the eldest of all, of equal standing with man upon the earth: it is intended for the comfort of human life, and the decent and honourable propagation of the human race, such as became the dignity of man's nature above that of the beasts. It is honourable in all, and these laws are for the support of the honour of it. It was requisite that a divine ordinance should be subject to divine rules and restraints, especially because it concerns a thing wherein the corrupt nature of man is as apt as in any thing to be wilful and impetuous in its desires, and impatient of check. Yet these prohibitions, besides their being enacted by an incontestable authority, are in themselves highly reasonable and equitable.
(1.) By marriage two were to become one flesh, therefore those that before were in a sense one flesh by nature could not, without the greatest absurdity, become one flesh by institution; for the institution was designed to unite those who before were not united.
(2.) Marriage puts an equality between husband and wife. "Is she not thy companion taken out of thy side?" Therefore, if those who before were superior and inferior should intermarry (which is the case in most of the instances here