Leviticus 20:22

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).

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…