24 Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you:
24 " 'Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled.
24 "Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean,
24 "Don't pollute yourself in any of these ways. This is how the nations became polluted, the ones that I am going to drive out of the land before you.
24 'Do not defile yourselves with any of these things; for by all these the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you.
24 "Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, for the people I am driving out before you have defiled themselves in all these ways.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Leviticus 18:24
Chapter Contents
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 barbarous idolatries; and the enforcement of these laws from the ruin of the Canaanites. God here gives moral precepts. Close and constant adherence 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 only 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.