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 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 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.
12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord; because of these same detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you.
12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee.
12 for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you.
12 People who do these things are an abomination to God. It's because of just such abominable practices that God, your God, is driving these nations out before you.
12 For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you.
12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord . It is because the other nations have done these detestable things that the Lord your God will drive them out ahead of you.
(Read Deuteronomy 18:9-14)
Was it possible that a people so blessed with Divine institutions, should ever be in any danger of making those their teachers whom God had made their captives? They were in danger; therefore, after many like cautions, they are charged not to do after the abominations of the nations of Canaan. All reckoning of lucky or unlucky days, all charms for diseases, all amulets or spells to prevent evil, fortune-telling, &c. are here forbidden. These are so wicked as to be a chief cause of the rooting out of the Canaanites. It is amazing to think that there should be any pretenders of this kind in such a land, and day of light, as we live in. They are mere impostors who blind and cheat their followers.
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.