Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS 25 Sept 2016
· “[E]very law-order is a state of war against the enemies of that order, and all law is a form of warfare. Every law declares that certain offenders are enemies of the law-order and must be arrested... Law is a state of war; it is the organization of the powers of civil government to bring the enemies of the law-order of justice... The more total the peace desired, the more total the warfare required. The new creation of Jesus Christ is the end result of His total warfare against a fallen world: it requires the permanent suppression of evil in hell. The new creation demanded by the various forms of socialism requires the permanent suppression of the God of Scripture and of His covenant people... A law-order can have peace only by denying the possibility of peace with evil.” ~R.J. Rushdoony, Institutes of Biblical Law, p.93-95.
· As I began to prepare sermons on Leviticus 18, I at first assumed this was going to be about kinky sex, but lo and behold, the chapter is framed with five verses at the beginning and five verses at the end which discuss the fundamental principle of God’s legal authority to make and enforce rules over us before any of the particular rules are listed, so it is with this general principle of God’s jurisdiction that this sermon will be concerned.
· This chapter follows the standard form of a covenantal document where the relationship of a sovereign to his subjects is stated, then his laws are listed, and then the benefits of keeping his laws and punishments for breaking his laws are listed. So let’s look at each of these parts of this covenantal document:
· This is an authoritative decree from a Divine King. The force of this command comes from
o Who is issuing this command (Yahweh)
o and what His relationship is to the audience (their God with whom they have entered into a covenanted relationship).
· “Six times the phrase, ‘I am the Lord (your God)’ is repeated... It may also be described as the covenant formula... corresponding to those found in Hittite treaties of the second millennium B.C... The terseness of the phrase disguises the rich association of ideas that it evoked in ancient Israel... First, it looks back to the redemption of Israel from slavery in Egypt. When God revealed the full meaning of his name Yahweh to Moses, he linked this revelation to a promise that he would save his people from slavery in Egypt and bring them in to the land of Canaan... (Exod. 6:6-7)... Second, Israel, as the people of God was expected to imitate God, to be holy. ‘For I am the Lord your God, and you must sanctify yourselves and be holy because I am holy’ (Lev. 11:44)...” ~Gordon Wenham, The New International Commentary On the Old Testament – Leviticus, pp 250-251.
· Do you recognize who God is and who you are before Him?
o Can you affirm with the old Puritan commentator Matthew Henry that He is: “The Lord, who has a right to rule all; your God, who has a peculiar right to rule you”?
o This is indeed the situation. As the Apostle James put it, God is the “only Lawgiver and Judge who is able to save or to destroy.” (James 4:12)
o This is the person offering to make a covenant with you in Leviticus 18.
o He goes on to define the enemies to His law-order:
· The contrast is stark. The law-order and traditions and ethics of Egypt and Caanan vs. the law-order, traditions, and ethics of Yahweh.
· Although eternity may be hidden in their hearts and so there may be some vestiges of their original created order to be found in their culture, the culture of Egypt with its slavery to sin (represented by its statutes, practices, ordinances, doings, and activities) is absolutely forbidden to you as a child of God.
o Egypt represents the life apart from God which lies in the past – characterized by rebellion against God, darkness, slavery to sin, and even simple immaturity. These are the things you have left behind to follow God.
o And yet at times, our past beckons us to come back –
§ back to the security we felt, even though we know it was based on lies,
§ back to past comforts – even though we know they were hollow and unsatisfying because they were not based on Christ,
§ back to old associates with bad influences.
§ What other ways are you tempted to “walk like an Egyptian?”
o “Such a tyrant is custom that their practices are called ordinances, and they became rivals even with God's ordinances... Sinful customs are abominable customs, and their being common and fashionable does not make them at all the less abominable nor should we the less abominate them, but the more; because the more customary they are the more dangerous they are.” ~M. Henry
o These must be cast off in order to walk with God. You can’t allow its influences to linger in your life any more. There has to be a clean break made; like Pharoah’s army was drowned in the Red Sea.
· The other land to be careful about is Canaan. For the Jews at the time of Leviticus, this was the country they were going to, and for you, this represents the culture of the world around you right now where God has put you – and all the places He is going to take you in the future. The ways of Canaan were also to be utterly forsaken. The practices, ordinances, statutes, devices, doings, and activities are not what should define or control you.
o They will try every way they can to seduce you to walk in their ways of rebellion against God and indulgence in evil.
o They will do their best to make it look exhilaratingly fun and fulfilling in order to get you to join with them, but it is not an option for you.
o “For nothing is more absurd than for us to fix our minds on the actions of men, and not on God’s word.” ~John Calvin, Harmony of the Law on the 7th Commandment
o In what ways are you tempted to let Canaan define you? Let me suggest a few:
§ Fashion is a big area. If you take your cues from the way people around you do their piercings and tattoos, the way models in fashion magazines dress, and the way movie stars style their hair, you are allowing the Canaanites to define you. Your cues should be coming from God’s word and from the community of the church. This is not to say you should be frumpy; on the contrary, the point is to absorb and reflect the wonderful character of Christ in the way you present yourself.
§ Speech is another area. Once again, if you are gleaning your speech patterns from rock stars, famous personalities, and worldly people around you instead of from God’s word, you are turning yourself into something detestable to God.
§ Values are also a reflection of where you are looking for your laws and your standard of judgment. The Canaanites around us tell us to despise authority, exalt human kindness, fit in with what everybody else is doing, and care what others think. If everybody is going 10 miles over the speed limit, then it was a stupid law in the first place, I can handle it at this speed, and I don’t want people to get irritated at me for slowing them down. But God teaches us to have a different set of values which respects the authorities he placed over us, sees people as broken with sin, and does not blindly conform to the world but is transformed by being connected with the Holy Spirit and caring about what God thinks.
· The Scriptures are replete with warnings against following the ways of the nations:
o
2
Kings 17:12 “They served idols, concerning which the LORD had
said to them, ‘You shall not do this thing.’”
Psalm 1:1 “How blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of
sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!”
Ezekiel 20:18 “I said to their
children in the wilderness, ‘Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers
or keep their ordinances or defile yourselves with their
idols...’ 21 But the children rebelled against Me; they did not walk in My
statutes, nor were they careful to observe My ordinances, by which, if a man observes them, he will live; they
profaned My sabbaths. So I resolved to pour out My wrath on them, to accomplish
My anger against them in the wilderness.”
o John 8:12 Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”
· Jewish commentators suggest that keeping the “statutes” means actively obeying the laws of God (such as “You shall have no other Gods before me” and the statues related to that in Leviticus 17 and “Do not commit adultery” and the statutes related to that in Lev. 18), and keeping the “judgments” means punishing those who disobey God’s laws with the just sentencing set forth in places like Leviticus 20.
· Notice that Life is promised as a reward for keeping God’s word.
o “observance promotes increase of life and happiness on earth” ~Soncino Chumash
o Deut. 7:12-13 "Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the LORD your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers. And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock...” (NKJV)
o “If we keep God's commandments in sincerity, though we come short of sinless perfection, we shall find that the way of duty is the way of comfort, and will be the way to happiness.”~M.Henry
o 1 Timothy 4:8 “...godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.” (NKJV)
o “Obedience to the divine law always, indeed, ensures temporal advantages; and this, doubtless, was the primary meaning of the words, ‘which if a man do, he shall live in them.’ But that they had a higher reference to spiritual life is evident from the application made of them by our Lord (in Luke 10:28 – “Love the Lord your God and Love your neighbor as yourself... do these and you will live.”) and by the apostle...” ~JFB
o Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (NKJV)
o The just shall live, but they shall live by faith, by virtue of their union with Christ, who is their life.”~M.Henry
· Here’s an offer you can’t refuse! Free benefits and good life for all who will use God’s statutes and judgments as the pattern for their life rather than the world’s ordinances. The way that seems right to men ends in death (Prov. 14:12).
· Deuteronomy 30:15-18 "See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the LORD your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish...” (NKJV)
· Will you pitch off your slavish observation of Canaan’s statutes in order to follow Christ and enjoy eternal life?
· Now we’re going to skip over the body of specific ordinances listed in the middle of the chapter and catch the last five verses of the chapter starting at v. 26, and which say much the same thing as the first five verses, but go into the curses for violating the terms of this covenant relationship with God.
· This is the first time the word “abomination” appears in Leviticus. All three of the previous instances of this word in Genesis 43:32; 46:34, and Exodus 8:26 refer to things that foreigners considered “abominable” but God’s people did not consider “abominable,” so this word may be thought of as something that a whole culture of people finds disgusting because it is repugnant to their religious beliefs (cf. Prov. 13:19).
· It is important to note that what is to be considered abominable is only that which the God of that society has said is offensive to Him. Our God has specifically told us that idolatry (Deut. 7:25, Isa. 44:19, Rev. 21:8), stealing (Deut. 25:14, Prov. 11:1), bearing false witness (Prov. 6:16&19, 12:22, Rev. 21:8&27), Murder (Prov. 6:16, Jer. 32:35, Rev. 21:8), and Adultery (Ezra 22:11, Rev. 21:8), are abominable to Him. Does that sound familiar? Yes, that’s the 10 commandments – or most of them anyway! A nation’s laws are based on what the god of that nation loves and hates. This is the ultimate basis of law.
o This is also why our nation is having such a hard time with its legal system – we have changed gods from Yahweh to Humanism and therefore our laws are undergoing a wholesale shift to legalize what was once abominable and to abominate what was once law, and since we are still in the middle of this shift there is much that is contradictory in our legal system.
o But according to God’s word in Leviticus 18, whose laws must we follow: the customs of the world or the judgments of God? Inasmuch as the laws of our nation coincide with (or are not opposed to) God’s precepts, we should, of course obey the laws of the land, but our ultimate authority and lawgiver is God Himself. His word is where we learn law and order; the Bible is where we find the absolute standards of what actions are right and what actions are wrong.
· As we saw in Leviticus 17, so we see here in Leviticus 18 that God intended His laws to be applied not only to the Jews but also to the Gentiles (the Strangers/Aliens/Visitors).
· This understanding framed the founding of our own country and can be found throughout the early American documents.
o For instance here is an excerpt from a document entitled “The great blessing of good rulers depends upon God's giving his judgments & his righteousness to them: a sermon preached before His Excellency William Shirley, Esq.; governour, His Honour the lieutenant-governor, the Honourable His Majesty's Council, and House of Representatives of the province of Massachusetts-Bay, in New-England, May 26, 1742. Being the day for the electing His Majesty's Council for said province. By Nathaniel Appleton, A.M. Pastor of the First Church in Cambridge.” (And that’s not even the whole title!) Appleton was on the board of directors of Harvard University and was a famous preacher of his time, which is why he was asked to preach this sermon to everyone in the government of Massachusets. Listen to what he said, “[T]hese judicial laws of the Israelite nation that are so founded upon the general principles of truth and justice as to suit every form of civil government – these are to be regarded as the Laws of God, and binding upon us as much as upon them. This is not because they were given to them, but from the justice and goodness of them in themselves [He’s practically quoting John Calvin here.]. Upon that account, they [that is, the judicial laws of the Israelite nation] are to be adopted into every constitution of civil government.” God’s law applies to us Gentiles today.
· Verse 28 immediately follows the flow of thought from verse 26, and the sentiment is the same as Leviticus 20:22, “You shall therefore keep all My statutes and all My judgments, and perform them, that the land where I am bringing you to dwell may not vomit you out.” (NKJV)
o We see a parallel in Revelation 3:16 where Jesus tells the lukewarm Christians that He will spit them out of His mouth.
o In Lev. 18:28, the land is pictured anthropomorphically as taking in people, then getting sick from the evil they’re doing, and spitting them out in exile to other lands.
o Wave after wave of nations had experienced eviction from their lands in God’s judgment against their wickedness,
§ some of them more spectacular, like the flood of Noah and the fire and brimstone that fell on Sodom and Gomorrah in Abraham’s time,
§ but most of them commonplace revolutions caused by advancing armies. The Philistines, for example were refugees from across the Mediterranean (Amos 9:7) who conquered pagan peoples who had been inhabiting the seacoast of Palestine, and those Philistines were one of the pagan Canaanite tribes which the Jews fought and (to a certain extent) displaced.
o What remained to be seen was whether the Israelites would stay faithful to the covenant relationship Yahweh had made with them or whether they too would fall prone to the idolatry and other abominations which would raise God’s wrath against them and send them into exile. Since we are living over 3,000 years later, we know what happened; they persisted in worshipping idols and were exiled to Babylon and elsewhere.
o This stands as a warning not only to the ancient Jews but to any nation today. It was not just the Jews who were spit out, it was other Gentile nations who weren’t even in covenant with God. Our nation stands in the same place.
§ Whether or not you agree that America has any covenantal status with God, we will be displaced like the American Indian nations before us, and like the other peoples before them if we tolerate and practice what God hates. There are national repercussions to sin.
§ When we look at the systems of sin in our country which have institutionalized the idolatry of secular humanism, the murder of the unborn, stealing in the form of socialistic wealth redistribution and inflationary wealth devaluation, falsehood in the propagandistic media, and adultery in the sexual revolution, we should recognize that, apart from the mercy of God, our country has no chance of escaping His wrath and being vomited out in some way.
§ But thanks be to God for His mercy! He has given us hope in His word in places like 2 Chronicles 7:14, “if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” (NKJV)
§ Will you humble yourself and repent of whatever ways you have participated in these things that God abominates, and will you commit to walking in His judgments and statutes and seeking His face for mercy?
· This verse could be taken as a threat that God will cut off all who work iniquity – even whole nations that practice abominations,
o We see this in the New Testament too, in places like 1 Corinthians 3:17 “When someone ruins the sanctuary of God, God will ruin that person, for the sanctuary of God is holy, which is what you yourselves are.” (NAW)
o In his sermon on this passage, Matthew Henry urged believers to “Lay the ear of faith to the gates of the bottomless pit, and hear the doleful shrieks and outcries of damned sinners, whom earth has spued out and hell has swallowed, that find themselves undone, for ever undone, by sin; and tremble lest this be your portion at last. God's threatenings and judgments should frighten us from sin.”
· Now, v.29 can also be taken as an instruction to the leaders of a community as to how to deal with offenders.
o To preserve the purity of the community and to avoid God’s wrath falling upon your community, you can cut that person out of your community and get them away from you so that when God looks at your community, His wrath is not incited by a flagrant offender being tolerated within the community. (We looked at this practice in some depth in my last sermon.)
o Note that the participle “he who does/acts out” indicates a person who is characterized by committing abominations, not the repentant person who has just slipped up.
o The application is this: each of us exercises dominion in some way on this earth, and you can exercise the power you have over that little part of God’s creation which you have to get rid of evil.
§ Kids, you have authority over your personal space at home and over the quality of your studies and chores to make sure that nothing you do is an abomination to God. When the Holy Spirit convicts you of a sin, you can cut it out and stop practicing it.
§ Parents, you have authority over your home to make sure that abominations are not happening under your roof.
§ Employers, you have authority to make sure that abominations are not happening in your business.
§ Church elders have authority to make sure that abominations are not happening among the members of the church.
§ Government officials are responsible to make sure abominations are not happening in your civil sphere.
o Is there anything offensive to God within your own sphere of influence? What can you do in faithfulness to God to cut it out so that God does not have to bring judgment to you and everybody in your sphere of influence? What can you do to honor God as your lawgiver and judge (James 4) in your sphere of influence to that you instead bring blessing to everyone around you?
· The command is to “keep/obey/guard/treasure/protect/preserve/ obey” God’s statutes and judgments because He is your God (and so that you remain His people). So how do we go about keeping God’s law?
o 1) By reading the Bible to find out what His statutes and judgments are,
o 2) by remembering what His statutes and judgments are,
§ “But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting On those who fear Him, And His righteousness to children's children, To such as keep His covenant, And to those who remember His commandments to do them.” (Ps. 103:17-18 NKJV)
o 3) by acting on what God has decreed rather than what the world lays out for a system of thought and action,
§ “The more we taste of the sweetness and feel of the power of holy ordinances the less inclination we shall have to the forbidden pleasures of sinners' abominable customs.”~M.Henry
o 4) by defending it against compromise and passing this legacy on to the next generation.
§ “We must keep them in our books, and keep them in our hands, that we may practise them in our hearts and lives... We must keep in them as our way to travel in, keep to them as our rule to work by, keep them as our treasure, as the apple of our eye, with the utmost care and value.”~M.Henry
As God’s people, let our covenant relationship with the Lord be renewed. Let us affirm that He is our authority as our Lawgiver and Judge, let us refuse to follow the sinful patterns of our past and of the world around us, let us look forward to the life God promises us and have a healthy respect for His punishments that causes us to get rid of sin and keep God’s Statutes & Judgments!
When a translation adds words not in the Hebrew text, but does not
indicate it has done so by the use of italics (or greyed-out text), I put the
added words in [square brackets]. When one version chooses a wording which is
different from all the other translations, I underline it. When a
version chooses a translation which, in my opinion, either departs too far from
the root meaning of the Hebrew word or departs too far from the grammar form of
the original Hebrew, I use strikeout. And when a version omits a word
which is in the Hebrew text, I insert an X. (Sometimes I will place the X at
the end of a word if the original word is plural but the English translation is
singular.) I occasionally use colors to help the reader see correlations
between the various editions and versions when there are more than two different
translations of a given word. Hebrew text that is colored purple matches the
Dead Sea Scrolls, and variants between the DSS and the MT are noted in endnotes
with the following exceptions: When a holem
or qibbutz pointing in the MT is
represented in the DSS by a vav
or a hireq pointing in the MT is
represented in the DSS by a yod
(the corresponding consonantal representation of the same vowel) or when the
tetragrammaton is spelled with paleo-Hebrew letters, I did not record it a
variant. In Chapter 18, 11Q1 paleoLeviticusa contains verses 27-30, and 4Q23 Leviticus-Numbersa contains verses 16-18 & 20-21.
|
LXX |
Brenton |
KJV |
NAW |
MT |
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1 Καὶ εἶπεν κύριος πρὸς Μωυσῆν λέγων |
1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, |
1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, |
1. Then Yahweh spoke to Moses saying, |
וַיְדַבֵּר יְהוָה אֶל-מֹשֶׁה לֵּאמֹר: |
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2 Λάλησον τοῖς υἱοῖς Ισραηλ καὶ ἐρεῖς πρὸς αὐτούς Ἐγὼ κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὑμῶν. |
2 Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them, I am the Lord your God. |
2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am the LORD your God. |
2. “Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘I am Yahweh your God: |
2 דַּבֵּר אֶל-בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם אֲנִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם: |
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3 κατὰ τὰ ἐπιτηδεύματα γῆς Αἰγύπτου, [ἐν] ᾗ κατῳκήσατε ἐπ᾿ αὐτῇ, οὐ ποιήσετε καὶ κατὰ τὰ ἐπιτηδεύματα γῆς Χανααν, [εἰς] ἣν ἐγὼ εἰσάγω ὑμᾶς ἐκεῖ, οὐ ποιήσετε καὶ τοῖς νομίμοις αὐτῶν οὐ πορεύσεσθε· |
3 Ye shall not do according to the devices of Egypt, in which ye dwelt: and according to the devices of the land of Chanaan, into which I bring you, ye shall not do; and ye shall not walk in their ordinances. |
3 After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances. |
3. Y’all may not act according to the activity of the land of Egypt in which y’all dwelt, and y’all may not act according to the activity of the land of Canaan where I am bringing y’all over there. Y’all may not even walk in their statutes. |
3 כְּמַעֲשֵׂה אֶרֶץ-מִצְרַיִם אֲשֶׁר יְשַׁבְתֶּם-בָּהּ לֹא תַעֲשׂוּ וּכְמַעֲשֵׂה אֶרֶץ-כְּנַעַן אֲשֶׁר אֲנִי מֵבִיא אֶתְכֶם שָׁמָּה לֹא תַעֲשׂוּ וּבְחֻקֹּתֵיהֶם לֹא תֵלֵכוּ: |
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4 τὰ κρίματά μου ποιήσετε καὶ τὰ προστάγματά μου φυλάξεσθε πορεύεσθαι ἐν αὐτοῖς· ἐγὼ κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὑμῶν. |
4 Ye shall observe my judgments, and shall keep my ordinances, [and] shall walk in them: I am the Lord your God. |
4 Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the LORD your God. |
4. My judgments are what y’all shall act on, and my statutes are what y’all shall keep in order to walk in them. I am Yahweh your God. |
4 אֶת-מִשְׁפָּטַי תַּעֲשׂוּ וְאֶת-חֻקֹּתַי תִּשְׁמְרוּ לָלֶכֶת בָּהֶם אֲנִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם: |
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5 καὶ φυλάξεσθε [πάντα] τὰ προστάγματά μου καὶ [πάντα] τὰ κρίματά μου [καὶ ποιήσετε αὐτά], ἃ ποιήσας X ἄνθρωπος X ζήσεται ἐν αὐτοῖς· ἐγὼ κύριος [ὁ θεὸς ὑμῶν]. |
5 So ye shall keep [all] my ordinances, and [all] my judgments, [and do them]; which [if] a man do, X he shall live in them: I am the Lord [your God]. |
5 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which [if] a man do, X he shall live in them: I am the LORD. |
5. So y’all must keep my statutes and my judgments. The man who acts on them will also live in them. I am Yahweh. |
5 וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם אֶת-חֻקֹּתַי וְאֶת-מִשְׁפָּטַי אֲשֶׁר יַעֲשֶׂה אֹתָם הָאָדָם וָחַי בָּהֶם אֲנִי יְהוָה: ס |
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26 X καὶ φυλάξεσθε [πάντα] τὰ νόμιμά μου καὶ [πάντα] τὰ προστάγματά μου καὶ οὐ ποιήσετε ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν βδελυγμάτων τούτων, ὁ ἐγχώριος καὶ ὁ προσγενόμενος προσήλυτος ἐν ὑμῖν· |
26 And ye shall keep all my statutes and [all] my ordinances, and ye shall do none of these abominations; [neither] the native, nor the stranger that joins himself with you: |
26
Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any
of these abominations; neither [any] of |
26. So as for y’all, you must keep my statutes and my judgments, and y’all (the native as well as the visitor visiting among you) must not act out any of these abominations, |
26 וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם אַתֶּם[A] אֶת-חֻקֹּתַי וְאֶת-מִשְׁפָּטַי וְלֹא תַעֲשׂוּ מִכֹּל הַתּוֹעֵבֹת הָאֵלֶּה הָאֶזְרָח וְהַגֵּר הַגָּר בְּתוֹכְכֶם: |
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27 πάντα γὰρ τὰ βδελύγματα ταῦτα ἐποίησαν οἱ ἄνθρωποι τῆς γῆς οἱ ὄντες πρότεροι ὑμῶν, καὶ ἐμιάνθη ἡ γῆ· |
27 (for all these abominations the men of the land did who were before you, and the land was defiled,) |
27 (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;) |
28. so that the land will not vomit y’all out as a result of y’all making it unclean, like when it vomited out the nation before y’all. |
27 כִּי אֶת-כָּל-הַתּוֹעֵבֹת הָאֵל[B] עָשׂוּ אַנְשֵׁי-הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר לִפְנֵיכֶם וַתִּטְמָא הָאָרֶץ: |
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28
καὶ [ἵνα]
μὴ προσοχθίσῃ ὑμῖν
ἡ γῆ ἐν τῷ μιαίνειν ὑμᾶς
αὐτήν, ὃν τρόπον προσώχθισεν τ |
28 and [lest] the land be aggrieved with you in your polluting it, as it was aggrieved with the nations before you. |
28 That the land spue not you out [also], when ye defile it, as it spued out the nation[s] that were before you. |
27. For the men of this land which is in front of y’all, they did all these abominations and the land became unclean. |
28 וְלֹא-תָקִיא הָאָרֶץ אֶתְכֶם בְּטַמַּאֲכֶם אֹתָהּ כַּאֲשֶׁר קָאָה אֶת-הַגּוֹי[C] אֲשֶׁר לִפְנֵיכֶם: |
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29 ὅτι πᾶς, ὃς ἂν ποιήσῃ ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν βδελυγμάτων τούτων, ἐξολεθρευθήσονται αἱ ψυχαὶ αἱ ποιοῦσαι ἐκ τοῦ λαοῦ αὐτῶν. |
29 For whosoever shall do any of these abominations, the souls that do them shall be destroyed from among their people. |
29 For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people. |
29. Therefore as for anyone who acts out any of these abominations, the lives of the ones who do so will then be cut off from proximity to their people. |
29 כִּי כָּל-אֲשֶׁר יַעֲשֶׂה מִכֹּל הַתּוֹעֵבוֹת הָאֵלֶּה וְנִכְרְתוּ הַנְּפָשׁוֹת הָעֹשֹׂת מִקֶּרֶב עַמָּם: |
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30 καὶ φυλάξετε τὰ προστάγματά μου, ὅπως μὴ ποιήσητε ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν νομίμων τῶν ἐβδελυγμένων, ἃ γέγονεν πρὸ τοῦ ὑμᾶς, καὶ οὐ μιανθήσεσθε ἐν αὐτοῖς· ὅτι ἐγὼ κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὑμῶν. |
30 And ye shall keep mine ordinances, that ye may not do any of the abominable practices, which have taken place before your time: and ye shall not be polluted in them; for I am the Lord your God. |
30 Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the LORD your God. |
30. So y’all must keep my charge in order not to act out the abominable statutes which were acted out before y’all - and so you shall not make yourselves unclean by them, for I am Yahweh your God.’” |
30 וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם אֶת-מִשְׁמַרְתִּי לְבִלְתִּי עֲשׂוֹת מֵחֻקּוֹת הַתּוֹעֵבֹת אֲשֶׁר נַעֲשׂוּ לִפְנֵיכֶם וְלֹא תִטַּמְּאוּ בָּהֶם[D] אֲנִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם: פ |
[1] cf. Lev. 8:35 “And at the entrance of the tent of meeting y’all shall sit day and night for seven days. So shall y’all keep the responsibilities of Yahweh and y’all shall not die, for thus I have been commanded.” (NAW)
[A] The emphatic subject “y’all” is not to be found in the S.P., LXX, Syriac, or Vulgate, calling into question whether it is original. It doesn’t change the meaning, though.
[B] SP & DSS 11Q1 spell this demonstrative with a final ה, which is just an unabbreviated form of the same word. However, DSS 11Q1 goes on to add what seems to be a spurious addendum, “and say to them, ‘As for you, y’all must pursue them.’”
[C] Despite the fact that most translations (including LXX, Syriac, Targums, and KJV) render this word plural (“nations”), all the Hebrew texts – DSS, MT, and S.P. agree on the singular. I don’t see that this amounts to an error whether the tribal city-states scattered throughout Palestine were considered as one people (the “Canaanites” referenced earlier), or as multiple peoples (Amonites, Jebusites, Hivites, etc.). The fact that the vomiting of the people is referred to in past tense before the occupational campaigns of Moses and Joshua is curious, and makes me wonder if this refers to a previous history of turnover which would make the Canaanites relatively recent-comers to the land. We know this was the case to some extent with the Philistines, but K&D say this is just a prophetic preterit.
[D] There is some variation among the manuscripts here: The Cairo Geniza omits “by them,” the S.P. makes “them” feminine (referring to “abominable statutes”) rather than Masculine (referring perhaps to “the men of this land” – with which the DSS also agrees), and the DSS (11Q1) and LXX add “because” to begin the final phrase, “I am Yahweh your God.” None of these variations result in a substantial difference in meaning.