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• This tiny word roots the passage in a real timeline. It links what follows to what came before—Israel’s rescue from Egypt, the giving of the law at Sinai (Exodus 19:1–6), and the holiness code begun inLeviticus 17.

• “Then” signals continuity: God’s revelation is progressive, building step by step (Hebrews 1:1–2).

• It reminds readers that God always speaks at the right moment—never late, never early (Galatians 4:4).

• “LORD” (YHWH) stresses God’s covenant name, the One who keeps promises (Exodus 3:14–15;Deuteronomy 7:9).

• His moral authority flows from His unchanging character (Malachi 3:6). When He speaks, His words carry absolute weight (Psalm 19:7–9).

• By identifying Himself, God underscores that the coming commands are not human opinion but divine decree (Isaiah 45:22–23).

• God communicates clearly. Revelation is verbal; He chooses words, not merely impressions (Jeremiah 1:9;Matthew 4:4).

• Scripture insists that every word He speaks is true and trustworthy (Numbers 23:19;2 Timothy 3:16).

• His speech accomplishes what He intends—creating, correcting, guiding (Genesis 1:3;Isaiah 55:11).

• God addresses a real, historical mediator. Moses stands as the faithful servant in God’s house (Exodus 33:11;Numbers 12:7–8).

• By speaking “to Moses,” God gives Israel a concrete channel for His law, foreshadowing the ultimate Mediator, Christ (Deuteronomy 18:15;Hebrews 3:3–6).

• The personal nature of the address highlights relationship: God is not distant; He engages His people through chosen servants (Exodus 34:27).

Leviticus 18:1, though brief—“Then the LORD said to Moses”—sets a profound stage. “Then” anchors the verse in redemptive history; “the LORD” points to the covenant-keeping God; “said” affirms that He speaks with inerrant authority; “to Moses” reveals a personal, mediated conversation that will convey holy standards to His people. Together, these words declare that the commands to follow are God’s timeless, trustworthy directives for living set-apart lives.

(1)And the Lord spake unto Moses.--Unlike the preceding Divine communications, which treated of the ritual and ceremonial pollutions, the enactments which Moses is here commanded to communicate direct to the children of Israel, or their representatives, the elders, affect their moral life--precepts which form the basis of domestic purity, and which are the foundation of human happiness.

SECTION III.

CHAPTER 18. MORAL UNCLEANNESS AND ITS PUNISHMENT. This being the subject of the three following chapters (chapters 18-20), they naturally form a sequence to chapters 11-17, which have dealt with ceremonial uncleanness and its purification. It is a remarkable thing that, except by implication in connection with the sin offerings and the trespass offerings and the ceremonies of the Day of Atonement, there has not yet been a single moral precept, as such, in the Book of Leviticus, and there has been very little recognition of sin as distinct from pollution. All has been ceremonial. But the ceremonial is typical of the moral, and from the consideration of ceremonial uncleanness and its remedy, we now proceed to the consideration of moral uncleanness and its penalty. It is to be noticed too that, while the ensuing laws are commanded as the positive injunction of God (verses 2, 30), which of itself is sufficient to give them their authority and force, they are still founded, like the ceremonial prohibitions, upon the feelings of repugnance implanted in the mind of man. To enter into the marriage relation with near relatives is abhorrent to a sentiment in mankind so widely spread that it may be deemed to have been originally universal, and the same abhorrence is entertained towards other foul sins of lust. Ugliness, which creates disgust by its ugliness, symbolizes sin; immorality, which inspires abhorrence by its immoral character, proves itself thereby to be sin. The section deals first with sin in the marriage relation, next with sexual impurities connected with marriage, then with other cases of immorality, and lastly with the penalties inflicted on these sins in their character of crimes.Verses 1-5 form an introduction to the Hebrew code of prohibited degrees of marriage and of forbidden sins of lust. The formal and solemn declaration,I am the Lord your God, is made three times in these five verses. This places before the people the two thoughts:

1. That the Lord is holy, and they ought to be like him in holiness;

2. That the Lord has commanded holiness, and they ought to obey him by being holy. Because the Lord is their God, and they are his people, they are, negatively, to refrain from the vicious habits and lax customs prevalent inthe land of Egypt wherein they dwelt, and in the land of Canaan whither they were going, the sensuality of which is indirectly condemned by the injunctions which command purity in contrast to theirdoings; and, positively, they are tokeep God's statutes, and his judgments, as laid down in the following code,which if a man do, he shall live in them. The latter clause is of special importance, because it is repeated in the same connection by Ezekiel (Ezekiel 20:11, 13, 21), and in the Levitical confession in the Book of Nehemiah (Nehemiah 9:29), and is quoted by St. Paul in a controversial sense (Romans 10:5;Galatians 3:12). Its full meaning is that by obedience to God's commands man attains to a state of existence which alone deserves to be called true life - "the life which connects him with Jehovah through his obedience" (Clark). And this involves the further truth that disobedience results in death. Accordingly, St. Paul uses the text as being the testimony of the Law with regard to itself, that salvation by it is of works in contrast with faith. (Cf.Luke 10:28.) We have no evidence to tell us what werethe doings of the land of Canaan in respect to the marriage relation, but this chapter is enough to show that the utmost laxity prevailed in it, and we may be sure that their religious rites, like those of Midian (Numbers 25), were penetrated with the spirit of licentiousness. With regard tothe doings of the land of Egypt, we have fuller information. We know that among the Egyptians marriage with sisters and half-sisters was not only permissible, but that its propriety was justified by their religious beliefs, and practiced in the royal family (Died. Sic., 1:27; Die. Cass., 42). Other abominations condemned in this chapter (verse 23) also, as we know, existed there (Herod., 2:46), and if queens could be what in later times Cleopatra was, we may imagine the general dissoluteness of the people. Among Persians, Medes, Indians, Ethiopians and Assyrians, marriage with mothers and daughters was allowed, and from the time of Cambyses, marriage with a sister was regarded as lawful (Herod., 3:31). The Athenians and Spartans permitted marriage with half-sisters. All these concessions to lust, and ether unclean acts with which the heathen world was full (verse 22;Romans 1:27), were fallings away from the law of purity implanted in the heart of man and now renewed for the Hebrew people.

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