Leviticus 18:19

Also thou shalt not approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(19) Also thou shalt not approach.—Literally, thou shalt not approach. The marriage laws are now followed by sexual impurities, which to some extent are suggested by the subjects that had necessarily to be discussed or hinted at in regulating the alliance in question.

As long as she is put apart.—Put apart, i.e., seven days. (See Leviticus 15:19.) For consorting with her without being aware of her condition the man contracted defilement for seven days (see Leviticus 15:24), and for committing this gross act presumptuously, both parties to it were visited with death. (See Leviticus 20:18.) Ezekiel refers to the transgression of this law as one of the heinous sins perpetrated by the people of Israel (Ezekiel 18:16; Ezekiel 22:10).

Benson Commentary

Leviticus 18:19. As long as she is set apart — No, not to thy own wife. This was not only a ceremonial pollution, but an immorality also, whence it is put among gross sins, Ezekiel 18:6. And therefore it is now unlawful under the gospel.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

18:1-30 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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

To vex her - literally, to "bind" or "pack together". The Jewish commentators illustrate this by the example of Leah and Rachel Genesis 29:30.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

18. Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister, to vex her—The original is rendered in the Margin, "neither shalt thou take one wife to another to vex her," and two different and opposite interpretations have been put upon this passage. The marginal construction involves an express prohibition of polygamy; and, indeed, there can be no doubt that the practice of having more wives than one is directly contrary to the divine will. It was prohibited by the original law of marriage, and no evidence of its lawfulness under the Levitical code can be discovered, although Moses—from "the hardness of their hearts" [Mt 19:8; Mr 10:5]—tolerated it in the people of a rude and early age. The second interpretation forms the ground upon which the "vexed question" has been raised in our times respecting the lawfulness of marriage with a deceased wife's sister. Whatever arguments may be used to prove the unlawfulness or inexpediency of such a matrimonial relation, the passage under consideration cannot, on a sound basis of criticism, be enlisted in the service; for the crimes with which it is here associated warrant the conclusion that it points not to marriage with a deceased wife's sister, but with a sister in the wife's lifetime, a practice common among the ancient Egyptians, Chaldeans, and others.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No, not to thy own wife. See Exodus 12:2 15:24,25. This was not only a ceremonial pollution, but an immorality also, whence it is put amongst gross sins, Ezekiel 18:6. There is also a natural turpitude in this action. And therefore it is now unlawful under the gospel.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Also thou shall not approach unto a woman,.... Not even a man to his own wife, and much less to another woman:

to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness; in her monthly courses; and the time of her separation from her husband on that account was seven days, Leviticus 15:19; if a man lay with a woman when in such circumstances, they were both to be cut off from their people, Leviticus 20:18; and such an action is reckoned among sins, and uncleanness of the worst sort, Ezekiel 22:10.

Geneva Study Bible

Also thou shalt not approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is put {k} apart for her uncleanness.

(k) Or while she has her period.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 19. - The marriage restrictions having been laid down, there follows in the five next verses the prohibition of five sexual impurities unconnected with marriage except by their subject-matter. The first is to approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness, that is, either for seven days at the time of her ordinary illnesses (Leviticus 15:19), or any longer time that her illness might last (Leviticus 15:25), or for forty days after the birth of a man child (chapter 12:2-4), or for eighty days after the birth of a girl (Leviticus 12:5). The penalty for the offense within the seven days is death if committed willfully (Leviticus 20:18); if fallen into unknowingly, a ceremonial penalty of seven days' uncleanness is incurred (Leviticus 15:24). It is twice referred to by Ezekiel as a gross sin (Ezekiel 18:6; Ezekiel 22:10). Leviticus 18:19

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Prohibition of other kinds of unchastity and of unnatural crimes. - Leviticus 18:19 prohibits intercourse with a woman during her uncleanness. טמאה נדּת signifies the uncleanness of a woman's hemorrhage, whether menstruation or after childbirth, which is called in Leviticus 12:7; Leviticus 20:18, the fountain of bleeding. The guilty persons were both of them to be cut off from their nation according to Leviticus 20:18, i.e., to be punished with death.