Leviticus 20:20

And if a man shall lie with his uncle's wife, he hath uncovered his uncle's nakedness: they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(20) His uncle’s wife.—See Leviticus 18:14.

Benson Commentary

Leviticus 20:20. They shall die childless — Both shall be speedily cut off ere they can have a child by that incestuous conjunction; or, if this seem a less crime than most of the former incestuous mixtures, and therefore the magistrate forbear to punish it with death, yet they shall either have no children from such an unlawful bed, or their children shall die before them.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

20:10-27 These verses repeat what had been said before, but it was needful there should be line upon line. What praises we owe to God that he has taught the evil of sin, and the sure way of deliverance from it! May we have grace to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things; may we have no fellowship with unfruitful works of darkness, but reprove them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

They shall die childless - Either the offspring should not be regarded as lawfully theirs, nor be entitled to any hereditary privileges, or they should have no blessing in their children.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

20. they shall die childless—Either by the judgment of God they shall have no children, or their spurious offspring shall be denied by human authority the ordinary privileges of children in Israel.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

i.e. Either shall be speedily cut off ere they can have a child by that incestuous conjunction, that the remembrance of the fact may be blotted out: or, if this seem a less crime than most of the former incestuous mixtures, because the relation is more remote, and therefore the magistrate shall forbear to punish it with death, yet they shall either have no children from such an unlawful bed, or their children shall die before them, Hosea 9:11,12; or shall not be reputed their genuine children, but bastards, and therefore excluded from the congregation of the Lord, Deu 23:2.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And if a man shall lie with his uncle's wife,.... His uncle being dead, and he marry her, which is forbidden, Leviticus 18:14,

he hath uncovered his uncle's nakedness: his wife's, which was his, and therefore the kindred too near for a man to marry in, and such a copulation must be incestuous:

they shall bear their sin; "both" of them, as the Vulgate Latin, as before, Leviticus 20:19; the punishment of it, as follows:

they shall be childless; which Jarchi and other Jewish writers interpret, if they had any children at this time, that is, by a former marriage, they should die and be buried before them, which was reckoned a great punishment, see Jeremiah 22:30.

Geneva Study Bible

And if a man shall lie with his uncle's wife, he hath uncovered his uncle's nakedness: they shall bear their sin; they shall die {g} childless.

(g) They shall be cut off from their people, and their children shall be taken as bastards, and not counted among the Israelites.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 20, 21. - They shall die childless;... they shall be childless. "It cannot be supposed that a perpetual miracle was to be maintained through all the ages of Israel's history; but the meaning evidently is that the children of such marriages should be reckoned, not to their actual father, but to the former husband of the woman. In the strong feeling of the Israelites in regard to posterity, this penalty seems to have been sufficient" (Gardiner). Leviticus 20:20

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

No civil punishment, on the other hand, to be inflicted by the magistrate or by the community generally, was ordered to follow marriage with an aunt, the sister of father or mother (Leviticus 20:19, cf. Leviticus 18:12-13), with an uncle's wife (Leviticus 20:20, cf. Leviticus 18:4), or with a sister-in-law, a brother's wife (Leviticus 20:21, cf. Leviticus 18:16). In all these cases the threat is simply held out, "they shall bear their iniquity," and (according to Leviticus 20:20, Leviticus 20:21) "die childless;" that is to say, God would reserve the punishment to Himself (see at Leviticus 18:14). In the list of punishments no reference is made to intercourse with a mother (Leviticus 18:7) or a granddaughter (Leviticus 18:10), as it was taken for granted that the punishment of death would be inflicted in such cases as these; just as marriage with a daughter or a full sister is passed over in the prohibitions in ch. 18.