17 You may not take as wife a woman and her daughter, or her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter, for they are of one family: it is an act of shame. 18 And you may not take as wife a woman and at the same time her sister, to be in competition with her in her life-time.

19 And you may not go near a woman or have sex relations with her when she is unclean, at her regular time. 20 And you may not have sex relations with your neighbour's wife, making yourself unclean with her.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on Leviticus 18:17-20

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.