Leviticus 19:29

29 Do not defile your daughter by making her sexually promiscuous or else the land will become promiscuous and full of shame.

Leviticus 19:29 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 19:29

Do not prostitute thy daughter, to cause her to be a whore,
&c.] Not by delaying to marry her, which is the sense the Jews give {l}, but it refers to a wicked practice among the Phoenicians or Canaanites, Athanasius F13 speaks of, whose women used to prostitute themselves in the temples of their idols; and to such filthy services, in a religious way, the Israelites, in imitation of them, are forbid to expose their daughters: such filthy practices, under a notion of religion, were committed at Babylon, Corinth, and other places; (See Gill on Micah 1:7); lest the land fall to whoredom, and the land become full of wickedness:
of the wickedness of whoredom, both corporeal and spiritual, fornication and idolatry; both of which would be promoted by such abominable practices, and in process of time the land be filled with them.


FOOTNOTES:

F12 Targ. Jon. in loc. T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 76. 1.
F13 Contra Gentes, p. 21.

Leviticus 19:29 In-Context

27 You must not cut off the hair on your forehead or clip the ends of your beard.
28 Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put marks on yourselves; I am the LORD.
29 Do not defile your daughter by making her sexually promiscuous or else the land will become promiscuous and full of shame.
30 You must keep my sabbaths and treat my sanctuary with respect; I am the LORD.
31 Do not resort to dead spirits or inquire of spirits of divination—you will be made unclean by them; I am the LORD your God.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Or making her a prostitute so that the land won’t become a prostitute
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