Leviticus 19:29

29 "Don't violate your daughter by making her a whore - the whole country would soon become a brothel, filled with sordid sex.

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.

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FOOTNOTES:

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

Leviticus 19:29 In-Context

27 "Don't cut the hair on the sides of your head or trim your beard.

28 "Don't gash your bodies on behalf of the dead. "Don't tattoo yourselves. I am God.

29 "Don't violate your daughter by making her a whore - the whole country would soon become a brothel, filled with sordid sex.

30 "Keep my Sabbaths and revere my Sanctuary: I am God.

31 "Don't dabble in the occult or traffic with mediums; you'll pollute your souls. I am God, your God.