Leviticus 18:4

Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the LORD your God.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(4) Ye shall do my judgments.—The expression “my judgments and mine ordinances” is here used emphatically, in opposition to “their ordinances,” and has here the force of Mine only; just as the phrase “Him shalt thou serve” (Deuteronomy 6:13) is explained by Christ “Him only shalt thou serve” (Matthew 4:10).

Benson Commentary

Leviticus 18:4. My judgments — Though you do not see the particular reason of some of them, and though they be contrary to the laws and usages of the other nations.

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

See the Leviticus 18:24-30 note.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2-4. I am the Lord your God—This renewed mention of the divine sovereignty over the Israelites was intended to bear particularly on some laws that were widely different from the social customs that obtained both in Egypt and Canaan; for the enormities, which the laws enumerated in this chapter were intended to put down, were freely practised or publicly sanctioned in both of those countries; and, indeed, the extermination of the ancient Canaanites is described as owing to the abominations with which they had polluted the land.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

My judgments and mine ordinances; mine universally, Deu 27:26 Galatians 3:10; for though the words be indefinite, the matter is necessary; and mine solely, Deu 6:13, compared with Matthew 4:10, and therefore those that here follow, though you do not see the particular reason of some of them, and though they be contrary to the laws and usages of the nations.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Ye shall do my judgments,.... Which are just and right, and according to the rules of justice and equity; these are things, as Jarchi observes, which are said in the law with judgment, or are laws framed with the highest reason, even by the judgment of God himself, whose judgment is always according to truth: Aben Ezra thinks, these are the judicial laws in Exodus 21:1; but though they may include them, they have more particular respect to the following laws:

and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: which he had ordained and appointed of his own will and pleasure, which Jarchi calls the decree of the king, or which he decreed and determined as a king, having absolute power over his subjects to enact and enjoin what he pleased; wherefore some think these refer to ceremonial laws, which depended upon the will of the lawgiver, and were not founded in any natural sense or reason, wherefore it follows:

I am the Lord your God: who had a right to make what laws he pleased, being their Sovereign, and which they in gratitude as well as in justice ought to obey, he being their God, their covenant God, who had done great and good things for them.

Geneva Study Bible

Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the LORD your God.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Leviticus 18:4

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Holiness of the Marriage Relation. - The prohibition of incest and similar sensual abominations is introduced with a general warning as to the licentious customs of the Egyptians and Canaanites, and an exhortation to walk in the judgments and ordinances of Jehovah (Leviticus 18:2-5), and is brought to a close with a threatening allusion to the consequences of all such defilements (Leviticus 18:24-30).

Leviticus 18:1-4

By the words, "I am Jehovah your God," which are placed at the head and repeated at the close (Leviticus 18:30), the observance of the command is enforced upon the people as a covenant obligation, and urged upon them most strongly by the promise, that through the observance of the ordinances and judgments of Jehovah they should live (Leviticus 18:5).