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Leviticus 18:3

in Leviticus 18

You must not follow the practices of the land of Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not follow the practices of the land of Canaan, into which I am bringing you. You must not walk in their customs.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do; neither shall ye walk in their statutes.

KJV

After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances.

This verse in Leviticus 18

Commentary

5 notes on this verse

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

The doings of the land of Egypt - the land of Canaan - The worshipping of demons, beasts, etc., as mentioned in the preceding chapter, Lev 17:7, and the abominations mentioned in this chapter from Lev 18:21-23.

This site's exposition

Then the LORD said to Moses

on Leviticus 18:1-3

Verse 3 forbids by name the doings of Egypt behind them and Canaan in front of them, before a single rule is given. It calls those nations' practices their ordinances, the same word the book uses for what God appoints.

This site's exposition

You must not walk in their customs

Adam Clarke identifies the practices in view. He points to the worship of goat demons at Leviticus 17:7 and to the offences of verses 21 to 23. Matthew Henry calls custom a tyrant that sets itself up as a rival to God's ordinances.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

Of this danger they are here warned, You shall not walk in their ordinances. Such a tyrant is custom that their practices are called ordinances, and they became rivals even with God's ordinances, and God's professing people were in danger of receiving law from them. A solemn charge to them to keep God's judgments, statutes, and ordinances,
After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do,....

The words behind it

21 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • כְּמַעֲשֵׂ֧הaccording to [the] deed[s] of

    kemaasehH4639 →

  • אֶֽרֶץ־[the] land of

    ʾeretz-H776 →2504 times

  • מִצְרַ֛יִםEgypt

    mitzrayimH4714 →641 times

  • אֲשֶׁ֥רwhich

    ʾasherH834 →5497 times

  • יְשַׁבְתֶּם־you dwelt

    yeshavtem-H3427 →1079 times

  • בָּ֖הּin <the> it

    bah

  • לֹ֣אnot

    lo'H3808 →5168 times

  • תַעֲשׂ֑וּyou will do

    taasuH6213 →2628 times

  • וּכְמַעֲשֵׂ֣הand according to [the] deed[s] of

    ukhemaasehH4639 →

  • אֶֽרֶץ־[the] land of

    ʾeretz-H776 →2504 times

  • כְּנַ֡עַןCanaan

    kenaanH3667 →94 times

  • אֲשֶׁ֣רwhere

    ʾasherH834 →5497 times

  • אֲנִי֩I

    ʾaniH589 →874 times

  • מֵבִ֨יא[am] about to bring

    mevi'H935 →2568 times

  • אֶתְכֶ֥ם<obj.> you

    ʾetkhemH853 →10935 times

  • שָׁ֙מָּה֙there towards

    shamahH8033 →834 times

  • לֹ֣אnot

    lo'H3808 →5168 times

  • תַעֲשׂ֔וּyou will do

    taasuH6213 →2628 times

  • וּבְחֻקֹּתֵיהֶ֖םand in statutes their

    uvechukoteihemH2708 →104 times

  • לֹ֥אnot

    lo'H3808 →5168 times

  • תֵלֵֽכוּ׃you will walk

    telekhuH1980 →1546 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Exodus 23:24

    You must not bow down to their gods or serve them or follow their practices. Instead, you are to demolish them and smash their sacred stones to pieces.

    it leads to

    • Deuteronomy 12:30–31

      be careful not to be ensnared by their ways after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, asking, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.”

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Exodus 20:5

      You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth…

    • Numbers 33:52

      you must drive out before you all the inhabitants of the land, destroy all their carved images and cast idols, and demolish all their high places.

  • Through

    Leviticus 20:23

    You must not follow the statutes of the nations I am driving out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them.

    it leads to

    • Leviticus 18:24

      Do not defile yourselves by any of these practices, for by all these things the nations I am driving out before you have defiled themselves.

    • Deuteronomy 9:5

      It is not because of your righteousness or uprightness of heart that you are going in to possess their land, but it is because of their wickedness that the LORD your God is driving…

    • Leviticus 18:30

      You must keep My charge not to practice any of the abominable customs that were practiced before you, so that you do not defile yourselves by them. I am the LORD your God.”

    • Leviticus 18:27

      For the men who were in the land before you committed all these abominations, and the land has become defiled.

  • Through

    Ezekiel 23:8

    She did not give up the prostitution she began in Egypt, when men slept with her in her youth, caressed her virgin bosom, and poured out their lust upon her.

    it leads to

    • Ezekiel 23:19

      Yet she multiplied her promiscuity, remembering the days of her youth, when she had prostituted herself in the land of Egypt

Where this verse is studied

About Leviticus

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; John Calvin, Commentary on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.