16. — he shall bear his iniquity.] Death shall be his punishment, either from the hand of man or from the hand of God. Lemy.
Chap. XVIII. ver. 2. — I am the Lord your God.] I who am your sovereign Lord, and, by redeeming you from Egyptian bondage, am become in an especial manner your God, have a right to give you laws, to which all human customs must yield, however long practised and extensively spread. This title to the obedience of the people is repeated six times in this chapter, and of-tener in the next. Bp. Patrick.
16. — thy brother's wife:] If this prohibition be understood in the case of the brother's death, it may seem to clash with the command of Deut. xxv. 5. But both are easily reconciled under this limitation, that the brother was not to take the brother's wife, if the deceased left children; or further, if the brother's wife had been divorced. Biblioth. Bibl.
As it is here forbidden that two brothers should marry the same woman, so, by parity of reasoning, it must be understood to be forbidden that two sisters should marry the same man; and these prohibitions form part of the moral law, binding on all mankind. Dr. Berriman.
18. Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister.] The marginal reading is, "one wife to another;" but the meaning of the precept is, that no man should marry his wife's sister while that wife is living. It does not expressly forbid the taking more wives than one, which practice had generally obtained, and passed without reproof among the Israelites. Bps. Patrick and Kidder.
she is thy son's wife; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.