What is the meaning of Leviticus 19:29? You must not defile your daughter • The command is addressed first to fathers, highlighting their responsibility to protect their children’s purity (see Proverbs 22:6; Ephesians 6:4). • “Defile” carries the idea of treating someone as common or unclean (cf. Leviticus 18:24–25). God calls parents to honor the sacred trust of raising a child made in His image, not to cheapen that life for personal gain. • By placing this warning inside a chapter filled with “You shall be holy” commands (Leviticus 19:2), the Lord shows that family holiness is inseparable from national holiness. by making her a prostitute • Forced or permitted prostitution was a real temptation in the surrounding Canaanite culture, where temple prostitution was tied to fertility rites (Deuteronomy 23:17; Hosea 4:13–14). • God’s law refuses to let economic hardship or cultural pressure justify sexual exploitation. The daughter is not merchandise; she is covenant family. • The New Testament echoes this principle: “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? … Therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:15–20). or the land will be prostituted • Personal sin never stays private; it seeps into the soil of society (Joshua 7:1, 11–12). • Scripture often personifies the land, showing how moral pollution invites divine judgment (Jeremiah 3:1–3; Isaiah 24:5–6). • Israel’s calling was to inhabit a land set apart for God; tolerating sexual exploitation would make the whole nation resemble the pagan cultures they were to displace. and filled with depravity • When sexual sin is normalized, every other form of corruption follows (Romans 1:24–28). • Judges 19 offers a grim historical picture: unchecked immorality led to brutality, civil war, and near‐annihilation of a tribe. • The verse warns that if parents surrender their duty, society will slide from isolated acts of immorality into widespread moral chaos. summary Leviticus 19:29 is God’s clear, protective boundary: parents are never to sacrifice their children’s purity for profit or acceptance. Violating that boundary defiles the individual, corrodes the family, and ultimately infects the whole community with depravity. Obeying the command upholds God’s holiness, honors the inherent worth of every child, and safeguards the moral health of the land. |
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