(20) His uncle’s wife.—See Leviticus 18:14.

Leviticus 20:20. They shall die childless — Both shall be speedily cut off ere they can have a child by that incestuous conjunction; or, if this seem a less crime than most of the former incestuous mixtures, and therefore the magistrate forbear to punish it with death, yet they shall either have no children from such an unlawful bed, or their children shall die before them.

20:10-27 These verses repeat what had been said before, but it was needful there should be line upon line. What praises we owe to God that he has taught the evil of sin, and the sure way of deliverance from it! May we have grace to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things; may we have no fellowship with unfruitful works of darkness, but reprove them.They shall die childless - Either the offspring should not be regarded as lawfully theirs, nor be entitled to any hereditary privileges, or they should have no blessing in their children. 20. they shall die childless—Either by the judgment of God they shall have no children, or their spurious offspring shall be denied by human authority the ordinary privileges of children in Israel. i.e. Either shall be speedily cut off ere they can have a child by that incestuous conjunction, that the remembrance of the fact may be blotted out: or, if this seem a less crime than most of the former incestuous mixtures, because the relation is more remote, and therefore the magistrate shall forbear to punish it with death, yet they shall either have no children from such an unlawful bed, or their children shall die before them, Hosea 9:11,12; or shall not be reputed their genuine children, but bastards, and therefore excluded from the congregation of the Lord, Deu 23:2.

And if a man shall lie with his uncle's wife,.... His uncle being dead, and he marry her, which is forbidden, Leviticus 18:14,

he hath uncovered his uncle's nakedness: his wife's, which was his, and therefore the kindred too near for a man to marry in, and such a copulation must be incestuous:

they shall bear their sin; "both" of them, as the Vulgate Latin, as before, Leviticus 20:19; the punishment of it, as follows:

they shall be childless; which Jarchi and other Jewish writers interpret, if they had any children at this time, that is, by a former marriage, they should die and be buried before them, which was reckoned a great punishment, see Jeremiah 22:30.

And if a man shall lie with his uncle's wife, he hath uncovered his uncle's nakedness: they shall bear their sin; they shall die {g} childless.

(g) They shall be cut off from their people, and their children shall be taken as bastards, and not counted among the Israelites.