may be added, accords with the fact that polygamy, by the Divine law, as indicated in Gen. ii. 24, and Mal. ii., 14, 15, was sinful. It is held, indeed, by many that polygamy was not sinful in ancient times; and in proof of this, reference is made, among other things, to the cases of Abraham, David, and other polygamists. But the fact that Abraham and David were polygamists does not prove that polygamy was not sinful, any more, than the fact that Abraham was guilty of falsehood, and David of murder, would prove that falsehood and murder were not sins. So far as David was concerned, his polygamy was in violation of a specific law, with reference to Kings, contained in Deut. xvii., 17 : "Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away." Besides, in the case of Uriah's wife, it is represented as a sin that David had not only put her husband to death, but that he afterwards took her to be his wife. If it is alleged that God's declaration that he "gave" David his master's (that is, his father-in-law's) wives into his bosom, justifies his polygamy, the folly of such an allegation will be seen by comparing it with the similar declaration, in which God is said to "give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon," and which cannot be said to vindicate the conduct of Nebuchadnezzar in his aggressive wars. God, in his providence, permits wicked men to do wrong, and may thus be said to give them the desire of their hearts; but this implies no sanction of their conduct as being right and lawful. It can form no objection, therefore, to the marginal translation of Lev. xviii., 18, that elsewhere polygamy is supposed to be sanctioned by the word of God. The supposition is groundless. The original law against it is nowhere repealed. Lev. xviii. 18 is a simple re-enactment of it.
But while I prefer the marginal translation, it will be seen that, whether we adopt the marginal or the textual rendering, Lev. xviii. 18 neither proves nor justifies the marriage of a deceased wife's sister, in the face of a positive prohibition. In the previous verses there is a prohibition as distinctly and clearly implied as the prohibition of marriage with a niece, daughter, or grandmother. As a man should not marry his aunt, so a woman should not marry her uncle; as a man should not marry his mother, so a woman should not marry her father; as a man should not marry his granddaughter, so a woman should not marry her grandson. In
He simply says, "they separated themselves a man from his brother," (that is, one from another.) In like manner, when Moses is writing of women whom a man ought not to marry, it was needles to say, and he does not say "thou shalt not take women—a woman to her sister" (that is, one woman to another); but simply says "thou shalt not take a woman to her sister" (that is, one woman to another). The case is very different when he is writting of the faces of the cherubim, and the tenons, loops and curtains in the tabernacle. Thus, in Ex. xxvi. 6, the meaning; would not have been apparent without the word "curtains." The verse would have been "thou shalt make fifty taches of gold, and couple together a woman to her sister (that is, one to another) with the taches" The word "curtains" is necessary after "couple," to prevent a ridiculous mistake.
