(25) The land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.--From the creation the earth shared in the punishment of man's guilt (Genesis 3:17), and at the restitution of all things she is to participate in his restoration (Romans 8:19-22). The physical condition of the land, therefore, depends upon the moral conduct of man. When he disobeys God's commandments she is parched up and does not yield her fruit" (Deuteronomy 11:17). "The land is defiled" when he defiles himself. When he walks in the way of the Divine commands she is blessed (Leviticus 25:19; Leviticus 26:4); "God is merciful unto his land and to his people" (Deuteronomy 32:43). Hence, "the earth mourneth" when her inhabitants sin (Isaiah 24:4-5), and "the earth is glad" when God avenges the cause of His people (Psalm 96:11-13). It is owing to this intimate connection between them that the land, which is here personified, is represented as loathing the wicked conduct of her children and being unable to restrain them. She nauseated them. The same figure is used in Leviticus 18:28; Leviticus 20:22; and in Revelation 3:16.

18:1-30 Unlawful marriages and fleshly lusts. - Here is a law against all conformity to the corrupt usages of the heathen. Also laws against incest, against brutal lusts, and barbarous idolatries; and the enforcement of these laws from the ruin of the Canaanites. God here gives moral precepts. Close and constant adherence to God's ordinances is the most effectual preservative from gross sin. The grace of God only will secure us; that grace is to be expected only in the use of the means of grace. Nor does He ever leave any to their hearts' lusts, till they have left him and his services.And the land is defiled,.... The inhabitants of it, with the immoralities and idolatries before mentioned:

therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it; or punish the inhabitants that are on it for their sins:

and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants; as a stomach loaded with corrupt and bad food it has taken in, nauseates it, and cannot bear and retain it, but casts it up, and never receives it again; so the land of Canaan is represented as loathing its inhabitants, and as having an aversion to them, and indignation against them, and as not being able to bear them, but entirely willing to be rid of them and throw them out of their places in it, never to be admitted more, being as nauseous and as useless as the cast of a man's stomach; see Revelation 3:16.