Albert Barnes Commentary Leviticus 18:24-30

"Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out from before you; And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land vomiteth out her inhabitants. Ye therefore shall keep my statutes and mine ordinances, and shall not do any of these abominations; neither the home-born, nor the stranger that sojourneth among you; (for all these abominations have the men of the land done, that were before you, and the land is defiled); that the land vomit not you out also, when ye defile it, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. For whosoever shall do any of these abominations, even the souls that do them shall be cut off from among their people. Therefore shall ye keep my charge, that ye practise not any of these abominable customs, which were practised before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am Jehovah your God." — Leviticus 18:24-30 (ASV)

The land designed and consecrated for His people by Yahweh (Leviticus 25:23) is here personified and represented as vomiting forth its present inhabitants, in consequence of their indulgence in the abominations that have been mentioned. The iniquity of the Canaanites was now full .

The Israelites in this place, and throughout the chapter, are exhorted to a pure and holy life, on the ground that Yahweh, the Holy One, is their God and that they are His people . It is upon this high sanction that they are peremptorily forbidden to defile themselves with the pollutions of the pagan.

The only punishment here pronounced upon individual transgressors is that they are to bear their iniquity and be cut off from among their people. We must understand this latter phrase as expressing an ipso facto excommunication or outlawry, the divine Law pronouncing on the offender an immediate forfeiture of the privileges which belonged to him as one of the people in covenant with Yahweh.

See Exodus 31:14 note. The course which the Law here takes seems to be first to appeal to the conscience of the individual man on the ground of his relation to Yahweh, and then (Leviticus 20:0) to enact such penalties as the order of the state required, and as represented the collective conscience of the nation put into operation.