Chapter Twenty

Criminal penalties for transgressions indicated in chapters 18–19 and previous ones

Leviticus 20:2. Say to the people of Israel: Anyone of the people of Israel or of the aliens residing in Israel who gives any of their offspring to Molech shall be put to death; the people of the land shall stone him to death; Leviticus 20:3. I Myself will set My face against that person and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given of his offspring to Molech, to defile My sanctuary and to profane My holy name; Leviticus 20:4. And if the people of the land should ever look the other way when that man gives of his offspring to Molech, and do not put him to death, Leviticus 20:5. Then I Myself will set My face against that man and against his family and will cut him off from among his people, him and all who follow him to play the harlot after Molech. Against the devotees of the bloodthirsty cult of Molech (see Lev 18:21), which defiled the sanctuary of Jehovah, the judgment of Jehovah is pronounced with full terrible solemnity; the practitioner of this cult, whether he is strictly an Israelite or a foreigner (ger, Vulg.: advena), must be immediately stoned by society; if, however, society should be negligent in punishing the guilty party, especially if it should show sympathy toward the cult of Molech, Jehovah will turn His punishment upon the guilty party and his family (Grot.: per mortem immaturam).

Leviticus 20:6. If any person turns to those who consult spirits of the dead and to wizards, playing the harlot after them, I will set My face against them and cut them off from among their people. Similar punishment of “cutting off” is threatened against those who turn to the summoners of the spirits of the dead and to wizards (see Lev 19:26).

Leviticus 20:7. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord, your God, [am holy]. Leviticus 20:8. Keep My ordinances and perform them, for I am the Lord Who sanctifies you. Exhortation to that holiness—an image of the holiness of Jehovah—which constitutes the essence of the theocratic election of Israel (see Lev 11:45).

Leviticus 20:9. Whoever curses their father or their mother shall be put to death; they have cursed their father or mother; their blood is upon them. Cursing of father or mother is punished with death as a crime that undermines the divinely established foundations of society (see Exod 21:15; Deut 27:16; see Matt 15:14).

Leviticus 20:10. If a man commits adultery with the wife of another man, if he commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death. Leviticus 20:11. Whoever lies with his father’s wife has exposed his father’s nakedness; both of them shall be put to death; their blood is upon them. Leviticus 20:12. If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall be put to death; they have committed a perversion; their blood is upon them. Leviticus 20:13. If a man lies with a man as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them. Leviticus 20:14. If a man takes a wife and her mother also: this is wickedness; they shall be burned with fire, he and they, so that there may be no wickedness among you. Leviticus 20:15. If a man lies with an animal, he shall be put to death, and you shall kill the animal. Leviticus 20:16. If a woman approaches any animal and lies with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them. Leviticus 20:17. If a man takes his sister, a daughter of his father or a daughter of his mother, and sees her nakedness, and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace, and they shall be cut off in the sight of their people; he has exposed his sister’s nakedness; he shall bear his iniquity. Leviticus 20:18. If a man lies with a woman during her menstrual illness and uncovers her nakedness, he has laid bare the flowing stream of her menstrual blood, and she has revealed the source of her blood; both of them shall be cut off from their people. Leviticus 20:19. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister and your father’s sister, for that is laying bare the flesh of one’s kinsman; they shall bear their iniquity. Leviticus 20:20. If a man lies with his aunt, he has uncovered the nakedness of his uncle; they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless. Leviticus 20:21. If a man takes his brother’s wife, this is impurity; he has uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless. Criminal punishment for crimes against chastity and various indecencies, of which we spoke in Lev 18. Specifically: capital punishment was prescribed for both participants in adultery (Lev 20:10; see Lev 18:20) and sodomy (Lev 18:13; see Lev 18:22), illicit relations with a stepmother (Lev 20:12) and a daughter-in-law (Lev 20:11). Execution (usually by stoning, see Josh 7:15) was aggravated by burning in fire for cohabitation with a mother and daughter: all three—the man and the woman and her mother—were executed and burned (Lev 20:14). Bestiality was punished by death of not only the man but also the animal. On the contrary, the sin of unchastity in other cases apparently was not punished by execution but was left to God’s judgment—punishment by childlessness, premature death, and so forth.

Leviticus 20:22. Keep all My statutes and all My ordinances, and perform them, so that the land to which I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out. Leviticus 20:23. You shall not walk in the customs of the nation that I am dispossessing before you. For they did all these things, and I abhorred them, Leviticus 20:24. But I have said to you: You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the Lord, your God, Who has set you apart from all the nations. A general warning and exhortation not to follow the customs of other nations, especially the Canaanite tribes, whose transgressions were avenged as though by the land itself, which cast them off from its face (see Lev 18:24-30); then the same thought is expressed also in a positive way.

Leviticus 20:25. You shall therefore make a distinction between the clean animals and the unclean, and between the unclean birds and the clean; you shall not bring abomination on yourselves by animal or by bird or by anything with which the ground teems, which I have set apart for you as unclean. Leviticus 20:26. You shall be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from the nations to be Mine. Finally, in view of the severity of the crime of witchcraft, it is once again defined that stoning is the punishment for this sin, Lev 20:27.