Leviticus 20:8-18

8 Keep My statutes and do them; I am the Lord who sets you apart.

Family and Sexual Offenses

9 "If anyone curses his father or mother, he must be put to death. He has cursed his father or mother; his blood is on his own hands.^[a] ^[b]

10 If a man commits adultery with a married woman-if he commits adultery with his neighbor's wife-both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.^[c]

11 If a man sleeps with his father's wife, he has shamed his father.^[d] Both of them must be put to death; their blood is on their own hands.^[e]

12 If a man sleeps with his daughter-in-law, both of them must be put to death.^[f] They have acted perversely; their blood is on their own hands.^[g]

13 If a man sleeps with a man as with a woman,^[h] they have both committed an abomination. They must be put to death; their blood is on their own hands.^[i]

14 If a man marries a woman and her mother, it is depraved. Both he and they must be burned with fire,^[j] so that there will be no depravity among you.

15 If a man has sexual intercourse with^[k] an animal,^[l] he must be put to death; you are also to kill the animal.

16 If a woman comes near any animal and mates with it, you are to kill the woman and the animal.^[m] They must be put to death; their [own] blood is on them.

17 If a man marries his sister, whether his father's daughter or his mother's daughter,^[n] and they have sexual relations,^[o] it is a disgrace. They must be cut off publicly from their people. He has had sexual intercourse with his sister; he will bear his punishment.

18 If a man sleeps with a menstruating woman and has sexual intercourse with her, he has exposed the source of her [flow], and she has uncovered the source of her blood.^[p] Both of them must be cut off from their people.

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Leviticus 20:8-18 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO LEVITICUS 20

In this chapter several laws are, repeated, enforced with a penalty annexed to them, and the breach them made capital, to deter from it, as giving seed to Molech, Le 20:1-5; going after such that have familiar spirits, or are wizards, Le 20:6; by shunning which, and other sins, a regard would be shown to holiness, Le 20:7,8; such as cursing parents, Le 20:9; committing adultery, Le 20:10; incestuous copulations, and marriages, and beastly actions, Le 20:11-21; all which it became the Israelites to avoid, lest, when come into the land of Canaan, they should be cast out of it, as the old inhabitants were for the same things, Le 20:22-24; and therefore, that they might appear to be a distinct people from others, they were to put a difference between clean and unclean creatures, Le 20:25,26; and the chapter is closed with a law, making it death for any person to have a familiar spirit, or to be a wizard, Le 19:27.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Footnotes 16

[a]. Lit on him
[b]. Ex 21:17; Dt 21:18-21; Pr 20:20; Mt 15:4; Mk 7:10
[c]. Ex 20:14; Dt 5:18; 22:22
[d]. Dt 22:30; 27:20; 1 Co 5:1
[e]. Lit on them
[f]. Lv 18:15; Ezk 22:11
[g]. Lit on them
[h]. Lv 18:22
[i]. Lit on them
[j]. Lv 18:22; 21:9; Gn 38:24; Jdg 14:15
[k]. Lit man gives his emission to
[l]. Lv 18:23; Ex 22:19; Dt 27:21
[m]. Lv 18:23
[n]. Lv 18:9,11; Dt 27:22; Ezk 22:11
[o]. Lit and he sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness
[p]. Lv 15:19,24; 18:19; Ezk 22:10