Leviticus 20:22-27

You Shall Be Holy

22 1"You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my rules and do them, that the land where I am bringing you to live may not 2vomit you out.
23 3And you shall not walk in the customs of the nation that I am driving out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I detested them.
24 But 4I have said to you, 'You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land 5flowing with milk and honey.' I am the LORD your God, 6who has separated you from the peoples.
25 7You shall therefore separate the clean beast from the unclean, and the unclean bird from the clean. You shall not make yourselves detestable by beast or by bird or by anything with which the ground crawls, which I have set apart for you to hold unclean.
26 8You shall be holy to me, 9for I the LORD am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.
27 10"A man or a woman who is a medium or a necromancer shall surely be put to death. They shall be 11stoned with stones; 12their blood shall be upon them."

Leviticus 20:22-27 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.

Cross References 12

  • 1. See Leviticus 18:4
  • 2. Leviticus 18:25, 28
  • 3. Leviticus 18:3, 24, 30; Deuteronomy 9:5
  • 4. Exodus 3:17; Exodus 6:8
  • 5. See Exodus 3:8
  • 6. Exodus 33:16; 1 Kings 8:53">1 Kings 8:53; [Exodus 19:5; Deuteronomy 7:6; Deuteronomy 14:2; 1 Kings 8:53">1 Kings 8:53]
  • 7. See Leviticus 11:2-47; Deuteronomy 14:4-20
  • 8. Exodus 19:6
  • 9. ver. 7; See Leviticus 11:44
  • 10. See Leviticus 19:31
  • 11. ver. 2
  • 12. ver. 9
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.