Leviticus 17:7

7 They must no longer offer any of their sacrifices to the goat idols[a] to whom they prostitute themselves. This is to be a lasting ordinance for them and for the generations to come.’

Leviticus 17:7 in Other Translations

King James Version (KJV)
7 And they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils, after whom they have gone a whoring. This shall be a statute for ever unto them throughout their generations.
English Standard Version (ESV)
7 So they shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices to goat demons, after whom they whore. This shall be a statute forever for them throughout their generations.
New Living Translation (NLT)
7 The people must no longer be unfaithful to the LORD by offering sacrifices to the goat idols. This is a permanent law for them, to be observed from generation to generation.
The Message Bible (MSG)
7 They must no longer offer their sacrifices to goat-demons - a kind of religious orgy. This is a perpetual decree down through the generations.
American Standard Version (ASV)
7 And they shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices unto the he-goats, after which they play the harlot. This shall be a statute forever unto them throughout their generations.
GOD'S WORD Translation (GW)
7 The people must stop sacrificing to goat idols and chasing after them as though they were prostitutes. This is a permanent law for the people and for future generations.
Holman Christian Standard Bible (CSB)
7 They must no longer offer their sacrifices to the goat-demons that they have prostituted themselves with. This will be a permanent statute for them throughout their generations.
New International Reader's Version (NIRV)
7 " ' "Israel must stop offering any of their sacrifices to statues of gods that look like goats. When they offer sacrifices to those statues, they are not faithful to me. That is a law for them that will last for all time to come." '

Leviticus 17:7 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 17:7

And they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils
As it seems they had done, which was monstrously shocking, and especially by a people that had the knowledge of the true God. Such shocking idolatry has been committed, and still is among the Indians, both East and West: when Columbus discovered Hispaniola, and entered it, he found the inhabitants worshippers of images they called Zemes, which were in the likeness of painted devils, which they took to be the mediators and messengers of the great God, the only one, eternal, omnipotent, and invisible F1; and so at Calecut and Pego in the East Indies, and in other parts thereof, they sacrifice to the devil F2: one can hardly think the Israelites would give into such gross idolatry as this; wherefore by "devils" may be meant idols in general; for if men do not worship God and Christ, let them worship what they will, it is only worshipping devils, ( 1 Corinthians 10:20 ) ( Revelation 9:20 ) ; and so the calves of Jeroboam are called devils, ( 2 Chronicles 11:15 ) ; hence the golden calf also, the Israelites worshipped but lately in the wilderness, might go by the same name; to which sense is the Targum of Jonathan,

``and they shall not offer again their sacrifices to idols, which are like to devils.''

The word here used signifies "goats", and these creatures were worshipped by the Egyptians, and so might be by the Israelites, while among them; this is asserted by several writers. Diodorus Siculus says {c}, they deified the goat, as the Grecians did Priapus, and for the same reason; and that the Pans and the Satyrs were had in honour by men on the same account; and Herodotus F4 observes, that the Egyptians paint and engrave Pan as the Greeks do, with the face and thighs of a goat, and therefore do not kill a goat, because the Mendesians reckon Pan among the gods; and of the Mendesians he says, that they worship goats, and the he goats rather than the she goats; wherefore in the Egyptian language both Pan and a goat are called Mendes; and Strabo F5 reports of Mendes, that there Pan and the goat are worshipped: if these sort of creatures were worshipped by the Egyptians in the times of Moses, which is to be questioned, the Israelites might be supposed to have followed them in it; but if that be true, which Maimonides F6 says of the Zabii, a set of idolaters among the Chaldeans, and other people, long before the times of Moses, that some of them worshipped devils, whom they supposed to be in the form of goats, the Israelites might have given in to this idolatry from them, and be the occasion of this prohibition:

after whom they have gone a whoring;
idolatry being a spiritual adultery, a forsaking God, who had taken them into a conjugal relation, and been as an husband to them, and cleaving to idols, which were as paramours; see ( Jeremiah 31:32 ) ( Ezekiel 16:26 ) ;

this shall be a statute for ever unto them throughout their
generations:
not only this of not sacrificing to devils, but all before commanded, particularly that they should bring their sacrifices to the priest, at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.


FOOTNOTES:

F1 P. Martyr. de Angleria, Decad. 1. l. 9.
F2 Vartoman. Navigat. l. 5. c. 2. 23. & 1. 6. c. 16. 27.
F3 Bibliothec. l. 1. p. 58, 79.
F4 Euterpe, sive, l. 2. c. 46.
F5 Geograph. l. 17. p. 551.
F6 Moreh Nevochim, p. 3. c. 46.

Leviticus 17:7 In-Context

5 This is so the Israelites will bring to the LORD the sacrifices they are now making in the open fields. They must bring them to the priest, that is, to the LORD, at the entrance to the tent of meeting and sacrifice them as fellowship offerings.
6 The priest is to splash the blood against the altar of the LORD at the entrance to the tent of meeting and burn the fat as an aroma pleasing to the LORD.
7 They must no longer offer any of their sacrifices to the goat idols to whom they prostitute themselves. This is to be a lasting ordinance for them and for the generations to come.’
8 “Say to them: ‘Any Israelite or any foreigner residing among them who offers a burnt offering or sacrifice
9 and does not bring it to the entrance to the tent of meeting to sacrifice it to the LORD must be cut off from the people of Israel.

Cross References 4

  • 1. S Exodus 22:20; 2 Chronicles 11:15
  • 2. S Exodus 32:8; Exodus 34:15; Deuteronomy 32:17; Jeremiah 3:6,9; Ezekiel 23:3; 1 Corinthians 10:20
  • 3. S Exodus 12:14
  • 4. S Genesis 9:12

Footnotes 1

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