Leviticus 20:20-27

20 '¹If there is a man who lies with his uncle's wife he has uncovered his uncle's nakedness; they will bear their sin. They will die childless.

21 '²If there is a man who takes his brother's wife, it is abhorrent; he has uncovered his brother's nakedness. They will be childless.

22 'You are therefore to keep all My statutes and all My ordinances and do them, so that the land to which I am bringing you to live will not ³spew you out.

23 'Moreover, you shall not follow ⁴the customs of the nation which I will drive out before you, for they did all these things, and ⁵therefore I have abhorred them.

24 'Hence I have said to you, "⁶You are to possess their land, and I Myself will give it to you to possess it, a land flowing with milk and honey." I am the LORD your God, who has ⁷separated you from the peoples.

25 '⁸You are therefore to make a distinction between the clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean bird and the clean; and you shall not make yourselves detestable by animal or by bird or by anything that creeps on the ground, which I have separated for you as unclean.

26 'Thus you are to be holy to Me, for I the LORD am holy; and I ⁹have set you apart from the peoples to be Mine.

27 'Now a man or a woman ¹⁰who is a medium or a spiritist shall surely be put to death. They shall be stoned with stones, their bloodguiltiness is upon them.' "

Leviticus 20:20-27 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

• 1. Leviticus 18:14
• 2. Leviticus 18:16
• 3. Leviticus 18:28
• 4. Leviticus 18:3
• 5. Leviticus 18:25
• 6. Exodus 13:5; Exodus 33:1-3
• 7. Exodus 33:16; Leviticus 20:26
• 8. Leviticus 10:10; Leviticus 11:1-47; Deuteronomy 14:3-21
• 9. Leviticus 20:24
• 10. Leviticus 19:31

Footnotes

• [a] Or "an impure deed"
• [b] Lit "dwell in it"
• [c] Lit "walk in the statutes"
• [d] Lit "your souls"
• [e] Lit "with which the ground creeps"
• [f] Lit "spiritist among them"