Leviticus 20:7-17

7 Sanctify yourselves, and be ye holy: because I am the Lord your God.

8 Keep my precepts, and do them. I am the Lord that sanctify you.

9 He that curseth his father, or mother, dying let him die. He hath cursed his father, and mother: let his blood be upon him.

10 If any man commit adultery with the wife of another, and defile his neighbour’s wife: let them be put to death, both the adulterer and the adulteress.

11 If a man lie with his stepmother, and discover the nakedness of his father, let them both be put to death: their blood be upon them.

12 If any man lie with his daughter in law: let both die, because they have done a heinous crime. Their blood be upon them.

13 If any one lie with a man as with a woman, both have committed an abomination: let them be put to death. Their blood be upon them.

14 If any man after marrying the daughter, marry her mother, he hath done a heinous crime. He shall be burnt alive with them: neither shall so great an abomination remain in the midst of you.

15 He that shall copulate with any beast or cattle, dying let him die: the beast also ye shall kill.

16 The woman that shall lie under any beast, shall be killed together with the same. Their blood be upon them.

17 If any man take his sister, the daughter of his father, or the daughter of his mother, and see her nakedness, and she behold her brother’s shame: they have committed a crime. They shall be slain, in the sight of their people, because they have discovered one another’s nakedness. And they shall bear their iniquity.

Leviticus 20:7-17 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.