Leviticus 20:10

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.

Leviticus 20:10 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 20:10

And the man that committeth adultery with [another] man's
wife
Which is a breach of the seventh command, ( Exodus 20:14 ) ;

[even he] that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife:
which is only an explanation of the former clause; though the Jewish writers, as Jarchi and Ben Gersom, say this is so expressed to except the wife of a stranger, or a Gentile; but it means whether a Gentile or an Israelite; and which may be confirmed by the instance of Phinehas slaying a prince of Israel, that lay with a Midianitish woman, ( Numbers 25:6-8 ) :

the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death;
on account of her that is espoused, by strangling, with a hard napkin within a soft one; and on account of her that is married, by casting stones; even both the adulterer and adulteress, as the Targum: and the Jews say ^F2, strangling was thus performed; they that were strangled were fixed up to their knees in dung, and then they put a hard napkin within a soft one, and rolled it about his neck, and one drew it to him this way, and another drew it to him that way, until he expired: and there is no unlawful copulation punished with strangling, according to Maimonides ^F3, but lying with another man's wife; and who observes, that the death which is spoken of in the law absolutely, that is, without specifying any kind of death, is strangling; but stoning seems rather meant, agreeably to ( Deuteronomy 22:24 ) ( John 8:5 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 7. sect. 3.
F3 Hilchot lssure Biah, c. 1. sect. 6.

Leviticus 20:10 In-Context

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.