Leviticus 20

Leviticus 17–26 belongs to a section that scholars commonly call the "Holiness Code." Leviticus 18 lists forbidden sexual relations, and Leviticus 19 commands, "Be holy." Chapter 20 builds on these two chapters by prescribing penalties for violating their commands.

Outline

• Verses 1–5 Anyone who gives his children to Molech is to be stoned to death. If the people of the land look the other way, the LORD declares that He will cut off that man and his family from among the people.
• Verse 6 The LORD will cut off whoever turns after those who have familiar spirits and after wizards.
• Verses 7–8 The people are commanded to sanctify themselves and be holy. The LORD identifies Himself as the one "which sanctify you."
• Verse 9 Whoever curses his father or mother is to be put to death.
• Verses 10–21 Sexual offenses and their penalties are set out. These include adultery; lying with one's father's wife or daughter-in-law; a man lying with a male; taking a wife and her mother together (punished by burning); bestiality; relations with a sister, an aunt on either side, or an uncle's wife; lying with a woman during her menstrual period; and taking one's brother's wife. The penalties include death, being "cut off," and childlessness.
• Verses 22–26 If the people keep these statutes, the land will not spew them out; they are told not to follow the customs of the nations that are to be driven out before them. They are commanded to distinguish between clean and unclean animals and birds, and the LORD declares that He has set Israel apart from all other peoples.
• Verse 27 A man or woman who has a familiar spirit or is a wizard is to be stoned to death.

Key Verses

• Leviticus 20:7 "Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy" — a restatement of the command to holiness that runs throughout Leviticus.
• Leviticus 20:26 "For I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people" — this verse grounds Israel's holiness in God's own character and in His choosing of His people.

People and Places

• Moses: receives the word of the LORD and delivers it to the children of Israel.
• Molech: a god worshiped by neighboring peoples, mentioned in connection with rites of offering children.
• Those with familiar spirits and wizards: people who claim to communicate with the spirits of the dead or who practice divination. The account of Saul's later visit to a woman with a familiar spirit appears in 1 Samuel 28.
• Canaan: "a land that floweth with milk and honey," the land Israel is to receive as an inheritance.

Points for Reflection

• Interpreters differ as to whether "cut off" refers to expulsion from the community or to death or the extinction of one's line inflicted directly by God.
• Scholars are also divided over whether the Molech rite involved actual human sacrifice or was a dedication ritual in which children were made to pass through fire (see 2 Kings 23 and Valley of Hinnom).
• Traditions differ on how Old Testament law applies today. Chapter 19 of the Westminster Confession of Faith divides the law into moral, ceremonial, and judicial law. It holds that the judicial laws expired together with the state of Israel, and that only the general equity they contain remains binding. The Lutheran tradition reads this chapter within the framework of the distinction between Law and Gospel.
• Verse 13 is frequently cited in the debate over homosexuality and the church. Many major Korean denominations regard this verse as a basis for prohibiting same-sex sexual relations. Some theologians, by contrast, argue that it should be read within its ancient cultic and cultural context (see Leviticus 20:13).
• The prohibition in verse 21 against taking one's brother's wife is discussed alongside the provision in Deuteronomy 25 requiring a man to marry his brother's widow when the brother dies without a son. The two are usually harmonized by distinguishing between cases in which the brother is still living and those in which he has died.
• The chapter also connects with the New Testament. In the account of the woman taken in adultery, the scribes appeal to the law of Moses concerning adultery. The case of a man who "should have his father's wife" in 1 Corinthians 5 corresponds to verse 11. The quotation "Be ye holy" in 1 Peter 1 echoes this command, which is repeated throughout Leviticus.

In the Korean Church

Verses 6 and 27 are often cited as grounds for teaching believers to avoid shamanistic practices such as fortune-telling and gut (shamanic rituals) (see the Korean church and shamanism). Verse 13 is commonly mentioned in discussions of homosexuality.