Leviticuschapter 20
27 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones.
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Leviticus Overview.
Moses gave this law to a nation with no king, no prisons and no standing courts, which placed judgment in the hands of the community. It returns to many of the offences named in chapter 18 and states what each one costs. The first hearers were about to enter a land whose people practised what the law forbids. Listen for how often the penalty is given and for who carries it out. Notice the call to be holy set among the penalties, and the reason the chapter gives for the separation of Israel from the nations.
Context
- Who
- A nation with no king, no standing judiciary and no prisons, about to enter a land whose inhabitants practised what this chapter forbids
- What
- A list of penalties for the worship of Molech, for turning to mediums and spiritists, for cursing a parent and for the sexual offences of chapter 18.
- Where
- The camp below Mount Sinai, with judgment given to the people of the land.
- When
- The second year after the Exodus, about 1445 BC on the traditional dating.
- Why
- To guard the holiness of the LORD's people and of the land by attaching a penalty to each offence.
Historical context
The chapter is spoken to the Israelites and binds the foreigner living among them on the same terms. The dating follows the book's own setting at Sinai, which this site's dossier records as one of two positions on the date of Leviticus.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
Israel at this point has no king, no police and no prison. When the text says the people of the land are to stone a man, it is naming the only machinery of justice the nation has. That is why the chapter also sentences the town that hides its eyes, since a community that will not act is the only thing standing between a crime and its penalty.
Molech is named five times in the Torah and four of those fall here. A first hearer knew what the rite involved and knew that it was practised by neighbours they were about to live among. The text treats it as defiling the sanctuary and profaning the name, so the offence is against the camp as well as the child.
The clean and unclean list of chapter 11 returns at verse 25 with a stated purpose. In the ancient world a shared table marked a shared people, so a food rule was a boundary rule. The chapter gives no reason why one creature is clean and another unclean, and the only ground it offers is that God separated Israel from the peoples to be his own.
Significance
Chapter 18 had told this nation what it could not do. Chapter 20 told it what such acts would cost and who would have to carry out the sentence, which was the neighbours of the man who committed them.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The closing verses gave the reason the land itself would matter. The nations before them were removed for these practices, and Israel was warned on the same terms, so possession of the country was tied to conduct inside it.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
Rashi states at the outset what this chapter is for. The second verse turns to the nation again in order to set out "the punishments for the transgression of the prohibitions mentioned in the previous chapters" (Rashi on Leviticus 20:2:1, the Rosenbaum and Silbermann Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary, 1929 to 1934, public domain). So the classical reading takes chapters 18 and 20 as one law given twice, the prohibition first and the penalty after it.
The comments that carry furthest are the ones about a community that looks away. Where the text warns the people of the land against hiding their eyes from a man who gives his children to Molech, Rashi reads a slide rather than a single failure: "If they hide their eyes in one thing they will in the end hide their eyes also in many other matters", and he adds that if the court of twenty three looks away the court of seventy one will look away in the end (Rashi on Leviticus 20:4:1, citing Sifra, Kedoshim, Section 4 9 and 11). Where the punishment reaches the man's family, Rashi hands on the question R. Simeon asked of the verse, "But how did his family sin that it should be punished?", and the answer given, that "the family is mentioned to teach you that you may take it as a rule that there is no family in which there is one tax-collector" whose members do not shield him (Rashi on Leviticus 20:5:1, citing Sifra, Kedoshim, Section 4 13 and Shevuot 39a). At the third verse he repeats the reading he gave at Leviticus 17:10, that when God sets his face against a man the word carries the sense of leisure, God turning from all else to deal with that man alone (Rashi on Leviticus 20:3:1, citing Sifra, Kedoshim, Section 4 13).
Sforno reads the eighth verse as the chapter's reason for placing the laws of forbidden unions at the centre of holiness, writing that "the only way you can ensure that this degree of your sanctity continues throughout the generations" is the keeping of those laws, since the children of a forbidden union begin at a disadvantage, and he brings David's words at Psalms 51:7 to the same point (Sforno on Leviticus 20:8:1, the Eliyahu Munk translation HaChut Hameshulash, CC-BY).
The comment a reader will remember is at the fifteenth verse, where the beast is killed along with the man. Rashi asks the obvious question, "If the man has sinned, what sin has the beast committed?", and answers that the beast is destroyed because it was the occasion of a man's fall. From that he argues upward: "How much the more does this principle apply to a human being who knows to distinguish between good and evil and yet brings evil upon his fellow-man by inducing him to commit a sin." (Rashi on Leviticus 20:15:1, citing Sifra, Kedoshim, Chapter 11 5 and Sanhedrin 54a and 55a). At the seventeenth verse he meets the question a reader of Genesis raises, how Cain could marry his sister when this chapter forbids it, and answers with a midrash that "Cain's case was an exceptional one", an act of kindness by which the world was built up (Rashi on Leviticus 20:17:1, citing Sifra, Kedoshim, Chapter 11 11 and Sanhedrin 58b). At the twenty third verse he reads the word for God's loathing of the nations' ways by a human comparison, "like a man who is disgusted with his food" (Rashi on Leviticus 20:23:1, citing Sifra, Kedoshim, Chapter 12 16). Ibn Ezra comments at 20:1, 20:6, 20:11, 20:16, 20:22 and 20:24, and the corpus holds no English version of any of them under a licence permitting quotation, so they stand here as citations.
What the rabbis say
The corpus records forty rabbinic locators on this chapter, and every one of them is a locator without text, so this site cites where the rabbis took the chapter up rather than what they said there. The chapter belongs to the courts, and the Jerusalem Talmud's tractate Sanhedrin carries six of the forty, at 7:1:4, 7:5:4, 7:6:2, 7:6:3, 7:6:5 and 7:10:4, with the same Talmud at Horayot 2:4:2, Shevuot 1:2:7, Sotah 9:12:4, Yevamot 6:2:2 and Shabbat 7:2:14. In the Babylonian Talmud the locators are Keritot 2a:2 and 3b:14, Chagigah 11b:3 and 11b:11, Chullin 78b:5 and 85a:7, Ketubot 30b:2, Bava Metzia 94b:24 and Berakhot 21b:11. The midrashic locators are Sifra, Kedoshim, Chapter 10 2 and Chapter 10 3, Bamidbar Rabbah 1:8, 9:10, 11:7, 19:5 and 20:14, Midrash Mishlei 1:10, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayetzei 21:1, Aggadat Bereshit 53:3, Midrash Lekach Tov at Leviticus 20:7, 20:8 and 20:24, Avot DeRabbi Natan 16:2 and 34:5, and the Ein Yaakov collections at Shevuot 6:3 and Nedarim 6:11 and, in the Glick edition, Shevuot 6:2 and Nedarim 6:7. Rashi himself hands on locators as he goes, and the ones he names in the kept text of this chapter are Sifra, Kedoshim at Section 4 and Chapters 10 to 12, and the Babylonian Talmud at Shevuot 39a, Sanhedrin 54a, 55a, 58b, 76b and 85b, Yevamot 54a, 54b and 55b, and Kiddushin 77a.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Leviticus 20:2:1, 20:3:1, 20:4:1, 20:5:1, 20:7:1, 20:9:1, 20:10:1, 20:12:1, 20:13:1, 20:14:1, 20:15:1, 20:17:1, 20:18:1, 20:19:1, 20:20:1, 20:21:1 and 20:23:1, the Rosenbaum and Silbermann Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary, public domain, 1929; R. Simeon, the question on the family at the fifth verse, as Rashi gives it at Rashi on Leviticus 20:5:1 from Sifra, Kedoshim, Section 4 13; Sforno, Sforno on Leviticus 20:8:1, the Eliyahu Munk translation HaChut Hameshulash, CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Leviticus 20:1:1, 20:6:1, 20:11:1, 20:16:1, 20:22:1 and 20:24:1, cited only, no English version in the corpus under a licence permitting quotation; Sifra, Sifra, Kedoshim, Chapter 10 2 and Chapter 10 3 as the corpus links them; Section 4 and Chapters 10 to 12 as Rashi cites them; Babylonian Talmud, Keritot 2a:2 and 3b:14; Chagigah 11b:3 and 11b:11; Chullin 78b:5 and 85a:7; Ketubot 30b:2; Bava Metzia 94b:24; Berakhot 21b:11; and, as Rashi cites them, Shevuot 39a, Sanhedrin 54a, 55a, 58b, 76b and 85b, Yevamot 54a, 54b and 55b, and Kiddushin 77a; Jerusalem Talmud, Sanhedrin 7:1:4, 7:5:4, 7:6:2, 7:6:3, 7:6:5 and 7:10:4; Horayot 2:4:2; Shevuot 1:2:7; Sotah 9:12:4; Yevamot 6:2:2; Shabbat 7:2:14; Midrash, Bamidbar Rabbah 1:8, 9:10, 11:7, 19:5 and 20:14; Midrash Mishlei 1:10; Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayetzei 21:1; Aggadat Bereshit 53:3; Midrash Lekach Tov, Leviticus 20:7:1, 20:8:1 and 20:24:1; Avot DeRabbi Natan, Avot DeRabbi Natan 16:2 and 34:5; Ein Yaakov, Ein Yaakov, Shevuot 6:3 and Nedarim 6:11; Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Shevuot 6:2 and Nedarim 6:7.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Molech's altar and those who turn to spirits
Leviticus 20:1-3
Chapter 18 listed what Israel may not do, and chapter 20 sets the price, beginning with the offense that costs a child. The sentence is stoning, and verse 2 says "The people of the land are to stone him", so the community carries out the judgment. Verse 3 adds a sentence no court can execute: "I will set My face against that man and cut him off from his people".
Leviticus 20:1
“The crimes which are condemned in Lev. 18; 19 on purely spiritual ground, have here special punishments allotted to them as offences against the well-being of the nation.”
The law binds the foreigner living in Israel too. Albert Barnes explains the name Molech as meaning the King, a fire god later called the abomination of the Ammonites. Matthew Henry notes that Abraham's offering of Isaac gave the practice no cover, since that command was countermanded at once.
Leviticus 20:2
“That giveth any of his seed unto Molech - To what has been said in the note on Lev 18:21 (note), we may add, that the rabbins describe this idol, who was probably a representative or emblematical personification of the solar influence, as made of brass, in the form of a man, with the head of an ox; that a fire was kindled in the inside, and the child to be sacrificed to him was put in his arms, and roasted to death.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 20:2
“Abraham's offering Isaac could not give countenance, much less could it give rise to this barbarous practice, since, though that was commanded, it was immediately countermanded.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
John Wesley offers two readings of how this crime defiles the sanctuary. It pollutes the land where God's house stands, or it declares his service worth less than an idol's. Leviticus 18:21 ties the same practice to profaning God's name.
Leviticus 20:3
“To defile my sanctuary - Because the sanctuary was defiled by gross abominations committed in that city or land where God's sanctuary was: or because by these actions they declared to all men that they esteemed the sanctuary and service of God abominable and vile, by preferring such odious idolatry before it.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 20:4-5
The law then turns on the people who watch and say nothing, and "hide their eyes" describes a whole town agreeing to see nothing. God answers by setting His face "against that man and his family", so looking away carries a sentence of its own. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the words as conniving at what a neighbor does.
Leviticus 20:4
“If the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes from the man, &c.--that is, connive at their countrymen practising the horrid rites of Molech. Awful was it that any Hebrew parents could so violate their national covenant, and no wonder that God denounced the severest penalties against them and their families.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The sentence reaches past the man to all who follow him. Matthew Henry reasons that when the sins of leaders lead others into sin, their punishment should serve as an example.
Leviticus 20:6-8
Turning to mediums is called going "to prostitute himself with them", the words verse 5 uses of Molech, so the practice is treated as unfaithfulness. Verses 7 and 8 then set both halves of holiness side by side, "Consecrate yourselves" and "I am the LORD who sanctifies you". John Gill reads the first as the separation a man makes and the second as God's work in him.
Leviticus 20:6
“Those do so who turn after those that deal in the black art, and know the depths of Satan. This is spiritual adultery as much as idolatry is, giving that honour to the devil which is due to God only; and the jealous God will give a bill of divorce to those that thus go a whoring from him, and will cut them off, they having first cut themselves off from him.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The same command stands at 11:44, where it closed the food laws, and here it follows the ban on mediums in verse 6. Therefore ties it to what came just before. Matthew Henry says a people God has marked out by covenant should mark themselves out by their conduct.
Leviticus 20:7
“7 Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the L ORD your God. 8 And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them: I am the L ORD which sanctify you. 9 For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
John Wesley gives the phrase two senses, God setting Israel apart from the nations and God giving grace to keep his statutes. John Gill counts the holy laws themselves among the means of that sanctifying. Here the command comes first and the promise follows.
Leviticus 20:8
“And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them,.... Not only those respecting the above things, but all others, which would be a means of preserving them from sin, and of promoting holiness in their lives and conversations: I am the Lord which sanctify you: who had separated and distinguished them from all other people on earth, and who had given them holy laws, as the means of holiness; and who only could and did sanctify internally, by his Spirit and grace, such or them as were sanctified in heart, as well as outwardly.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 20:8
“Who sanctify you - Who separate you from all nations, and from their impurities and idolatries, to be a peculiar people to myself; and who give you my grace to keep my statutes.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Sins that cost a life
Leviticus 20:9-10
Two of the ten commandments get their penalty here, the fifth and the seventh. Jesus cites the law on cursing a parent in the argument over corban at Matthew 15:4 and Mark 7:10, where the wording matches Exodus 21:17 as closely as it matches this verse. Verse 10 names the adulterer and the adulteress together and sentences both, which is worth holding beside John 8:3, where only the woman is brought.
Leviticus 20:9
“Curseth - This is not here meant of every perverse expression, but of bitter reproaches or imprecations. His blood shall be upon him - He is guilty of his own death: he deserves to die for so unnatural a crime.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 20:9
“But when we wish to examine the very letter of the words as given by Matthew, "He that speaks evil of father or mother, let him die the death," consider whether it was taken from the place where it was written, "Whoso strikes his father or mother, let him die the death; and he that speaks evil of father or mother, let him die the death." For such are the exact words taken from the law with regard to the two commandments; but Matthew has quoted them in part and in an abridged form, and not in the very words.”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW 11.9patristic
The verse names the offence twice, another man's wife and the wife of his neighbor, so the wrong is set against a neighbor. Matthew Henry calls it a wrong to the husband that nothing can repair. He adds that a headlong lust needed a strong check.
Leviticus 20:10
A woman accused of adultery was brought by the Scribes and Pharisees to the Lord Jesus with the malicious intent, that, if He was to acquit her, He might seem to annul the Law, if He condemned her, that He might seem to have changed the purpose of His coming, since He came to remit the sins of all men. To the same purport He said above, "I judge no man."
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · Letter XXVIpatristic
Leviticus 20:11-13
Three offenses from chapter 18 receive the same sentence and the same closing words, "their blood is upon them". The formula lays the guilt of the execution on the offender, and the court that carries it out bears none. Paul takes up the first of the three at 1 Corinthians 5:1, where a man has his father's wife, and what he calls for there is expulsion from the assembly.
Leviticus 18:15 forbade this union and named no penalty, and here it receives death for both. Adam Clarke's text calls the act confusion and sends the reader back to chapter 18. Both are held guilty.
Leviticus 20:12
“They have wrought confusion - See Leviticus 18, and especially the note on Lev 18:6 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Leviticus 18:22 forbade this act and called it an abomination, and this verse attaches the penalty. The word both places the guilt on each man alike.
Leviticus 20:14-16
Verse 14 carries the chapter's one sentence by fire, and the text is silent on whether the burning follows a death. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read stoning first and burning afterward from Joshua 7:15, while Adam Clarke suggests a branding that marked the offender for life. Verses 15 and 16 order the animal killed too, which Keil and Delitzsch take as removing the memory of the act.
Leviticus 20:14
“They shall be burnt with fire - As there are worse crimes mentioned here, (see Lev 20:11 and Lev 20:17), where the delinquent is ordered simply to be put to death, or to be cut off, it is very likely that the crime mentioned in this verse was not punished by burning alive, but by some kind of branding, by which they were ever after rendered infamous.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 20:14
“The only instance of another form of capital punishment occurs in Le 20:14, that of being burnt with fire; and yet it is probable that even here death was first inflicted by stoning, and the body of the criminal afterwards consumed by fire (Jos 7:15).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Leviticus 18:23 forbade the act, and here the penalty follows. Matthew Henry adds that killing the animal put the offender to open shame and marked the act as abhorred in the highest degree.
Leviticus 20:15
“Even the beast that was thus abused was to be killed with the sinner, who was thereby openly put to the greater shame: and the villany was thus represented as in the highest degree execrable and abominable, all occasions of the remembrance or mention of it being to be taken away.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 18:23 had named the woman as a separate case, and here she receives the same sentence as the man. Adam Clarke cites Herodotus, who reported such a case in Egypt while he was there. Leviticus 18:3 had warned Israel against the practices of Egypt.
Leviticus 20:16
“If a woman approach unto any beast - We have the authority of one of the most eminent historians in the world, Herodotus, to say that this was a crime not unknown in Egypt; yea, that a case of this nature actually took place while he was there. Εγενετο δ’ εν τῳ νο μῳ τουτῳ επ’ εμευ τουτο το τερας, Γυναικι Τραγος εμισγετο αναφανδον. Τουτο ες επιδειξιν ανθρωπων απικετο. - Herod. in Euterp., p. 108. Edit. Gale, Lond.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Shameful unions and their barrenness
Leviticus 20:17-19
The penalty changes register at verse 17. The sentences here are being cut off in the sight of their people, bearing his iniquity, and bearing their iniquity, and no human hand is told to do anything about any of them. Matthew Henry reads the wording as guilt left standing against a man who was never brought to trial, carried forward to be reckoned for rather than purged with sacrifice.
Leviticus 18:19 forbade this, and 15:24 had treated contact with the flow as seven days of uncleanness. This verse cuts both off, and its wording makes each an actor, he exposing and she uncovering. Matthew Henry applies 1 Thessalonians 4:4 on honor in marriage.
Leviticus 20:18
“For this is the will of God, that every man should possess his vessel (and the wife is called the weaker vessel) in sanctification and honour, as becomes saints. 22 Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: that the land, whither I bring you to dwell therein, spue you not out.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The form changes here from a case with its sentence to a direct command, the form used throughout chapter 18. Leviticus 18:12 and 13 had already forbidden both aunts. The reason given is kinship.
Leviticus 20:19
“Nay it is said, They shall bear their iniquity, that is, though they be not immediately cut off by the hand either of God or man for this sin, yet the guilt of it shall lie upon them, to be reckoned for another day, and not be purged with sacrifice or offering.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 20:20-21
These two carry a sentence found in no other law, which is childlessness. The words die childless occur once in the King James text and this is the place, so what is taken here is a future rather than a life. Deuteronomy 25:5 commands a man to marry his dead brother's widow, so verse 21 speaks of a brother still living, and John the Baptist applies it to Herod at Mark 6:18.
Leviticus 20:20
“They shall die childless - Either the offspring should not be regarded as lawfully theirs, nor be entitled to any hereditary privileges, or they should have no blessing in their children.”
they shall be childless: Leviticus 18:16 forbade this union because it would shame the brother, and this verse sets the sentence against both of them. The union itself is called an act of impurity.
Be separate, as I separated you
Leviticus 20:22-24
The chapter stops listing offenses and says the land itself will "vomit you out", as at 18:28, so the country is described as reacting to what happens on it. Verse 23 gives the reason the nations were driven out, "Because they did all these things", and the same threat now stands over Israel. Adam Clarke reads the warning alongside Genesis 15:16.
Leviticus 20:22
“The land, whither I bring you to dwell therein, spue you not out - See this energetic prosopopoeia explained in the note on Lev 18:25 (note). From this we learn that the cup of the iniquities of the Canaanitish nations was full; and that, consistently with Divine justice, they could be no longer spared.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The word statutes is used twice in two verses, for God's statutes in verse 22 and for the nations' statutes here. Israel is set between two bodies of custom. The nations are named by what they did, all these things listed in the chapter.
The land is promised as an inheritance right after the warning of verse 22. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown explain the setting apart as a means of keeping the knowledge and worship of the true God alive among the nations. The food law in verse 25 serves that end.
Leviticus 20:25-26
The clean and unclean list of chapter 11 returns here with a stated purpose, which is separation. Leviticus never explains why one creature is clean and another unclean, and the one reason it offers closes verse 26: "I have set you apart from the nations to be My own". Verse 26 also gives the call to be holy for the third time in the book, after 11:44 and 19:2.
Leviticus 20:25
“Between clean beasts and unclean - See the notes on Leviticus 11 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 20:25
“This is holiness, to discern between things that differ, not to live at large, as if we might say and do any thing, but to speak and act with caution.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Holiness here runs in two directions, belonging to God and being set apart from the nations. Matthew Henry reads the duty from the privilege. God had done more for Israel than for others and so looked for more from them.
Leviticus 20:26
“Their duty; this is inferred from their dignity. God had done more for them than for others, and therefore expected more from them than from others. And what is it that the Lord their God requires, in consideration of the great things done and designed?”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The chapter closes on the sentence it opened with, stoning by the community: "They shall be stoned". Verse 6 dealt with the man who turns to a medium and this verse deals with the medium, so the practice is answered at both ends of the chapter. Matthew Henry reads the penalty as removing a standing temptation from among the people as well as reaching the practitioner.
Leviticus 20:27
“A familiar spirit - A spirit or demon, which, by magical rites, is supposed to be bound to appear at the call of his employer. See the notes on Gen 41:8; Exo 7:11 (note), Exo 7:22 (note), Exo 7:25 (note); and Lev 19:31 (note). From the accounts we have of the abominations both of Egypt and Canaan, we may blush for human nature; for wherever it is without cultivation, and without the revelation of God, it is every thing that is vile in principle and detestable in practice.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: Case law with penalties, the sanctions attached to the prohibitions already listed, as Matthew Henry, with John Gill classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Their blood shall be upon them | The formula occurs eleven times in the King James text and six of those stand in this chapter. The published exposition of verses 11 to 13 reads it as laying the guilt of the execution on the offender rather than on the court that carries it out.John Gill, with Keil and Delitzsch, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, and Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, 1864 to 1870, cited in the published exposition of Leviticus 20:11 to 20:13. | Leviticus 20:9, Leviticus 20:11, Leviticus 20:13, Leviticus 20:16, Leviticus 20:27 |
| Stoning by the community at both ends | Verse 2 sentences the man who gives a child to Molech to stoning by the people of the land, and verse 27 closes the chapter with the same sentence on the medium. Verse 6 dealt with the man who goes to a medium, so the practice is answered at both ends of the chapter.Matthew Henry, with Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, and Commentary on the Bible, 1832, cited in the published exposition of Leviticus 20:27. | Leviticus 20:2, Leviticus 20:6, Leviticus 20:27 |
| The penalties in descending order | The chapter lists death by stoning, death by fire, being cut off in the sight of the people, bearing iniquity, and dying childless. The published exposition of verses 17 to 18 marks the change of register at verse 17, where no human hand is told to do anything about the sentences that follow.Matthew Henry, with Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, and Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, 1864 to 1870, cited in the published exposition of Leviticus 20:17 to 20:18. | Leviticus 20:10, Leviticus 20:14, Leviticus 20:17, Leviticus 20:20 |
| I will set my face against him | God states a sentence no court can execute, at verses 3, 5 and 6. The published exposition of verses 1 to 3 reads it as a second penalty standing beside the stoning, since God says he will cut the man off from among his people himself.Matthew Henry, with John Gill, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, and Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, cited in the published exposition of Leviticus 20:1 to 20:3. | Leviticus 20:3, Leviticus 20:5, Leviticus 20:6 |
| Tell the children of Israel | The chapter is spoken to the nation and binds the foreigner living in Israel on the same terms from its first sentence. The published exposition of verses 1 to 3 records that the hands named for the execution are the people of the land, so the community carries out the judgment itself.Matthew Henry, with John Gill, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, and Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, cited in the published exposition of Leviticus 20:1 to 20:3. | Leviticus 20:2 |
The New Testament's use
12 more paragraphs on the patterns
Jesus cites the law on cursing a parent in the argument over corban, at Matthew 15:4 and Mark 7:10. The published exposition of verses 9 to 10 records that the wording there matches Exodus 21:17 as closely as it matches this verse.
Paul takes up the first of the three offences of verses 11 to 13 at 1 Corinthians 5:1, where a man has his father's wife. What he calls for there is expulsion from the assembly rather than death.
The food law of verse 25 is taken up at Mark 7:19 and at Acts 10:9 to 16. The published exposition of verses 24 to 26 notes that each of those places does something different with it. Verse 26 is carried into the church at 1 Peter 1:16.
Verse 10 names the adulterer and the adulteress together and sentences both. The published exposition sets that beside John 8:3, where only the woman is brought.
The debated readings
The burning at verse 14. The text is silent on whether the burning follows a death already inflicted. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read stoning first and burning afterwards, from the pattern at Joshua 7:15. Adam Clarke suggests instead a branding that left the offender marked for life. The published exposition of verses 14 to 16 carries both readings and settles neither.
The animal killed with the offender. Verses 15 and 16 order the animal killed along with the person. Keil and Delitzsch take that as removing the memory of the act rather than as punishing the beast.
Hide their eyes at verse 4. The phrase occurs nowhere else in the King James text, and it describes a whole town agreeing to see nothing. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the words as conniving at what a neighbour does rather than as failing to notice it. God answers by setting his face against the man and against his family, so looking away carries a sentence of its own.
Childlessness as a sentence. Verses 20 and 21 carry a penalty found in no other law. The words die childless occur once in the King James text and this is the place, so what is taken is a future rather than a life. Deuteronomy 25:5 commands a man to marry his dead brother's widow, so verse 21 speaks of a brother still living. John the Baptist applies it to Herod at Mark 6:18.
The land as a party to the case
The chapter stops listing offences at verse 22 and gives the land a part to play. The word rendered spue occurs twice in Leviticus, at 18:28 and here, and both times the ground is the one doing it. Verse 23 states why the nations before Israel were removed, that they committed all these things, and the same threat now stands over Israel on the same terms. Adam Clarke reads the warning alongside Genesis 15:16 and the cup of Canaanite iniquity coming full.
Leviticus never explains why one creature is clean and another unclean. The one reason it offers stands at the close of verse 26, that God severed Israel from other people that they should be his.
Keep studying
Studies1
People1
Words12
Subjects1
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Gordon Wenham, as carried by this site's published chiasm, src/components/book/dossier-content/leviticus.ts, the chiasm "The book's own concentric shape, centered on the Day of Atonement", status proposed; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, cited in the published exposition of Leviticus 20:1 to 20:3 and Matthew Henry, with John Gill, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, and Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, cited in the published exposition of Leviticus 20:1 to 20:3.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.