Leviticus 20
20
Penalties for Disobeying God's Laws
1The Lord told Moses 2to say to the community of Israel:
Death by stoning is the penalty for any citizens or foreigners in the country who sacrifice their children to the god Molech. 3They have disgraced both the place where I am worshiped and my holy name, and so I will turn against them and no longer let them belong to my people. 4Some of you may let them get away with human sacrifice, 5but not me. If any of you worship Molech, I will turn against you and your entire family, and I will no longer let you belong to my people.
6I will be your enemy if you go to someone who claims to speak with the dead, and I will destroy you from among my people. 7Dedicate yourselves to me and be holy because I am the Lord your God. 8I have chosen you as my people, and I expect you to obey my laws.
9 #
Ex 21.17; Mt 15.4; Mk 7.10. If you curse your father or mother, you will be put to death, and it will be your own fault.
10 #
Ex 20.14; Lv 18.20; Dt 5.18. If any of you men have sex with another man's wife, both you and the woman will be put to death.
11 #
Lv 18.8; Dt 22.30; 27.14-26. Having sex with one of your father's wives disgraces him. So both you and the woman will be put to death, just as you deserve. 12#Lv 18.15. It isn't natural to have sex with your daughter-in-law, and both of you will be put to death, just as you deserve. 13#Lv 18.22. It's disgusting for men to have sex with one another, and those who do will be put to death, just as they deserve. 14#Lv 18.17; Dt 27.14-26. It isn't natural for a man to marry both a woman and her daughter, and so all three of them will be burned to death. 15-16#Ex 22.19; Lv 18.23; Dt 27.14-26. If any of you have sex with an animal, both you and the animal will be put to death, just as you deserve.
17 #
Lv 18.9; Dt 27.14-26. If you marry one of your sisters, you will be punished, and the two of you will be disgraced by being openly forced out of the community. 18#Lv 18.19. If you have sex with a woman during her monthly period, both you and the woman will be cut off from the people of Israel. 19#Lv 18.12-14. The sisters of your father and mother are your own relatives, and you will be punished for having sex with any of them. 20If you have sex with your uncle's wife, neither you nor she will ever have any children. 21#Lv 18.16. And if you marry your sister-in-law, neither of you will ever have any children.#20.21 And … children: According to Deuteronomy 25.5,6 a man was supposed to marry his brother's widow if his brother had died without having children. Otherwise, such marriages were forbidden (see also Matthew 22.23-33; Mark 12.18-27; Luke 20.27-40).
22Obey my laws and teachings. Or else the land I am giving you will become sick of you and throw you out. 23The nations I am chasing out did these disgusting things, and I hated them for it, so don't follow their example. 24I am the Lord your God, and I have promised you their land that is rich with milk and honey. I have chosen you to be different from other people. 25That's why you must make a difference between animals and birds that I have said are clean and unclean#20.25 clean and unclean: See the note at 11.4-8.—this will keep you from becoming disgusting to me. 26I am the Lord, the holy God. You have been chosen to be my people, and so you must be holy too.
27If you claim to receive messages from the dead, you will be put to death by stoning, just as you deserve.
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Leviticus 20: CEV
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Leviticus 20
20
1-5 God spoke to Moses: “Tell the Israelites, Each and every Israelite and foreigner in Israel who gives his child to the god Molech must be put to death. The community must kill him by stoning. I will resolutely reject that man and cut him off from his people. By giving his child to the god Molech he has polluted my Sanctuary and desecrated my holy name. If the people of the land look the other way as if nothing had happened when that man gives his child to the god Molech and fail to kill him, I will resolutely reject that man and his family, and him and all who join him in prostituting themselves in the rituals of the god Molech I will cut off from their people.
6“I will resolutely reject persons who dabble in the occult or traffic with mediums, prostituting themselves in their practices. I will cut them off from their people.
7-8“Set yourselves apart for a holy life. Live a holy life, because I am God, your God. Do what I tell you; live the way I tell you. I am the God who makes you holy.
9“Any and every person who curses his father or mother must be put to death. By cursing his father or mother he is responsible for his own death.
10“If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—the wife, say, of his neighbor—both the man and the woman, the adulterer and adulteress, must be put to death.
11“If a man has sex with his father’s wife, he has violated his father. Both the man and woman must be put to death; they are responsible for their own deaths.
12“If a man has sex with his daughter-in-law, both of them must be put to death. What they have done is perverse. And they are responsible for their own deaths.
13“If a man has sex with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is abhorrent. They must be put to death; they are responsible for their own deaths.
14“If a man marries both a woman and her mother, that’s wicked. All three of them must be burned at the stake, purging the wickedness from the community.
15“If a man has sex with an animal, he must be put to death and you must kill the animal.
16“If a woman has sex with an animal, you must kill both the woman and the animal. They must be put to death. And they are responsible for their deaths.
17“If a man marries his sister, the daughter of either his father or mother, and they have sex, that’s a disgrace. They must be publicly cut off from their people. He has violated his sister and will be held responsible.
18“If a man sleeps with a woman during her period and has sex with her, he has uncovered her flow and she has uncovered her flow of blood—both of them must be cut off from their people.
19“Don’t have sex with your aunt on either your mother’s or father’s side. That violates a close relative. Both of you are held responsible.
20“If a man has sex with his aunt, he has dishonored his uncle. They will be held responsible and die childless.
21“If a man marries his brother’s wife, it’s a defilement. He has shamed his brother. They will be childless.
22-23“Do what I tell you, all my decrees and laws; live by them so that the land where I’m bringing you won’t vomit you out. You simply must not live like the nations I’m driving out before you. They did all these things and I hated every minute of it.
24-26“I’ve told you, remember, that you will possess their land that I’m giving to you as an inheritance, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am God, your God, who has distinguished you from the nations. So live like it: Distinguish between ritually clean and unclean animals and birds. Don’t pollute yourselves with any animal or bird or crawling thing which I have marked out as unclean for you. Live holy lives before me because I, God, am holy. I have distinguished you from the nations to be my very own.
27“A man or woman who is a medium or sorcerer among you must be put to death. You must kill them by stoning. They’re responsible for their own deaths.”
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.