People’s Open Bible
Leviticus 20
Severe Judgments for Serious Sins
Open in the reader →1And Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
2And you shall say to the sons of Israel: Any man from the sons of Israel, or from the sojourner who sojourns in Israel, who gives any of his offspring to Molech shall surely be put to death; the people of the land shall stone him with stones.
3I myself will set my face against that man and cut him off from among his people, because he has given some of his offspring to Molech, so as to defile my sanctuary and to profane my holy name.
4But if the people of the land deliberately close their eyes to that man when he gives some of his offspring to Molech, so as not to put him to death,
5then I myself will set my face against that man and against his family, and I will cut off him and all who prostitute themselves after him by prostituting themselves after Molech, from among their people.
6And the person who turns to the mediums and to the spiritists, to prostitute himself after them, I will set my face against that person and cut him off from among his people.
7Consecrate yourselves, and be holy, because I am Yahweh your God.
8You shall keep my statutes and do them. I am Yahweh, who sanctifies you.
9For any man who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death; he has cursed his father and his mother; his blood is on him.
10If a man commits adultery with another man's wife—if he commits adultery with his neighbor's wife—the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
11If a man lies with his father's wife, he has uncovered his father's nakedness; both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood is on them.
12If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death. They have committed perversion; their blood is upon them.
13If a man lies with a male as one lies with a woman, both of them have done an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is on them.
14If a man takes a woman and her mother, it is depravity. They shall burn him and them with fire, so that there will not be depravity among you.
15If a man has sexual intercourse with an animal, he must surely be put to death, and you shall kill the animal.
16If a woman approaches any animal to mate with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal. They shall surely be put to death; their blood is on them.
17If a man takes his sister, his father's daughter or his mother's daughter, and sees her nakedness, and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace, and they shall be cut off in the sight of the sons of their people. He has uncovered his sister's nakedness; he shall bear his guilt.
18If a man lies with a woman during her menstrual impurity and uncovers her nakedness—he has laid bare her flow, and she has uncovered the flow of her blood—both of them shall be cut off from among their people.
19You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister or of your father's sister, for he has laid bare his own flesh; they shall bear their iniquity.
20If a man lies with his aunt, he has uncovered his uncle’s nakedness. They shall bear their sin; they shall die childless.
21And if a man takes his brother’s wife, it is uncleanness; he has uncovered his brother’s nakedness. They shall be childless.
22So you shall keep all my statutes and all my judgments and do them, so that the land to which I am bringing you to dwell in it may not vomit you out.
23And you shall not walk in the statutes of the nation that I am driving out before you, because they did all these things, and I loathed them.
24But I said to you, ‘You shall possess their land, and I myself will give it to you to possess’—a land flowing with milk and honey. I am Yahweh your God, who has separated you from the peoples.
25So you shall distinguish between the clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean bird and the clean; and you shall not make yourselves detestable by the animal or by the bird or by anything that creeps on the ground, which I have set apart for you as unclean.
26You shall be holy to me, because I, Yahweh, am holy, and I have separated you from the peoples to be mine.
27And a man or a woman, if there is in them a medium or a spiritist, shall surely be put to death; they shall stone them with stones. Their blood is on them.
Composed from original Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Ge’ez manuscripts, rendered in multiple passes to stay as close to the originals as possible. About this project