Leviticus 20-22

Amplified Bible

On Human Sacrifice and Immoralities

20 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Moreover, you shall say to the children of Israel,

‘Any Israelite or any stranger residing in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech (the god of the Ammonites) [as a human sacrifice] shall most certainly be put to death; the people of the land shall stone him with stones. ³ I will also set My face against that man [opposing him, withdrawing My protection from him] and will cut him off from his people [excluding him from the atonement made for them], because he has given some of his children to Molech, so as to defile My sanctuary and profane My holy name. ⁴ If the people of the land should ever tolerate that man when he gives any of his children [as a burnt offering] to Molech, and fail to put him to death [as My law requires], ⁵ then I shall set My face against that man and against his [extended] family, and I will cut off from their people both him and all who follow him in ^[a]playing the prostitute (commit apostasy) with Molech.

⁶ ‘As for the person who turns to mediums [who consult the dead] or to spiritists, to play the prostitute after them, I shall set My face against that person and will cut him off from his people [excluding him from the atonement made for them].^{(A) 7} You shall consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am the Lord your God. ⁸ You shall keep My statutes and do them. I am the Lord who sanctifies you.

⁹ ‘If anyone curses his father or mother, he shall most certainly be put to death; he has cursed his father or mother; his blood is on him [that is, he bears full responsibility for the consequences].

¹⁰ ‘The man who commits adultery with another’s wife, even his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall most certainly be put to death.^{(B) 11} The man who lies [intimately] with his father’s wife has ^[b]uncovered his father’s nakedness; both of them shall most certainly be put to death; their blood is on them. ¹² If a man lies [intimately] with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall most certainly be put to death; they have committed incest; their blood is on them. ¹³ If a man lies [intimately] with a male as if he were a woman, both men have committed a detestable (perverse, unnatural) act; they shall most certainly be put to death; their blood is on them. ¹⁴ It is immoral and shameful if a man marries a woman and her mother; all three shall be burned in fire, so that there will be no immorality among you.^{(C) 15} If a man has intimate relations with an animal, he shall most certainly be put to death; you shall kill the animal also. ¹⁶ If a woman approaches any animal to mate with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they shall most certainly be put to death; their blood is on them.

¹⁷ ‘If a man takes his sister, his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter, so that he 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 bears [responsibility for] his guilt. ¹⁸ If a man lies [intimately] with a woman during her menstrual cycle and uncovers her nakedness, he has exposed her flow, and she has uncovered the flow of her blood; both of them shall be cut off from their people [excluding them from the atonement made for them]. ¹⁹ You shall not uncover the nakedness of (have intimate relations with) your mother’s sister or your father’s sister, for such a one has uncovered his blood relative; they will bear their guilt. ²⁰ If there is a man who lies [intimately] with his uncle’s wife, he has uncovered his uncle’s nakedness; they will bear their sin. They will die childless. ²¹ If a man takes his brother’s wife, it is a hated and unclean thing; he has uncovered his brother’s nakedness. They will be childless.

²² ‘Therefore keep all My statutes and all My ordinances and do them, so that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out [as it did those before you].^{(D) 23} You shall not follow the statutes (laws, practices, customs) of the nation which I am driving out before you; for they did all these things, and therefore I have loathed them. ²⁴ But I have said to you, “You are to inherit and take possession of their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land [of plenty] ^[c]flowing with milk and honey.” I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from the peoples (pagan nations). ²⁵ You are therefore to make a distinction between the [ceremonially] clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean bird and the clean; and you shall not make yourselves detestable by animal or by bird or by anything that crawls on the ground, which I have set apart from you as unclean. ²⁶ You are to be holy to Me; for I the Lord am holy, and have set you apart from the peoples (nations) to be Mine.

²⁷ ‘A man or woman who is a medium [who pretends to consult the dead] or who is a spiritist shall most certainly be put to death, and be stoned with stones; their blood is on them.’”

Regulations concerning Priests

21 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them:

‘No one shall defile himself [that is, become ceremonially unclean] for the dead among his people [by touching a corpse or assisting in preparing it for burial], ² except for his relatives who are nearest to him, his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, and his brother, ³ also his virgin sister, who is near to him because she has had no husband; for her he may become unclean. ⁴ He shall not become unclean as a relative by marriage among his people, and so profane himself. ⁵ The priests ^[d]shall not shave their heads, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuts in their body. ⁶ They shall be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God; for they present the offerings by fire to the Lord, the food of their God; so they shall be holy. ⁷ They shall not take [as a wife] a woman who is a prostitute, nor a woman who is divorced from her husband; for the priest is holy to his God. ⁸ You shall consecrate him, therefore, for he offers the food of your God; he shall be holy to you; for I the Lord, who sanctifies you, am holy. ⁹ The daughter of any priest who profanes herself by prostitution profanes her father; she shall be burned in fire.^(E)

¹⁰ ‘But he who is the high priest among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil has been poured and who has been consecrated to wear the [sacred] garments, shall not uncover his head nor tear his clothes [in mourning], ¹¹ nor shall he approach any dead person, nor defile himself [by doing so, even] for his father or for his mother; ¹² nor shall he go out of the sanctuary nor profane (make ceremonially unclean) the sanctuary of his God, for the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is on him; I am the Lord. ¹³ He shall take a wife in her virginity. ¹⁴ He may not marry a widow or a divorced woman or one who is profaned by prostitution, but he is to marry a virgin from his own people,^{(F) 15} so that he will not profane or dishonor his children among his people; for I am the Lord who sanctifies the high priest.’”

¹⁶ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁷ “Say to Aaron, ‘Throughout their generations none of your descendants who has any [physical] defect shall approach [the altar] to present the food of his God. ¹⁸ For no man who has a defect shall approach [God’s altar as a priest]: no man who is blind or lame, or who has a disfigured face, or any deformed limb, ¹⁹ or a man who has a broken foot or a broken hand, ²⁰ or a hunchback or a dwarf, or one who has a defect in his eye or eczema or scabs or crushed testicles. ²¹ No man among the descendants of Aaron the priest who has a [physical] defect and is disfigured or deformed is to approach [the altar] to present the offerings of the Lord by fire. He has a defect; he shall not approach [the altar] to present the food of his God. ²² He may eat the food of his God, both of the most holy and of the holy things, ²³ but he shall not go within the veil or approach the altar [of incense], because he has a defect, so that he will not profane My sanctuaries; for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.’”^{(G) 24} So Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons, and to all the Israelites.

Various Rules for Priests

22 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Tell Aaron and his sons to be careful with the holy things (offerings, gifts) which the children of Israel dedicate to Me, so that they do not profane My holy name; I am the Lord. ³ Say to them, ‘Any one of your descendants throughout your generations who approaches the holy things which the Israelites dedicate to the Lord, while he is [ceremonially] unclean, that person shall be cut off from My presence and excluded from the sanctuary; I am the Lord. ⁴ No man of the descendants of Aaron who is a leper or has a discharge may eat the holy things [the offerings and the showbread] until he is clean. And whoever touches any person or thing made unclean by contact with a corpse or a man who has had a seminal emission, ⁵ or whoever touches any crawling thing by which he is made unclean, or any person by whom he is made unclean, whatever it may be,^{(H) 6} the person who touches any such thing shall be unclean until evening and shall not eat the holy things unless he has bathed his body in water.^{(I) 7} When the sun sets, he will be clean, and afterward he may eat the holy things, for it is his food. ⁸ He shall not eat that which dies [of natural causes] or is torn by a predator, becoming unclean by it; I am the Lord. ⁹ Therefore the priests shall observe My ordinance, so that they will not bear sin because of it and die if they profane it; I am the Lord who sanctifies them.

¹⁰ ‘No layman [that is, someone outside of Aaron’s family] is to eat the holy gift [which has been offered to God]; a foreigner residing with the priest or a hired man shall not eat the holy thing. ¹¹ But if a priest buys a slave as his property with his money, the slave may eat the holy thing, and those who are born in the priest’s house; they may eat his food. ¹² If a priest’s daughter is married to a layman [one not part of the priestly tribe], she shall not eat the offering of the holy things. ¹³ But if a priest’s daughter is a widow or divorced, and has no child, and returns to her father’s house as in her youth, she shall eat her father’s food; but no layman shall eat it. ¹⁴ But if a person unknowingly eats a holy gift [which has been offered to God], then he shall add one-fifth of its value to it and give the holy gift to the priest. ¹⁵ The priests shall not profane the holy things the Israelites offer to the Lord, ¹⁶ and so cause them [by neglect of any essential observance] to bear the ^[e]punishment of guilt when they eat their holy things; for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.’”

Flawless Animals for Sacrifice

¹⁷ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁸ “Speak to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites and say to them, ‘Any man of the house of Israel or any stranger in Israel who presents his offering, whether to fulfill any of their vows or as any of their freewill (voluntary) offerings which they presented to the Lord as a burnt offering— ¹⁹ so that you may be accepted—it must be a male without blemish from the cattle, the sheep, or the goats. ²⁰ You shall not offer anything which has a blemish, because it will not be accepted for you.^{(J) 21} Whoever offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord to fulfill a special vow to the Lord or as a freewill offering from the herd or from the flock, it must be perfect to be accepted; there shall be no blemish in it. ²² Animals that are blind or fractured or mutilated, or have a sore or a running wound or an itch or scabs, you shall not offer to the Lord nor make an offering of them by fire on the altar to the Lord. ²³ For a freewill offering you may offer either a bull or a lamb which has an overgrown or stunted member (deformity), but for [the payment of] a vow it will not be accepted. ²⁴ You shall not offer to the Lord any animal which has its testicles bruised or crushed or torn or cut off, or sacrifice it in your land. ²⁵ Nor shall you offer as the food of your God any such [animals obtained] from a foreigner, because their corruption and blemish makes them unfit; there is a defect in them, they shall not be accepted for you.’”

²⁶ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁷ “When a bull or a sheep or a goat is born, it shall remain for seven days with its mother; and after the eighth day it shall be accepted as an offering by fire to the Lord. ²⁸ And whether [the mother] is a cow or a sheep, you shall not kill both it and its young in one day. ²⁹ When you sacrifice an offering of thanksgiving to the Lord, you shall sacrifice it so that you may be accepted. ³⁰ It shall be eaten on the same day; you shall leave none of it until the next morning; I am the Lord. ³¹ So you shall keep My commandments and do them; I am the Lord.

³² “You shall not profane My holy name [using it to honor an idol, or treating it with irreverence or contempt or as a byword]; but I will be sanctified (set apart as holy) among the Israelites. I am the Lord, who sanctifies and declares you holy, ³³ who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God; I am the Lord.”