Leviticus 20-23

Common English Bible

Worship of Molech forbidden

20 The Lord said to Moses, ² You will also say to the Israelites: Any Israelite or any immigrant living in Israel who gives their children to Molech must be executed. The common people will stone such a person. ³ Moreover, I will set my own face against such a person, cutting them off from their people, because they gave their children to Molech, making my sanctuary unclean and degrading my holy name by doing so. ⁴ But if the common people choose to look the other way when someone gives their children to Molech and do not execute such a person, ⁵ I will set my own face against such a person and their extended family, cutting off from their people both the guilty party and anyone with them who faithlessly followed Molech. ⁶ I will also oppose anyone who resorts to dead spirits or spirits of divination and faithlessly follows those things. I will cut such an individual off from their people.

Sexual prohibitions

⁷ You must be holy and keep yourselves holy because I am the Lord your God. ⁸ You will keep my rules and do them; I am the Lord, who makes you holy. ⁹ If anyone curses their father or mother, they must be executed. They have cursed their own father and mother; that person’s blood is on their own heads. ¹⁰ If a man commits adultery with a married woman, committing adultery with a neighbor’s wife, both the adulterer and the adulteress must be executed. ¹¹ If a man has sexual intercourse with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness. Both of them must be executed; their blood is on their own heads. ¹² If a man has sexual intercourse with his daughter-in-law, both of them must be executed. They have acted perversely; their blood is on their own heads. ¹³ If a man has sexual intercourse with a man as he would with a woman, the two of them have done something detestable. They must be executed; their blood is on their own heads. ¹⁴ If a man marries a woman and her mother as well, it is shameful. They will be burned with fire—the man and the two women—so that no such shameful thing will be found among you. ¹⁵ If a man has sexual relations with an animal, he must be executed and you must kill the animal. ¹⁶ If a woman approaches any kind of animal to mate with it, you must kill the woman and the animal. They must be executed; their blood is on their own heads. ¹⁷ If a man marries his sister—his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter—and they have sexual contact with each other, it is a disgrace. They will be cut off in the sight of their people. Such a man has had sexual contact with his sister; he will be liable to punishment. ¹⁸ If a man sleeps with a woman during her menstrual period and has sexual contact with her, he has exposed the source of her blood flow and she has uncovered the same. Both of them will be cut off from their people. ¹⁹ You must not have sexual contact with your mother’s sister or your father’s sister, because that exposes your own close relative; both of you will be liable to punishment. ²⁰ If a man has sexual intercourse with his aunt, he has uncovered his uncle’s nakedness. The man and the aunt will be liable to punishment; they will die childless. ²¹ If a man marries his brother’s wife, it is indecent. He has uncovered his brother’s nakedness; the man and the woman will be childless.

Conclusion concerning conduct

²² You must keep all my rules and all my regulations, and do them so that the land I am bringing you to, where you will live, won’t vomit you out. ²³ You must not follow the practices^[a] of the nations that I am throwing out before you, because they did all these things and I was disgusted with them. ²⁴ But I have told you, “You will certainly possess their fertile land; I am giving it to you to possess. It is a land full of milk and honey.” I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from all other peoples. ²⁵ So you must separate between clean and unclean animals, and between clean and unclean birds. Do not become detestable through some animal, bird, or anything that moves on the fertile ground that I have separated from you as unclean. ²⁶ You must be holy to me, because I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from all other peoples to be my own. ²⁷ If someone, whether male or female, is a medium with the dead or a diviner,^[b] they must be executed. They will be stoned; their blood is on their own head.

Rules for priests

21 The Lord said to Moses, Say to the priests, Aaron’s sons: None of you are allowed to make yourselves unclean by any dead person among your community ² except for your closest relatives: for your mother, father, son, daughter, brother; ³ also for your unmarried sister, who is close to you because she isn’t married—you may be polluted for her sake. ⁴ You must not make yourself unclean for in-laws, defiling yourself by doing so.

⁵ Priests must not shave bald patches on their heads or cut off the ends of their beards or make gashes in their bodies. ⁶ They must be holy to their God so that they do not make their God’s name impure. They must be holy because they offer the Lord’s food gifts, their God’s food. ⁷ Priests must not marry a woman who is promiscuous and defiled, nor can they marry a woman divorced from her husband, because priests must be^[c] holy to their God. ⁸ You will treat the priests as holy, because they offer your God’s food. The priests will be holy to you, because I am the holy Lord, who makes you holy. ⁹ If the daughter of a priest defiles herself by being promiscuous, she defiles her father. She must be burned with fire.

¹⁰ The high priest^[d]—the one whose head has been anointed with the anointing oil and who is ordained to dress in the priestly clothing—must not dishevel his hair or tear his clothing. ¹¹ He must not go near any dead bodies and cannot make himself unclean even for his father or mother. ¹² He must not exit the sanctuary, making his God’s sanctuary impure by doing so, because his God’s anointing oil, which separates,^[e] is upon him; I am the Lord. ¹³ The high priest must marry a woman who is a virgin. ¹⁴ He cannot marry a widow, a divorced woman, or a woman defiled by promiscuity. He can only marry a virgin from his own people ¹⁵ so that he doesn’t make his children impure among his people, because I am the Lord, who makes him holy.

¹⁶ The Lord said to Moses, ¹⁷ Say to Aaron: None of your future descendants who have some kind of imperfection are allowed to offer their God’s food. ¹⁸ No one who has an imperfection will be allowed to make an offering: this includes anyone who is blind, crippled, disfigured, or deformed; ¹⁹ anyone who has a broken foot or hand; ²⁰ anyone who is a hunchback or too small; anyone who has an eye disease, a rash, scabs, or a crushed testicle.^{[f] 21} No descendant of Aaron the priest who has an imperfection will be allowed to offer the Lord’s food gifts; since he has an imperfection, he will not be allowed to offer his God’s food. ²² He may, of course, eat of his God’s most holy or holy food, ²³ but since he has an imperfection, he cannot enter toward the inner curtain or officiate at the altar, making these parts of my sanctuary impure by doing so. I am the Lord, who makes them holy.

²⁴ This is what Moses said to Aaron, his sons, and to all the Israelites.

Priestly uncleanness

22 The Lord said to Moses: ² Tell Aaron and his sons to be very careful how they treat the holy things that the Israelites devote to me so that they do not make my holy name impure: I am the Lord. ³ Say to them: If any descendant of yours should ever come near the holy things that the Israelites have dedicated to the Lord while he is in an unclean state, he will be cut off from before me; I am the Lord. ⁴ Any descendant of Aaron who is afflicted with skin disease^[g] or has a discharge cannot eat of the holy things until he is clean. Anyone who touches anything made unclean by a dead body, or who has an emission of semen, ⁵ or who touches any swarming creature or another person who makes him unclean—whatever the uncleanness might be— ⁶ the person who touches these things will be unclean until evening. He must not eat of the holy things unless he has bathed his body in water. ⁷ Once the sun has set and he has become clean again, he may eat of the holy things, for that is his food. ⁸ He must not eat an animal that has died naturally or that was killed by another animal, becoming unclean by doing so; I am the Lord. ⁹ The priests must keep my requirement so that they don’t become liable to punishment and die for having made it impure.^[h] I am the Lord, who makes them holy.

Unauthorized eating

¹⁰ No layperson is allowed to eat the holy offerings. No foreign guest or hired laborer of a priest can eat it. ¹¹ But if a priest purchases a servant, that person can eat it, and servants born into the priest’s household can also eat his food. ¹² If a priest’s daughter marries a layman, she is not allowed to eat the holy offerings. ¹³ But if a priest’s daughter is a widow or divorced and has no children and so returns to her father’s household as when she was young, she can eat her father’s food. But, again, no layperson is allowed to eat it. ¹⁴ If someone eats a holy offering unintentionally, they must provide the priest with an equal item, plus one-fifth. ¹⁵ The Israelites must not make the holy offerings impure that they offer up to the Lord ¹⁶ or make themselves liable to punishment requiring compensation by eating their own holy offerings. I am the Lord, who makes them holy.

Unacceptable animal offerings

¹⁷ The Lord said to Moses: ¹⁸ Tell Aaron, his sons, and all the Israelites: Whenever someone from Israel’s house or from the immigrants in Israel presents their offering to the Lord as an entirely burned offering—whether it is payment for a solemn promise or a spontaneous gift— ¹⁹ for it to be acceptable on your behalf, it must be a flawless male from the herd, the sheep, or the goats. ²⁰ You must not present anything that has an imperfection, because it will not be acceptable on your behalf. ²¹ Whenever someone presents a communal sacrifice of well-being to the Lord from the herd or flock—whether it is payment for a solemn promise or a spontaneous gift—it must be flawless to be acceptable; it must not have any imperfection. ²² You must not present to the Lord anything that is blind or that has an injury, mutilation, warts, a rash, or scabs. You must not put any such animal on the altar as a food gift for the Lord. ²³ You can, however, offer an ox or sheep that is deformed or stunted as a spontaneous gift, but it will not be acceptable as payment for a solemn promise. ²⁴ You must not offer to the Lord anything with bruised, crushed, torn, or cut-off testicles. You must not do that in your land. ²⁵ You are not allowed to offer such animals as your God’s food even if they come from a foreigner. Because these animals have blemishes and imperfections in them, they will not be acceptable on your behalf.

Additional rules for sacrifice

²⁶ The Lord said to Moses: ²⁷ When an ox or sheep or goat is born, it must remain with its mother for seven days. From the eighth day on it will be acceptable as an offering, a food gift for the Lord. ²⁸ But you will not slaughter an ox or sheep and its offspring on the same day. ²⁹ When you sacrifice a communal sacrifice of thanksgiving for the Lord, you must sacrifice it so that it will be acceptable on your behalf. ³⁰ It must be eaten on the same day; you must not leave any of it until morning; I am the Lord. ³¹ You must keep my commands and do them; I am the Lord. ³² You must not make my holy name impure so that I will be treated as holy by the Israelites. I am the Lord—the one who makes you holy ³³ and who is bringing you out of the land of Egypt to be your God; I am the Lord.

Sacred times

23 The Lord said to Moses: ² Speak to the Israelites and say to them: These are my appointed times, the Lord’s appointed times, which you will declare to be holy occasions: ³ Work can be done for six days, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of special rest, a holy occasion. You must not do any work on it; wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to the Lord. ⁴ These are the Lord’s appointed times, holy occasions, which you will celebrate at their appointed times:

⁵ The Lord’s Passover is on the fourteenth day of the first month^[i] at twilight. ⁶ The Lord’s Festival of Unleavened Bread is on the fifteenth day of the same month. You must eat unleavened bread for seven days. ⁷ On the first day you will hold a holy occasion and must not do any job-related work. ⁸ You will offer food gifts to the Lord for seven days. The seventh day will be a holy occasion; you must not do any job-related work.

⁹ The Lord said to Moses: ¹⁰ Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you and harvest its produce, you must bring the first bundle of your harvest to the priest. ¹¹ The priest will lift up the bundle before the Lord so that it will be acceptable on your behalf. The priest will do this on the day after the Sabbath. ¹² On the day the bundle is lifted up for you, you must offer a flawless one-year-old lamb as an entirely burned offering to the Lord. ¹³ The accompanying grain offering must be two-tenths of an ephah^[j] of choice flour mixed with oil, as a food gift for the Lord, a soothing smell. The accompanying drink offering must be a quarter of a hin of wine. ¹⁴ You must not eat any bread, roasted grain, or fresh grain until the exact day when you bring your God’s offering. This is a permanent rule throughout your future generations, wherever you live.

¹⁵ You must count off seven weeks starting with the day after the Sabbath, the day you bring the bundle for the uplifted offering; these must be complete. ¹⁶ You will count off fifty days until the day after the seventh Sabbath. Then you must present a new grain offering to the Lord. ¹⁷ From wherever you live, you will bring two loaves of bread as an uplifted offering. These must be made of two-tenths of an ephah of choice flour, baked with leaven, as early produce^[k] to the Lord. ¹⁸ Along with the bread you must present seven flawless one-year-old lambs, one bull from the herd, and two rams. These will be an entirely burned offering to the Lord, along with their grain offerings and drink offerings, as a food gift of soothing smell to the Lord. ¹⁹ You must also offer one male goat as a purification offering and two one-year-old lambs as a communal sacrifice of well-being. ²⁰ The priest will lift up the two sheep, along with the bread of the early produce, as an uplifted offering before the Lord. These will be holy to the Lord and will belong to the priest. ²¹ On that very same day you must make a proclamation; it will be a holy occasion for you. You must not do any job-related work. This is a permanent rule wherever you live throughout your future generations. ²² When you harvest your land’s produce, you must not harvest all the way to the edge of your field; and don’t gather every remaining bit of your harvest. Leave these items for the poor and the immigrant; I am the Lord your God.

²³ The Lord said to Moses: ²⁴ Say to the Israelites: On the first day of the seventh month,^[l] you will have a special rest, a holy occasion marked by a trumpet signal. ²⁵ You must not do any job-related work, and you must offer a food gift to the Lord.

²⁶ The Lord said to Moses: ²⁷ Note that the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Reconciliation. It will be a holy occasion for you. You must deny yourselves and offer a food gift to the Lord. ²⁸ You must not do any work that day because it is a Day of Reconciliation to make reconciliation for you before the Lord your God. ²⁹ Anyone who does not deny themselves on that day will be cut off from their people. ³⁰ Moreover, I will destroy from their people anyone who does any work on that day. ³¹ You must not do any work! This is a permanent rule throughout your future generations wherever you live. ³² This is a Sabbath of special rest for you, and you must deny yourselves. You will observe your Sabbath on the ninth day of the month from evening to the following evening.

³³ The Lord said to Moses: ³⁴ Say to the Israelites: The Festival of Booths to the Lord will start on the fifteenth day of the seventh month and will last for seven days. ³⁵ The first day is a holy occasion. You must not do any job-related work. ³⁶ For seven days you will offer food gifts to the Lord. On the eighth day you will have a holy occasion and must offer a food gift to the Lord. It is a holiday: you must not do any job-related work.

³⁷ These are the Lord’s appointed times that you will proclaim as holy occasions, offering food gifts to the Lord: entirely burned offerings, grain offerings, communal sacrifices, and drink offerings—each on its proper day. ³⁸ This is in addition to the Lord’s sabbaths and in addition to your presents, all the payments for solemn promises, and all the spontaneous gifts that you give to the Lord.

³⁹ Note that on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered the land’s crops, you will celebrate the Lord’s festival for seven days. The first day and the eighth day are days of special rest. ⁴⁰ On the first day you must take fruit from majestic trees,^[m] palm branches, branches of leafy trees,^[n] and willows of the streams, and rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. ⁴¹ You will celebrate this festival to the Lord for seven days each year; this is a permanent rule throughout your future generations. You will celebrate it in the seventh month. ⁴² For seven days you must live in huts. Every citizen of Israel must live in huts ⁴³ so that your future generations will know that I made the Israelites live in huts when I brought them out of the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.

⁴⁴ So Moses announced the Lord’s appointed times to the Israelites.