Leviticus 20-21

English Standard Version

Punishment for Child Sacrifice

20 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²“Say to the people of Israel, ^(A)Any one of the people of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. ³^(B)I myself will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given one of his children to Molech, to make my sanctuary ^(C)unclean and ^(D)to profane my holy name. ⁴And if the people of the land do at all close their eyes to that man when he gives one of his children to Molech, and do not ^(E)put him to death, ⁵then I will set my face against that man and against his clan and will cut them off from among their people, him and all who follow him in ^(F)whoring after Molech.

⁶“If ^(G)a person turns to mediums and necromancers, whoring after them, ^(H)I will set my face against that person and will cut him off from among his people. ⁷^(I)Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord your God. ⁸^(J)Keep my statutes and do them; ^(K)I am the Lord who sanctifies you. ⁹For ^(L)anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death; he has cursed his father or his mother; ^(M)his blood is upon him.

Punishments for Sexual Immorality

¹⁰“If a ^(N)man commits adultery with the wife of^[a] his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. ¹¹^(O)If 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 upon them. ¹²^(P)If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death; they have committed ^(Q)perversion; their blood is upon them. ¹³^(R)If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. ¹⁴^(S)If a man takes a woman and her mother also, it is depravity; he and they shall be burned with fire, that there may be no depravity among you. ¹⁵^(T)If a man lies with an animal, he shall surely be put to death, and you shall kill the animal. ¹⁶^(U)If a woman approaches any animal and lies with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

¹⁷^(V)“If a man takes his sister, a daughter of his father or a daughter of his mother, and sees her nakedness, and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace, and they shall be cut off in the sight of the children of their people. He has uncovered his sister's nakedness, and he shall bear his iniquity. ¹⁸^(W)If a man lies with a woman during her menstrual period and uncovers her nakedness, he has made naked her fountain, and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood. Both of them shall be cut off from among their people. ¹⁹^(X)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister or of your father's sister, for that is to make naked ^(Y)one's relative; they shall bear their iniquity. ²⁰^(Z)If a man lies with his uncle's wife, he has uncovered his uncle's nakedness; they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless. ²¹^(AA)If a man takes his brother's wife, it is impurity.^[b] He has uncovered his brother's nakedness; they shall be childless.

You Shall Be Holy

²²^(AB)“You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my rules and do them, that the land where I am bringing you to live may not ^(AC)vomit you out. ²³^(AD)And you shall not walk in the customs of the nation that I am driving out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I detested them. ²⁴But ^(AE)I have said to you, ‘You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land ^(AF)flowing with milk and honey.’ I am the Lord your God, ^(AG)who has separated you from the peoples. ²⁵^(AH)You shall therefore separate the clean beast from the unclean, and the unclean bird from the clean. You shall not make yourselves detestable by beast or by bird or by anything with which the ground crawls, which I have set apart for you to hold unclean. ²⁶^(AI)You shall be holy to me, ^(AJ)for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.

²⁷^(AK)“A man or a woman who is a medium or a necromancer shall surely be put to death. They shall be ^(AL)stoned with stones; ^(AM)their blood shall be upon them.”

Holiness and the Priests

21 And the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them, ^(AN)No one shall make himself unclean for the dead among his people, ²except for his closest relatives, his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother, ³or his virgin sister (who is near to him because she has had no husband; for her he may make himself unclean). ⁴He shall not make himself unclean as a husband among his people and so profane himself. ⁵^(AO)They shall not make bald patches on their heads, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuts on their body. ⁶They shall be holy to their God and ^(AP)not profane the name of their God. For they offer the Lord's food offerings, ^(AQ)the bread of their God; therefore they shall be holy. ⁷^(AR)They shall not marry a prostitute or a woman who has been defiled, neither shall they marry a woman ^(AS)divorced from her husband, for the priest is holy to his God. ⁸You shall sanctify him, for he offers the bread of your God. He shall be holy to you, for ^(AT)I, the Lord, who sanctify you, ^(AU)am holy. ⁹And the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by whoring, profanes her father; ^(AV)she shall be burned with fire.

¹⁰^(AW)“The priest who is chief among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil is poured and who has been consecrated to wear the garments, ^(AX)shall not let the hair of his head hang loose nor tear his clothes. ¹¹He shall not ^(AY)go in to any dead bodies nor make himself unclean, even for his father or for his mother. ¹²^(AZ)He shall not go out of the sanctuary, lest he ^(BA)profane the sanctuary of his God, for the ^(BB)consecration of the anointing oil of his God is on him: I am the Lord. ¹³And he shall take a wife in her virginity.^[c] ¹⁴A widow, ^(BC)or a divorced woman, or a woman who has been defiled, or a prostitute, these he shall not marry. But he shall take as his wife a virgin^[d] of his own people, ¹⁵that he may not profane his offspring among his people, for ^(BD)I am the Lord who sanctifies him.”

¹⁶And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁷“Speak to Aaron, saying, None of your offspring throughout their generations who has a blemish may ^(BE)approach to offer the bread of his God. ¹⁸For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, a man ^(BF)blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face ^(BG)or a limb too long, ¹⁹or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand, ²⁰or a hunchback or a dwarf or a man with a ^(BH)defect in his sight or an itching disease or scabs or ^(BI)crushed testicles. ²¹No man of the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a blemish shall come near to ^(BJ)offer the Lord's food offerings; since he has a blemish, he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God. ²²He may eat the bread of his God, both of ^(BK)the most holy and of the ^(BL)holy things, ²³but he shall not go through the veil or approach the altar, because he has a blemish, that he may not ^(BM)profane my sanctuaries,^[e] ^(BN)for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.” ²⁴So Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons and to all the people of Israel.