Leviticus 19 – 20

The Holiness of the Community

Leviticus 19

¹ The Lord told Moses ² to speak to the whole community of the Israelites and tell them these things:

You shall be holy, because I, the Lord your God, am holy.

³ Each of you must respect your mother and father and keep my Sabbaths. I am the Lord your God.

⁴ You shall not ^[1] turn to gods that really are not gods. ^[2] You must not make for yourselves gods cast out of metal. ^[3] I am the Lord your God.

⁵ When you offer a sacrifice that is a fellowship offering to the Lord, you shall offer it so that you will be accepted. ⁶ It is to be eaten on the day that you offer it or on the next day, but whatever is left over on the third day is to be burned in fire. ⁷ If it is eaten at all on the third day, it will be regarded as rotten meat. It is not acceptable. ⁸ Whoever eats it will bear his guilt, because he has desecrated ^[4] what is holy to the Lord. Any such person will be cut off from his people.

⁹ When you reap the harvest from your land, you are not to finish reaping all the way to the edge of the field. Do not gather up the gleanings of your harvest. ¹⁰ Do not strip your vineyard clean, and do not pick up the fallen grapes from your vineyard, but leave them for the poor and the alien who live with you. I am the Lord your God.

¹¹ You shall not steal. You shall not swindle. You shall not lie to one another. ¹² You shall not swear falsely by my name so that you do not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.

¹³ You shall not exploit your neighbor. You shall not rob him. You shall not keep the wages of a day laborer with you overnight until morning.

¹⁴ You shall not curse a deaf person, nor shall you put an obstacle in front of a blind person, but you must fear your God. I am the Lord.

¹⁵ You shall not act unjustly in court cases. Do not show favoritism to a poor person, and do not show undue honor to an important person. You must judge your fellow citizens with justice.

¹⁶ You shall not go around spreading slander among your people. You shall not testify falsely against your neighbor in a capital case. ^[5] I am the Lord.

¹⁷ You shall not hate a fellow Israelite ^[6] in your heart. You must openly rebuke your fellow citizen so that you do not become responsible for his sin. ¹⁸ You must not take revenge. You must not bear a grudge against the members of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

¹⁹ You shall keep my regulations. You must not cause two different kinds of livestock to mate together. You must not sow your field with two kinds of seed. You must not wear any clothing made with two kinds of material.

²⁰ If a man lies down with a woman and has an emission of semen, if she is a female slave who has already been designated for another man, but she has not yet been fully ransomed or received her freedom, a hearing shall be held concerning financial compensation, but they are not to be put to death, because she had not been freed. ²¹ But he must bring his restitution offering to the Lord at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting—a ram for restitution. ²² The priest shall perform atonement on his behalf before the Lord with the ram for the restitution offering for his sin that he has committed, so that he may be forgiven for his sin that he has committed.

²³ Also when you enter the land and plant any kind of fruit tree, you must cut off its budding fruit as if it were a foreskin. For three years you shall regard the tree and its fruit as uncircumcised. Its fruit shall not be eaten. ^{[7] 24} In the fourth year, all its fruit shall be set aside as a holy offering of praise to the Lord. ²⁵ You may eat its fruit in the fifth year, so that its yield may be increased for you. I am the Lord your God.

²⁶ You shall not eat meat with the blood in it.

You shall not interpret omens, nor shall you perform divination.

²⁷ You shall not round off the hair on the side of your heads, nor shall you disfigure the edge of your beard. ²⁸ You shall not make a gash in your flesh for the dead, nor shall you put tattoos on yourselves. I am the Lord your God.

²⁹ You must not defile your daughter by making her a prostitute, so that the land will not be subjected to prostitution and filled with depravity.

³⁰ You must keep my Sabbaths, and you must revere my sanctuary. I am the Lord.

³¹ You must not turn to mediums or to spiritists ^[8] and so become unclean through them. I am the Lord your God.

³² You must rise in the presence of gray hair and show respect in the presence of an elder, so that you fear your God. I am the Lord.

³³ When an alien resides with you in your land, you must not mistreat him. ³⁴ You shall treat the alien who resides with you as a fellow citizen. You shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

³⁵ You shall not use dishonest measurements of weight or volume. ³⁶ Instead you must use an honest scale, honest weights, an honest dry measure, and an honest liquid measure. ^[9]

I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt; ³⁷ therefore, you shall keep all my requirements and my ordinances and carry them out. I am the Lord.

Penalties for Defiling the Land

Leviticus 20

¹ Then the Lord told Moses ² to say this to the Israelites:

Any Israelite or any of the aliens who reside in Israel who give any of their children ^[10] to Molek must certainly be put to death. The people of the land shall stone that person to death. ³ I myself will set my face against that person and cut him off from among his people, because when he gave some of his children to Molek, he made my sanctuary unclean and defiled my holy name. ⁴ Furthermore, if the people of the land deliberately shut their eyes when that man gives any of his children to Molek, and they do not put him to death, ⁵ I myself will set my face against that man and against his clan. I will cut off from among their people both that man and all those who join with him in prostituting themselves to Molek.

⁶ If any person turns to mediums or to spiritists ^[11] and prostitutes himself to them, I will set my face against that person and cut him off from among his people.

⁷ You shall set yourselves apart, and you shall be holy, for I am the Lord your God. ⁸ You shall keep my regulations, and you shall put them into practice. I am the Lord, who has set you apart.

⁹ Indeed, if anybody curses his father and his mother, he must certainly be put to death. Since he has cursed his father and his mother, his blood is upon him.

¹⁰ If a man commits adultery with the wife of another man, if he commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, ^[12] both the adulterer and the adulteress must certainly be put to death.

¹¹ If a man lies down with his father’s wife, he has uncovered nakedness that is reserved for his father. Both of them certainly must be put to death. Their blood is upon them.

¹² If a man lies down with his daughter-in-law, both of them must be put to death. They have committed an unnatural perversion. Their blood is upon them.

¹³ If a man lies down with a male as one lies down with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They must certainly be put to death. Their blood is upon them.

¹⁴ If a man takes ^[13] a woman and her mother, it is a depraved act. Both he and they shall be burned in fire, so that there may be no depravity among you.

¹⁵ If a man gives his emission to an animal, he must certainly be put to death, and you must kill the animal.

¹⁶ If a woman approaches any animal to let it mate with her, you shall kill the woman and the animal. They must certainly be put to death. Their blood is on them.

¹⁷ If a man takes ^[14] his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother, and he sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness, it is a shameful act. They will be cut off in the sight of their people. He has uncovered his sister’s nakedness. He will bear his guilt.

¹⁸ If a man lies down with a woman during her period and uncovers her nakedness, he uncovers her flow, and she uncovers her flow of blood. Both of them will be cut off from the midst of their people.

¹⁹ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister or your father’s sister, for that would be uncovering one’s own flesh. They will bear their guilt.

²⁰ If a man lies down with the wife of his father’s brother, he uncovers the nakedness that is reserved for his father’s brother. They shall bear their sin. They will die childless.

²¹ If a man takes his brother’s wife, it is a polluted act. He has uncovered nakedness that is reserved for his brother. They will remain childless.

²² You shall keep all my regulations and all my ordinances and put them into practice, so that the land to which I am bringing you to live will not vomit you out. ²³ You shall not walk according to the religious practices of the nation which I am casting out before you, for I was disgusted with them because they did all these things, ²⁴ so I said to you, “You will take possession of their land. I myself will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey. I, the Lord, am your God, who has distinguished you from the other peoples. ²⁵ You shall therefore distinguish the clean animal from the unclean, and the unclean bird from the clean. You shall not make yourselves detestable with an animal or a bird or anything that crawls on the ground that I have distinguished by declaring what is unclean for you. ²⁶ You will be holy to me, for I, the Lord, am holy, and I have distinguished you from the other peoples so that you belong to me.”

²⁷ A man or a woman who is a medium or deals with the spirits of the dead must certainly be put to death. They must be stoned to death. Their blood is on them.