Leviticus · chapter 20 of 27
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Leviticus 20 sets penalties for breaking the rules of chapter 18 and others: giving children to Molech, consulting mediums, cursing parents and several sexual offenses. Many are punished by death or by being cut off from the people. The chapter reminds us that the Lord set Israel apart from the nations to be his and holy.
If Leviticus 18 and 19 taught what God expects of his people, chapter 20 shows how seriously Israel was to take it. The penalties, severe, belong to the civil law of a nation governed directly by God, and they underline that attacking life, family or faithfulness to the Lord harmed the whole community.
The Lord tells Moses that anyone who gives a child to Molech, whether an Israelite or a foreigner living there, shall be put to death by stoning, and that if the community closes its eyes to it, the Lord himself will set his face against that person and his family. The same applies to anyone who consults mediums and necromancers and prostitutes himself after them: the Lord will cut him off from his people.
The people are urged to consecrate themselves and keep the Lord's statutes, who sanctifies them. Whoever curses his father or mother shall be put to death. A list of penalties for sexual offenses follows: adultery, relations with close relatives, between men and with animals. Some are punished by death; others by being cut off from the people or by childlessness.
The chapter concludes with a call: keep all my statutes and rules, so that the land to which I bring you will not vomit you out. Do not follow the customs of the nations I am driving out. Be holy, for I, the Lord, am holy, and I have separated you from the peoples to be mine. The last verse repeats the penalty for those who practice divination.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The Lord commands Israel to consecrate themselves and be holy, because he is their God. Holiness appears as a response to who God is. Before the penalties, the command rests on a relationship: the Lord is their God, and they are his people.
Keeping the statutes and doing them is joined to a promise: I am the Lord who sanctifies you. Holiness is the people's task, but the work of sanctifying is God's. He is the one who sets apart and transforms.
The Lord declares that his people are to be holy to him, because he is holy and has separated them from the nations. The separation is not contempt but election: they belong to God and live by his character, to be a witness before the peoples.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Death by stoning. — Leviticus 20:2
Answer: He would cut him off from among his people. — Leviticus 20:6
Answer: That they consecrate themselves and be holy, because he is the Lord their God. — Leviticus 20:7
Answer: He was to be put to death. — Leviticus 20:9
Answer: He sanctifies them. — Leviticus 20:8
Answer: That it flows with milk and honey, and he will give it to them as a possession. — Leviticus 20:24
Leviticus 20 is not read to point at others but to take God's holiness seriously. In a small group you can reflect on which customs in our surroundings we tolerate without thinking and how to show the world who the Lord is.
The promise that he sanctifies is encouraging: holiness does not depend on our effort alone. And the penalties remind us of the seriousness of sin, which in the new covenant Christ bore on the cross. We are called to live as his people, with humility, knowing we are forgiven by his grace.
Leviticus 20 reminds Israel that its identity is to be holy to the Lord, with clear boundaries and serious consequences. Leviticus 21 addresses the priests, who are given still stricter rules about mourning, marriage and service because of their nearness to the sanctuary.
The penalties belong to the civil law of Israel as a covenant nation, where certain offenses attacked life, family or exclusive faithfulness to the Lord. They are not a model for governments today, and the New Testament shows the church applying discipline in a different way.
The expression can mean exclusion from the covenant community, and some interpreters think it also suggests God's judgment on the person and his descendants. The text does not define it precisely; it indicates a serious consequence, not a mere social penalty.