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Leviticus 20 - Covenant Penalties and a Holy People

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Chapter 19 has brought holiness into wages, truthful speech, and love of the stranger. Chapter 20 faces the breach of that covenant with penalties that are painful to read: stoning, death, burning, destruction from among the people, and childlessness. Calling them merely severe would hide what the chapter actually says. Their setting is ancient Israel’s covenant life in the land. The Church receives the chapter as Scripture while refusing to turn its sentences into permission to harm people today. Its central command remains searching and hopeful: the holy Lord is also the One who sanctifies His people.

Moloch and the community that overlooks evil (Leviticus 20:1-5)

The study follows NKJV references and prints Brenton’s Septuagint. Brenton names ‘Moloch’, rather than NKJV’s ‘Molech’. In verse 3 it speaks of profaning the name of the consecrated people, where NKJV says God’s holy name; verse 5 says ‘princes’, where NKJV repeats Molech. These words are retained in their own context.

1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 Thou shalt also say to the children of Israel, If there shall be any of the children of Israel, or of those who have become proselytes in Israel, who shall give of his seed to Moloch, let him be surely put to death; the nation upon the land shall stone him with stones. 3 And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from his people, because he has given of his seed to Moloch, to defile my sanctuary, and profane the name of them that are consecrated to me. 4 And if the natives of the land should in anywise overlook that man in giving of his seed to Moloch, so as not to put him to death; 5 then will I set my face against that man and his family, and I will destroy him, and all who have been of one mind with him, so that he should go a whoring to the princes, from their people.

The offender gives of his seed to Moloch, and verse 2 orders death by the nation’s stoning. The act is treated as a violation of the sanctuary and the consecrated people’s name, not as an isolated choice beyond the covenant’s concern. The law applies to Israel’s children and to those who have become proselytes, that is, those received into Israel’s religious community. The divine opposition in verse 3 accompanies the stated human penalty.

Verses 4–5 turn to the community that deliberately overlooks the act. Concealment does not make the wrong vanish. The Lord sets His face against the man, his family, and those of one mind with him. The passage makes complicity visible; it gives no permission for modern punishment of an offender’s relatives. These are ancient covenant judgments, not a mandate for Christians to execute, threaten, or persecute anyone. Their moral pressure upon us is the refusal to trade a vulnerable person’s safety for the comfort of powerful people. Protection and truthful accountability are necessary without private vengeance or collective blame.

The Lord who commands and gives holiness (Leviticus 20:6-8)

6 And the soul that shall follow those who have in them divining spirits, or enchanters, so as to go a whoring after them; I will set my face against that soul, and will destroy it from among its people. 7 And ye shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. 8 And ye shall observe my ordinances, and do them: I am the Lord that sanctifies you.

Following divining spirits and enchanters is described as unfaithfulness. Verse 6 declares the Lord’s opposition and destruction from among the people. Immediately afterward, the people are told to be holy and to do His ordinances. The reason is not only that He is holy, but that He sanctifies them. Obedience is a real response to God’s action, not an attempt to manufacture holiness apart from Him.

John 17:17-19 places sanctification within Christ’s prayer for those He sends into the world. Hebrews 2:11 joins the sanctifying One with those being sanctified, whom He calls His brethren; Hebrews 10:10 locates our sanctification in His once-for-all bodily offering. These passages lead the Christian reader from the law’s command to the Savior’s gift. Grace does not make conduct irrelevant. It gives the repentant person a beginning stronger than occult fear or the attempt to secure holiness by control.

Gems from the Fathers 💎: The Name hallowed in us

St. Cyprian of Carthage cites Leviticus 20:7 when explaining the Lord’s Prayer. God’s holiness does not increase because we pray; we ask that the baptismal sanctification He has given should remain alive in us. Cyprian writes:

“After this we say, Hallowed be Your name; not that we wish for God that He may be hallowed by our prayers, but that we beseech of Him that His name may be hallowed in us. But by whom is God sanctified, since He Himself sanctifies? Well, because He says, Be holy, even as I am holy, we ask and entreat, that we who were sanctified in baptism may continue in that which we have begun to be.”1

His argument continues with the daily need for sanctification and with the apostolic account of people washed and changed from their former sins. The prayer is therefore neither a claim of achieved purity nor despair over daily failure. It asks God to preserve His gift through our return to Him.

The Church’s Voice in Worship ⛪

The Prayer of Absolution Addressed to the Father asks for repentance and forgiveness: “O God, who takes away the sin of the world, hasten to accept the repentance of Your servants, for the light of knowledge and forgiveness of sins.”2 Its plea answers the fear of judgment by turning toward the God who heals, without disguising sin. This prayer is a connection with the chapter’s call to holiness, not an appointment of the chapter or a new disciplinary rule.

Death penalties for offenses against family and marriage (Leviticus 20:9-13)

9 Every man who shall speak evil of his father or of his mother, let him die the death; has he spoken evil of his father or his mother? he shall be guilty. 10 Whatever man shall commit adultery with the wife of a man, or whoever shall commit adultery with the wife of his neighbour, let them die the death, the adulterer and the adulteress. 11 And if any one should lie with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness: let them both die the death, they are guilty. 12 And if any one should lie with his daughter-in-law, let them both be put to death; for they have wrought impiety, they are guilty. 13 And whoever shall lie with a male as with a woman, they have both wrought abomination; let them die the death, they are guilty.

The law orders death for speaking evil of father or mother, adultery, intercourse with one’s father’s wife, intercourse with a daughter-in-law, and intercourse between males as with a woman. In the paired sexual acts it explicitly names both participants and their guilt. The family is not a shelter in which the nearer person becomes available for sexual use, and marriage is not treated as a covenant one can break without consequence. The text’s death sentences must be named soberly rather than dissolved into an abstract warning.

These laws do not authorize present-day execution, harassment, or hatred. Nor does a statement about guilty participants establish that someone coerced or assaulted shares the aggressor’s guilt. A survivor is not guilty of another person’s act. Sexual holiness calls for repentance from chosen wrongdoing and protection of the vulnerable, never abuse justified by religious language.

1 Corinthians 5:1-13 addresses a man living with his father’s wife. Paul calls the Church to mourn and exercise discipline with the person’s salvation in view; he does not command the Church to carry out Leviticus’ death penalty. The passage distinguishes those inside the Church from those outside, whom God judges. Christian correction belongs to truthful pastoral responsibility, not to a self-appointed campaign against other people’s lives.

Gems from the Fathers 💎: A law that restrains the hand

St. John Chrysostom, explaining the retaliation law in Matthew 5 rather than these particular Levitical penalties, describes the older law’s restraining purpose:

“And besides, He commanded this, not that we might strike out one another’s eyes, but that we might keep our hands to ourselves. For the threat of suffering has effectually restrained our inclination to be doing.”3

This is a thematic law-and-Gospel connection, not a direct explanation of each penalty in Leviticus 20. Chrysostom goes on to Christ’s demand for greater forbearance. Restraint forbids revenge; it never obliges an endangered person to remain exposed to violence or prevents seeking lawful protection.

Burning and the penalties involving beasts (Leviticus 20:14-16)

14 Whosoever shall take a woman and her mother, it is iniquity: they shall burn him and them with fire; so there shall not be iniquity among you. 15 And whosoever shall lie with a beast, let him die the death; and ye shall kill the beast. 16 And whatever woman shall approach any beast, so as to have connexion with it, ye shall kill the woman and the beast: let them die the death, they are guilty.

Verse 14 prohibits taking a woman and her mother and commands burning the man and the women with fire. Verses 15–16 command death for intercourse with a beast and also the killing of the animal. The enumeration is stark. It expresses the covenant law’s treatment of acts that violate the boundaries of kinship and sexual life. The animal’s death is stated, but the verse supplies no claim that an animal bears human moral responsibility.

Reading honestly requires neither softening these sentences nor reproducing them. No person today may invoke this passage to burn, kill, threaten, or organize violence against anyone. It cannot be used against victims of coercion or against someone merely accused. The Church’s task is to proclaim the Lord who calls sinners to repentance, protect those at risk, and refuse complicity in exploitation. The horror of the stated penalty should sober the reader’s treatment of sin; it must not become pleasure in another person’s suffering.

Destruction from the people and the flux of blood (Leviticus 20:17-18)

17 Whosoever shall take his sister by his father or by his mother, and shall see her nakedness, and she see his nakedness, it is a reproach: they shall be destroyed before the children of their family; he has uncovered his sister’s nakedness, they shall bear their sin. 18 And whatever man shall lie with a woman that is set apart for a flux, and shall uncover her nakedness, he has uncovered her fountain, and she has uncovered the flux of her blood: they shall both be destroyed from among their generation.

Intercourse between brother and sister is called a reproach, and the text says that they are to be destroyed before their family and bear their sin. Verse 18 then addresses intercourse with a woman set apart for a flux of blood and says that both are destroyed from among their generation. The penalty’s language differs from the explicit stoning in verses 2 and 27 and the burning in verse 14. It should be left as the text states it rather than assigned an unstated mechanism.

The law concerning the flux must not be turned into a claim that menstruation itself is chosen sin. The woman’s bodily condition and the act prohibited during that condition are different matters. Natural bodily processes do not make a person morally inferior. These ancient covenant provisions do not establish present Communion practice or a contemporary rule of marital discipline. The command concerning kinship likewise cannot be used to blame a child or adult abused within a family. Guilt belongs to the chosen wrongdoing, not to what an aggressor inflicts upon a person without consent.

Near kin and the judgment of childlessness (Leviticus 20:19-21)

19 And thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father’s sister, or of the sister of thy mother; for that man has uncovered the nakedness of one near akin: they shall bear their iniquity. 20 Whosoever shall lie with his near kinswoman, has uncovered the nakedness of one near akin to him: they shall die childless. 21 Whoever shall take his brother’s wife, it is uncleanness; he has uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall die childless.

The prohibition names the sister of one’s father or mother as near kin, then speaks of intercourse with a near kinswoman and taking one’s brother’s wife. Verse 19 says that they bear their iniquity; verses 20–21 say they shall die childless. These consequences must not be flattened into the death-by-stoning formula elsewhere in the chapter. Kinship imposes obligations that desire cannot abolish. The family is to be a place of faithfulness and protection, not a network of opportunities for possession.

The judgment of childlessness in these specified laws is not a general explanation of infertility. A couple without children must never be accused of hidden sexual wrongdoing on this basis. The passage identifies a penalty within particular covenant commands; it does not interpret every life in which a child has not come. Compassion, truthful counsel, and prayer belong with such suffering. Speculation about secret guilt adds a wound the text has given us no right to inflict.

The land and the customs Israel must refuse (Leviticus 20:22-24)

At verse 22 Brenton says that the land shall not be ‘aggrieved’; NKJV says it shall not vomit the people out. The study retains Brenton’s expression and its warning about life in the land.

22 And keep ye all my ordinances, and my judgments; and ye shall do them, and the land shall not be aggrieved with you, into which I bring you to dwell upon it. 23 And walk ye not in the customs of the nations which I drive out from before you; for they have done all these things, and I have abhorred them: 24 and I said to you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you for a possession, even a land flowing with milk and honey: I am the Lord your God, who have separated you from all people.

The call to keep all the ordinances gathers the preceding offenses into a whole manner of life. Israel must refuse the customs of the nations driven out, because the Lord abhors the wrongs named here. The promised land flows with milk and honey, but abundance is not a moral exemption. God’s gift calls the recipients to a different use of life within it. Separation is explicitly His action: He has distinguished this people from others.

Wisdom 12:10 describes judgment upon the former inhabitants by degrees, leaving a place for repentance. This is a thematic companion concerning judgment and divine patience, not a revision of Leviticus’ stated penalties. It helps prevent the reader from making holiness a taste for immediate destruction. 2 Corinthians 6:17 calls believers away from uncleanness into God’s welcome. Such separation concerns fidelity to God, not superiority of ancestry or contempt for neighbors. Leviticus 19:34 has already required love for the stranger as oneself.

Distinction and belonging to the Lord (Leviticus 20:25-26)

25 And ye shall make a distinction between the clean and the unclean cattle, and between clean and unclean birds; and ye shall not defile your souls with cattle, or with birds, or with any creeping things of the earth, which I have separated for you by reason of uncleanness. 26 And ye shall be holy to me; because I the Lord your God am holy, who separated you from all nations, to be mine.

The distinctions among cattle, birds, and creeping things belong to the covenant’s ordering of life. Israel must attend to what the Lord has separated for it by reason of uncleanness. This returns the reader to the categories of Leviticus 11 without turning every creature into a moral allegory. The final reason is personal: the people are to be holy to God, separated to be His.

1 Peter 2:9 calls the Church a holy nation whose vocation is to proclaim the praises of the One who called it from darkness. Titus 2:14 names Christ’s self-gift as the redemption and purification of a people zealous for good works. Belonging produces praise and deeds of goodness. It does not permit a baptized person to claim immunity from repentance, and it does not give that person authority to coerce someone else into conformity. The One who sanctifies forms a people who can refuse evil without refusing compassion.

The closing sentence against divining spirits (Leviticus 20:27)

27 And as for a man or woman whosoever of them shall have in them a divining spirit, or be an enchanter, let them both die the death: ye shall stone them with stones, they are guilty.

The chapter ends with an explicit death sentence by stoning for a man or woman with a divining spirit or practicing enchantment. Verse 6 had described following such practitioners; verse 27 addresses the practitioners themselves. The different subjects must not be confused. The chapter’s final words declare guilt rather than offering a neutral account of another religious preference.

The Christian response is a clear refusal of occult practices, repentance where one has sought them, and trust in Christ rather than attempts to command hidden powers. No execution, threat, harassment, or vigilante action follows from reading this verse today. Someone entangled in fear needs truthful pastoral help, not intimidation added to fear. The Lord’s holiness unmasks false sources of security, while His sanctifying mercy gives the person a way to return.

Spiritual Fruit 🍇

Refuse to overlook what harms another. Identify a situation where comfort or loyalty has made you unwilling to hear the truth. Seek appropriate help for the endangered person. Renounce revenge, but do not confuse peace with the silence that leaves someone exposed.

Pray for sanctification without pretending it is finished. Use the petition for the Name to be hallowed as an examination of your own conduct. Bring the chosen wrong honestly to confession, stop making arrangements that sustain it, and receive God’s mercy as the strength to begin again.

Carry holiness without contempt. Refuse a forbidden practice or an exploitative custom clearly. Speak to the person involved as someone who can repent and live, not as an object of disgust. A sober refusal is stronger than the anger that makes a performance of righteousness.

Stand in thought before the Lord’s words, ‘to be mine’. The One who claims you is the One who sanctifies you. Ask Him to remove the wish to excuse your own sin and the wish to punish another person’s. Let the next step be truthful repentance, patient mercy, and protection where someone is at risk.

Footnotes

  1. St. Cyprian of Carthage, On the Lord’s Prayer (Treatise 4), §12. R. E. Wallis, trans., ANF 5 (1886). Editorial Scripture-reference apparatus omitted from the quotation. Text. ↩

  2. Coptic Reader, Prayer of Absolution Addressed to the Father. Menu path: Clergy / Confession. Coptic Reader. ↩

  3. St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Matthew, Homily 18, opening exposition of Matthew 5:38–40. George Prevost, trans., M. B. Riddle, reviser, NPNF 1.10 (1888). Text. ↩

  4. Updated lectionary reference, @andraws/lectionary-data 1.3.1, annual, Holy Pascha, and special-service reverse entries for Leviticus 20. This scoped absence does not rule out every historical manuscript or local rite. Coptic Reader. ↩

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