Any of the people of Israel, or of the aliens who reside in Israel, who give any of their off-spring to Molech shall be put to death; the people of the land shall stone them to death. 3I myself will set my face against them, and will cut them off from the people, because they have given of their offspring to Molech, defiling my sanctuary and profaning my holy name. 4And if the people of the land should ever close their eyes to them, when they give of their offspring to Molech, and do not put them to death, 5I myself will set my face against them and against their family, and will cut them off from among their people, them and all who follow them in prostituting themselves to Molech.
6If any turn to mediums and wizards, prostituting themselves to them, I will set my face against them, and will cut them off from the people. 7Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am the LORD your God. 8Keep my statutes, and observe them; I am the LORD; I sanctify you. 9All who curse father or mother shall be put to death; having cursed father or mother, their blood is upon them.
10If a man commits adultery with the wife ofa his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death. 11The man who lies with his father’s wife has uncovered his father’s nakedness; both of them shall be put to death; their blood is upon them. 12If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall be put to death; they have committed perversion, their blood is upon them. 13If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them. 14If a man takes a wife and her mother also, it is depravity; they shall be burned to death, both he and they, that there may be no depravity among you. 15If a man has sexual relations with an animal, he shall be put to death; and you shall kill the animal. 16If a woman approaches any animal and has sexual relations with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they shall be put to death, their blood is upon them.
17If 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 their people; he has uncovered his sister’s nakedness, he shall be subject to punishment. 18If a man lies with a woman having her sickness and uncovers her nakedness, he has laid bare her flow and she has laid bare her flow of blood; both of them shall be cut off from their people. 19You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister or of your father’s sister, for that is to lay bare one’s own flesh; they shall be subject to punishment. 20If a man lies with his uncle’s wife, he has uncovered his uncle’s nakedness; they shall be subject to punishment; they shall die childless. 21If a man takes his brother’s wife, it is impurity; he has uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless.
22You shall keep all my statutes and all my ordinances, and observe them, so that the land to which I bring you to settle in may not vomit you out. 23You shall not follow the practices of the nation that I am driving out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them. 24But I have said to you: You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the LORD your God; I have separated you from the peoples. 25You shall therefore make a distinction between the clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean bird and the clean; you shall not bring abomination on yourselves by animal or by bird or by anything with which the ground teems, which I have set apart for you to hold unclean. 26You shall be holy to me; for I the LORD am holy, and I have separated you from the other peoples to be mine.
27A man or a woman who is a medium or a wizard shall be put to death; they shall be stoned to death, their blood is upon them.
next chapter
* * *
a Heb repeats if a man commits adultery with the wife of
20.1–27 The penalties for illicit sexual relations are graded according to their severity: vv. 10–16, death by humans; vv. 17–19, death by God; vv. 20–21, childlessness. Of illicit worship of God, only Molech worship and oracles through mediums are singled out, the former because of its monstrousness and the latter because of its prevalence (Deut 18.9–12; 1 Sam 28.9; Isa 8.19). The absence of the lofty pronouncements of ch. 19 from this list is mute evidence that ethics are really unenforceable.
20.2 Since aliens reside in the Lord’s land, they are required to observe all the prohibitive commandments (see 17.8, 10). The Molech cult is expressly mentioned in 18.21; 20.2–5; 2 Kings 23.10; Jer 32.35 and alluded to in Isa 57.9; Jer 7.31; 19.5. Though the Leviticus texts use the ambiguous verbs “give” and “pass over” (alternate translation of “give” in 18.21), other references explicitly use the verb “burn” (Jer 7.31; 19.5; cf. 32.35; Isa 30.33). The reason this prohibition is set among the sexual offenses (note the sexual imagery in v. 5) is that it (and, indeed, all idolatry) was regarded as spiritual adultery (Ex 34.15–16; cf. Jer 3). Molech is probably identical with the Canaanite god mlk, who in Akkadian sources is called Malik and is equated with the underworld god Nergal. The sacrifices to Molech were offered in the Valley of Hinnom, just outside Jerusalem (2 Kings 23.10; cf. Jer 7.31; 32.35).
20.3 Defiling my sanctuary. Since Molech worship was practiced just beneath the Temple Mount in the Valley of Hinnom (Jer 32.35), it was feasible to worship at both sites the same day (Ezek 23.32–39), an indication that its devotees felt that its worship was compatible with the worship of and, indeed, demanded by the Lord.
20.5 Them, i.e., the Molech worshipers. Their family. The family may have protected them.
20.5–6 People, better “(deceased) kin.” The Lord imposes a measure-for-measure punishment: he cuts off from ancestral spirits the one who tries to placate them.
20.6 It is no accident that this prohibition against turning to mediums and wizards (for the purpose of consulting the ancestral spirits; see 19.26) is cojoined with the Molech prohibition. Both are directed against chthonic worship, which especially prevailed in Judah at the end of the eighth and beginning of the seventh century BCE. The Judean kings of this period, Ahaz and Manasseh, are accused of practicing Molech worship (2 Kings 16.3; 21.6), and Isaiah (eighth century) reports the resort to mediums and wizards (19.3 explicitly mentions its goal: “[to] consult…the spirits of the dead”)—further indication that the Holiness source (H) originates from this period.
20.8 I am the LORD; I sanctify you, or “I, the LORD, sanctify you.” Israel acquires holiness by observing the commandments (22.32; cf. Ex 31.13; Ezek 20.12; 37.28).
20.9 Curse, perhaps “insult, dishonor” (see Ex 21.17; Prov 20.20; Mt 15.4; Mk 7.10). Their blood is upon them, i.e., their executioner need not fear that their blood will be “on his head” (see Josh 2.14; 2 Sam 1.16; 1 Kings 2.37), namely, that God will hold him responsible for spilling their blood.
20.10 If a man…neighbor. The specification “his neighbor” limits the penalty to Israelites. Though adultery is listed last among the illicit heterosexual relations (18.20), it is first when it comes to these penalties since it concerns not only private morality but the stability and welfare of the community.
20.11 His father’s wife. His mother is assumed (18.7–8).
20.12 See 18.15.
20.13 See 18.22.
20.14 Takes, in marriage or by common consent. See 18.17.
20.15–16 See 18.23.
20.15 Kill the animal, which has also sinned (cf. Ex 21.28–29).
20.17 See 18.9. Sees her nakedness…sees his nakedness, a willful act. Subject to punishment, probably excision.
20.18 Sickness, not just menstruation but any genital flow (15.25, 33), an expansion of 18.19.
20.19 See 18.12–13. One’s own flesh, actually “the flesh of one’s flesh.”
20.20 See 18.14.
20.21 A rejection of the levirate (Deut 25.5), whereby the name of the deceased husband is preserved through the progeny born of his wife and his brother. Childless. Once again, the divine measure-for-measure punishment is manifest: his wish to have a child from his brother’s widow will be denied.
20.24
Honey, date syrup (Deut 8.8).
20.25 Making distinctions between the animals that form one’s diet teaches one to make distinctions in human contact.
20.27 Is a medium, lit. “has inside him an ancestral spirit.” An appendix. Whereas those who consult mediums are punished by God (v. 6), the mediums themselves are put to death by people.
LEVITICUS 21
The Holiness of Priests
1The LORD said to Moses: Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them:
No one shall defile himself for a dead person among his relatives, 2except for his nearest kin: his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother; 3likewise, for a virgin sister, close to him because she has had no husband, he may defile himself for her. 4But he shall not defile himself as a husband among his people and so profane himself. 5They shall not make bald spots upon their heads, or shave off the edges of their beards, or make any gashes in their flesh. 6They shall be holy to their God, and not profane the name of their God; for they offer the LORD’s offerings by fire, the food of their God; therefore they shall be holy. 7They shall not marry a prostitute or a woman who has been defiled; neither shall they marry a woman divorced from her husband. For they are holy to their God, 8and you shall treat them as holy, since they offer the food of your God; they shall be holy to you, for I the LORD, I who sanctify you, am holy. 9When the daughter of a priest profanes herself through prostitution, she profanes her father; she shall be burned to death.
10The priest who is exalted above his fellows, on whose head the anointing oil has been poured and who has been consecrated to wear the vestments, shall not dishevel his hair, nor tear his vestments. 11He shall not go where there is a dead body; he shall not defile himself even for his father or mother. 12He shall not go outside the sanctuary and thus profane the sanctuary of his God; for the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is upon him: I am the LORD. 13He shall marry only a woman who is a virgin. 14A widow, or a divorced woman, or a woman who has been defiled, a prostitute, these he shall not marry. He shall marry a virgin of his own kin, 15that he may not profane his offspring among his kin; for I am the LORD; I sanctify him.
16The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 17Speak to Aaron and say: No one of your offspring throughout their generations who has a blemish may approach to offer the food of his God. 18For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, one who is blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face or a limb too long, 19or one who has a broken foot or a broken hand, 20or a hunchback, or a dwarf, or a man with a blemish in his eyes or an itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles. 21No descendant of Aaron the priest who has a blemish shall come near to offer the LORD’s offerings by fire; since he has a blemish, he shall not come near to offer the food of his God. 22He may eat the food of his God, of the most holy as well as of the holy. 23But he shall not come near the curtain or approach the altar, because he has a blemish, that he may not profane my sanctuaries; for I am the LORD; I sanctify them. 24Thus Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons and to all the people of Israel.
next chapter
* * *
21.1–22.33 Restrictions are placed upon the priests to guard against moral and ritual defilement, which might entail dire consequences for them and the people (22.9, 15–16; cf. 4.3; 15.31). Disqualifications of sacrifices are also enumerated (22.21–24). Ritual impurity stems from these sources: certain scale diseases (see chs. 13–14), genital fluxes, both male and female (see ch. 15), and carcasses (see ch. 11) or corpses (Num 19, a knowledge of which is presumed here). Contamination by corpses is the most severe of the ritual impurities because a person becomes contaminated merely by being under the same roof as a corpse (Num 19.14) and because the impurity lasts for seven days (Num 19.14, 16) and can only be eliminated by the unique rite of being aspersed with the ashes of a red cow (Num 19.17–19). There is no prohibition against coming in contact with a corpse (it is assumed that one may, and indeed should, bury the dead). The only restriction is that the purificatory rite may not be overlooked or even delayed (Num 19.13, 19). This allowance, however, does not hold for a priest. He is holy, and the contact between holiness and impurity not only is forbidden; it is lethal (see 7.20–21; 22.9). Thus, the permission given to priests to bury their closest blood relatives (their nuclear family; 21.1–4) constitutes a concession.
21.4 People, rather “kin” (see 20.5–6), implying that the priest may not defile himself for the burial of his wife or any of her relatives. If, however, the words as a husband are deleted (a possible dittography of the following word), then the prohibition repeats and forms an inclusio with v. 1, a structure repeated in vv. 17b, 21 (in an inclusio, the beginning and end repeat each other, thereby signaling a structural unit).
21.5 These mourning rites are also forbidden to Israelites (19.27–28).
21.7 Woman…defiled, probably raped, which carries no stigma for her if she is the daughter of a layman (Deut 22.28–29; cf. Lev 21.9). Divorced, but not a widow; the criterion is reputation.
21.8 Treat them as holy, by seeing to it that your daughters qualify as their wives (vv. 7, 9). Sanctify you. One may read “sanctify them” with Septuagint, the Samaritan Pentateuch, and a Dead Sea Scroll fragment of Leviticus written in the old Hebrew alphabet (11QpaleoLev).
21.9 She profanes her father, just as a wife’s character reflects on her husband (v. 7).
21.10 The priest…his fellows, i.e., the high priest, may not engage even in permitted mourning rites.
21.11 Sight of a corpse also contaminates a high priest.
21.12 He may not leave the sanctuary to follow the bier (see 10.7).
21.13 Since he is appointed during the lifetime of his father (6.22; 16.32), he could be young and unmarried.
21.17, 21 Approach…come near, more precisely “qualify.”
21.23 Near the curtain, i.e., officiate, the prerogative only of the high priest. My sanctuaries, literally, “my holy things.” I sanctify them. Though the priests are invariably holy, their sanctity is enhanced by their observance of these prohibitions.
LEVITICUS 22
The Use of Holy Offerings
1The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 2Direct Aaron and his sons to deal carefully with the sacred donations of the people of Israel, which they dedicate to me, so that they may not profane my holy name; I am the LORD. 3Say to them: If anyone among all your offspring throughout your generations comes near the sacred donations, which the people of Israel dedicate to the LORD, while he is in a state of uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from my presence: I am the LORD. 4No one of Aaron’s offspring who has a leprousg disease or suffers a discharge may eat of the sacred donations until he is clean. Whoever touches anything made unclean by a corpse or a man who has had an emission of semen, 5and whoever touches any swarming thing by which he may be made unclean or any human being by whom he may be made unclean—whatever his uncleanness may be—6the person who touches any such shall be unclean until evening and shall not eat of the sacred donations unless he has washed his body in water. 7When the sun sets he shall be clean; and afterward he may eat of the sacred donations, for they are his food. 8That which died or was torn by wild animals he shall not eat, becoming unclean by it: I am the LORD. 9They shall keep my charge, so that they may not incur guilt and die in the sanctuaryh for having profaned it: I am the LORD; I sanctify them.
10No lay person shall eat of the sacred donations. No bound or hired servant of the priest shall eat of the sacred donations; 11but if a priest acquires anyone by purchase, the person may eat of them; and those that are born in his house may eat of his food. 12If a priest’s daughter marries a layman, she shall not eat of the offering of the sacred donations; 13but if a priest’s daughter is widowed or divorced, without offspring, and returns to her father’s house, as in her youth, she may eat of her father’s food. No lay person shall eat of it. 14If a man eats of the sacred donation unintentionally, he shall add one-fifth of its value to it, and give the sacred donation to the priest. 15No one shall profane t
he sacred donations of the people of Israel, which they offer to the LORD, 16causing them to bear guilt requiring a guilt offering, by eating their sacred donations: for I am the LORD; I sanctify them.
Acceptable Offerings
17The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 18Speak to Aaron and his sons and all the people of Israel and say to them: When anyone of the house of Israel or of the aliens residing in Israel presents an offering, whether in payment of a vow or as a freewill offering that is offered to the LORD as a burnt offering, 19to be acceptable in your behalf it shall be a male without blemish, of the cattle or the sheep or the goats. 20You shall not offer anything that has a blemish, for it will not be acceptable in your behalf.
21When anyone offers a sacrifice of well-being to the LORD, in fulfillment of a vow or as a freewill offering, from the herd or from the flock, to be acceptable it must be perfect; there shall be no blemish in it. 22Anything blind, or injured, or maimed, or having a discharge or an itch or scabs—these you shall not offer to the LORD or put any of them on the altar as offerings by fire to the LORD. 23An ox or a lamb that has a limb too long or too short you may present for a freewill offering; but it will not be accepted for a vow. 24Any animal that has its testicles bruised or crushed or torn or cut, you shall not offer to the LORD; such you shall not do within your land, 25nor shall you accept any such animals from a foreigner to offer as food to your God; since they are mutilated, with a blemish in them, they shall not be accepted in your behalf.
26The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 27When an ox or a sheep or a goat is born, it shall remain seven days with its mother, and from the eighth day on it shall be acceptable as the LORD’s offering by fire. 28But you shall not slaughter, from the herd or the flock, an animal with its young on the same day. 29When you sacrifice a thanksgiving offering to the LORD, you shall sacrifice it so that it may be acceptable in your behalf. 30It shall be eaten on the same day; you shall not leave any of it until morning: I am the LORD.
HarperCollins Study Bible Page 60
