Leviticus 19–20

Yahweh Is Holy

19Then^a Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ²“Speak to all the community of the Israelites,^b and say to them, ‘You^c must be holy, because I, Yahweh your^d God, am holy. ³Each of you must revere your mother^e and your father,^f and you^g must keep my Sabbaths; I am Yahweh your^h God. ⁴Youⁱ must not turn to idols, and you^j must not make for yourselves gods of cast metal; I am Yahweh your^k God.

⁵“ ‘And when you^l sacrifice a sacrifice of fellowship offerings to Yahweh, you^m must sacrifice it for yourⁿ acceptance. ⁶It must be eaten on the day of your^o sacrifice and the next day; but^p the remainder must be burned up in the fire by the third day. ⁷And if it is indeed eaten on the third day, it is unclean meat; it shall not be regarded as accepted. ⁸And the one who eats it shall bear his guilt, because he has profaned Yahweh’s holiness, and that person shall be cut off from his people.

Love Your Neighbor as Yourself

⁹“ ‘And at your^q reaping the harvest of your^r land you^s must not finish reaping the edge of your^t field, and you^u must not glean the remnants of your^v harvest. ¹⁰And you^w must not glean your^x vineyard, and you^y must not gather your^z vineyard’s fallen grapes; you^a must leave them behind for the needy and for the alien; I am Yahweh your^b God.

¹¹“ ‘You^c shall not steal, and you^d shall not deceive, and you^e shall not lie to one another;^{f 12}and you^g shall not swear falsely^h in my name, and so one of youⁱ profane^j the name of your^k God; I am Yahweh.

¹³“ ‘You^l shall not exploit your^m neighbor, and youⁿ shall not rob him; a hired worker’s wage you^o shall not withhold^p overnight until morning. ¹⁴You^q shall not curse the deaf, and you^r shall not put a stumbling block before^s a blind person, but^t you^u shall revere your^v God; I am Yahweh.

¹⁵“ ‘You^w shall not do injustice in judgment; you^x shall not show partiality to the powerless;^y you^z shall not give preference to the powerful;^a you^b shall judge your^c fellow citizen with justice. ¹⁶You^d shall not go about with slander among your^e people; you^f shall not endanger your^g neighbor’s life;^h I am Yahweh.

¹⁷“ ‘Youⁱ shall not hate your^j brother in your^k heart; you^l shall surely rebuke your^m fellow citizen, so that youⁿ do not incur sin along with^o him. ¹⁸You^p shall not seek vengeance, and you^q shall not harbor a grudge against your^r fellow citizens;^s and you^t shall love your^u neighbor like yourself; ^v I am Yahweh.

You Shall Keep My Statutes

¹⁹“ ‘You^w must keep my statutes: as for your^x domestic animals, you^y shall not cause two differing kinds to breed; as for your^z field, you^a shall not sow two differing kinds of seed; and, a garment of two differing kinds of woven material should not be worn on you.^b

²⁰“ ‘And when a man lies with a woman and there is an emission of semen and she is a female slave promised to a man, but^c she indeed has not been ransomed or freedom has not been given to her, there shall be an obligation to compensate; they shall not be put to death, because she has not been freed. ²¹And he shall bring his guilt offering to Yahweh at the tent of assembly’s entrance: a ram for a guilt offering. ²²And the priest shall make atonement for him before^d Yahweh with the ram of the guilt offering for his sin that he committed,^e and so his sin that he committed^f shall be forgiven him.

²³“ ‘And when you^g have come into the land and you^h plant any tree forⁱ food, you^j shall regard its fruit as unharvestable;^k for three years it shall be forbidden for you; ^l it shall not be eaten. ²⁴But^m in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy, offerings of praise for Yahweh. ²⁵And in the fifth year youⁿ shall eat its fruit to increase its yield for you; ^o I am Yahweh your^p God.

²⁶“ ‘You^q must not eat anything with the blood; you^r shall not practice divination, nor shall you^s interpret signs. ²⁷You^t shall not round off the corner hair of your^u head, and you^v shall not trim the corner of your^w beard. ²⁸And you^x shall not make a slash in your^y body for a dead person, nor shall you^z make on yourselves a tattoo’s mark; I am Yahweh.

²⁹“ ‘You^a shall not profane your^b daughter by making her a prostitute, lest the land be prostituted and the land fill up with depravity.^{c 30}You^d shall keep my Sabbaths, and you^e shall revere my sanctuary; I am Yahweh.

³¹“ ‘You^f shall not turn to the mediums and to the soothsayers; you^g shall not seek them to become unclean with them; I am Yahweh your^h God.

³²“ ‘Beforeⁱ old age you^j shall get up, and you^k shall show respect for an old person; and you^l shall revere your God; I am Yahweh.

³³“ ‘And when an alien dwells with you^m in yourⁿ land, you^o shall not oppress him. ³⁴The alien who is dwelling with you^p shall be like a native among you,^q and you^r shall love him like yourself, ^s because you^t were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am Yahweh your^u God.

³⁵“ ‘You^v shall not commit injustice in regulation, in measurement, in weight, or^w volume. ³⁶You^x must have honest balances, honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin; I am Yahweh your^y God who brought you^z out from the land of Egypt.

³⁷“ ‘Thus you^a shall keep all my statutes and all my regulations, and you^b shall do them; I am Yahweh.’ ”

Molech Worship and Spiritism

20Then^a Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ²“And to the Israelites^b you shall say, ‘If there is anyone^c from the Israelites^d or^e from the alien who is dwelling in Israel, who gives any of^f his offspring to Molech, he must surely be put to death; the people of the land must stone him with stones.^{g 3}And I myself will set my face against that man, and I will cut him off from the midst of his people, because he has given some of^h his offspring to Molech, so that he makes my sanctuary uncleanⁱ and profanes^j my holy name.^{k 4}And if the people of the land ever shut their eyes from^l that man at his giving some of^m his offspring to Molech, not putting him to death, ⁵thenⁿ I myself will set my face against that man and against his clan, and I will cut him off and all those from the midst of their people who prostitute after Molech. ⁶As for^o the person who turns to the mediums and the soothsayers to prostitute after them, I will set^p my face against that person, and I will cut him off from the midst of his people.

⁷“ ‘And you shall consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy, because I am Yahweh your God. ⁸And you shall keep my statutes, and you shall do them; I am Yahweh who consecrates you.

Family and Sexual Offenses

⁹“ ‘If there is anyone^q who curses his father or his mother, he shall surely be put to death; he has cursed his father and his mother—his blood is upon him.

¹⁰“ ‘As for^r a man who commits adultery with a man’s wife, who commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, both the man who commits adultery and the woman who commits adultery shall surely be put to death. ¹¹As for^s a man who lies with his father’s wife, he has exposed his father’s nakedness; both of them shall be put to death—their blood is on them. ¹²As for^t a man who lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall be put to death; they have committed a perversion—their blood is on them.

¹³“ ‘As for^u the man who lies with a male as lying with a woman, they have committed a detestable thing; they shall surely be put to death—their blood is on them.

¹⁴“ ‘As for^v a man who marries a woman and her mother, that is depravity; they shall burn him and them, so that it shall not become depravity in the midst of you all.

¹⁵“ ‘As for^w a man who has sexual relations^x with an animal, he shall surely be put to death, and you must kill the animal. ¹⁶As for^y a woman who approaches any animal to copulate with it, you shall kill^z the woman and the animal; they shall surely be put to death—their blood is on them.

¹⁷“ ‘As for^a a man who takes his sister, his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter, and he sees her nakedness and she herself sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace, and they shall be cut off before^b the eyes of their people;^c he has exposed his sister’s nakedness—he must bear his guilt. ¹⁸As for^d a man who lies with a menstruating woman, he exposes^e her nakedness—her source he exposes and she herself reveals her blood’s source—both of them shall be cut off from the midst of their people. ¹⁹And you shall not expose the nakedness of your mother’s sister, and you shall not expose your father’s sister, because such a person^f has dishonored his close relative—they must bear their guilt. ²⁰As for^g a man who lies with his aunt, he has exposed his uncle’s nakedness—they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless. ²¹As for^h a man who marries his brother’s wife, it is an abomination; he has exposed his brother’s nakedness—they shall be childless.

You Shall Be Holy

²²“ ‘And you shall keep all my statutes and all my regulations, and you shall do them, so thatⁱ the land, to which I am bringing you to inhabit it, shall not vomit you out. ²³And you shall not follow the statutes of the nation that I am driving out from before you,^j because they did all these things, and I detested them. ²⁴So^k I said to you, “You yourselves shall take possession of their land, and I myself shall give it to you to possess it—a land flowing with milk and honey”; I am Yahweh your God, who has set you apart^l from the nations. ²⁵And you shall distinguish between the clean and the unclean animal and between the unclean and the clean bird; and you shall not defile yourselves with the animal or^m with the bird orⁿ with anything that moves along the ground that I have set apart for you as unclean.^{o 26}And you shall be holy for me, because I, Yahweh, am holy, and I have singled you out from the nations to be mine.

²⁷“ ‘And a man or a woman, if a spirit of the dead or a spirit of divination is in them, they shall surely be put to death; they shall stone them with stones^p—their blood is on them.’ ”