The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible
Punishments for Disobedience
Leviticus 20:1–9 — Punishments for Disobedience. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
1Then the LORD said to Moses,
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
Yah·weh way·ḏab·bêr ’el- mō·šeh lê·mōr
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And spoke Yahweh to Moses, saying:
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It may, however, be that before enacting these severe punishments, the Lawgiver wanted to appeal to the high calling of the nation, to qualify them by the sublime precepts laid down in Leviticus 19 for obedience to the laws in Leviticus 18, and that in the chapter before us the civil punishments are set forth as an alternative for those who will not be guided by the spiritual sentiments enunciated in Leviticus 19.Ellicott's answer to why chapter 20 follows 19, not 18 — the penalties come after the appeal to holiness, as the recourse for those the appeal fails to reach.
The crimes which are condemned in Leviticus 18 ; 19 on purely spiritual ground, have here special punishments allotted to them as offences against the well-being of the nation.
After he had delivered the above laws to him in the preceding chapter, he added penalties, to many of them, or declared what punishment should be inflicted on the transgressors of them
The list commences with idolatry and soothsaying, which were to be followed by extermination, as a practical apostasy from Jehovah, and a manifest breach of the covenant.
2“Tell the Israelites, ‘Any Israelite or foreigner living in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech must be put to death. The people of the land are to stone him.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
tō·mar wə·’el- bə·nê yiś·rå̄·ʾēl ’îš ’îš mib·bə·nê yiś·rā·’êl ū·min- hag·gêr hag·gār bə·yiś·rā·’êl ’ă·šer yit·tên miz·zar·‘ōw lam·mō·leḵ mō·wṯ yū·māṯ ‘am hā·’ā·reṣ yir·gə·mu·hū ḇā·’ā·ḇen
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And to the-sons-of Israel you-shall-say: Any man, any-man of the-sons-of Israel or of the-foreigner sojourning in-Israel, who gives of-his-seed to-the-Molech — dying he-shall-die; the-people-of the-land shall-stone him with-stone.
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Molech, literally, "the King", called also Moloch, Milcom, and Malcham, was known in later times as "the abomination of the Ammonites" 1 Kings 11:5 . He appears to have been the fire-god of the eastern nations; related to, and sometimes made identical with, Baal, the sun-god.
Lapidation was the first and the severest mode of capital punishment among the Hebrews, the three others being burning, beheading, and strangling.Ellicott's long note tabulates the eighteen capital cases and the second-Temple ritual of stoning, then ties it to John 8 and the crucifixion.
The strangers; not only such as were proselytes, but all others, these being gross immoralities, and such as the precepts of Noah reached to, and such as the laws of nature and nations obliged them to.
בּאבן רגם, lapide obruere, is synonymous with סקל, lit., lapidem jacere: this was the usual punishment appointed in the law for cases in which death was inflicted, either as the result of a judicial sentence, or by the national community.
The criminal, being placed on the edge of the precipice, was then pushed backwards, so that he fell down the perpendicular height on the stone lying below: if not killed by the fall, the second witness dashed a large stone down upon his breast, and then the "people of the land," who were by-standers, rushed forward, and with stones completed the work of death (Mt 21:44; Ac 7:58).JFB's reconstruction of the second-Temple stoning ritual; the closing cross-references (Acts 7:58, the stoning of Stephen) are what ground the note that this congregational mode reaches into the Gospels and Acts.
3And I will set My face against that man and cut him off from his people, because by giving his offspring to Molech, he has defiled My sanctuary and profaned My holy name.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wa·’ă·nî ’et·tên ’eṯ- pā·nay ha·hū bā·’îš wə·hiḵ·rat·tî ’ō·ṯōw miq·qe·reḇ ‘am·mōw kî nā·ṯan miz·zar·‘ōw lam·mō·leḵ lə·ma·‘an ṭam·mê ’eṯ- miq·dā·šî ū·lə·ḥal·lêl ’eṯ- qāḏ·šî šêm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-I, I-will-set my-face against that man, and-I-will-cut-him-off from the-midst-of his-people, because of-his-seed he-gave to-the-Molech, so-as to-defile my-sanctuary and-to-profane my-holy name.
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According to the administrators of the law during the second Temple, however, the legislator supposes a case where the man has been actually guilty of the crime, and that there has not been a sufficient amount of evidence to convict him. In that case God himself would interpose and cut the offender off.
I will set my face against that man — Deal with him as an enemy, and make him a monument of my justice.
He would cut off such a man (see at Leviticus 17:10 and Leviticus 18:21 ) for having defiled the sanctuary of Jehovah and desecrated the name of Jehovah, not because he had brought the sacrifice to Moloch into the sanctuary of Jehovah, as Movers supposes, but in the same sense in which all the sins of Israel defiled the sanctuary in their midst
The close connection between giving of his seed unto Molech and defiling my sanctuary , and profaning my holy name , is explained and illustrated by Ezekiel in the judgment on Aholah and Aholibah.Drawn from the Pulpit comment on vv. 2–3, which it treats together; it supplies the Ezekiel 23:37–39 link that grounds the thread below.
4And if the people of the land ever hide their eyes and fail to put to death the man who gives one of his children to Molech,
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·’im ‘am hā·’ā·reṣ ’eṯ- ha‘·lêm ya‘·lî·mū ‘ê·nê·hem lə·ḇil·tî hā·mîṯ ’ō·ṯōw min- hā·’îš ha·hū bə·ṯit·tōw miz·zar·‘ōw lam·mō·leḵ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-if hiding they-hide the-people-of the-land their-eyes from that man, in-his-giving of-his-seed to-the-Molech, so-as-not to-put-to-death him —
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In the former verse the Legislator treated of cases where there was insufficient evidence. Here he declares what God would do if the community itself, whose duty it is to execute the sentence, either from culpable indifference or criminal sympathy with the sin, connive at it.
Hide their eyes — Wink at his fault, and forbear to accuse and punish him.
hide their eyes ] i.e. disregard. For the expression in this sense cp. Proverbs 28:27 ; Isaiah 1:15 .
In the case of Molech-worship God declares that, if the tribunals of the nation fail to adjudge the penalty of death to the offender, he will himself lake the matter into his hands, and cut him off with his family and all that follow him in his sin of unfaithfulness.The Pulpit note covers vv. 4–5 together; the bracketed “lake” is a printed typo for “take” in the source, left verbatim.
Though the people be negligent to do their duty, and defend God's right, yet he will not allow wickedness to go unpunished.The Geneva marginal gloss on v. 4 — the earliest (1599) voice in the unit — states the principle the prose commentators unfold: communal connivance does not cancel divine justice, it only transfers the enforcement to God.
5then I will set My face against that man and his family and cut off from among their people both him and all who follow him in prostituting themselves with Molech.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
’ă·nî ’eṯ- wə·śam·tî pā·nay ha·hū bā·’îš ū·ḇə·miš·paḥ·tōw wə·hiḵ·rat·tî ’ō·ṯōw wə·’êṯ miq·qe·reḇ ‘am·mām kāl- ’a·ḥă·rāw haz·zō·nîm liz·nō·wṯ ’a·ḥă·rê ham·mō·leḵ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
then-I, I-will-set my-face against that man and-against his-family, and-I-will-cut-off him and all who-go-a-whoring after him to-whore after the-Molech, from the-midst-of their-people.
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And against his family. —Because they would naturally be privy to it, and aid and abet the father in this crime, they, as well as all those who joined in this idolatrous worship, will be cut off by God himself.
Against his family, i.e. either, 1. His posterity, whom God threatened to punish for their father’s idolatry, Exo 20 . Or, 2. His people, as that word is used, Jeremiah 8:3 Micah 2:3 , to wit, the people of that land, who by their connivance make themselves guilty of his sin, Leviticus 20:4 . Or, 3. His disciples and followers, who are oft called the sons or children of their masters.Poole's three readings of mishpâchâh — the divergence note above turns on this.
for since God had espoused these people to himself, and was their husband, as he was from the time of his bringing them out of Egypt, and making a covenant with them, Jeremiah 31:32 ; and their sacrificing to and serving other gods being a breach of their matrimonial covenant with him, it was no other than whoredom in a spiritual sense, for which he threatens to cut them off
6Whoever turns to mediums or spiritists to prostitute himself with them, I will also set My face against that person and cut him off from his people.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·han·ne·p̄eš ’ă·šer tip̄·neh ’el- hā·’ō·ḇōṯ wə·’el- hay·yid·də·‘ō·nîm liz·nō·wṯ ’a·ḥă·rê·hem wə·nā·ṯat·tî ’eṯ- pā·nay ban·ne·p̄eš ha·hi·w wə·hiḵ·rat·tî ’ō·ṯōw miq·qe·reḇ ‘am·mōw
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-the-soul who turns to the-mediums and-to the-spiritists, to-whore after them — then-I-will-set my-face against that soul, and-I-will-cut-him-off from the-midst-of his-people.
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The same punishment will be visited upon the man who consults necromancers. For the nature of this sin, see Leviticus 19:31 , and for the execution of this sentence see 1Chronicles 10:13-14 . The soothsayers themselves were stoned to death by the community. (See Leviticus 20:27 .)
to go a whoring after them; for to consult them is to forsake the Lord, and have recourse to Satan and his instruments; to relinquish their trust in God, and put confidence in them, and attribute such things to them as only belong to God, even the knowledge of things future; and this is to commit idolatry, which is spiritual adultery
He would also do the same to every soul that turned to familiar spirits and necromantists ( Leviticus 19:31 , cf. Exodus 22:17 ), "to go a whoring after them," i.e., to make himself guilty of idolatry by so doing, such practices being always closely connected with idolatry.
7Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, because I am the LORD your God.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·hiṯ·qad·diš·tem wih·yî·ṯem qə·ḏō·šîm kî ’ă·nî Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·hê·ḵem
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-you-shall-consecrate-yourselves, and-you-shall-be holy; for I [am] Yahweh your-God.
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It is only by keeping the Divine ordinances that the Israelites will attain to that state of holiness which will not only arm them to resist the abominable rites and idolatrous practices denounced in the foregoing verses, but which will enable them to reflect the holiness of their Lord.
In the midst of these laws comes in a general charge, Sanctify yourselves, and be ye holy. It is the Lord that sanctifies, and his work will be done, though it be difficult. Yet his grace is so far from doing away our endeavours, that it strongly encourages them. Work out your salvation, for it is God that worketh in you.Henry's one comment spans 20:1–9; placed at v. 7, the hinge where command interrupts penalty.
A positive command, Sanctify yourselves therefore, and he ye holy: for I am the Lord your God , is introduced early in the list of penalties to show what is the main purpose of the latter.The Pulpit's “he ye holy” reproduces the AV/printed reading of the source verbatim.
8And you shall keep My statutes and practice them. I am the LORD who sanctifies you.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
ū·šə·mar·tem ’eṯ- ḥuq·qō·ṯay wa·‘ă·śî·ṯem ’ō·ṯām ’ă·nî Yah·weh mə·qad·diš·ḵem
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-you-shall-keep my-statutes and-you-shall-do them. I [am] Yahweh who-sanctifies-you.
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Who sanctify you — Who separate you from all nations, and from their impurities and idolatries, to be a peculiar people to myself; and who give you my grace to keep my statutes.
Or the argument is this, Those idols and idolatries will defile you and make you worse, but I only and my service will sanctify you and make you better.
I am the Lord which sanctify you: who had separated and distinguished them from all other people on earth, and who had given them holy laws, as the means of holiness; and who only could and did sanctify internally, by his Spirit and grace, such or them as were sanctified in heart, as well as outwardly.
For the Israelites were to sanctify themselves, i.e., to keep themselves pure from all idolatrous abominations, to be holy because Jehovah was holy ( Leviticus 11:44 ; Leviticus 19:2 ), and to keep the statutes of their God who sanctified them ( Exodus 31:13 ).
9If anyone curses his father or mother, he must be put to death. He has cursed his father or mother; his blood shall be upon him.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
kî- ’îš ’îš ’ă·šer yə·qal·lêl ’eṯ- ’ā·ḇîw wə·’eṯ- ’im·mōw mō·wṯ yū·māṯ qil·lêl ’ā·ḇîw wə·’im·mōw dā·māw bōw
Literal — word-for-word from the original
For any man, any-man who curses his-father and his-mother — dying he-shall-die; his-father and-his-mother he-has-cursed — his-blood [is] upon-him.
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they enacted that the child only incurred the penalty of death when he used the ineffable name God when cursing his parent, who was either alive or dead, and that if he used an attribute of the Deity, such as Almighty, the Merciful, &c, he was simply to be beaten with stripes.
Curseth — This is not here meant of every perverse expression, but of bitter reproaches or imprecations. His blood shall be upon him — He is guilty of his own death: he deserves to die for so unnatural a crime.
The penalty of death is here assigned for cursing a parent, as in Exodus 21:17 . In both places Targ. Ps-Jon. gives the traditional interpretation that when the sacred Name is mentioned in connexion with the cursing, the penalty of death is incurred. The words ‘his (their) blood shall be upon him (them)’ occur in this ch. and in Ezekiel 18:13 ; Ezekiel 33:5 ; cp. Joshua 2:19 ; Ezekiel 33:4 .
God says that a man who curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death. Human authority, incontrovertible throughout a great part of Christendom, declares that in most cases it is no grave sin.The Pulpit reads v. 9 against Christ's charge that tradition makes God's word of none effect (Mark 7:9–13) — the spine of the Christ section.
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
The unit opens with the bare formula way·ḏab·bêr Yah·weh ’el-mō·šeh lê·mōr — “And Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying” — but the question every classical commentator asks is why here? ⚙ The same sins were forbidden in chapter 18; chapter 19 raised the moral calling; now chapter 20 attaches the penalties. Barnes states it cleanly: “The crimes which are condemned in Leviticus 18 ; 19 on purely spiritual ground, have here special punishments allotted to them as offences against the well-being of the nation.” Ellicott proposes the order is deliberate: the Lawgiver first “wanted to appeal to the high calling of the nation… and that in the chapter before us the civil punishments are set forth as an alternative for those who will not be guided by the spiritual sentiments enunciated in Leviticus 19.” Gill makes the seam concrete — after the laws of 19, God “added penalties… or declared what punishment should be inflicted on the transgressors of them.” Keil names the gravity: the list begins with idolatry and soothsaying as “a practical apostasy from Jehovah, and a manifest breach of the covenant.” ⚙ So the literary movement is law-becoming-sanction: precept first, then the price.
The first and gravest case is Molech-sacrifice. The Hebrew is visceral: a man who “gives of his seed” (miz·zar·‘ōw, H2233) lam·mō·leḵ (H4432). The Targum and Gill push the act past mere dedication to the burning of children; Barnes identifies Molech as “the fire-god of the eastern nations… sometimes made identical with Baal, the sun-god.” The sentence is stoning “by the hand of the whole congregation” — mō·wṯ yū·māṯ, the emphatic “dying he shall die.” ⚙ But vv. 3–6 spiral outward in three concentric rings of guilt. (1) The offender God will “cut off” (wə·hiḵ·rat·tî, H3772) — even, Ellicott says, where “there has not been a sufficient amount of evidence to convict him… God himself would interpose.” The crime, Keil insists, is not that he carried the rite into the temple but that, like all Israel's sin, it “defiled the sanctuary of Jehovah and desecrated the name of Jehovah.” (2) The community that “hides its eyes” (v. 4) — Cambridge: “i.e. disregard” — God will judge for its connivance; the Pulpit Commentary chains it to Deut 13:8–9, where even the offender's kin must strike first. (3) The soul (nephesh, v. 6) that turns to mediums and spiritists. ⚙ Note the verb tip̄·neh (H6437, to turn) shares its root with pânîym (face): the soul that turns its face to necromancers provokes God to set His face against it. Gill names the throughline binding Molech and mediums alike — “to consult them is to forsake the Lord… and this is to commit idolatry, which is spiritual adultery.” The doubled zânâh (whoring, vv. 5–6) is the figure: idolatry is covenant-adultery, because Yahweh is Israel's husband.
Into the catalogue of death-sentences drops a positive command: wə·hiṯ·qad·diš·tem… qə·ḏō·šîm — “consecrate yourselves… be holy.” Matthew Henry feels its strangeness exactly: “In the midst of these laws comes in a general charge, Sanctify yourselves, and be ye holy. It is the Lord that sanctifies… Yet his grace is so far from doing away our endeavours, that it strongly encourages them.” ⚙ The grammar carries the paradox the prose only gestures at: v. 7 is Hitpael (sanctify yourselves, reflexive), v. 8 is Piel (Yahweh who sanctifies you, causative) — one root qâdash (H6942) in two stems, command and gift in a single breath. Gill: “internal sanctification is not the work of man, but of the Lord himself.” The Pulpit Commentary reads the placement as theological: the command is set “early in the list of penalties to show what is the main purpose of the latter.” The unit closes (v. 9) with the cursing of a parent under the very same death-formula mō·wṯ yū·māṯ as Molech-worship — ⚙ the Hebrew deliberately levels the two by repeating the exact construction. The verb qâlal (H7043) means to make a parent light, the inverse of the fifth commandment's weight; and the plural dā·māw (“his bloods”) marks blood-guilt that, Benson says, makes him “guilty of his own death.”
Read on its own terms, this unit is a sustained argument that holiness has a perimeter, and the perimeter is enforced from two sides at once. ⚙ Notice the architecture the Hebrew builds: the chapter does not simply say “do not sacrifice to Molech.” It widens the circle of accountability through three rings — the man who does it, the community that hides its eyes from it, and the soul that turns elsewhere for knowledge — and over every ring it sets the same divine response, “I will set My face against,” and the same verb of removal, kârath, to cut off. The fence around the holy people is not maintained by magistrates alone; where the human court fails, the verses say plainly, God enforces it Himself (Ellicott, Gill). ⚙ Then, structurally at the center (vv. 7–8), comes the reason the whole fence exists: “I am the LORD who sanctifies you.” This is the key that the penalties are not arbitrary cruelty but the negative shape of a positive vocation — Israel is being kept holy because Israel is being made holy by Another. ⚙ And the closing case (v. 9, cursing a parent) is not a change of subject: the Hebrew binds it to Molech-worship with the identical death-formula, suggesting that contempt for the parent and contempt for God are, in this code, the same sin viewed from two angles — both make light what God has made weighty. The fifth commandment and the first are guarded by one fence. This is a fallible reading, offered to be tested against the text.
Holiness here is not a feeling but a boundary — and the God who draws it is the same God who promises to plant it in the heart. (an interpretive line, not Scripture)
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
The prohibition of giving one's seed to Molech is forbidden as sin in Leviticus 18:21 and here re-issued with a penalty, exactly as Geneva and Barnes describe the relation of the two chapters. ⚙ The Verifier confirms this is a genuine verbal link, not merely thematic: the two verses share the lexeme Môlek (H4432) — which occurs in only 8 verses of the entire Old Testament — together with zeraʻ (seed, H2233) and nâthan (to give, H5414). The rarity of Môlek is what lifts the tier from thematic to verbal.
Leviticus 18:21 · Leviticus 20:2 · Leviticus 20:3 · Leviticus 20:5
basis: shared rare lexeme H4432 Môlek (in only 8 vv OT) plus H2233 zeraʻ and H5414 nâthan; the same statute of Lev 18:21 re-issued with penalty
The Pulpit Commentary already shows the prophets reading Molech-worship as the very defilement of the sanctuary that 20:3 names (Ezek 23:37–39; Jer 32:34–35; 2 Kings 21:4–6). ⚙ The Verifier ties Leviticus 20:3 to Jeremiah 32:35 and Leviticus 20:2 to 2 Kings 23:10 as verbal links, again on the strength of the rare Môlek (H4432, 8 vv). Jeremiah and Josiah's reform (2 Kings 23) describe the actual valley of Hinnom where the law's worst case became Judah's national sin — the legislation of Leviticus 20 and the history of its breach use the same rare word.
Leviticus 20:2 · Leviticus 20:3 · Jeremiah 32:35 · 2 Kings 23:10
basis: shared rare lexeme H4432 Môlek (8 vv OT) across the law (Lev 20:2–3) and its historical/prophetic enactment (Jer 32:35; 2 Kings 23:10)
Verse 6's necromancy law uses the technical pair ʼôwb (medium, H178) and yiddᵉʻônîy (spiritist, H3049). Ellicott cross-references 19:31, the stoning of the soothsayers themselves in 20:27, and the execution of Saul for this very sin (1 Chron 10:13–14). ⚙ The Verifier rates the link to Leviticus 19:31 and to 1 Samuel 28:3 (Saul and the medium of Endor) as verbal: both technical terms are rare — ʼôwb in 16 verses, yiddᵉʻônîy in 11 — and they travel together as a fixed idiom for forbidden necromancy.
Leviticus 20:6 · Leviticus 19:31 · Leviticus 20:27 · 1 Samuel 28:3
basis: shared rare lexeme-pair H178 ʼôwb (16 vv) + H3049 yiddᵉʻônîy (11 vv) — the fixed technical idiom for necromancy, with Lev 20:6/19:31 also sharing H6437 pânâh
The execution-mode of v. 2, “the people of the land shall stone him with stones,” recurs for the soothsayer in 20:27 and for the rebellious son in Deuteronomy 21:21. ⚙ The Verifier rates these as structural / thematic, not verbal: the shared words are râgam (to stone, H7275, in 15 vv) and ʼeben (stone, H68, in 239 vv). Although râgam is fairly rare, the link is a shared penal pattern — communal lapidation — rather than a quotation, and 239-verse ʼeben is common; so the tier stays structural. The same congregational act, not the same sentence, is what these verses hold in common.
Leviticus 20:2 · Leviticus 20:27 · Deuteronomy 21:21
basis: shared penal pattern of communal stoning — H7275 râgam (15 vv) + H68 ʼeben (239 vv, common); a shared practice, no quotation claimed
Verse 9's death-penalty for cursing a parent is, Cambridge notes, “as in Exodus 21:17,” and the blood-guilt formula “his blood shall be upon him” recurs at Ezekiel 18:13; 33:4–5 and Joshua 2:19. ⚙ The Verifier rates the link to Exodus 21:17 as structural / thematic, on the shared verb qâlal (to curse, H7043, in 79 vv) with ʼêm (mother), ʼâb (father) and mûwth (die). It is the same statute in two codes, but qâlal at 79 verses is not rare enough, and there is no quotation claim, so the tier remains structural rather than verbal.
Leviticus 20:9 · Exodus 21:17 · Leviticus 24:23
basis: shared statute and lexeme H7043 qâlal (79 vv) with H1 ʼâb / H517 ʼêm / H4191 mûwth — same law in two codes, no quotation, tier held structural
The command of v. 7, “consecrate yourselves and be holy,” is — Cambridge says — “almost verbally identical with Leviticus 11:44 a,” and Keil ties v. 8 to the holiness refrain of 11:44, 19:2 and the sanctification formula of Exodus 31:13. ⚙ The Verifier rates the link to Leviticus 11:44 as structural / thematic: the shared lexemes are qâdôwsh (holy, H6918, 106 vv) and qâdash (to sanctify, H6942, 152 vv) — the recurring vocabulary of the Holiness Code. These words are too frequent, and the connection too much a shared refrain rather than a citation, to claim a verbal tier.
Leviticus 20:7 · Leviticus 20:8 · Leviticus 11:44 · Leviticus 19:2
basis: shared holiness-refrain vocabulary H6918 qâdôwsh (106 vv) + H6942 qâdash (152 vv); a recurring Holiness-Code motif, not a quotation
The Pulpit Commentary supplies the prophetic mirror: Ezekiel indicts Aholah and Aholibah for having “defiled my sanctuary… and profaned my sabbaths” on the same day they “slain their children to their idols” (Ezek 23:37–39) — the exact pairing of 20:3. ⚙ The Verifier rates Leviticus 20:3 → Ezekiel 23:38 as structural / thematic, on the shared cluster miqdâsh (sanctuary, H4720), châlal (profane, H2490) and ṭâmêʼ (defile, H2930). These are the standard cultic-pollution terms — moderately common — so the link is a shared theological pattern that Ezekiel develops, not a verbal citation.
Leviticus 20:3 · Ezekiel 23:38
basis: shared cultic-defilement cluster H4720 miqdâsh + H2490 châlal (132 vv) + H2930 ṭâmêʼ (142 vv); Ezekiel develops the Lev 20:3 pattern, no quotation claimed
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
Matthew Henry, on this very unit, writes: “let children remember that he who cursed father or mother was surely put to death. This law Christ confirmed.” In Matthew 15:4 and Mark 7:10 Jesus quotes Leviticus 20:9 against the Pharisees: “He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death,” charging that their Corban tradition “made the commandment of God of none effect.” The Pulpit Commentary reads v. 9 exactly here — God says the curser “shall be surely put to death,” yet human authority “declares that in most cases it is no grave sin.” ⚙ The link is widely held and explicit in the Gospels — but note honestly: it is a cross-Testament connection (Greek NT ↔ Hebrew OT), so the Verifier finds no shared Strong's lexeme and the citation rests on Christ's own quotation of the Greek Septuagint of this verse, not on a Hebrew-to-Hebrew verbal match. It is a quotation by attestation, not by the index.
Leviticus 20:9 · Matthew 15:4 · Mark 7:10
The command of vv. 7–8, “consecrate yourselves and be holy; for I am the LORD your God… who sanctifies you,” is the Holiness-Code refrain that 1 Peter 1:16 lifts directly onto the New-Covenant people: “Be ye holy, for I am holy.” ⚙ Peter quotes the formula (its OT home is Lev 11:44; 19:2; 20:7), grounding Christian sanctification in the same divine self-identity. Honestly flagged: this too is cross-Testament (Greek ↔ Hebrew), so it cannot be a Verifier verbal link by shared Strong's number; it is an apostolic citation of the Septuagint refrain. The continuity is real and ancient, but its basis is quotation-by-attestation, argued — and the deeper Christological turn is that Peter grounds the imperative in Christ's redeeming blood (1 Pet 1:18–19), where Leviticus grounded it in “I am the LORD who sanctifies you.”
Leviticus 20:7 · Leviticus 20:8 · 1 Peter 1:16
⚙ A typological reading, offered with care and marked novel in this pointed form. Leviticus 20:2–5 turns on a father who gives of his seed (zeraʻ, H2233) into the fire of Molech — an abomination so grave it defiles the sanctuary and is met with God setting His face against the man. ⚙ The figural counter-image is the Father who gives His own Seed (Gal 3:16 names Christ the promised seed) not to an idol but for the world (John 3:16), and on whom God does not set His face against in wrath but in whom He is well pleased — Christ bearing the curse and the blood-guilt (“his bloods upon him,” v. 9; cf. Gal 3:13) that the law lays on the offender. This is a constructed antithesis, not a verbal thread; there is no shared lexeme, and it is presented as a fallible meditation, not an exegetical claim.
Leviticus 20:2 · Leviticus 20:9 · John 3:16 · Galatians 3:13
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
This unit is a penal code, and the synthesis is built up from the Hebrew. Every commentary excerpt is a verbatim, contiguous substring of the sourced voices_raw — trimmed at the ends to a pointed quotation, never altered, reordered, or stitched. A few honesty notes specific to Leviticus 20:1–9:
The two enforcements (vv. 2–4). Verse 2 sentences the Molech-worshipper to stoning by the people; verse 3 has God say “I will… cut him off.” Cambridge frankly judges these “appear to be inconsistent… Probably we may trace here the juxtaposition of two sources, while for the sake of harmonizing them Leviticus 20:4-5 were added.” The classical harmonization (Ellicott, Gill) is that the divine cutting-off covers the case where evidence fails or the court connives. The synthesis presents the harmonizing reading as the dominant historical one, but does not suppress Cambridge's source-critical doubt.
Cross-Testament links are flagged, not asserted as verbal. The two strongest Christological connections — Christ quoting v. 9 (Matt 15:4; Mark 7:10) and Peter quoting the holiness refrain (1 Pet 1:16) — are Greek-NT readings of a Hebrew text. The Verifier returns no shared Strong's lexeme for both, exactly as it must for any Greek↔Hebrew pair. These rest on the NT authors' own quotation of the Septuagint, recorded here as quotation-by-attestation, and never tiered verbal in the cross-Testament direction.
The Molech threads are genuinely verbal. By contrast, the in-Testament Molech links (18:21; Jer 32:35; 2 Kings 23:10) clear the rarity bar: Môlek (H4432) appears in only 8 verses of the whole Hebrew Bible, so its recurrence is a real verbal fingerprint, not a common-word coincidence. Likewise the necromancy pair ʼôwb/yiddᵉʻônîy (16 and 11 verses). Where a shared word is common — ʼeben (stone, 239 vv), qâlal (curse, 79 vv), qâdash (sanctify, 152 vv) — the tier is honestly held at structural / thematic.
A printed typo preserved. The Pulpit Commentary on v. 4 reads “he will himself lake the matter into his hands” — lake is a typesetting error for take in the source, reproduced verbatim rather than silently corrected, per the verbatim rule.
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)