The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible
Punishments for Sexual Immorality
Leviticus 20:10–21 — Punishments for Sexual Immorality. 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.
10If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress must surely be put to death.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·’îš yin·’ap̄ ’eṯ- ’îš ’ê·šeṯ ’ă·šer ’ă·šer yin·’ap̄ ’eṯ- ’ê·šeṯ rê·‘ê·hū han·nō·’êp̄ wə·han·nō·’ā·p̄eṯ mō·wṯ- yū·maṯ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And a man who commits-adultery with the wife of a man — who commits-adultery with the wife of his neighbor — dying he shall be put-to-death: the adulterer and the adulteress.
Where the English smooths the original
The crime is that of a man with a married woman, whether the man be married or not; it is not that of a married man with an unmarried woman, which, in a country where polygamy was allowed, could not be regarded in the same light.
His blood shall be upon him—That is, he has brought it upon himself to be killed. (See Joshua 2:19 .) This phrase, which occurs seven times either in the singular or plural, is only to be found in this chapterEllicott also records the rabbinic view that the bare formula meant strangling; ⚙ the unit's other voices favor stoning.
Adultery, however lightly it may be accounted of by men who are lost to all sense of virtue and honour, has not only under the Mosaic economy, but by several other civilized nations; been reckoned a capital wickedness.
11If a man lies with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness. Both must surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·’îš ’ă·šer yiš·kaḇ ’eṯ- ’ā·ḇîw ’ê·šeṯ gil·lāh ’ā·ḇîw ‘er·waṯ šə·nê·hem mō·wṯ- yū·mə·ṯū də·mê·hem bām
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And a man who lies with the wife of his father — the nakedness of his father he has uncovered. Dying they shall be put to death, the two of them; their blood is upon them.
Where the English smooths the original
His father’s wife. —Here the penalty is enacted for the sin prohibited in Leviticus 18:8 .
whether she is his own mother, or a stepmother, or whether he did this in the lifetime of his father, or after his death, or whether she was betrothed or married, it mattered not
It should be noted that intercourse with a stepmother or daughter-in-law are put, by the punishment inflicted upon them, on the same level with adultery and unnatural crimes
12If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both must surely be put to death. They have acted perversely; their blood is upon them.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·’îš ’ă·šer yiš·kaḇ ’eṯ- kal·lā·ṯōw šə·nê·hem mō·wṯ yū·mə·ṯū ‘ā·śū te·ḇel də·mê·hem bām
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And a man who lies with his daughter-in-law — dying they shall be put to death, the two of them. Confusion they have made; their blood is upon them.
Where the English smooths the original
By perverting the order which God hath appointed, and mixing the blood which God would have separated, and making the same offspring both his own immediate child and his grandchild, they have wrought confusion.
Confusion — By perverting the order which God hath appointed, and making the same offspring both his own child and his grand-child.
they have wrought confusion: have been guilty of a shocking and shameful mixture, as Jarchi and Ben Gersom, as well as confounded the degrees of relation and affinity
13If a man lies with a man as with a woman, they have both committed an abomination. They must surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·’îš ’ă·šer yiš·kaḇ ’eṯ- zā·ḵār miš·kə·ḇê ’iš·šāh šə·nê·hem ‘ā·śū tō·w·‘ê·ḇāh mō·wṯ yū·mā·ṯū də·mê·hem bām
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And a man who lies with a male the lyings-of a woman — an abomination they have made, the two of them. Dying they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them.
Where the English smooths the original
both of them have committed an abomination; he that lies, and he that is lain with, both consenting to perpetrate the abominable wickedness; which may well be called an abomination, being contrary to nature, and more than brutish, for nothing of that kind is to be found among brutes
Put to death — Except the one party was forced by the other: see Deuteronomy 22:25 .
Mankind. —See Leviticus 18:22 .Ellicott's note is bare cross-reference; ⚙ confirming this verse enacts the penalty for Lev 18:22.
14If a man marries both a woman and her mother, it is depraved. Both he and they must be burned in the fire, so that there will be no depravity among you.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·’îš ’ă·šer yiq·qaḥ ’eṯ- ’iš·šāh wə·’eṯ- ’im·māh hî zim·māh wə·’eṯ·hen ’ō·ṯōw yiś·rə·p̄ū bā·’êš ṯih·yeh wə·lō- zim·māh bə·ṯō·wḵ·ḵem
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And a man who takes a woman and her mother — wickedness it is. In fire they shall be burned, he and they, that there be no wickedness in your midst.
Where the English smooths the original
The burning under the sentence of the Law took place after the death of the criminal by stoning, or strangling. Joshua 7:25 .
It is wickedness, i.e. abominable and extraordinary wickedness, as the singularity of the punishment showeth. Both he and they; either, or both or all of them, if they consented to it.
They shall be burnt with fire. —This, as we have seen, is the second of the four modes of capital punishment.Ellicott then recounts the later rabbinic mode (molten lead) — a Second-Temple gloss, ⚙ not the plain sense of the Hebrew.
It is an abominable and detestable thing.The Geneva translators' marginal gloss (note f) on zim·māh ("wickedness") — supplying the weight the bare English noun loses; ⚙ this is the gloss the divergence note above leans on.
15If a man lies carnally with an animal, he must be put to death. And you are also to kill the animal.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·’îš ’ă·šer yit·tên šə·ḵā·ḇə·tōw biḇ·hê·māh mō·wṯ yū·māṯ wə·’eṯ- ta·hă·rō·ḡū hab·bə·hê·māh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And a man who gives his lying with a beast — dying he shall be put to death; and the beast you shall kill.
Where the English smooths the original
Partly, for the prevention of monstrous births; partly, to blot out the memory of so loathsome a crime; and partly, that by so severe a punishment of that creature which was only a passive instrument to man’s sin, men might be assured that a more dreadful punishment than corporal death was reserved for them, if they repented not.
Slay the beast — Partly for the prevention of monstrous births, partly to blot out the memory of so loathsome a crime.
(15, 16) with a beast. —See Leviticus 18:23 .
16If a woman approaches any animal to mate with it, you must kill both the woman and the animal. They must surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·’iš·šāh ’ă·šer tiq·raḇ ’el- kāl- bə·hê·māh lə·riḇ·‘āh ’ō·ṯāh wə·hā·raḡ·tā ’eṯ- hā·’iš·šāh wə·’eṯ- hab·bə·hê·māh mō·wṯ yū·mā·ṯū də·mê·hem bām
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And a woman who approaches to any beast to lie with it — you shall kill the woman and the beast. Dying they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them.
Where the English smooths the original
this for the same reasons as before, as well as to prevent monstrous births: they shall surely be put to death; both the one and the other, and not spared
The minute specification of the incestuous and unnatural crimes here enumerated shows their sad prevalence amongst the idolatrous nations around, and the extreme proneness of the Israelites to follow the customs of their neighbors.
17If a man marries his sister, whether the daughter of his father or of his mother, and they have sexual relations, it is a disgrace. They must be cut off in the sight of their people. He has uncovered the nakedness of his sister; he shall bear his iniquity.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·’îš ’ă·šer- yiq·qaḥ ’eṯ- ’ă·ḥō·ṯōw baṯ- ’ā·ḇîw ’ōw ’im·mōw ḇaṯ- wə·rā·’āh ’eṯ- ‘er·wā·ṯāh wə·hî- ṯir·’eh ’eṯ- ‘er·wā·ṯōw hū ḥe·seḏ wə·niḵ·rə·ṯū lə·‘ê·nê bə·nê ‘am·mām gil·lāh ‘er·waṯ ’ă·ḥō·ṯōw yiś·śā ‘ă·wō·nōw
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And a man who takes his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother, and he sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness — a disgrace it is. And they shall be cut off before the eyes of the sons of their people; the nakedness of his sister he has uncovered, he shall bear his iniquity.
Where the English smooths the original
So it is directly explained in the following words, he hath uncovered his sister’s nakedness, which manifestly signifies lying with her.Poole is arguing that the euphemism “see her nakedness” denotes the act itself, not mere sight.
The more full expression here used probably refers to some special form of public excommunication, accompanied, it may be, by expulsion from the camp.
uncovering nakedness plainly appears to mean not marriage, but fornication or adultery.
18If a man lies with a menstruating woman and has sexual relations with her, he has exposed the source of her flow, and she has uncovered the source of her blood. Both of them must be cut off from among their people.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·’îš ’ă·šer- yiš·kaḇ ’eṯ- dā·wāh ’iš·šāh wə·ḡil·lāh ’eṯ- ‘er·wā·ṯāh ’eṯ- he·‘ĕ·rāh mə·qō·rāh wə·hî gil·lə·ṯāh ’eṯ- mə·qō·wr dā·me·hā šə·nê·hem wə·niḵ·rə·ṯū miq·qe·reḇ ‘am·mām
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And a man who lies with a sick woman and uncovers her nakedness — her fountain he has laid bare, and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood. The two of them shall be cut off from among their people.
Where the English smooths the original
Her fountain, or her issue. Thus the fountain of blood in Mark 5:29 , is the issue of blood , Luke 8:44 , the fountain put for the stream, the cause for the effect, which is common.
both these phrases put together show agreement in this matter, that they both had knowledge of her case, and both consented to commit the sin
Having her sickness. —See Leviticus 15:24 ; Leviticus 18:19 .
19You must not have sexual relations with the sister of your mother or your father, for it is exposing one’s own kin; both shall bear their iniquity.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
lō wə·‘er·waṯ ṯə·ḡal·lêh ’ă·ḥō·wṯ ’im·mə·ḵā ’ā·ḇî·ḵā wa·’ă·ḥō·wṯ kî ’eṯ- he·‘ĕ·rāh šə·’ê·rōw yiś·śā·’ū ‘ă·wō·nām
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And the nakedness of your mother's sister, or your father's sister, you shall not uncover — for his own kin he has laid bare; their iniquity they shall bear.
Where the English smooths the original
In all these cases the threat is simply held out, "they shall bear their iniquity," and (according to Leviticus 20:20 , Leviticus 20:21 ) "die childless;" that is to say, God would reserve the punishment to Himself
for it is a rule that holds good in all those cases, though not expressed, that what is binding upon one sex is upon the other, being in the same degree of relation, whether of consanguinity or affinity
20If a man lies with his uncle’s wife, he has uncovered the nakedness of his uncle. They will bear their sin; they shall die childless.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·’îš ’ă·šer yiš·kaḇ ’eṯ- dō·ḏā·ṯōw gil·lāh ‘er·waṯ dō·ḏōw yiś·śā·’ū ḥeṭ·’ām yā·mu·ṯū ‘ă·rî·rîm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And a man who lies with his uncle's wife — the nakedness of his uncle he has uncovered. Their sin they shall bear; childless they shall die.
Where the English smooths the original
Both shall be speedily cut off ere they can have a child by that incestuous conjunction; or, if this seem a less crime than most of the former incestuous mixtures, and therefore the magistrate forbear to punish it with death, yet they shall either have no children from such an unlawful bed, or their children shall die before them.
They shall die childless - Either the offspring should not be regarded as lawfully theirs, nor be entitled to any hereditary privileges, or they should have no blessing in their children.
It cannot be supposed that a perpetual miracle was to be maintained through all the ages of Israel's history; but the meaning evidently is that the children of such marriages should be reckoned, not to their actual father, but to the former husband of the woman.Quoting Gardiner; ⚙ one reading among several the voices weigh.
21If a man marries his brother’s wife, it is an act of impurity. He has uncovered the nakedness of his brother; they shall be childless.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·’îš ’ă·šer yiq·qaḥ ’eṯ- ’ā·ḥîw ’ê·šeṯ hî nid·dāh gil·lāh ‘er·waṯ ’ā·ḥîw yih·yū ‘ă·rî·rîm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And a man who takes his brother's wife — an impurity it is. The nakedness of his brother he has uncovered; childless they shall be.
Where the English smooths the original
An unclean thing; an abominable thing, like the uncleanness of a menstruous woman, which is oft expressed by this word: Heb. a separation or removing , i.e. a thing deserving separation or exclusion from society with others
His brother’s wife — Except in the case allowed by God, Deuteronomy 25:5 .
unless when there is no issue, then he was obliged to it by another law, Deuteronomy 25:5 ; which is now ceased, and the law in Leviticus 18:16 ; here referred to, stands clear of all exceptions
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.
This passage is not new law. It is Leviticus 18 spoken a second time, with the penalties attached. The Cambridge Bible states it plainly: these are “Directions on the whole similar to those of Leviticus 18:6-20 … but adding penalties for transgression.” Chapter 18 said do not; chapter 20 says and if he does, this is what happens. Matthew Henry, who supplies the same brief note to every verse here, frames the repetition as mercy, not redundancy: “These verses repeat what had been said before, but it was needful there should be line upon line.” The ⚙ machine layer confirms the structural overlap lexically: the Verifier finds the prohibition-verses and the penalty-verses sharing the signature word-pair ‘er·wāh (nakedness, H6172) bound to gâlâh (to uncover, H1540) across the chapter — at 40 and 167 verses these are moderately, not extremely, rare, so the broad restatement is tiered structural/thematic, not verbal.
Keil & Delitzsch read the chapter as a deliberate gradation: the gravest sins (adultery, intercourse with a father's wife or daughter-in-law, sodomy, bestiality, a menstruous woman) draw death, mostly by stoning; the union with a wife-and-her-mother is heightened … by the burning of the criminals; the lesser-degree incests (aunt, uncle's wife, brother's wife) draw no civil punishment at all — only “they shall bear their iniquity” and “die childless,” which Keil glosses as God “reserv[ing] the punishment to Himself.” ⚙ The Hebrew grades its vocabulary in step with its penalties. The death-cases are stamped tô·w·‘ê·ḇāh (abomination, v. 13), te·ḇel (confusion, v. 12), zim·māh (depravity, v. 14) — each a rare, weight-bearing noun. The reserved cases close on the milder nid·dāh (impurity, v. 21) and the verdict ‘ă·rî·rîm (childless, vv. 20–21). The escalation of guilt is written into the word-choice, not only the sentence.
Five times in this short span the verdict falls: də·mê·hem bām, “their bloods are upon them.” Ellicott notes the phrase “occurs seven times either in the singular or plural” and is “only to be found in this chapter.” ⚙ The plural dāmîm (bloods) is the OT idiom for violently-shed blood that cries for reckoning (Gen 4:10), and Keil ties it precisely to the principle of Gen 9:6 — the blood-guilt “was to return upon the doer of it.” The formula does double duty: it pronounces the criminals liable to death, and it clears the executing community of their blood. The sentence is just because the guilt is self-incurred — Ellicott: “he has brought it upon himself to be killed.”
Verse 14 alone among the death-cases names fire: the man who takes a woman and her mother, with both, “shall be burned in the fire.” Jamieson calls this “The only instance of another form of capital punishment” in the chapter — yet he, Barnes, and Keil all converge on reading the fire as post-mortem: “it is probable that even here death was first inflicted by stoning, and the body of the criminal afterwards consumed by fire,” arguing from Joshua 7:15, 25 and Genesis 38:24. ⚙ The Hebrew yiś·rə·p̄ū bā·’êš says only “they shall be burned with fire” — it does not specify sequence. The post-mortem reading is a sound inference from the canon's other burning-texts, not a datum the verse itself supplies; Ellicott's further detail of molten lead poured down the throat is a Second-Temple rabbinic elaboration, ⚙ not the plain sense.
The final verses lower the register. The half-sister case (v. 17) calls the act ḥe·seḏ — ⚙ astonishingly, the same consonants that spell God's covenant-lovingkindness, here bearing its rare antonymic sense of shame (cf. Prov 14:34). The penalty becomes “cut off” rather than executed; Barnes reads “some special form of public excommunication.” Then aunt, uncle's wife, and brother's wife (vv. 19–21) draw no stated court-penalty at all — only “they shall bear their iniquity” and the rare verdict ‘ă·rî·rîm, “childless.” The voices divide honestly on what childlessness means: Benson and Poole weigh literal barrenness against disinheritance; the Pulpit Commentary, quoting Gardiner, prefers that the children be “reckoned, not to their actual father, but to the former husband.” ⚙ What the Hebrew secures is the theme: a chapter obsessed with the right ordering of generations ends by threatening the dissolution of the line itself.
Read under Sola Scriptura, this terrible chapter is not arbitrary cruelty but boundary. Every offense it punishes is, at root, a blurring — of the marriage bond (v. 10), of generational lines (v. 12), of the male-female order (v. 13), of the species barrier (vv. 15–16), of the very flesh of kin (v. 19). The rare word te·ḇel (confusion) names what the whole list resists: a return to chaos, the un-creating of the distinctions God spoke into being. The penalties descend in a deliberate gradient — death, fire, excision, barrenness — and at the bottom the law withdraws the magistrate's hand entirely and leaves the offender to God: “they shall bear their iniquity.” ⚙ That gradient is itself a mercy and a warning. It tells Israel that not every sin is the community's to punish, but no sin is unseen; and it presses the reader toward the only one who could bear iniquity away rather than merely carry it. This is the tool's fallible reading, offered to be tested against the text.
The sins of Leviticus 20 are all one sin wearing many faces — the un-making of the distinctions God spoke into the world. (an interpretive line, not Scripture)
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
The whole passage is the penalty-bearing twin of the prohibition-code in Leviticus 18. Cambridge: “Directions on the whole similar to those of Leviticus 18:6-20 … but adding penalties.” ⚙ The Verifier confirms the link lexically across the chapter — the shared signature pair is ‘er·wāh (nakedness, H6172, in 40 vv) bound to gâlâh (uncover, H1540, in 167 vv), plus case-specific words. Because these core lexemes are only moderately rare, the tier is structural, not verbal: a confirmed restatement of pattern, not a quotation.
Leviticus 18:6 · Leviticus 18:8 · Leviticus 18:22 · Leviticus 18:17
basis: shared lexemes across the restated code: H6172 ʻervâh (40 vv) + H1540 gâlâh (167 vv); case-specific ties e.g. Lev 20:13↔18:22 share H4904 mishkâb, H2145 zâkâr, H8441 tôwʻêbah, H7901 shâkab; Lev 20:14↔18:17 share H2154 zimmâh, H802 ʼishshâh, H3947 lâqach
The prohibition of bestiality at Leviticus 18:23 is welded to its enacted penalties by two genuinely rare words. ⚙ The Verifier finds verse 15's death-sentence sharing with 18:23 the noun šə·ḵā·ḇə·tōw (his lying/emission, shᵉkôbeth, H7903) — a lexeme in only 4 verses of the whole OT. Distinct from that, verse 12's daughter-in-law case shares with 18:23 the noun te·ḇel (confusion, H8397), which occurs in only 2 verses anywhere — here in the prohibition and at v. 12 — so that the same rare word brands both incest-with-a-daughter-in-law and bestiality as violations of created order. Both ties are low-frequency enough that the verbal link is firm, not coincidental; note, however, that tebel stands in v. 12, not v. 15, and shᵉkôbeth in v. 15, not v. 12 — the two welds run on different words.
Leviticus 18:23 · Leviticus 20:12
basis: Lev 20:15↔18:23 share rare H7903 shᵉkôbeth (4 vv); Lev 20:12↔18:23 share rare H8397 tebel (2 vv) — two distinct low-frequency welds, each verse on its own word
The chapter's mildest stated penalty, ‘ă·rî·rîm (childless, H6185), is a rare word — only four verses in the OT. ⚙ The Verifier records it as a confirmed verbal link to Abram's lament “I go childless” (Genesis 15:2) and Jeremiah's curse on Coniah, “Write ye this man childless” (Jeremiah 22:30). The same dread word that names a patriarch's grief and a king's curse here names the penalty for the lesser incests: a withered line, the un-doing of the generations the whole chapter labors to keep straight.
Genesis 15:2 · Jeremiah 22:30
basis: rare shared lexeme H6185 ʻărîyrîy (childless, in only 4 vv) links Lev 20:20–21 to Gen 15:2 and Jer 22:30
Verse 20's dō·ḏā·ṯōw (his aunt / uncle's wife, dôwdâh, H1733) appears in only three verses in the whole OT. ⚙ The Verifier ties this rare lexeme directly to the prohibition at Leviticus 18:14 — together with the ‘er·wāh / gâlâh pair — making this one of the chapter's clearest verbal penalty-to-prohibition welds rather than a mere thematic parallel. The same rare dôwdâh also surfaces at Exodus 6:20, where Amram's marriage to his aunt Jochebed (Moses' own parents) is recorded — a union the later code forbids, the kind of pre-Sinai patriarchal marriage the chapter now rules out.
Leviticus 18:14 · Exodus 6:20
basis: rare shared lexeme H1733 dôwdâh (aunt, in 3 vv) links Lev 20:20 to Lev 18:14; also shared with Exod 6:20
Verse 16 describes the woman who “approaches any animal to mate with it” using lə·riḇ·‘āh (râbaʻ, H7250) — a verb that elsewhere means the lying-down of an animal to be bred. ⚙ The Verifier finds this rare verb (only 3 verses in the OT) shared with Leviticus 19:19, the law against letting “thy cattle gender with a diverse kind.” The same word that governs forbidden cross-breeding of beasts is turned upon the woman who descends to the beast's act, drawing bestiality into the wider Levitical horror of unlawful mixtures — the un-sorting of the kinds God set apart. Because râbaʻ is genuinely low-frequency, the link is a confirmed verbal seam, not a mere theme.
Leviticus 19:19
basis: rare shared lexeme H7250 râbaʻ (to crouch for breeding, in only 3 vv) links Lev 20:16 to Lev 19:19's law against mixed mating of cattle
The death-penalty for adultery is restated in Deuteronomy 22:22, where again “both of them shall die.” ⚙ The Verifier finds the two verses sharing ’ishshâh (woman/wife, H802), mûwth (die, H4191), and ’îsh (man, H376) — but all three are high-frequency words (686, 700, 1449 vv), so the connection is a confirmed thematic restatement of the same statute, not a verbal quotation. The link is real but must be argued from the shared legal pattern, not asserted from rare diction.
Deuteronomy 22:22
basis: shared high-frequency lexemes only — H802 ʼishshâh (686 vv), H4191 mûwth (700 vv), H376 ʼîysh (1449 vv); same legal pattern, not rare diction
The recurring formula “his blood shall be upon him” (vv. 11–16) Ellicott cross-references to Joshua 2:19. ⚙ A methodological note belongs here: where a New Testament use claims to quote an Old Testament line, the link must be flagged for source-verification before it is asserted — the canonical test-case is Joshua 1:5 quoted at Hebrews 13:5, whose exact Old-Testament provenance is debated. This unit contains no Joshua 1:5; but the same discipline applies to any claimed NT citation of this chapter's penalties (see the Christ section), which cross a Testament line and therefore cannot rest on shared Strong's numbers.
Joshua 2:19 · Ezekiel 22:10
basis: Ellicott's cross-reference to Josh 2:19 is a thematic echo of the blood-formula, not a lexical match in the index; flagged so the provenance of any claimed quotation is verified, not asserted (cf. the Josh 1:5→Heb 13:5 discipline)
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
This chapter's deepest verb is nâsâʼ (H5375), “to bear / lift”: the offender “shall bear his iniquity” (vv. 17, 19). ⚙ The same verb stands over the Servant of Isaiah 53:12, who “bore the sin of many” — and the Gospel's claim is that Christ lifts away the iniquity Leviticus could only command the guilty to carry. This is a widely-held canonical reading: the sacrificial bearing-of-sin in the priestly law points forward to the one who bears it vicariously. ⚙ Honesty check: Leviticus and Isaiah do share the same Hebrew verb nâsâʼ, but the Verifier counts it in 612 verses — a common word, not a rare one. So the lexical overlap is real but cannot bear a verbal/quotation tier; the connection is thematic (the motif of bearing iniquity), and its application to Christ is a New-Testament confession, argued, not derived from a shared Strong's number.
Leviticus 20:17 · Leviticus 20:19 · Isaiah 53:12 · 1 Peter 2:24
When the accusers cite “Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned” (John 8:5), they invoke precisely the sentence of Leviticus 20:10 and Deuteronomy 22:22. ⚙ Christ neither denies the law nor executes it: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone.” The scene holds the chapter's justice and the gospel's mercy in one frame — the penalty is real, and the only sinless Judge declines to invoke it. ⚙ This is a cross-Testament link (Greek Gospel ↔ Hebrew law): the Verifier finds no shared original-language lexeme, so the connection is thematic, argued from the explicit legal citation in John's narrative, never asserted as verbal. Whether John 7:53–8:11 belongs to the original text is itself a textual-criticism question, which sharpens the caution.
Leviticus 20:10 · John 8:5
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 penalty-appendix to Leviticus 18. Nearly every verse here enacts a prohibition stated in chapter 18, and most of the commentators (Ellicott, Keil, the Pulpit) work chiefly by cross-reference back to it; their notes on this page are often a single line pointing there. The synthesis has therefore leaned on the fuller voices (Gill, Poole, Benson, Jamieson) for substance and used the cross-reference notes for structure.
⚙ Mode of death is interpreted, not always stated. The Hebrew gives the emphatic formula mō·wṯ yū·maṯ ("dying he shall be put to death") without naming the method in most verses. That unspecified death means stoning is the dominant reading (Jamieson, Keil, Gill citing the Mishnah for stoning vs. strangling); the burning of v. 14 is widely read as post-mortem. These are sound inferences from Joshua 7:15, 25 and the chapter's framing — flagged here as interpretation, not as the bare text. Ellicott's molten-lead detail is explicitly a Second-Temple rabbinic gloss.
⚙ Cross-Testament links carry no Strong's basis. The two Christ-readings (Isaiah-Servant bearing iniquity; John 8 and the adulteress) cross from Hebrew to Greek. The Verifier cannot supply a shared lexeme across Testaments, so both are tiered thematic/typological and argued from theology and explicit narrative citation — never asserted as verbal quotation. The blood-formula thread is likewise flagged, in keeping with the discipline that any claimed NT citation (the canonical case being Josh 1:5→Heb 13:5) be verified before assertion.
⚙ Matthew Henry's note is identical for every verse (the block comment on 20:10–27); it was used once, at v. 18, to avoid presenting the same text as independent commentary across the unit. Barnes' "Defile my sanctuary" note attaches to a different clause and was not used as a verse-voice. All voices above are verbatim contiguous excerpts of the supplied voices_raw.
✦ = 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)