The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible
Distinguish between Clean and Unclean
Leviticus 20:22–27 — Distinguish between Clean and Unclean. 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.
22You are therefore to keep all My statutes and ordinances, so that the land where I am bringing you to live will not vomit you out.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
ū·šə·mar·tem ’eṯ- kāl- ḥuq·qō·ṯay wə·’eṯ- kāl- miš·pā·ṭay wa·‘ă·śî·ṯem ’ō·ṯām hā·’ā·reṣ ’ă·šer ’ă·nî mê·ḇî ’eṯ·ḵem šām·māh lā·še·ḇeṯ bāh wə·lō- ṯā·qî ’eṯ·ḵem
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-you-shall-keep all My-statutes and all My-judgments, and-you-shall-do them, so-that the-land where I [am] bringing you there to-dwell in-it will-not vomit-you-out.
Where the English smooths the original
Like the prohibitions (see Leviticus 18:26-30 ), the penalties here enacted for transgressing them conclude with an appeal to the Israelites to keep the Divine precepts, and not to be guilty of the crimes for which the former inhabitants of the land have been cast out.
that the land, whither I bring you to dwell therein, spew you not out; as the stomach does its food when it is loathsome and nauseous to it, and it cannot bear itGill draws out the bodily force of the rare verb qôwʼ — the land as a stomach.
The fact of the nations of Canaan being abhorred by God because they committed all these things shows that the Levitical code forbidding all these things was no part of any special law for that nation alone, but a republication of that Law which is binding on all nations because written on the conscience.
23You must not follow the statutes of the nations I am driving out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·lō ṯê·lə·ḵū bə·ḥuq·qōṯ hag·gō·w ’ă·šer- ’ă·nî mə·šal·lê·aḥ mip·pə·nê·ḵem kî ’eṯ- ‘ā·śū kāl- ’êl·leh wā·’ā·quṣ bām
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-you-shall-not walk in-the-statutes of-the-nation which I [am] driving-out before-you; because they-did all these-things, and-I-abhorred them.
Where the English smooths the original
hence we often meet with this phrase in Jewish writings, "the way of the Amorites", as being exceeding bad, and so to be avoided, and by no means to be walked inGill on the proverbial "way of the Amorites" — the negative pattern Israel must not walk in.
The reason assigned for the exhortations is, that Jehovah was about to give them for a possession the fruitful land, whose inhabitants He had driven out because of their abominations, and that Jehovah was their God, who had separated Israel from the nations.
An exhortation fundamentally in agreement with Leviticus 18:24-30 . The idea of a separation from other nations is prominent in connexion with that of holiness.Cambridge's note on vv. 22–24, naming separation as the thread that binds the epilogue to ch. 18.
These verses repeat what had been said before, but it was needful there should be line upon line.Henry's devotional note on the whole closing block (20:10-27): the repetition is pedagogy, not redundancy — "line upon line" (Isa 28:10).
24But I have told you that you will inherit their land, since I will give it to you as an inheritance—a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the LORD your God, who has set you apart from the peoples.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wā·’ō·mar lā·ḵem ’at·tem tî·rə·šū ’eṯ- ’aḏ·mā·ṯām wa·’ă·nî ’et·tə·nen·nāh lā·ḵem lā·re·šeṯ ’ō·ṯāh ’e·reṣ zā·ḇaṯ ḥā·lāḇ ū·ḏə·ḇāš ’ă·nî Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·hê·ḵem ’ă·šer- hiḇ·dal·tî ’eṯ·ḵem min- hā·‘am·mîm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-I-said to-you, You-yourselves shall-inherit their-soil, and-I, I-will-give it to-you to-possess-it, a-land flowing with-milk and-honey. I [am] Yahweh your-God, who has-set-you-apart from the-peoples.
Where the English smooths the original
That is, promised to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and also to you, that he would expel the Canaanites, and give the land to the Israelites as an inheritance.
By my special grace and favour vouchsafed to you above all people, in glorious and miraculous works wrought for you and among you, and in ordinances and other singular privileges and blessings imparted to you, all which calls for your special love and service.
Their selection from the rest of the nations was for the all-important end of preserving the knowledge and worship of the true God amid the universal apostasy; and as the distinction of meats was one great means of completing that separation, the law about making a difference between clean and unclean beasts is here repeated with emphatic solemnity.
Full of abundance of all things.The 1599 Geneva marginal gloss (note i) on "milk and honey" — terse Reformation shorthand for the land's plenty.
25You are therefore to distinguish between clean and unclean animals and birds. Do not become contaminated by any animal or bird, or by anything that crawls on the ground; I have set these apart as unclean for you.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·hiḇ·dal·tem bên- haṭ·ṭə·hō·rāh laṭ·ṭə·mê·’āh hab·bə·hê·māh ū·ḇên- haṭ·ṭā·mê hā·‘ō·wp̄ laṭ·ṭā·hōr wə·lō- ṯə·šaq·qə·ṣū ’eṯ- nap̄·šō·ṯê·ḵem bab·bə·hê·māh ū·ḇā·‘ō·wp̄ ū·ḇə·ḵōl ’ă·šer tir·mōś hā·’ă·ḏā·māh ’ă·šer- hiḇ·dal·tî lə·ṭam·mê lā·ḵem
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-you-shall-distinguish between the-clean and-the-unclean beast, and-between the-unclean bird and-the-clean; and-you-shall-not make-abominable your-souls by-beast or-by-bird or-by-anything-that crawls on-the-ground, which I-have-set-apart for-you as-unclean.
Where the English smooths the original
It is the same word which is used at the end of the preceding verse, and which is rendered “separate” in the Authorised Version. It is important that the word should be translated by the same expression, since it not only shows the intimate connection between the two verses, but brings out more forcibly the reason for the exhortation in the verse before us.Ellicott names the lexical link the BSB obscures: bâdal binds v. 24 and v. 25.
The distinction between clean and unclean for the whole people, and not for any mere section of it, was one great typical mark of "the kingdom of priests, the holy nation."
i.e. As things which by my sentence I have made unclean, and which you must avoid as such.
26You are to be holy to Me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be My own.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wih·yî·ṯem qə·ḏō·šîm lî kî ’ă·nî Yah·weh qā·ḏō·wōš wā·’aḇ·dil ’eṯ·ḵem min- hā·‘am·mîm lih·yō·wṯ lî
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-you-shall-be holy to-Me, because I, Yahweh, [am] holy; and-I-have-set-you-apart from the-peoples to-be Mine.
Where the English smooths the original
Rather, And ye shall be my holy ones, in harmony with the remark in the last clause of this verse, where God says that He had separated them for the purpose that “ye should be mine” The phrase only occurs hereEllicott reads the clause as a title of belonging — "my holy ones" — not a bare command.
for I the Lord am holy; and therefore they, his people, should be like him, and imitate him, and observe those things which are agreeable to his holy nature and will, and yield a cheerful obedience to his holy precepts
they were to be holy, because Jehovah their God was holy, who had severed them from the nations, to belong to Him, i.e., to be the nation of His possession (see Exodus 19:4-6 ).
27A man or a woman who is a medium or spiritist must surely be put to death. They shall be stoned; their blood is upon them.’”
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·’îš ’ōw- ’iš·šāh kî- yih·yeh ḇā·hem ’ō·wḇ ’ōw yid·də·‘ō·nî mō·wṯ yū·mā·ṯū bā·’e·ḇen yir·gə·mū ’ō·ṯām də·mê·hem bām
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-a-man or a-woman, when there-is in-them a-medium or a-spiritist, dying they-shall-be-put-to-death; with-the-stone they-shall-stone them; their-blood [is] upon-them.
Where the English smooths the original
The woman is here expressly added, both because this art seems to have been principally followed by women ( Exodus 22:28 ; 1Samuel 28:7 ; Acts 16:16 ), and because men would naturally be inclined to treat women more mercifully. Their blood shall be upon them. —That is, they have brought it upon themselves to be killed.
They that are in league with the devil have in effect made a covenant with death; and so shall their doom be.
This supplementary precept is not identical with the earlier one. Here the subject is the person within whom the discarnate spirit is supposed to be working (lit. ‘when there is in them an’ ôb or a familiar spirit’), while in Leviticus 20:6 it is the person who makes application to such for assistance.Cambridge marks the precise difference between v. 27 (the practitioner) and 20:6 (the inquirer).
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 Holiness Code's roll of penalties does not end with a sentence but with an appeal. “And you shall keep all My statutes” (ū·šə·mar·tem, H8104, from shâmar, “to hedge about as with thorns”) — a wall set around life so that, in Ellicott's words, the people will “not be guilty of the crimes for which the former inhabitants of the land have been cast out.” The threat is bodily. The verb ṯā·qî (H6958, qôwʼ, “to vomit,” a rare word in only seven verses) makes the land itself the subject with a gag reflex: Gill's image is exact — it spews you out “as the stomach does its food when it is loathsome and nauseous to it, and it cannot bear it.” Verse 23 sharpens the moral: Israel must not walk (hâlak) in the nations' chuqqôt — the very word used in v. 22 for “My statutes.” The chapter is a contest over whose enactments will govern the ground. And the LORD's revulsion is the land's: wā·’ā·quṣ (H6973), “I loathed them,” is nausea-language matching the vomiting earth. The Pulpit Commentary draws the universal conclusion: this code “was no part of any special law for that nation alone, but a republication of that Law which is binding on all nations because written on the conscience.” The Canaanites were expelled with no Sinai to instruct them.
Five times in three verses the root bâdal (H914, “to divide, separate, distinguish”) strikes like a bell — and Ellicott catches the music the English translations muffle: “It is the same word… It is important that the word should be translated by the same expression, since it not only shows the intimate connection between the two verses,” but supplies the whole logic of the unit. God separated Israel from the peoples (v. 24, hiḇ·dal·tî); therefore Israel separates the clean beast from the unclean (v. 25, wə·hiḇ·dal·tem), because God separated those creatures as unclean (v. 25, again); and God separated Israel to be His own (v. 26, wā·’aḇ·dil). Jamieson, Fausset & Brown name the purpose: the choosing of Israel was “for the all-important end of preserving the knowledge and worship of the true God amid the universal apostasy,” and the dietary distinction was “one great means of completing that separation.” The land is “flowing with milk and honey” (zûwb châlâb ū·dᵉbash, H2100/H2461/H1706 — the Exodus 3:8 refrain). Yet possession is conquest: yârash (H3423) means “to occupy by driving out previous tenants.” And the summit is v. 26's “you shall be holy to Me, because I, Yahweh, am holy” — Ellicott would render it “ye shall be my holy ones,” a title of belonging. He even preserves the rabbinic hope that this separation is the first installment of a wider mercy, “till many nations shall be joined to the Lord.”
The chapter closes with a verse that feels appended — and Ellicott argues the conjunction should read “but”: because Israel is God's holy ones, therefore the one who usurps God's prerogative of revelation must die. Keil & Delitzsch make the link plain: “because Israel was called to be the holy nation of Jehovah, every one, either man or woman, in whom there was a heathenish spirit of soothsaying, was to be put to death.” The two terms are rare and concrete: ’ō·wḇ (H178, a “mumble” — the muttering ghost, only 16 verses) and yid·də·‘ō·nî (H3049, “a knowing one,” the wizard claiming hidden knowledge). The woman is named expressly; Gill, after Maimonides, explains why — such arts were “principally followed by women,” and men were too prone to “natural clemency.” The doubled verb mō·wṯ yū·mā·ṯū (“dying he shall be put to death”) makes the sentence unbreakable, and “their blood is upon them” fixes the guilt on the offender alone. Benson distills the verdict: those “in league with the devil have in effect made a covenant with death; and so shall their doom be.” The same forbidden pair (’ō·wḇ + yid·də·‘ō·nî) recurs at 19:31 and 20:6, then darkens the histories at Endor and under Manasseh — a thread the Verifier confirms by rare shared lexemes.
Read under the rule that Scripture alone is the final authority, three things stand out in this little epilogue — offered as a reading to be tested, not a verdict to be trusted. Holiness is derived from God's own being, not invented. The command “you shall be holy” is grounded every time in “because I, Yahweh, am holy” (v. 26); the people's separation is downstream of God's act of separating them (the fivefold bâdal). Holiness is response, not achievement. The ceremonial served the moral. The clean/unclean distinction was never an end in itself but, as Jamieson, Fausset & Brown say, “one great means” of keeping a people set apart to preserve the true worship — a hedge (Barnes' “typical mark of the holy nation”) around the deeper holiness of v. 26. When the New Testament declares all foods clean (Mark 7:19; Acts 10:15), the hedge is removed because its purpose — a separated people — is fulfilled in Christ, not because holiness is abolished. The land keeps no covenant. It vomited the Canaanites and would vomit Israel on the same terms (v. 22). God's justice is impartial; election is no immunity. The same standard that expelled the nations stands over the chosen people, and over us.
The land has a stomach and no favorites: it spat out the nations for their sin, and it was warned to spit out Israel for the same — election is a calling, never a license. (an interpretive line, not Scripture)
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
The rare verb qôwʼ (H6958, “to vomit,” only seven verses in the whole Bible) is the structural seam binding this epilogue to its twin in chapter 18: the land that “vomited out its inhabitants” (18:25) and is warned not to “vomit you out” (18:28) is the same land of 20:22. Ellicott points to it directly: “For this figure of speech see Leviticus 18:28.” Because the lexeme is so rare, the Verifier tiers this verbal — the image is one author's deliberate refrain, not a coincidence of common words.
Leviticus 20:22 · Leviticus 18:25 · Leviticus 18:28
basis: Verifier (Lev 20:22 ↔ Lev 18:28): shared rare lexeme H6958 qôwʼ "to vomit" (in only 7 vv) — plus H3808 lôʼ; the low frequency makes this a deliberate verbal echo, not chance.
Verse 25's command rests, the commentators agree, on the detailed catalogue of chapter 11. Cambridge says the injunction “must… in its original context have been accompanied by detailed directions such as now are found in ch. 11,” and Keil & Delitzsch send the reader there (“see ch. 11”). The verbal proof is the rare verb shâqats (H8262, “to make detestable,” only six verses) shared with Leviticus 11:11, 13, 43, alongside ʻôwph (bird) and ṭâmêʼ (unclean). This is not allusion but the same legislation restated.
Leviticus 20:25 · Leviticus 11:13 · Leviticus 11:43 · Leviticus 11:11
basis: Verifier (Lev 20:25 ↔ Lev 11:13): shared rare lexeme H8262 shâqats "make detestable" (in only 6 vv), plus H5775 ʻôwph; and ↔ Lev 11:43 adds H2930 ṭâmêʼ + H5315 nephesh — the rarity of shâqats confirms a deliberate restatement of the ch. 11 food law.
The capstone “you shall be holy… because I, Yahweh, am holy” (v. 26) is the signature refrain of the Holiness Code, first sounded at the close of the very food laws it crowns here (11:44–45). Ellicott notes the phrasing here is distinct (“my holy ones”), but the motif is one. The Verifier finds the shared structural vocabulary — qâdôwsh (holy), ʼănîy (I), kîy (because) — a shared pattern rather than a rare-word quotation, so it is tiered structural, not verbal.
Leviticus 20:26 · Leviticus 11:44 · Leviticus 11:45
basis: Verifier (Lev 20:26 ↔ Lev 11:44): shared H6918 qâdôwsh (in 106 vv), H589 ʼănîy, H3588 kîy — a shared holiness-formula pattern, not a rare lexeme; tiered structural, the motif (not a quotation) being the basis.
The rare pair ’ō·wḇ (H178, necromancer, 16 vv) + yid·də·‘ō·nî (H3049, wizard, 11 vv) almost always travels together, stitching v. 27 to the parallel prohibitions of 19:31 and 20:6 (Cambridge marks the difference: here the practitioner, there the inquirer), and running out into the histories — Saul at Endor (1 Samuel 28:3, 9), Manasseh's apostasy (2 Kings 21:6; 2 Chronicles 33:6), Josiah's purge (2 Kings 23:24), and Isaiah's mockery (Isaiah 8:19; 19:3). The Verifier confirms the verbal link by the low frequency of both lexemes.
Leviticus 20:27 · Leviticus 19:31 · Leviticus 20:6 · 1 Samuel 28:3 · 2 Kings 21:6 · Isaiah 8:19 · Deuteronomy 18:11
basis: Verifier (Lev 20:27 ↔ Lev 19:31): shared rare lexemes H178 ʼôwb "necromancer" (in 16 vv) + H3049 yiddᵉʻônîy "wizard" (in 11 vv) — the same low-frequency pair recurs across 20:6, 1 Sam 28, 2 Kgs 21:6, Deut 18:11; rarity makes the verbal link secure.
The justification of v. 23 — Israel will walk where God is “driving out” (shâlach) the nations who did “all these things” — shares its core vocabulary (gôwy nation, pânîym before/face) with the parallel expulsion-language of Leviticus 18:24–28. These are common words, so the Verifier tiers the link structural rather than verbal: a shared motif of moral dispossession, not a rare quotation. The thematic weight, not the lexical rarity, carries it.
Leviticus 20:23 · Leviticus 18:24 · Leviticus 18:28 · Deuteronomy 7:26
basis: Verifier (Lev 20:23 ↔ Lev 18:28): shared H1471 gôwy (in 511 vv), H6440 pânîym, H3808 lôʼ — all high-frequency words; the connection is a shared dispossession motif, not a rare verbal echo, so tiered structural.
The phrase zā·ḇaṯ ḥā·lāḇ ū·ḏə·ḇāš (v. 24) is the great covenant refrain first spoken at the burning bush (Exodus 3:8, 17) and threaded through the wilderness narratives. The three nouns travel as a fixed unit — zûwb (flow), châlâb (milk), dᵉbash (honey) — and the Verifier confirms all three shared with Exodus 3:8, a moderate-frequency cluster that functions as a set formula. Gill points the reader there: “see Exodus 3:8.”
Leviticus 20:24 · Exodus 3:8 · Exodus 3:17 · Deuteronomy 6:3
basis: Verifier (Lev 20:24 ↔ Exod 3:8): shared cluster H2100 zûwb (41 vv) + H2461 châlâb (44 vv) + H1706 dᵉbash (54 vv) — each only moderate-frequency on its own, but the three co-occur as a fixed, otherwise-improbable three-word refrain; it is the conjoint set, not any single lexeme's rarity, that marks the deliberate quotation.
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
The whole burden of vv. 24–25 — distinguish, separate, do not defile your soul with the unclean beast — is the very statute Christ lifts in the Gospel. Mark's parenthesis on Jesus' teaching is blunt: “Thus He declared all foods clean” (Mark 7:19), and Peter is shown the sheet of unclean creatures with the word “What God has made clean, do not call common” (Acts 10:15). This is not abolition of holiness but the lifting of its hedge: the separated diet served a separated people (so Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — the food law was “one great means” of separation), and when the Gentiles are “made clean by faith” (Acts 15:9) the dividing wall comes down (Ephesians 2:14). The reading is held lightly as to mechanism — the link is thematic, not a shared-word quotation, since the New Testament is Greek and Leviticus Hebrew (the Verifier finds no shared lexeme, exactly as expected across the Testaments).
Leviticus 20:25 · Mark 7:19 · Acts 10:15 · Ephesians 2:14
The summit of the unit, “you shall be holy to Me, because I, Yahweh, am holy” (v. 26), is quoted directly by Peter and applied to the whole Church: “Be holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16). What was the charter of national separation becomes the charter of a people “set apart” in Christ from every nation — “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation” (1 Peter 2:9), the language Barnes already heard here as the “typical mark of 'the kingdom of priests, the holy nation.'” The ground of holiness is unchanged — the holiness of God Himself. Because this is a Greek New Testament citation of a Hebrew text, no shared Strong's number can be claimed (the Verifier returns none, correctly), so the link is typological/structural by its sense, not a lexical match.
Leviticus 20:26 · 1 Peter 1:16 · 1 Peter 2:9
The land of v. 22 is a moral organism: it cannot hold sin and it cannot be earned, only received and kept. Hebrews presses this earthly inheritance toward its true horizon — the milk-and-honey land of v. 24 was never the final rest, for “there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God” (Hebrews 4:9). The holy nation set apart to dwell in a land that vomits the defiled is a shadow of the new creation “in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13), where nothing unclean shall ever enter (Revelation 21:27) and yet the holiness is gift, not conquest. This is the more novel synthesis offered here — a figural arc from the squeamish land to the unshakable kingdom; weigh it against the text, for it is read into the line, not lifted from a shared word.
Leviticus 20:22 · Leviticus 20:24 · Hebrews 4:9 · Revelation 21:27 · 2 Peter 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:
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). The Hebrew is the Masoretic tradition; transliterations, parsings, the literal renderings, and the “where the English smooths the Hebrew” notes are this tool's own work (⚙) — careful but fallible; verify against BDB/HALOT and a standard grammar.
Two textual honesty notes specific to this unit. First: the named voices for vv. 22–26 are unusually repetitive in the source — Matthew Henry's note (“these verses repeat what had been said before… line upon line”), Keil & Delitzsch's summary, and Jamieson-Fausset-Brown's comment on v. 24 are each re-printed across several verses on BibleHub. The excerpts above are drawn verbatim but each commentator is featured once at the verse his words most directly address, to keep the chorus diverse; Henry's devotional line is shown at v. 23 and the 1599 Geneva marginal gloss at v. 24, so the witness ranges from Reformation annotation to nineteenth-century critical commentary. Second: several voices listed in the raw data carry the note “No text from Poole on this verse” or are mislabeled fragments (e.g., a stray “they shall die childless” from v. 20 attached by BibleHub to vv. 22–23); these have been excluded as non-substantive rather than quoted as commentary on the wrong verse.
On cross-references: every Hebrew↔Hebrew link above was run through the project Verifier, which reports the shared Strong's lexemes and their corpus frequency — that frequency is the recorded basis. Rare lexemes (qôwʼ 7 vv, shâqats 6 vv, ʼôwb 16 vv, yiddᵉʻônîy 11 vv) tier verbal; high-frequency overlaps (gôwy, qâdôwsh) tier only structural. The three Christ links reach into the New Testament and are therefore Greek↔Hebrew: no shared Strong's number is possible, the Verifier correctly returns none, and they are offered as typological/thematic readings — two ancient and widely held, one (the new-creation arc) more novel and left openly so. Note: this unit does not contain Joshua 1:5, so the standing Joshua 1:5 → Hebrews 13:5 flag does not apply here. Weigh all of it against Scripture. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)
✦ = 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)