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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
20:1-27 Punishment for Disobedience. The rules in ch. 20 have much in common with those in ch. 18. This chapter, however, sets forth and stresses the punishments for violating the rules. Special emphasis is laid on Molech worship and mediums/necromancers. Almost all the crimes listed are punishable by the death penalty. Only a few are to receive a lesser sentence, such as in 20:17-18, in which the perpetrator is excommunicated.
20:1-6 Worshipers of Molech ought to be stoned to death (v. 2). If that is not implemented, the Lord himself punishes them and their followers directly by cutting them off (vv. 4-5; i.e., by bringing them to a premature death himself; see note on 7:11-36). The Lord carries out the same punishment upon those who consult mediums and necromancers (20:6)--cf. 1 Sam. 28:9, where Saul consults the medium of En-dor.
20:7-8 This is the first time in Leviticus that the Lord is said to be the agent of sanctifying the people. The Lord sanctifies the Israelites by making them his holy people, set apart to be his own, giving them a holy status; now he calls on them to consecrate themselves and be holy (i.e., dedicate themselves to holiness in practice); see note on 11:44-45.
20:9 anyone who curses his father or his mother. Cursing one's parents is not merely using condescending or abusive language toward them but refers to a serious breach of a child's duty to honor his or her parents. It means "to make light of something," and is the exact opposite of "honoring" one's parents (Ex. 20:12); cf. Ex. 21:17. For the moral revulsion of such disrespect, cf. Prov. 20:20; 30:11, 17.
20:10-20 Each of these sexual activities has already been prohibited in ch. 18. They are repeated here because this section includes the punishment for each of the crimes: capital punishment (20:10-16), exile (vv. 17-18), or barrenness (vv. 19-21).
20:22-26 This section of exhortations toward holiness concludes chs. 18-20 (cf. 20:22-24 with 18:3-5, 24-28). Moreover, in light of its reference to clean and unclean creatures in 20:25 (cf. ch. 11), this section may conclude not only chs. 18-20 but chs. 11-20 as well. A land flowing with milk and honey is a common scriptural description of Canaan (Ex. 13:5; 33:3; Num. 13:27; etc.). Egyptian texts such as the Story of Sinuhe also characterize Canaan as a productive, fertile land.
20:27 In v. 6, the one who consults a necromancer or a medium was to be put to death. In this verse, the necromancer or the medium is to be put to death. Why this verse appears in this place in the text is puzzling; it may be because the act receives capital punishment, as do most of the other activities of the section.
