Leviticus 20:9-21

Family Life and Sexual Prohibitions ¹ 

20:9 “‘If anyone ²  curses his father and mother ³  he must be put to death. He has cursed his father and mother; his blood guilt is on himself. ⁴  20:10 If a man ⁵  commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, ⁶  both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death. 20:11 If a man has sexual intercourse with his father’s wife, he has exposed his father’s nakedness. ⁷  Both of them must be put to death; their blood guilt is on themselves. ⁸  20:12 If a man has sexual intercourse with his daughter-in-law, both of them must be put to death. They have committed perversion; ⁹  their blood guilt is on themselves. 20:13 If a man has sexual intercourse with a male as one has sexual intercourse with a woman, ¹⁰  the two of them have committed an abomination. They must be put to death; their blood guilt is on themselves. 20:14 If a man has sexual intercourse with both a woman and her mother, ¹¹  it is lewdness. ¹²  Both he and they must be burned to death, ¹³  so there is no lewdness in your midst. 20:15 If a man has sexual intercourse ¹⁴  with any animal, he must be put to death, and you must kill the animal. 20:16 If a woman approaches any animal to have sexual intercourse with it, ¹⁵  you must kill the woman, and the animal must be put to death; their blood guilt is on themselves.

20:17 “‘If a man has sexual intercourse with ¹⁶  his sister, whether the daughter of his father or his mother, so that he sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace. They must be cut off in the sight of the children of their people. ¹⁷  He has exposed his sister’s nakedness; he will bear his punishment for iniquity. ¹⁸  20:18 If a man has sexual intercourse with a menstruating woman and uncovers her nakedness, he has laid bare her fountain of blood and she has exposed the fountain of her blood, so both of them ¹⁹  must be cut off from the midst of their people. 20:19 You must not expose the nakedness of your mother’s sister and your father’s sister, for such a person has laid bare his own close relative. ²⁰  They must bear their punishment for iniquity. ²¹  20:20 If a man has sexual intercourse with his aunt, he has exposed his uncle’s nakedness; they must bear responsibility for their sin, they will die childless. 20:21 If a man has sexual intercourse with ²²  his brother’s wife, it is indecency. He has exposed his brother’s nakedness; ²³  they will be childless.

[20:9]  ¹ sn Compare the regulations in Lev 18:6-23.

[20:9]  ² tn Heb “If a man a man who.”

[20:9]  ³ tn Heb “makes light of his father and his mother.” Almost all English versions render this as some variation of “curses his father or mother.”

[20:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “his blood [plural] is in him.” Cf. NAB “he has forfeited his life”; TEV “is responsible for his own death.”

[20:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “And a man who.” The syntax here and at the beginning of the following verses elliptically mirrors that of v. 9, which justifies the rendering as a conditional clause.

[20:10]  ⁶ tc The reading of the LXX minuscule mss has been followed here (see the BHS footnote a-a). The MT has a dittography, repeating “a man who commits adultery with the wife of” (see the explanation in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 328). The duplication found in the MT is reflected in some English versions, e.g., KJV, ASV, NASB, NIV.

[20:11]  ⁷ sn See the note on Lev 18:7 above.

[20:11]  ⁸ tn See the note on v. 9 above.

[20:12]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew term תֶּבֶל (tevel, “perversion”) derives from the verb “to mix; to confuse” (cf. KJV, ASV “they have wrought confusion”).

[20:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “[as the] lyings of a woman.” The specific reference here is to homosexual intercourse between males.

[20:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “And a man who takes a woman and her mother.” The Hebrew verb “to take” in this context means “to engage in sexual intercourse.”

[20:14]  ¹² tn Regarding “lewdness,” see the note on Lev 18:17 above.

[20:14]  ¹³ tn Heb “in fire they shall burn him and them.” The active plural verb sometimes requires a passive translation (GKC 460 §144.f, g), esp. when no active plural subject has been expressed in the context. The present translation specifies “burned to death” because the traditional rendering “burnt with fire” (KJV, ASV; NASB “burned with fire”) could be understood to mean “branded” or otherwise burned, but not fatally.

[20:15]  ¹⁴ tn See the note on Lev 18:20 above.

[20:16]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “to copulate with it” (cf. Lev 20:16).

[20:17]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “takes.” The verb “to take” in this context means “to engage in sexual intercourse,” though some English versions translate it as “marry” (e.g., NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV).

[20:17]  ¹⁷ tn Regarding the “cut off” penalty, see the note on Lev 7:20.

[20:17]  ¹⁸ tn See the note on Lev 17:16 above.

[20:18]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and the two of them.”

[20:19]  ²⁰ tn Heb “his flesh.”

[20:19]  ²¹ tn See the note on Lev 17:16 above.

[20:21]  ²² tn Heb “takes.” The verb “to take” in this context means “to engage in sexual intercourse.”

[20:21]  ²³ sn See the note on Lev 18:7 above.