Divers crimes to be punished with death.

¹ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

² You shall speak these things to the sons of Israel: A man among the sons Israel, or among the newcomers who live in Israel, if he will have given from his seed to the idol Moloch, he shall be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him.¹

1. 20:2Here again is an example where ‘et’ means ‘or’ not ‘and’. The repetition of ‘morte moriatur’ intensifies the meaning of the verb: ‘he must certainly die’ or ‘he shall die a death’ or ‘he must be put to death’ or similarly.(Conte)

³ And I will set my face against him. And I will cut him down from the midst of his people, because he has given from his seed to Moloch, and he has contaminated my Sanctuary, and polluted my holy name.

⁴ But if the people of the land, having been neglectful and holding little regard for my authority, release the man who has given from his seed to Moloch, and they are not willing to kill him,

⁵ I will set my face over that man and over his kindred, and I will cut down both him and all who consented with him to fornicate with Moloch, from the midst of their people.

⁶ The soul who will have turned aside to astrologers and soothsayers, and who will have fornicated with them, I will set my face against him, and I will destroy him from the midst of his people.

⁷ Be sanctified and be holy, for I am the Lord your God.

⁸ Observe my precepts, and do them. I am the Lord, who sanctifies you.

⁹ Whoever curses his father or mother shall die a death; he has cursed his father and mother. So let his blood be upon him.

¹⁰ If anyone will have committed sexual acts with the wife of another, or will have perpetrated adultery with his neighbor’s spouse, they shall die a death, both the adulterer and the adulteress.

¹¹ Whoever will have slept with his stepmother, or will have uncovered the shame of his father, they shall both die a death. So let their blood be upon them.

¹² If any man will have slept with his daughter-in-law, both shall die, for they have acted according to wickedness. So let their blood be upon them.

¹³ If any man has slept with a male in place of sexual intercourse with a female, both have committed a nefarious act, they shall die a death. So let their blood be upon them.¹

1. 20:13The word ‘Qui’ is masculine here, and the gender of the word is relevant to the context. The word ‘nefas’ could also be translated as ‘a crime against God’ or ‘a crime against divine law’.(Conte)

¹⁴ If any man, having taken the daughter as a wife, will have married her mother, he has acted according to wickedness. He shall be burnt alive with them. Neither shall so great a nefarious act persist in your midst.

¹⁵ Whoever will have committed sexual acts with any animal or cattle, he shall die a death. Likewise, you shall slay the beast.¹

1. 20:15The beast also ye shall kill: The killing of the beast was for the greater horror of the crime, and to prevent the remembrance of such abomination.(Challoner)

¹⁶ The woman who will have lain under any animal at all shall be destroyed together with it. So let their blood be upon them.

¹⁷ Whoever will have taken his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother, and will have seen her nakedness, and she will have looked upon her brother’s shame, they have committed a nefarious act. They shall be slain in the sight of their people, because they have uncovered one another’s nakedness. And they shall bear their iniquity.

¹⁸ Whoever has sexual intercourse with a woman in her menstrual flow, and has uncovered her nakedness, and she has opened the fountain of her blood, both shall be destroyed from the midst of their people.

¹⁹ You shall not expose the nakedness of your maternal or paternal aunt. Whoever does this has laid bare the shame of his own flesh; both shall bear their iniquity.

²⁰ If any man has had sexual intercourse with the wife of his paternal or maternal uncle, and he has uncovered the shame of his close relative, both shall bear their sin. They shall die without children.

²¹ Whoever will have married his brother’s wife has done an unlawful thing; he has uncovered his brother’s nakedness. They shall be without children.¹

1. 20:21This applies while the brother is still living.(Conte)

²² Observe my laws as well as my judgments, and act according to them, lest the land, into which you will enter and live, may vomit you out, too.

²³ Do not be willing to walk by the ordinances of the nations, which I will expel before you. For they have done all these things, and so I abominate them.

²⁴ But I say to you: Possess their land, which I will give to you as an inheritance, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from the other peoples.

²⁵ Therefore, you must also separate the clean animals from the unclean, and the clean birds from the unclean. Do not pollute your souls with cattle, or birds, or anything that moves upon the earth, and which I have shown you to be unclean.

²⁶ You shall be holy unto me, because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have separated you from the other peoples, so that you would be mine.

²⁷ A man or a woman, in whom there is an oracle-like or a divining spirit, shall be put to death. They shall stone them. So let their blood be upon them.