Verse-by-Verse Commentary
The Book of Leviticus
Chapter 20: Set Apart to Be His
Where chapter 18 forbade the corruptions of the nations and chapter 19 spelled out holiness in love, chapter 20 attaches the penalties. It shows how seriously God takes sin, the sacrificing of children to Molech, the traffic with the occult, and the destruction of the family. Yet the dark warnings frame a bright center: 'Sanctify yourselves, and be ye holy... I am the LORD which sanctify you,' and, 'I have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine.' Holiness here is belonging wholly to God.
About This Commentary
This is a verse-by-verse study of Leviticus chapter 20. For each section you will find the KJV text, the Hebrew words that sharpen the meaning, plain explanation, and a Gospel Focus. The chapter sets the penalties that guarded the holiness of chapters 18 and 19, treated here with the dignity of Scripture. It shows the deadly seriousness of sin, the call to be sanctified, and above all the God who separates a people to be His own. Every Scripture quotation is from the King James Version.
Setting the Stage
Life and Truth Guarded
God forbids the sacrifice of children and all traffic with familiar spirits, guarding life and turning hearts to Him alone.
He Sanctifies You
"Sanctify yourselves... I am the LORD which sanctify you." Holiness is commanded, and it is God's own work in His people.
Sin Is Deadly
The gravest penalties fell on the sins that destroy the family, a solemn measure of how seriously God takes sin.
Severed to Be His
"I have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine." Holiness means belonging wholly to God.
Against Molech and the Occult (Leviticus 20:1-6)
God sets the severest penalty on the burning of children to Molech and turns His face against all who seek familiar spirits, guarding both the sanctity of life and the loyalty of the heart.
Seek God, Not the Dead
"And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones. And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people; because he hath given of his seed unto Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name. And if the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes from the man, when he giveth of his seed unto Molech, and kill him not: Then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go a whoring after him, to commit whoredom with Molech, from among their people. And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people."
Hebrew Study
"familiar spirit," ob (אוֹב). A spirit of the dead consulted by a medium, or the medium who calls it up. The occult arts of the nations, calling on spirits, wizardry, divination, are set here beside child sacrifice as things God utterly forbids. To seek the dead or the demonic for guidance is to turn from the living God to His enemies.
Explanation
The chapter opens with the two darkest sins of the surrounding nations. First, whoever "giveth any of his seed unto Molech," burning a child to the idol, "shall surely be put to death," and if the community shielded him, God Himself would set His face against that man. Then God turns to the occult: "the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them," He would cut off. God places the sacrifice of children and the seeking of spirits side by side, for both are the deepest betrayals: one destroys innocent life, the other abandons the living God for the powers of darkness. A holy people were to guard the sanctity of life and give the loyalty of their hearts to God alone.
Gospel Focus
These ancient sins are not so distant as we might think. The occult, seeking guidance from spirits, the dead, horoscopes, mediums, and every dark art, is as forbidden now as then, for it turns the heart from the living God to His enemies. Scripture asks with holy scorn, "should not a people seek unto their God?" (Isaiah 8:19). The believer has no need of familiar spirits; we have the Spirit of God Himself. And the horror of Molech, the destruction of children, remains a mark of a society that has abandoned God. Behind every such abomination stands the same enemy who has always sought to devour the innocent and darken the mind. God calls His people to renounce it all, to touch no unclean thing, and to seek Him alone. The Christian turns from every shadow, divination, superstition, the whole realm of darkness, to walk in the light of the one true God, who alone knows the future and holds our lives.
I Am the LORD Which Sanctify You (Leviticus 20:7-8)
At the heart of the chapter God commands His people to sanctify themselves and be holy, and adds the gospel truth that He Himself is the one who makes them holy.
Commanded and Enabled
"Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the LORD your God. And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them: I am the LORD which sanctify you. For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him."
Hebrew Study
"sanctify," qadash (קָדַשׁ). To set apart, make holy, consecrate. Notice it appears twice with two subjects: "sanctify yourselves," yet "I am the LORD which sanctify you." Both are true. We are commanded to consecrate ourselves to God, and at the same time it is God who does the sanctifying. Holiness is our responsibility and His gift together.
Explanation
In the middle of the warnings shines the command that is the true purpose of them all: "Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the LORD your God." The penalties were never the point; holiness was. And then comes a phrase easy to pass over but full of grace: "I am the LORD which sanctify you." God commands His people to be holy, and in the same breath declares that He is the one who makes them so. He does not simply hand down a standard and leave them to reach it alone; He is Himself the sanctifier. The call to holiness rests on the God who both requires it and works it in His people.
Gospel Focus
"I am the LORD which sanctify you" is one of the most encouraging words in the whole book. Holiness is commanded, "sanctify yourselves," yet it is not a weight we carry by our own strength, for it is God who sanctifies. This is the balance the New Testament keeps perfectly. We are told to "cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit," and also that "the very God of peace sanctify you wholly" (1 Thessalonians 5:23). We work out what God works in. Holiness is not the anxious striving of a person trying to earn God's favor; it is the response of a people already claimed by God, empowered by the God who dwells in them. The same LORD who says "be ye holy" also says "I am the LORD which sanctify you," and both are our comfort: He would not command what He is not willing to work, and He works in us what He commands. Yield to the God who sanctifies, and He will make you holy.
How Serious Sin Is (Leviticus 20:9-21)
God attaches grave penalties to the sins that destroy the family, cursing parents, adultery, and the corruptions of chapter 18, a solemn measure of how deadly sin truly is.
Sin Against the Family
"And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. And the man that lieth with his father's wife hath uncovered his father's nakedness: both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. And if a man lie with his daughter in law, both of them shall surely be put to death: they have wrought confusion; their blood shall be upon them. If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. And if a man take a wife and her mother, it is wickedness: they shall be burnt with fire, both he and they; that there be no wickedness among you. And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and ye shall slay the beast. And if a woman approach unto any beast, and lie down thereto, thou shalt kill the woman, and the beast: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. And if a man shall take his sister, his father's daughter, or his mother's daughter, and see her nakedness, and she see his nakedness; it is a wicked thing; and they shall be cut off in the sight of their people: he hath uncovered his sister's nakedness; he shall bear his iniquity. And if a man shall lie with a woman having her sickness, and shall uncover her nakedness; he hath discovered her fountain, and she hath uncovered the fountain of her blood: and both of them shall be cut off from among their people. And thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother's sister, nor of thy father's sister: for he uncovereth his near kin: they shall bear their iniquity. And if a man shall lie with his uncle's wife, he hath uncovered his uncle's nakedness: they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless. And if a man shall take his brother's wife, it is an unclean thing: he hath uncovered his brother's nakedness; they shall be childless. Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: that the land, whither I bring you to dwell therein, spue you not out. And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them. But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey: I am the LORD your God, which have separated you from other people. Ye shall therefore put difference between clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean fowls and clean: and ye shall not make your souls abominable by beast, or by fowl, or by any manner of living thing that creepeth on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean."
Hebrew Study
The severe penalties of this chapter rest on a single word repeated at its close: God has "severed you from other people" — badal (בָּדַל), to divide, set apart. The sins listed — adultery, incest, child-sacrifice to Molech — are the very "doings of Canaan," and to practice them is to erase the line God has drawn. So grave is the defilement that "the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants" (18:25); the holiness of God will not indefinitely share space with what defiles. The gravity measures how seriously heaven takes a people set apart to bear His name.
Explanation
This section sets the penalties for the sins named in chapter 18. Cursing father or mother was a capital crime, for it struck at the honor of the family and, behind it, the authority of God. Adultery, which shatters the marriage covenant, and the other corruptions of the family and the created order, carried the gravest sentences. We read these penalties with sober hearts. They are severe, and deliberately so. They were the civil law of a holy nation set apart to picture God's own holiness, and they teach, in the strongest possible terms, that these sins are not small. God attaches the highest penalty to the sins that destroy the family and defile the community, because in His sight sin is deadly. The severity is not cruelty; it is a measure of how precious the family is and how serious its ruin.
Gospel Focus
We do not live under Israel's civil law, and the church does not carry out these penalties; the New Testament deals with sin in the congregation through correction, repentance, and restoration, not the sword. But the principle behind the penalties still stands, and it is one the modern world has almost entirely lost: sin is deadly serious. "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23), and every sin these laws punished still carries a death in it, the death of trust in a marriage, of safety in a home, of a soul turned from God. The gravity God assigned to these sins is a mercy, warning us not to treat lightly what destroys us. Yet the same verse that names sin's wage names our hope: "but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." The law showed the death that sin deserves; the gospel offers the life that Christ freely gives. No sin in this chapter is beyond His blood. God takes sin with deadly seriousness, and He offers grace just as freely to all who turn to Him.
Severed to Be His (Leviticus 20:22-27)
God closes with the reason behind every command: He has separated His people from the nations to be His own, a holy people belonging wholly to a holy God.
That Ye Should Be Mine
"And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine. A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them."
Hebrew Study
"severed," badal (בָּדַל). To divide, separate, set apart, the same word used when God divided light from darkness at creation. God has drawn a line between His people and the nations, not out of favoritism, but to make them His own possession. To be badal unto God is to be marked off from the common and reserved wholly for Him.
Explanation
God ends the chapter by lifting the eyes from the penalties to the purpose. "Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes... that the land... spue you not out." The obedience He asked was the way to keep the promised land, the "land that floweth with milk and honey." And the deepest reason is the tenderest: "I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine." The whole point of the separation was belonging. God had not marked Israel off from the nations to make them proud or cold, but to make them His own treasured people. He even repeats the warning against familiar spirits to close the chapter, sealing His claim on their undivided loyalty. Holiness, in the end, is not first a list of rules but a relationship: a people set apart because they belong to God.
Gospel Focus
"That ye should be mine." Here is the heart of holiness, and it is love, not law. God separated His people to belong to Him, and that is exactly what He has done in Christ. Peter takes these very words into the New Covenant: we are "a peculiar people," a people for God's own possession, called "out of darkness into his marvellous light." Christ "gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works" (Titus 2:14). To be holy is to be His. So the call to come out and be separate is not the call to be strange or superior; it is the call to belong wholly to the God who bought us. "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord." We are severed from the world not because we despise people, but because we are claimed by God. Live as one who belongs to Him, set apart, kept pure, loyal to Him alone, for the God who is holy has severed you from the world for the sweetest of reasons, that you should be His.
Chapter 20 in Review
Leviticus 20 attaches the penalties that guarded the holiness commanded in chapters 18 and 19. It sets the severest judgment on the burning of children to Molech and on all traffic with familiar spirits and the occult, guarding the sanctity of life and the loyalty of the heart. At its center stands the true purpose of it all: "Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy... I am the LORD which sanctify you." It sets grave penalties on the sins that destroy the family, showing how deadly serious sin is. And it closes with the tender reason behind every command: "I have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine."
For the Apostolic reader, this sober chapter is full of grace. It renounces the occult and calls us to seek God alone, who gives us His own Spirit. It commands holiness and, in the same breath, promises that God Himself is the sanctifier, so that we work out what He works in. It reminds a careless world that sin is deadly, "the wages of sin is death," while pointing to "the gift of God" that is "eternal life through Jesus Christ." And it reveals that the whole point of being set apart is belonging, for God severs His people from the world so "that ye should be mine." Christ has made us that peculiar people, purified for His own possession. Holiness is not a burden laid on strangers; it is the mark of those who belong to the God who loves them.
- God forbids the occult as He forbids child sacrifice; His people seek Him alone, not familiar spirits (20:6; Isaiah 8:19).
- "I am the LORD which sanctify you": holiness is commanded and is God's own work in us (20:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:23).
- The grave penalties reveal how deadly serious sin is, especially sin that destroys the family (20:10; Romans 6:23).
- We are not under Israel's civil penalties, but sin still carries death; grace offers life in Christ.
- God severed His people "that ye should be mine": holiness is belonging wholly to God (20:26; Titus 2:14).
Questions for Reflection
- Do you seek God alone for guidance, renouncing every form of the occult and darkness?
- Do you rest in the God who says "I am the LORD which sanctify you," rather than striving in your own strength?
- Do you live as one severed from the world to belong wholly to God, His own peculiar people?
References & Sources
Scripture is quoted from the King James Version (KJV). The Hebrew terms are standard and can be checked in any Hebrew lexicon. Supporting passages are listed so every claim can be verified in its own setting. If anything here does not look right, a verse, a reference, or a wording, please tell us at info@FruitBearers.net. Thank you for helping us keep Bible Learning error free.
- Against Molech and the occult, seek God alone: Leviticus 20:1-6; Isaiah 8:19.
- Sanctify yourselves, and the God who sanctifies: Leviticus 20:7-8; 1 Thessalonians 5:23.
- The seriousness of sin, and grace in Christ: Leviticus 20:9-21; Romans 6:23.
- Severed to be His, a peculiar people: Leviticus 20:22-27; Titus 2:14; 2 Corinthians 6:17.