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Leviticus 20:27

Context
Prohibition against Spiritists and Mediums

20:27 “‘A man or woman who 1  has in them a spirit of the dead or a familiar spirit 2  must be put to death. They must pelt them with stones; 3  their blood guilt is on themselves.’”

Leviticus 20:2

Context
20:2 “You are to say to the Israelites, ‘Any man from the Israelites or from the foreigners who reside in Israel 4  who gives any of his children 5  to Molech 6  must be put to death; the people of the land must pelt him with stones. 7 

1 tc Smr, LXX, Syriac, and some Targum mss have the relative pronoun אֲשֶׁר (’asher, “who, which”), rather than the MT’s כִּי (ki, “for, because, that”).

2 tn See the note on the phrase “familiar spirit” in Lev 19:31 above.

3 tn This is not the most frequently-used Hebrew verb for stoning, but a word that refers to the action of throwing, slinging, or pelting someone with stones (see the note on v. 2 above). Smr and LXX have “you [plural] shall pelt them with stones.”

sn At first glance Lev 20:27 appears to be out of place but, on closer examination, one could argue that it constitutes the back side of an envelope around the case laws in 20:9-21, with Lev 20:6 forming the front of the envelope (note also that execution of mediums and spiritists by stoning in v. 27 is not explicitly stated in v. 6). This creates a chiastic structure: prohibition against mediums and spiritists (vv. 6 and 27), variations of the holiness formula (vv. 7 and 25-26), and exhortations to obey the Lord’s statutes (and judgments; vv. 8 and 22-24). Again, in the middle are the case laws (vv. 9-21).

4 tn Heb “or from the sojourner who sojourns”; NAB “an alien residing in Israel.”

5 tn Heb “his seed” (so KJV, ASV); likewise in vv. 3-4.

6 tn Regarding Molech and Molech worship see the note on Lev 18:21.

7 tn This is not the most frequently-used Hebrew verb for stoning (see instead סָקַל, saqal), but a word that refers to the action of throwing, slinging, or pelting someone with stones (רָגָם, ragam; see HALOT 1187 s.v. רגם qal.a, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 136).



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