Biblion Bible Commentary
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Molech, and the Mediums
Leviticus 20:1-8
1 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, · WEB
Child sacrifice heads the penalties, and the law provides for the case where a community decides not to see it.
The chapter turns from commands to consequences, and it begins with the worst thing in the book.
Anyone of the children of Israel, or of the strangers who live as foreigners in Israel, who gives any of his offspring to Molech is to be put to death Leviticus 20:2.
What makes the legislation remarkable is the second provision. God says he will set his face against such a man and will cut him off from among his people — and then addresses a different failure: if the people of the land all hide their eyes from that person when he gives of his offspring to Molech, and don't put him to death, then I will set my face against that man and against his family Leviticus 20:4–5.
The law anticipates a community that knows and looks away. Hiding the eyes is named as an act, and the penalty is extended to those who commit it.
That is a striking piece of drafting. A statute cannot compel witnesses to speak, and this one says what happens when nobody does — the guilt spreads to the people who preferred not to know. It is the same instinct as the unsolved murder in Deuteronomy, where a town has to answer for a death in its fields Deuteronomy 21:1–9.
The reason given for God's own action is that such a man has defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name Leviticus 20:3. A crime committed in a private garden is treated as damage to the tent in the middle of the camp.
Mediums and wizards follow immediately Leviticus 20:6, as they did in chapter 19, and the same verb is used for God's response — he will set my face against the person who turns to them.
And the section closes on the formula that governs the whole code: sanctify yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am Yahweh your God. You shall keep my statutes, and do them. I am Yahweh who sanctifies you Leviticus 20:7–8.
The last clause is the one to hold. They are told to sanctify themselves, and then told that he is the one who does it. Both are said in consecutive verses, and the book never resolves them into one — which is the same pattern as the circumcised heart that Israel is commanded to perform and God later promises to perform himself Deuteronomy 10:16 Deuteronomy 30:6.
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