Biblion Bible Commentary
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Set Apart from the Peoples
Leviticus 20:9-27
9 “‘For everyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. He has cursed his father or his mother. His blood shall be upon himself. · WEB
The penalties close with the sentence the section opened with, and the reason given for the separation is possession rather than superiority.
The bulk of the chapter restates the prohibitions of chapter 18 with penalties attached. What was listed there as defilement is listed here as a capital matter, and the two chapters are meant to be read together.
Three observations belong beside the penalties, and none of them softens the text.
The first is the book's own framing. These practices are the reason the previous occupants are being removed — for they did all these things, and therefore I abhorred them Leviticus 20:23 — and the warning is turned immediately on Israel: keep the statutes that the land where I am bringing you to dwell may not vomit you out Leviticus 20:22. The standard is not a privilege of the covenant nation, and the covenant nation is told so twice.
The second is that this is the criminal law of one state, under a covenant, in one territory, for a limited period. It is administered by elders at a gate, requires two witnesses Deuteronomy 17:6, and puts the burden of execution on the witnesses themselves Deuteronomy 17:7.
The third is the record. Scripture reports almost no executions under this legislation across Israel's whole history, and the two it does report are narrated as difficult cases needing a direct ruling Leviticus 24:10–23 Numbers 15:32–36.
The chapter then returns to food, which looks out of place among the penalties and is not: you shall therefore make a distinction between the clean animal and the unclean Leviticus 20:25. The same word for separation runs through the section — God has separated you from the peoples Leviticus 20:24, and has separated certain creatures as unclean.
The daily discrimination at the table and the moral discrimination in the code are presented as one habit.
And the closing verse is where the whole central section of the book comes to rest.
You shall be holy to me, for I, Yahweh, am holy, and have set you apart from the peoples, that you should be mine Leviticus 20:26.
The same sentence opened this section nine chapters earlier, at the end of the food laws Leviticus 11:44–45. There the ground was the exodus; here it is possession — that you should be mine.
Separation is not offered as evidence of merit. It is described as ownership, and the holiness asked for is a resemblance to the owner.
settled What this mark means