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12 If a man goes to bed[a] with his daughter-in-law, both of them must be put to death. They have committed perversion;[b] their blood guilt is on themselves. 13 If a man goes to bed with[c] a male as one goes to bed with a woman,[d] the two of them have committed an abomination. They must be put to death; their blood guilt is on themselves. 14 If a man has marital relations with both a woman and her mother,[e] it is lewdness.[f] Both he and they must be burned to death,[g] so there is no lewdness in your midst.

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Footnotes

  1. Leviticus 20:12 tn Heb “lies down with.” See note at v. 11.
  2. Leviticus 20:12 tn The Hebrew term תֶּבֶל (tevel, “perversion”) derives from the verb “to mix; to confuse” (cf. KJV, ASV “they have wrought confusion”).
  3. Leviticus 20:13 tn Heb “lies down with.” See note at v. 11.
  4. Leviticus 20:13 tn Heb “[as the] lyings of a woman.” The specific reference here is to homosexual intercourse between males.
  5. Leviticus 20:14 tn Heb “takes a woman and her mother.” The verb לָקַח (laqakh) is sometimes used idiomatically with אִשָּׁה (ʾishah) to mean “take a wife,” or “marry,” and may mean that here (cf. NIV, NASB). But the same expression in v. 21 probably does not imply marriage itself, but only the sexual act of marriage. This chapter uses different expressions for sexual relations, though the subtleties for exegesis are not clear. Since this Hebrew expression can imply marriage, the translation uses “marital relations” as the metaphor in vv. 14, 17, and 21.
  6. Leviticus 20:14 tn Regarding “lewdness,” see the note on Lev 18:17 above.
  7. Leviticus 20:14 tn Heb “in fire they shall burn him and them.” The active plural verb sometimes requires a passive translation (GKC 460 §144.f, g), esp. when no active plural subject has been expressed in the context. The present translation specifies “burned to death” because the traditional rendering “burnt with fire” (KJV, ASV; NASB “burned with fire”) could be understood to mean “branded” or otherwise burned, but not fatally.