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You must be sure to obey my statutes.[a] I am the Lord who sanctifies you.

Family Life and Sexual Prohibitions[b]

“‘If anyone[c] curses his father or mother[d] he must be put to death. He has cursed his father or mother; his blood guilt is on himself.[e] 10 If a man[f] commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife,[g] both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.

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Footnotes

  1. Leviticus 20:8 tn Heb “And you shall keep my statutes and you shall do them.” This appears to be a kind of verbal hendiadys, where the first verb is a modifier of the action of the second verb (see GKC 386 §120.d, although שָׁמַר [shamar, “to keep”] is not cited there; cf. Lev 22:31, etc.).
  2. Leviticus 20:9 sn Compare the regulations in Lev 18:6-23.
  3. Leviticus 20:9 tn Heb “If a man a man who.”
  4. Leviticus 20:9 tn Heb “makes light of his father and his mother.” Almost all English versions render this as some variation of “curses his father or mother.”
  5. Leviticus 20:9 tn Heb “his blood [plural] is in him.” Cf. NAB “he has forfeited his life”; TEV “is responsible for his own death.”sn The rendering “blood guilt” refers to the fact that the shedding of blood brings guilt on those who shed it illegitimately (even the blood of animals shed illegitimately, Lev 17:4; cf. the background of Gen 4:10-11). If the community performs a legitimate execution, however, the blood guilt rests on the person who has been legitimately executed (see the remarks and literature cited in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 328).
  6. Leviticus 20:10 tn Heb “And a man who.” The syntax here and at the beginning of the following verses elliptically mirrors that of v. 9, which justifies the rendering as a conditional clause.
  7. Leviticus 20:10 tc The reading of the LXX minuscule mss has been followed here (see the BHS footnote a-a). The MT has a dittography, repeating “a man who commits adultery with the wife of” (see the explanation in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 328). The duplication found in the MT is reflected in some English versions, e.g., KJV, ASV, NASB, NIV.

Keep my decrees(A) and follow them. I am the Lord, who makes you holy.(B)

“‘Anyone who curses their father(C) or mother(D) is to be put to death.(E) Because they have cursed their father or mother, their blood will be on their own head.(F)

10 “‘If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife(G)—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death.(H)

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