Leviticus 20
Leviticus Chapter 20, Explained
God prescribes penalties for the sins named earlier, especially giving children to Molech, consulting mediums, and forbidden sexual unions. He calls Israel to sanctify themselves and be holy, for he is the LORD who sanctifies them. The chapter closes by urging the people to separate clean from unclean and to be holy because God has severed them from other peoples to be his own.
Key verses from Leviticus 20
“Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the LORD your God.”
Leviticus 20:7
“And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them: I am the LORD which sanctify you.”
Leviticus 20:8
What happens in Leviticus 20
The LORD commands that anyone who gives his children to Molech be put to death, and that if the people hide their eyes from it, God himself will set his face against that man and his family. Those who turn to mediums and wizards will be cut off. God calls the people to sanctify themselves and be holy, for he is the LORD who sanctifies them. Penalties follow for cursing parents, adultery, incest, homosexual acts, and bestiality, many carrying the death sentence or being cut off.
God then gives the reason: Israel must keep his statutes so the land does not vomit them out as it did the nations he is casting out. He has separated them from other peoples and calls them to put a difference between clean and unclean. They shall be holy, for the LORD is holy and has severed them to be his own.
Where Leviticus 20 sits
This chapter revisits the prohibitions of chapter 18 and attaches consequences, functioning as the enforcement counterpart to the Holiness Code. Molech worship, which involved child sacrifice, and occult practices are treated as ultimate betrayals of the covenant. The severity reflects a nation being formed as God's holy people in the midst of cultures that normalized these acts. The recurring emphasis is separation: Israel is set apart to belong wholly to God.
Themes in Leviticus 20
Set apart to belong. The chapter's climax is that God has severed Israel from other peoples that they should be his. Holiness is belonging to God, being his treasured possession. The penalties guard that identity. To be holy is not merely to behave but to be claimed and set apart for God himself.
God sanctifies his people. Twice God says I am the LORD which sanctify you. Even as he commands sanctify yourselves, he names himself the true source of their holiness. The people's effort and God's work are held together. They pursue holiness, yet it is his gift, a making holy that comes from him and not their striving.
Sin against the vulnerable is grave. The gravest penalties fall on child sacrifice to Molech and on the corruption of the family. God will not hide his eyes even when the community does. His holiness is fierce toward what destroys children and households. The severity reveals how seriously he takes the protection of the weakest and the integrity of the home.
How Leviticus 20 points to Jesus
This chapter presses two truths together: God commands sanctify yourselves, and God declares I am the LORD which sanctify you. The New Testament resolves the tension in Christ. Paul writes that Jesus was made unto us sanctification, and that the church is sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints. What Israel could only pursue imperfectly, Christ supplies. Peter applies the very language of a people severed to be God's own to the church, calling believers a holy nation, a peculiar people, that they may show forth God's praises. The death penalties of this chapter also declare the wages of sin, penalties Christ absorbed at the cross so that the guilty might instead be made holy. In him, God both sanctifies his people and calls them to live out the holiness he has given.
A thought to carry
God's word to Israel was tender under the severity: you are severed to be mine. Holiness is not first about rules but about belonging to God. And he does not leave you to manufacture it; he says I am the LORD who sanctifies you. Receive your holiness as his gift before you labor to live it.
A prayer. Lord, you have set me apart to be your own, and you are the one who makes me holy. I cannot sanctify myself by striving. Thank you that in Jesus you are made my holiness. Let me live as one who belongs to you. Amen.
Want to sit with this chapter for yourself? Read all of Leviticus 20 in the King James Version, then open The Living Bread to ask any question about it and pray with others, free.
Questions people ask about Leviticus 20
How can God command sanctify yourselves and also say I am the LORD which sanctify you?
Both are true at once. Holiness is God's gift and the believer's pursuit. He sets his people apart and makes them holy, and precisely because of that they are to live it out. The command never means earning acceptance by effort; it means becoming in practice what God has already declared them to be. In Christ this is fully resolved, for he is made our sanctification.
Why are the penalties in this chapter so severe?
Because the sins strike at the heart of the covenant: worshiping Molech by sacrificing children, consulting the dead, and corrupting the family. These acts destroyed the vulnerable and defiled the people God was forming for himself. The severity marks how gravely God regards the protection of children and the household. Christ later bore such penalties himself, that mercy might reach even the guilty.
Every chapter in Leviticus
← Leviticus 19 · The book of Leviticus · The gospel · Leviticus 21 →