Leviticus 17:7

And they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils, after whom they have gone a whoring. This shall be a statute for ever unto them throughout their generations.

King James Version · Read in your translation · Open the Explore console

Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
offer	יִזְבְּח֥וּ yiz.be.Chu	H2076	to slaughter an animal (usually in sacrifice) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
sacrifices	זִבְחֵיהֶ֔ם ziv.chei.Hem	H2077	properly · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
devils	לַשְּׂעִירִ֕ם la.se.'i.Rim	H8163	shaggy · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
after	אַחֲרֵיהֶ֑ם 'a.cha.rei.Hem	H310	properly · cardinal number, masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
whoring	זֹנִ֖ים zo.Nim	H2181	to commit adultery (usually of the female · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural absolute
statute	חֻקַּ֥ת chu.Kat	H2708	an enactment · noun, common feminine singular construct
ever	עוֹלָ֛ם o.Lam	H5769	properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
generations	לְדֹרֹתָֽם le.do.ro.Tam	H1755	properly · preposition + noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

1 Corinthians 10:20 But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fello…
Exodus 34:15 Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and on…
Deuteronomy 32:17 They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.
2 Chronicles 11:15 And he ordained him priests for the high places, and for the devils, and for the calves which he had made.
Psalms 106:37 Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils,
Exodus 22:20 He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the LORD only, he shall be utterly destroyed.
Exodus 32:8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sa…
Leviticus 20:5 Then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go a whoring after him, to commit whore…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Leviticus 17:1-9

This statute obliged all the people of Israel to bring all their sacrifices to God's altar, to be offered there. And as to this matter we must consider, I. How it stood before. 1. It was allowed to all people to build altars, and offer sacrifices to God, where they pleased. Wherever Abraham had a tent he built an altar, and every master of a family was a priest to his own family, as Job 1:5. 2. This liberty had been an occasion of idolatry. When every man was his own priest, and had an altar of his own, by degrees, as they became vain in their imaginations, they invented gods of their own, and offered their sacrifices unto demons, Lev 17:7. The word signifies rough or hairy goats, because it…

Read the whole note in the console

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Leviticus 17:7

they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils--literally, "goats." The prohibition evidently alludes to the worship of the hirei-footed kind, such as Pan, Faunus, and Saturn, whose recognized symbol was a goat. This was a form of idolatry enthusiastically practised by the Egyptians, particularly in the nome or province of Mendes. Pan was supposed especially to preside over mountainous and desert regions, and it was while they were in the wilderness that the Israelites seem to have been powerfully influenced by a feeling to propitiate this idol. Moreover, the ceremonies observed in this idolatrous worship were extremely licentious and obscene, and the gross impurity of the rites gives…

Read the whole note in the console

Adam Clarke on Leviticus 17:7

They shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils - They shall not sacrifice לשעירים lasseirim, to the hairy ones, to goats. The famous heathen god, Pan, was represented as having the posteriors, horns, and ears of a goat; and the Mendesians, a people of Egypt, had a deity which they worshipped under this form. Herodotus says that all goats were worshipped in Egypt, but the he-goat particularly. It appears also that the different ape and monkey species were objects of superstitious worship; and from these sprang, not only Mendes and Jupiter Ammon, who was worshipped under the figure of a ram, but also Pan and the Sileni, with the innumerable herd of those imaginary beings, satyrs, dryads…

Dictionary and topics

Devil — (Gr. diabolos), a slanderer, the arch-enemy of man’s spiritual interest (Job 1:6; Rev. 2:10; Zech. 3:1). He is called also “the accuser of the brethen” (Rev. 12:10). In Lev. 17:7 the word “devil” is…
Goat — (1.) Heb. ‘ez, the she-goat (Gen. 15:9; 30:35; 31:38). This Hebrew word is also used for the he-goat (Ex. 12:5; Lev. 4:23; Num. 28:15), and to denote a kid (Gen. 38:17, 20). Hence it may be regarded…
Oath — A solemn appeal to God, permitted on fitting occasions (Deut. 6:13; Jer. 4:2), in various forms (Gen. 16:5; 2 Sam. 12:5; Ruth 1:17; Hos. 4:15; Rom. 1:9), and taken in different ways (Gen. 14:22;…
Punishments — The earliest theory of punishment current among mankind is doubtless the one of simple retaliation, “blood for blood.” Viewed historically, the first case of punishment for crime mentioned in…
Satyr — Hairy one. Mentioned in Greek mythology as a creature composed of a man and a goat, supposed to inhabit wild and desolate regions. The Hebrew word is rendered also “goat” (Lev. 4:24) and “devil”,…
Demons · Worship of — Worship of
Sacrifices · Offered to false gods, are offered to devils — Offered to false gods, are offered to devils
Satyr · A mythologi — A mythologi

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Leviticus 17:7

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Leviticus 17:1-9

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Leviticus 17:7

Adam Clarke on Leviticus 17:7

Dictionary and topics

Leviticus 17:7

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Leviticus 17:1-9

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Leviticus 17:7

Adam Clarke on Leviticus 17:7

Dictionary and topics

John Gill on Leviticus 17:7

John Calvin on Leviticus 17:1-9

Keil & Delitzsch on Leviticus 17:3-7

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Leviticus 17:7

Rashi on Leviticus 17:7