Leviticus 20:27

A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
man	וְאִ֣ישׁ ve.'Ish	H376	a man as an individual or a male person · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
woman	אִשָּׁ֗ה 'i.Shah	H802	a woman · noun, common feminine singular absolute
hath	כִּֽי ki-	H3588	(by implication) very widely used as a relative conjunc… · particle
spirit	א֛וֹב 'ov	H178	properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
wizard	יִדְּעֹנִ֖י yi.de.'o.Ni	H3049	properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
surely	מ֣וֹת Mot	H4191	to die (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal infinitive absolute
death	יוּמָ֑תוּ yu.Ma.tu	H4191	to die (literally or figuratively) · verb, hophal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
stone	יִרְגְּמ֥וּ yir.ge.Mu	H7275	to cast together (stones) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
stones	בָּאֶ֛בֶן ba.'E.ven	H68	a stone · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
blood	דְּמֵיהֶ֥ם de.mei.Hem	H1818	blood (as that which when shed causes death) of man or… · noun, common masculine 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

Leviticus 19:31 Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.
Leviticus 20:6 And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face agains…
1 Samuel 28:7-9 Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and enquire of her. And his servants sa…
Exodus 22:18 Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.
Deuteronomy 18:10-12 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an obs…

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

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Leviticus 20:22–end

The last verse is a particular law, which comes in after the general conclusion, as if omitted in its proper place: it is for the putting of those to death that dealt with familiar spirits, Lev 20:27. It would be an affront to God and to his lively oracles, a scandal to the country, and a temptation to ignorant bad people, to consult them, if such were known and suffered to live among them. Those that are in league with the devil have in effect made a covenant with death and an agreement with hell, and so shall their doom be. The rest of these verses repeat and inculcate what had been said before; for to that unthinking forgetful people it was requisite that there should be line upon line, a…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Leviticus 20:24

I . . . have separated you from other people--Their selection from the rest of the nations was for the all-important end of preserving the knowledge and worship of the true God amid the universal apostasy; and as the distinction of meats was one great means of completing that separation, the law about making a difference between clean and unclean beasts is here repeated with emphatic solemnity. Next: Leviticus Chapter 21

Adam Clarke on Leviticus 20:27

A familiar spirit - A spirit or demon, which, by magical rites, is supposed to be bound to appear at the call of his employer. See the notes on Gen 41:8; Exo 7:11 (note), Exo 7:22 (note), Exo 7:25 (note); and Lev 19:31 (note). From the accounts we have of the abominations both of Egypt and Canaan, we may blush for human nature; for wherever it is without cultivation, and without the revelation of God, it is every thing that is vile in principle and detestable in practice. Nor would any part of the habitable globe materially differ from Egypt and Canaan, had they not that rule of righteousness, the revealed Law of God, and had not life and immortality been brought to light by the Gospel among…

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John Gill

The Church Fathers

The man or the woman who had a ventriloquist or a sorcerer, will die without remedy. You will stone them. They are guilty. Who are you referring to? The man and the woman, or the man and the ventriloquist, or the woman and the ventriloquist or sorcerer? Most likely, it looks like this: not only who has, but also who has.
— Augustine of Hippo, QUESTIONS ON LEVITICUS, Q. 77 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Crucifixion — A common mode of punishment among heathen nations in early times. It is not certain whether it was known among the ancient Jews; probably it was not. The modes of capital punishment according to the…
Familiar spirit — Sorcerers or necormancers, who professed to call up the dead to answer questions, were said to have a “familiar spirit” (Deut. 18:11; 2 Kings 21:6; 2 Chr. 33:6; Lev. 19:31; 20:6; Isa. 8:19; 29:4).…
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…
Wizard — A pretender to supernatural knowledge and power, “a knowing one,” as the original Hebrew word signifies. Such an one was forbidden on pain of death to practise his deceptions (Lev. 19:31; 20:6, 27; 1…
Divination · The law: Punished with death those who used — The law: Punished with death those who used
Familiar Spirits · Consulting of, forbid — Consulting of, forbid
Sorcery · Punishment for — Punishment for
Witchcraft · Law concerning — Law concerning

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 20:27

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Leviticus 20:22–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Leviticus 20:24

Adam Clarke on Leviticus 20:27

John Gill

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Leviticus 20:27

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Leviticus 20:22–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Leviticus 20:24

Adam Clarke on Leviticus 20:27

John Gill

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

John Calvin on Leviticus 20:25–end

Keil & Delitzsch on Leviticus 20:27–end

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Leviticus 20:24

Rashi on Leviticus 20:27