Imamat 19:31

19:31 Do not turn to the spirits of the dead and do not seek familiar spirits ¹  to become unclean by them. I am the Lord your God.

Imamat 20:6

Prohibition against Spiritists and Mediums ² 

20:6 “‘The person who turns to the spirits of the dead and familiar spirits ³  to commit prostitution by going after them, I will set my face ⁴  against that person and cut him off from the midst of his people.

Imamat 20:27

Prohibition against Spiritists and Mediums

20:27 “‘A man or woman who ⁵  has in them a spirit of the dead or a familiar spirit ⁶  must be put to death. They must pelt them with stones; ⁷  their blood guilt is on themselves.’”

[19:31]  ¹ sn The prohibition here concerns those who would seek special knowledge through the spirits of the dead, whether the dead in general or dead relatives in particular (i.e., familiar spirits; see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 321, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 134). Cf. Lev 20:6 below.

[20:6]  ² sn For structure and coherence in Lev 20:6-27 see the note on v. 27 below.

[20:6]  ³ tn See the note on the phrase “familiar spirits” in Lev 19:31 above.

[20:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “I will give my faces.”

[20:27]  ⁵ tc Smr, LXX, Syriac, and some Targum mss have the relative pronoun אֲשֶׁר (’asher, “who, which”), rather than the MT’s כִּי (ki, “for, because, that”).

[20:27]  ⁶ tn See the note on the phrase “familiar spirit” in Lev 19:31 above.

[20:27]  ⁷ tn This is not the most frequently-used Hebrew verb for stoning, but a word that refers to the action of throwing, slinging, or pelting someone with stones (see the note on v. 2 above). Smr and LXX have “you [plural] shall pelt them with stones.”

[20:27]  sn At first glance Lev 20:27 appears to be out of place but, on closer examination, one could argue that it constitutes the back side of an envelope around the case laws in 20:9-21, with Lev 20:6 forming the front of the envelope (note also that execution of mediums and spiritists by stoning in v. 27 is not explicitly stated in v. 6). This creates a chiastic structure: prohibition against mediums and spiritists (vv. 6 and 27), variations of the holiness formula (vv. 7 and 25-26), and exhortations to obey the Lord’s statutes (and judgments; vv. 8 and 22-24). Again, in the middle are the case laws (vv. 9-21).