Imamat 20:27

Prohibition against Spiritists and Mediums

20:27 “‘A man or woman who ¹  has in them a spirit of the dead or a familiar spirit ²  must be put to death. They must pelt them with stones; ³  their blood guilt is on themselves.’”

Imamat 24:14

24:14 “Bring the one who cursed outside the camp, and all who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the whole congregation is to stone him to death. ⁴ 

Imamat 24:16

24:16 and one who misuses ⁵  the name of the Lord must surely be put to death. The whole congregation must surely stone him, whether he is a foreigner or a native citizen; when he misuses the Name he must be put to death.

[20:27]  ¹ 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]  ² tn See the note on the phrase “familiar spirit” in Lev 19:31 above.

[20:27]  ³ 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).

[24:14]  ⁴ tn The words “to death” are supplied in the translation as a clarification; they are clearly implied from v. 16.

[24:16]  ⁵ sn See the note on v. 11 above.