Imamat 19:26-31

Blood, Hair, and Body

19:26 “‘You must not eat anything with the blood still in it. ¹  You must not practice either divination or soothsaying. ²  19:27 You must not round off the corners of the hair on your head or ruin the corners of your beard. ³  19:28 You must not slash your body for a dead person ⁴  or incise a tattoo on yourself. ⁵  I am the Lord. 19:29 Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, ⁶  so that the land does not practice prostitution and become full of lewdness. ⁷ 

Purity, Honor, Respect, and Honesty

19:30 “‘You must keep my Sabbaths and fear my sanctuary. I am the Lord. 19:31 Do not turn to the spirits of the dead and do not seek familiar spirits ⁸  to become unclean by them. I am the Lord your God.

Imamat 20:6

Prohibition against Spiritists and Mediums ⁹ 

20:6 “‘The person who turns to the spirits of the dead and familiar spirits ¹⁰  to commit prostitution by going after them, I will set my face ¹¹  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 ¹²  has in them a spirit of the dead or a familiar spirit ¹³  must be put to death. They must pelt them with stones; ¹⁴  their blood guilt is on themselves.’”

[19:26]  ¹ tn Heb “You shall not eat on the blood.” See the extensive remarks in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 319-20, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 132-33. The LXX has “on the mountains,” suggesting that this is a prohibition against illegitimate places and occasions of worship, not the eating of blood.

[19:26]  ² tn Heb “You shall not practice divination and you shall not practice soothsaying”; cf. NRSV “practice augury or witchcraft.” For suggestions regarding the practices involved see B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 133, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 320.

[19:27]  ³ tc Heb “and you [singular] shall not ruin the corner of your [singular] beard.” Smr, LXX, Syriac, and Tg. Ps.-J. have the plural pronouns (i.e., “you” and “your” plural) rather than the singular of the MT.

[19:28]  ⁴ tn Heb “And slash for the soul you shall not give.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul, person, life”) can sometimes refer to a “dead person” (cf. Lev 21:1, 5; 22:5). See J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 306, 320-21.

[19:28]  ⁵ tn Heb “and a writing of incision you shall not give in you.”

[19:29]  ⁶ tn Heb “to make her practice harlotry.” Some recent English versions regard this as religious or temple prostitution (cf. TEV, CEV).

[19:29]  ⁷ tn Heb “and the land become full of lewdness.” Regarding the term “lewdness,” see the note on Lev 18:17 above.

[19:31]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ sn For structure and coherence in Lev 20:6-27 see the note on v. 27 below.

[20:6]  ¹⁰ tn See the note on the phrase “familiar spirits” in Lev 19:31 above.

[20:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “I will give my faces.”

[20:27]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ tn See the note on the phrase “familiar spirit” in Lev 19:31 above.

[20:27]  ¹⁴ 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).