Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Leviticus 20:2
Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever [he be] of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth [any] of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones.
2. Moreover ] This introduction shews that the words that follow do not stand in their original context, but are an extract from a body of laws.
Lev 20:2-3 appear to be inconsistent. In 2 the offender is to be stoned by the people, in 3 he is to be cut off by some kind of divine visitation. Probably we may trace here the juxtaposition of two sources, while for the sake of harmonizing them Lev 20:4-5 were added.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Molech, literally, the King, called also Moloch, Milcom, and Malcham, was known in later times as the abomination of the Ammonites 1Ki 11:5. He appears to have been the fire-god of the eastern nations; related to, and sometimes made identical with, Baal, the sun-god. The nature of the rite and of the impious custom called passing children through the fire to Molech is very doubtful. The practices appear to have been essentially connected with magical arts, probably also with unlawful lusts, and with some particular form of profane swearing. The rite in the time of Moses belonged to the region rather of magic than of definite idolatrous worship, and may have been practiced as a lustral charm, or fire-baptism, for the children of incest and adultery.
Lev 20:2
Stone him with stones – The commonest form of capital punishment. It was probably preferred as being the one in which the execution was the act of the whole congregation.
Lev 20:3
Defile my sanctuary – i. e. pollute the people as identified with their sanctuary.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Lev 20:2-27
He shall surely be put to death.
Penal sanctions
This chapter, directly or indirectly, casts no little light on some most fundamental and practical questions regarding the administration of justice in dealing with criminals. We may learn here what, in the mind of the King of kings, is the primary object of the punishment of criminals against society. First and foremost is the satisfaction of outraged justice, and of the regal majesty of the supreme and holy God; the vindication of the holiness of the Most High against that wickedness of men which would set at nought the Holy One and overturn that moral order which He has established. Again and again the crime itself is given as the reason for the penalty, inasmuch as by such iniquity in the midst of Israel the holy sanctuary of God among them was profaned. But if this is set forth as the fundamental reason for the infliction of the punishment, it is not represented as the only object. If, as regards the criminal himself, the punishment is a satisfaction and expiation to justice for his crime, on the other hand, as regards the people, the punishment is intended for their moral good and purification (see Lev 20:14). Both of these principles are of such a nature that they must be of perpetual validity. The government or legislative power that loses sight of either of them is certain to go wrong, and the people will be sure, sooner or later, to suffer in morals by the error. In the light we have now, it is easy to see what are the principles according to which, in various cases, the punishments were measured out. Evidently, in the first place, the penalty was determined, even as equity demands, by the intrinsic heinousness of the crime. A second consideration, which evidently had place, was the danger involved in each crime to the moral and spiritual well-being of the community; and, we may add, in the third place, the degree to which the people were likely to be exposed to the contagion of certain crimes prevalent in the nations immediately about them. As regards the crimes specified, the criminal law of modern Christendom does not inflict the penalty of death in a single possible case here mentioned; and, to the mind of many, the contrasted severity of the Mosaic code presents a grave difficulty. And yet, if one believes, on the authority of the teaching of Christ, that the theocratic government of Israel is not a fable, but a historic fact, although he may still have much difficulty in recognising the righteousness of this code, he will be slow on this account either to renounce his faith in the Divine authority of this chapter or to impugn the justice of the holy King of Israel in charging Him with undue severity, and will rather patiently await some other solution of the problem than the denial of the essential equity of these laws. But there are several considerations which, for many, will greatly lessen, if they do not wholly remove, the difficulty which the case presents. In the first place, as regards the punishment of idolatry with death, we have to remember that, from a theocratic point of view, idolatry was essentially high treason, the most formal repudiation possible of the supreme authority of Israels King. If, even in our modern states, the gravity of the issues involved in high treason has led men to believe that death is not too severe a penalty for an offence aimed directly at the subversion of governmental order, how much more must this be admitted when the government is not of fallible man, but of the most holy and infallible God? And when, besides this, we recall the atrocious cruelties and revolting impurities which were inseparably associated with that idolatry, we shall have still less difficulty in seeing that it was just that the worshipper of Molech should die. And as decreeing the penalty of death for sorcery and similar practices, it is probable that the reason for this is to be found in the close connection of these with the prevailing idolatry. But it is in regard to crimes against the integrity and purity of the family that we find the most impressive contrast between this penal code and those of modern times. Although, unhappily, adultery and, less commonly, incest, and even, rarely, the unnatural crimes mentioned in this chapter, are not unknown in modern Christendom, yet, while the law of Moses punished all these with death, modern law treats them with comparative leniency, or even refuses to regard some forms of these offences as crimes. What then? Shall we hasten to the conclusion that we have advanced on Moses? that this law was certainly unjust in its severity? or is it possible that modern law is at fault in that it has fallen below those standards of righteousness which rule in the kingdom of God? One would think that by any man who believes in the Divine origin of the theocracy only one answer could be given. Assuredly, one cannot suppose that God judged of a crime with undue severity; and if not, is not then Christendom, as it were, summoned by this penal code of the theocracy–after making all due allowance for different conditions of society into revise its estimate of the moral gravity of these and other offences? We do well to heed this fact, that not merely unnatural crimes, such as sodomy, bestiality, and the grosser forms of incest, but adultery, is by God ranked in the same category as murder. Is it strange? For what are crimes of this kind but assaults on the very being of the family? Where there is incest or adultery we may truly say the family is murdered; what murder is to the individual, that, precisely, are crimes of this class to the family. In the theocratic code these were, therefore, made punishable with death; and, we venture to believe, with abundant reason. Is it likely that God was too severe? or must we not rather fear that man, ever lenient to prevailing sins, in our day has become falsely and unmercifully merciful, kind with a most perilous and unholy kindness? Still harder will it be for most of us to understand why the death-penalty should have been also affixed to cursing or smiting a father or a mother, an extreme form of rebellion against parental authority. We must, no doubt, bear in mind, as in all these cases, that a rough people, like those just emancipated slaves, required a severity of dealing which with finer natures would not be needed; and also, that the fact of Israels call to be a priestly nation bearing salvation to mankind, made every disobedience among them the graver crime, as tending to so disastrous issues, not for Israel alone, but for the whole race of man which Israel was appointed to bless. On an analogous principle we justify military authority in shooting the sentry found asleep at his post. Still, while allowing for all this, one can hardly escape the inference that in the sight of God rebellion against parents must be a more serious offence than many in our time have been wont to imagine. And the more that we consider how truly basal to the order of government and of society is both sexual purity and the maintenance of a spirit of reverence and subordination to parents, the easier we shall find it to recognise the fact that if in this penal code there is doubtless great severity, it is yet the severity of governmental wisdom and true paternal kindness on the part of the high King of Israel, who governed that nation with intent, above all, that they might become, in the highest sense, a holy nation in the midst of an ungodly world, and so become the vehicle of blessing to others. And God thus judged that it was better that sinning individuals should die without mercy than that family government and family purity should perish, and Israel, instead of being a blessing to the nations, should sink with them into the mire of universal moral corruption. And it is well to observe that this law, if severe, was most equitable and impartial in its application. We have here, in no instance, torture; the scourging which in one case is enjoined is limited elsewhere to the forty stripes save one. Neither have we discrimination against any class or either sex; nothing like that detestable injustice of modern society which turns the fallen woman into the street with pious scorn, while it often receives the betrayer and even the adulterer–in most cases the more guilty of the two–into the best society. Nothing have we here, again, which could justify by example the insistence of many, through a perverted humanity, when a murderess is sentenced for her crime to the scaffold, her sex should purchase a partial immunity from the penalty of crime. The Levitical law is as impartial as its Author; even if death be the penalty the guilty one must die, whether man or woman. (S. H. Kellogg, D. D.)
Stone him with stones.
Lapidation
Lapidation, as is well known, was frequently resorted to by excited mobs for the exercise of summary justice or revenge. But as a legal punishment it was not usual in the ancient world; it is only mentioned as a Macedonian and a Spanish custom, and as having been occasionally employed by the Romans. Among the Hebrews, however, it was very common; it was counted as the first and severest of the four modes of inflicting capital punishment–the three others being burning, beheading, and strangling–and it was in the Pentateuch ordained for a variety of offences, especially those associated with idolatry and incest; in certain cases it was even inflicted upon animals; and its application was by the Rabbins considerably extended. As regards the proceedings observed, the Bible contains no hints except the statements that it took place without the precincts of the town, and that the men by whose testimony the criminal had been convicted were obliged to throw the first stones. But the Mishnah gives the following account, some features of which are possibly of remoter antiquity: When the offender is being led away to the place of execution, an official remains at the door of the law-court, while a man on horseback is stationed at some distance, but so that the former can see him wave a handkerchief, which he does when any one comes declaring that he has something to say in favour of the condemned; in this case the horseman at once hastens to stop the procession; if the convicted himself maintains that he can offer proofs of his innocence or extenuating circumstances, he is taken back before the tribunals; and this may be repeated four or five times, if there appears to be the least foundation for his assertions. A herald precedes him all the while, exclaiming, So-and-so is being led out to be stoned to death for this and this offence, and so-and-so are the witnesses; whosoever has to say anything that might save him let him come forward and say it. Having arrived about ten yards from the appointed spot, he is publicly called upon to confess his sins; for whosoever confesses his sins has a share in the future life; if he is too illiterate to confess, he is ordered to say, Let my death be the expiation for all my sins. At four yards from the place he is partially stripped of his garments. When the procession has at last reached its destination, he is conducted upon a scaffolding, the height of which is that of two men, and after drinking wine mingled with myrrh, to render him less sensible to pain, he is by one of the witnesses pushed down, so that he falls upon his back; if he is not killed by the fall the other witness throws a stone upon his breast; and if he is still alive all the people present cover him with stones. When the corpse, which is usually nailed to the cross, is in a state of decomposition, the bones are collected and burnt in a separate place; then his relatives pay visits to the judges and the witnesses, in order to prove that they bear them no hatred, and that they acknowledge the justice of the sentence; and they must show their grief by no external mark of mourning. (M. M. Kalisch, Ph. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 2. That giveth any of his seed unto Molech] To what has been said in the note on Le 18:21, we may add, that the rabbins describe this idol, who was probably a representative or emblematical personification of the solar influence, as made of brass, in the form of a man, with the head of an ox; that a fire was kindled in the inside, and the child to be sacrificed to him was put in his arms, and roasted to death. Others say that the idol, which was hollow, was divided into seven compartments within; in one of which they put flour, in the second turtle-doves, in the third a ewe, in the fourth a ram, in the fifth a calf, in the sixth an ox, and in the seventh a child, which, by heating the statue on the outside, were all burnt alive together. I question the whole truth of these statements, whether from Jewish or Christian rabbins. There is no evidence of all this in the sacred writings. And there is but presumptive proof, and that not very strong, that human sacrifices were at all offered to Molech by the Jews. The passing through the fire, so frequently spoken of, might mean no more than a simple rite of consecration to the service of this idol. Probably a kind of ordeal was meant, the persons passing suddenly through the flame of a large fire, by which, though they might be burnt or scorched, yet they were neither killed nor consumed. Or they might have passed between two large fires, as a sort of purification. See Clarke on Le 20:14; and “Le 18:21“.
Caesar, in his history of the Gallic war, lib. vi., c. 16, mentions a custom of the Druids similar to this. They made an image of wickerwork, inclosed those in it whom they had adjudged to death, and, setting the whole on fire, all were consumed together.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Here follow the punishments of the crimes forbidden in the former chapters.
The strangers; not only such as were proselytes, but all others, these being gross immoralities, and such as the precepts of Noah reached to, and such as the laws of nature and nations obliged them to. And therefore the toleration of such actions was not only against reason of state, and the interest of the commonwealth of Israel, and dangerous to the infection and destruction of the Israelites by the imitation of such examples, but also against the light of nature and laws of humanity.
Unto Molech, or to any other idol; for the reason of the law equally concerns all. See Lev 18:21.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. Whosoever . . . giveth any of hisseed unto Molech(See on Le18:21).
the people of the land shallstone him with stones, c.Criminals who were condemned to bestoned were led, with their hands bound, without the gates to a smalleminence, where was a large stone placed at the bottom. When they hadapproached within ten cubits of the spot, they were exhorted toconfess, that, by faith and repentance, their souls might be saved.When led forward to within four cubits, they were stripped almostnaked, and received some stupefying draught, during which thewitnesses prepared, by laying aside their outer garments, to carryinto execution the capital sentence which the law bound them to do.The criminal, being placed on the edge of the precipice, was thenpushed backwards, so that he fell down the perpendicular height onthe stone lying below: if not killed by the fall, the second witnessdashed a large stone down upon his breast, and then the “peopleof the land,” who were by-standers, rushed forward, and withstones completed the work of death (Mat 21:44Act 7:58).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Again thou shalt say to the children of Israel,…. The body of the people by their elders, and the heads of their tribes; for the following laws were binding on them all:
whosoever [he be] of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel; everyone of the people of Israel, of whatsoever age, sex, or condition of life: and not they only, but the strangers and proselytes; and not the proselytes of righteousness only, but the proselytes of the gate, who, as well as the others, were to shun idolatry, and other impieties and immoralities after mentioned:
that giveth [any] of his seed unto Molech; which Aben Ezra interprets of lying with an idolatrous woman, or a worshipper of Molech, the abomination or idol of the Ammonites, 1Ki 11:7; of which see
Le 18:21; but more than that is here intended, or even than causing their seed or offspring to pass through the fire to Molech, as in the place referred to; more is meant by it than a lustration of them, or a dedicating them to Molech, by delivering them to his priests to lead them between two fires for that purpose, but even the sacrificing of them to him; and so the Targum of Jonathan seems to understand it, which is,
“that makes (or sacrifices) of his seed Molech to be burnt in the fire:”
for that the Phoenicians or Canaanites, whose customs the Israelites were in danger of imitating, and therefore cautioned against, did sacrifice human creatures, and these the dearest to them, even their beloved and only begotten children, to Saturn, is certain, as Porphyry y and Eusebius z affirm, or to Hercules, as Pliny a, and both the same with Molech, or the sun:
he shall surely be put to death; by the hand of the civil magistrate, which death was to be by stoning, as follows:
the people of the land shall stone him with stones: that is, the people of the house of Israel, as both the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan; such as lived in that part of the country where the idolater lived, and where he committed the sin, or was condemned for it; of the manner of stoning, [See comments on Ac 7:58].
y De Abstinent. l. 2. c. 56. z De laudibus Constantin. c. 13. p. 646. Vid. Suidam in voce
. a Nat. Hist. l. 36. c. 5.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Whoever, whether an Israelite or a foreigner in Israel, dedicated of his seed (children) to Moloch (see Lev 18:21), was to be put to death. The people of the land were to stone him. , lapide obruere , is synonymous with , lit., lapidem jacere: this was the usual punishment appointed in the law for cases in which death was inflicted, either as the result of a judicial sentence, or by the national community.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(2) Again, thou shalt say.Better, And thou shalt say.
Whosoever he be.Better, What man soever there be, as the Authorised Version renders this phrase in Lev. 17:3. (See Note on Lev. 17:8.)
That giveth any of his seed unto Molech.It will be seen that whilst in Lev. 18:21 the law about Molech worship follows the laws of incest, the reverse is the case here, where it precedes those laws.
The people of the land.That is, the whole community (see Lev. 4:27), who have selected the judges, and in whose name sentence is passed by the judges, are bound to execute the sentence.
Shall stone him with stones.Lapidation was the first and the severest mode of capital punishment among the Hebrews, the three others being burning, beheading, and strangling. The Jewish canonists have tabulated the following eighteen cases in which death by stoning was inflicted: (1) of a man who has commerce with his own mother (chap 20:11); (2) or with his fathers wife (Lev. 20:12); (3) or with his daughter-in-law (Lev. 20:12); (4) or with a betrothed maiden (Deu. 22:23-24); (5) or with a male (Lev. 20:13); (6) or with a beast (Lev. 20:15); (7) of a woman who was guilty of lying with a beast (Lev. 20:16); (8) the blasphemer (Lev. 24:10-16); (9) the worshipper of idols (Deu. 17:2-5); (10) the one who gives his seed to Molech (Lev. 20:2); (11) the necromancer; (12) the wizard (Lev. 20:27); (13) the false prophet (Deu. 13:6); (14) the enticer to idolatry (Deu. 13:11); (15) the witch (Lev. 20:17); (16) the profaner of the Sabbath (Num. 15:32-36); (17) he that curses his parent (Lev. 20:9); and (18) the rebellious son (Deu. 21:18-21). As the Mosaic legislation only directs that the lapidation is to take place without the precincts of the city (Lev. 24:14; Num. 15:36), and that the witnesses upon whose evidence the criminal has been sentenced to death are to throw the first stone (Deu. 17:7), the administrators of the law during the second Temple decreed the following mode of carrying out the sentence. On his way from the court of justice to the place of execution a herald preceded the criminal, exclaiming, So-and-so is being led out to be stoned for this and this crime, and so-and-so are the witnesses; if any one has to say anything that might save him, let him come forward and say it. Within ten yards of the place of execution he was publicly admonished to confess his sins, within four yards he was stripped naked except a slight covering about his loins. After his hands had been bound, he was led upon a scaffolding about twice the height of a man. Here wine mingled with myrrh was mercifully given him to dull the pain of execution, and from here one of the witnesses pushed him down with great violence so that he fell upon his back. If the fall did not kill him, the other witness dashed a great stone on his breast, and if this did not kill him, all the people that stood by covered him with stones. The corpse was then nailed to the cross, and afterwards burnt. Hereupon the relatives visited both the judges and the witnesses to show that they bore no hatred towards them, and that the sentence was just. Not unfrequently, however, the excited multitude resorted to lapidation when they wished to inflict summary justice. This description will explain why the Jews said to Christ that the woman had to be stoned, and why He replied to her accusers that he who is without sin should cast the first stone (Joh. 8:5; Joh. 8:7); why the Jews wanted to stone Christ when they thought He was blaspheming (Joh. 10:31), and why they offered Him wine mingled with myrrh before his crucifixion (Mat. 27:34; Mat. 27:38; Mar. 15:23).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. Molech See Lev 18:21.
Or of the strangers So cruel were the rites accompanying the worship of this idol that the pagans resident among the Israelites were forbidden to practise it, through mercy to the innocent victims and to keep the Hebrews from becoming insensible through familiarity with this horrid practice.
Shall stone him Stoning was the ordinary method of capital punishment. It was practised in Egypt, Exo 8:26, and was in vogue among the Jews in the time of Christ.
Act 7:58. The criminal was placed on a rock or platform about twelve feet high, stripped naked, except the loins. The witnesses laid aside their outer garments, then pushed the criminal off the scaffold backwards, and then dashed a great stone upon his breast, if he was not killed by the fall, and all the people threw stones till he died.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Child Sacrifice To Molech And Involvement In The Occult Is Forbidden To All In The Land ( Lev 20:2-6 ).
Lev 20:2-3
“Moreover, you shall say to the children of Israel, Whoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel, who gives of his seed to Molech, he shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. I also will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people; because he has given of his seed to Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name.”
The horror of what Molech was comes out in the constant mention of him. He was the god of Ammon, but he demanded child sacrifice, and was clearly fairly widely worshipped in Canaan in a day when it was considered that the greater the sacrifice the greater the benefit received. His name was probably Melech (King) but the writers changed the vowels to the vowels used on bosheth (shame) in order to indicate their view of him.
Anyone, whether Israelite or resident alien, who encouraged the worship of Molech or gave to him their ‘seed’ was to be put to death without question. The ‘people of the land’ were to stone such a person with stones (see Deu 13:10; Deu 21:21). He had defiled ‘the land’. It was to be a people’s execution for the removal of evil from among them. The thought is probably that the execution should be carried out immediately on one who was an isolated case, and discovered in the act. The worship of Molech was to be allowed nowhere in the land by anyone. Stoning with stones was later especially the punishment for blasphemy, carried out by the people (Lev 20:27; Lev 24:23; Num 14:10; Num 15:35-36; Deu 8:9; Deu 13:10; Deu 17:5; Deu 21:21; Deu 22:21; Deu 22:24; Jos 7:25; 1Ki 12:18), and could be carried out immediately (compare Stephen – Acts 7).
Moreover God Himself would set His face against that man and cut him off from among his people, for by giving his seed to Molech he had defiled Yahweh’s Sanctuary, and profaned His holy name. So the people had to act to maintain the purity of the land, God Himself would act to maintain the purity of the Sanctuary.
The ‘people of the land’. Some see this as a technical description of a group of property owning aristocrats (compare 2Ki 25:19), others as signifying the whole people acting as one (compare Gen 42:6). In Genesis it means the indigenous population (Gen 23:7; Gen 23:12-13), but not so here. In Exo 5:5 it refers to a section of the common people in a particular place, which may well be its meaning here.
Lev 20:4-5
“And if the people of the land do at all hide their eyes from that man, when he gives of his seed to Molech, and do not put him to death, then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that play the harlot after him, to play the harlot with Molech, from among their people.”
But if the people of the land deliberately ‘hide their eyes’ and refrain from doing their duty and the worship becomes more prevalent, then this case is so bad that God Himself will step in to intervene. He will set His face against the man, his family, who will undoubtedly be involved with him in it, and with all others involved in the worship. They will all be cut off. This is because they are ‘playing the harlot’. They are looking to Molech rather than to their ‘husband’ Yahweh.
It is interesting that at this stage Molech is seen as the great enemy they will face in the land. This may be because he was particularly objectionable, or because at this stage they were close to Moab and Ammon where his worship was prevalent.
Lev 20:6
“And the person who turns to those who have familiar spirits, and to the wizards, to play the harlot after them, I will even set my face against that person, and will cut him off from among his people.”
And the same is to apply to the occult. Those who look to familiar spirits or to seekers after the dead, which is again described as ‘playing the harlot’ and being unfaithful to Yahweh, will discover that Yahweh sets His face against them and cuts them off from among the people. They will no longer be His. But we also have here again the contrast between life and death, what was ‘clean’ and what was ‘unclean’.
This too would have had special significance if it came at the time when Balaam had been called on to ‘fight’ against Israel (Numbers 22-24).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Lev 20:2. Shall stone him, &c. Compare Deu 7:2; Deu 7:26. Who, upon the face of these laws, could ever attempt to support so absurd a notion, as that idolatry was tolerated among the Jews? Yet such is the hypothesis of the admirable Voltaire! Bishop Warburton upon this law observes, that there were two cases in which the offender, here described, might escape punishment: first, when the crime could not be legally proved; or, secondly, when the magistrate was remiss in punishing. The divine lawgiver obviates both; and declares, that the infanticide shall suffer death by God’s own hand in an extraordinary manner. The supplial of the first defect is in these words, and I will set my face, &c. Lev 20:3. The supplial of the second is in these; and if the people of the land, &c. Lev 20:4-5.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Lev 20:2 Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever [he be] of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth [any] of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones.
Ver. 2. That giveth any of his seed unto Moloch. ] See Trapp on “ Lev 18:21 “ Lactantius reports out of “Pescennius Festus,” that the Carthaginians being overcome by Agathocles king of Sicily, and fearing lest their slackness in the service of Saturn – who is thought to be the same with Moloch – was the cause, offered unto him for a sacrifice no fewer than four hundred young gentlemen at once.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Again. See Lev 18:21. This is so serious that it must be repeated. There, only a command; here, the penalty.
children. Hebrew sons.
Molech. The king-idol. See note on Lev 18:21, where this law follows that on incest; while here it precedes it.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Whosoever: Lev 17:8, Lev 17:13, Lev 17:15
giveth: Lev 18:21, Deu 12:31, Deu 18:10, 2Ki 17:17, 2Ki 23:10, 2Ch 28:3, 2Ch 33:6, Psa 106:38, Isa 57:5, Isa 57:6, Jer 7:31, Jer 32:35, Eze 16:20, Eze 16:21, Eze 20:26, Eze 20:31, Eze 23:37, Eze 23:39, Act 7:43, Moloch.
Molech: The Rabbins describe this idol as made of brass sitting upon a throne of the same metal, in the form of a man, with the head of a calf, adorned with a royal crown, and his arms extended as if to embrace any one. When they offered any children to him, they heated the statue by a great fire kindled within, and the victim was put into his arms, and thus consumed. Others relate, that the idol, which was hollow, was divided into seven compartments within; in one of which they put flour, in the second turtles, in the third a ewe, in the fourth a ram, in the fifth a calf, in the sixth an ox, and the seventh a child; which were all burnt together by heating the statue inside. The account which Diodorus – l. xx.gives of the statue of Saturn, to which the Carthaginians, descendants of the Canaanites, sacrificed their children, is very similar. For they had a brazen stature of Saturn, stretching out his hands towards the ground, in such a manner that the children placed within them tumbled down into a pit full of fire. To this account Milton alludes, in Paradise Lost, B. 1. 392.
the people: Lev 20:27, Lev 24:14, Lev 24:23, Num 15:35, Num 15:36, Deu 13:10, Deu 13:11, Deu 17:5-7, Deu 21:21, Act 7:58, Act 7:59
Reciprocal: Jos 7:25 – all Israel 1Ki 11:5 – Milcom 2Ki 16:3 – made his son 2Ki 21:6 – he made Eze 14:7 – of the stranger Amo 5:26 – the tabernacle of your Moloch
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Lev 20:2. The people Here follow the punishments of the crimes forbidden in the former chapters.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
20:2 Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever [he be] of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth [any] of his seed unto {a} Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones.
(a) By Molech he means any type of idol, Lev 18:21