Leviticus 20 · a question people ask
Why does chapter 20 go over chapter 18 again?
The two chapters speak of the same wrongs in different ways. Chapter 18 gives commands, "You shall not give any of your children as a sacrifice to Molech" (18:21), with one penalty at the end for all of them: to be "cut off from among their people" (18:29). Chapter 20 names the penalty for each: "who gives any of his offspring to Molech shall surely be put to death" (20:2). It also tells the people what they are to do: "The people of the land shall stone that person with stones" (20:2). The chapter doesn't say why it comes back to these laws. Near their ends both chapters give the same warning: keep the LORD's statutes, so that the land doesn't vomit you out (18:26-28; 20:22).
The verses
““‘You shall not give any of your children as a sacrifice to Molech. You shall not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.”
“You therefore shall keep my statutes and my ordinances, and shall not do any of these abominations; neither the native-born, nor the stranger who lives as a foreigner among you (for the men of the land that were before you had done all these abominations, and the land became defiled), that the land not vomit you out also, when you defile it, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. “‘For whoever shall do any of these abominations, even the souls that do them shall be cut off from among their people.”
““Moreover, you shall tell the children of Israel, ‘Anyone of the children of Israel, or of the strangers who live as foreigners in Israel, who gives any of his offspring to Molech shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone that person with stones.”
““‘You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my ordinances, and do them, that the land where I am bringing you to dwell may not vomit you out.”