Leviticus20:10–21

The prohibition and its penalty — Leviticus 18 restated structural / thematic — confirmed

The whole passage is the penalty-bearing twin of the prohibition-code in Leviticus 18. Cambridge: “Directions on the whole similar to those of Leviticus 18:6-20 … but adding penalties.” ⚙ The Verifier confirms the link lexically across the chapter — the shared signature pair is ‘er·wāh (nakedness, H6172, in 40 vv) bound to gâlâh (uncover, H1540, in 167 vv), plus case-specific words. Because these core lexemes are only moderately rare, the tier is structural, not verbal: a confirmed restatement of pattern, not a quotation.

Leviticus 18:6 · Leviticus 18:8 · Leviticus 18:22 · Leviticus 18:17

basis: shared lexemes across the restated code: H6172 ʻervâh (40 vv) + H1540 gâlâh (167 vv); case-specific ties e.g. Lev 20:13↔18:22 share H4904 mishkâb, H2145 zâkâr, H8441 tôwʻêbah, H7901 shâkab; Lev 20:14↔18:17 share H2154 zimmâh, H802 ʼishshâh, H3947 lâqach

The bestiality penalty and its prohibition — a rare-word seam (vv. 15, 12) verbal / quotation — confirmed

The prohibition of bestiality at Leviticus 18:23 is welded to its enacted penalties by two genuinely rare words. ⚙ The Verifier finds verse 15's death-sentence sharing with 18:23 the noun šə·ḵā·ḇə·tōw (his lying/emission, shᵉkôbeth, H7903) — a lexeme in only 4 verses of the whole OT. Distinct from that, verse 12's daughter-in-law case shares with 18:23 the noun te·ḇel (confusion, H8397), which occurs in only 2 verses anywhere — here in the prohibition and at v. 12 — so that the same rare word brands both incest-with-a-daughter-in-law and bestiality as violations of created order. Both ties are low-frequency enough that the verbal link is firm, not coincidental; note, however, that tebel stands in v. 12, not v. 15, and shᵉkôbeth in v. 15, not v. 12 — the two welds run on different words.

Leviticus 18:23 · Leviticus 20:12

basis: Lev 20:15↔18:23 share rare H7903 shᵉkôbeth (4 vv); Lev 20:12↔18:23 share rare H8397 tebel (2 vv) — two distinct low-frequency welds, each verse on its own word

"Childless" — the rare verdict that echoes to Abram and Coniah (vv. 20–21) verbal / quotation — confirmed

The chapter's mildest stated penalty, ‘ă·rî·rîm (childless, H6185), is a rare word — only four verses in the OT. ⚙ The Verifier records it as a confirmed verbal link to Abram's lament “I go childless” (Genesis 15:2) and Jeremiah's curse on Coniah, “Write ye this man childless” (Jeremiah 22:30). The same dread word that names a patriarch's grief and a king's curse here names the penalty for the lesser incests: a withered line, the un-doing of the generations the whole chapter labors to keep straight.

Genesis 15:2 · Jeremiah 22:30

basis: rare shared lexeme H6185 ʻărîyrîy (childless, in only 4 vv) links Lev 20:20–21 to Gen 15:2 and Jer 22:30

The uncle's wife — penalty welded to prohibition by a 3-verse word (v. 20) verbal / quotation — confirmed

Verse 20's dō·ḏā·ṯōw (his aunt / uncle's wife, dôwdâh, H1733) appears in only three verses in the whole OT. ⚙ The Verifier ties this rare lexeme directly to the prohibition at Leviticus 18:14 — together with the ‘er·wāh / gâlâh pair — making this one of the chapter's clearest verbal penalty-to-prohibition welds rather than a mere thematic parallel. The same rare dôwdâh also surfaces at Exodus 6:20, where Amram's marriage to his aunt Jochebed (Moses' own parents) is recorded — a union the later code forbids, the kind of pre-Sinai patriarchal marriage the chapter now rules out.

Leviticus 18:14 · Exodus 6:20

basis: rare shared lexeme H1733 dôwdâh (aunt, in 3 vv) links Lev 20:20 to Lev 18:14; also shared with Exod 6:20

The breeding-verb — bestiality drawn into the law of forbidden mixtures (v. 16) verbal / quotation — confirmed

Verse 16 describes the woman who “approaches any animal to mate with it” using lə·riḇ·‘āh (râbaʻ, H7250) — a verb that elsewhere means the lying-down of an animal to be bred. ⚙ The Verifier finds this rare verb (only 3 verses in the OT) shared with Leviticus 19:19, the law against letting “thy cattle gender with a diverse kind.” The same word that governs forbidden cross-breeding of beasts is turned upon the woman who descends to the beast's act, drawing bestiality into the wider Levitical horror of unlawful mixtures — the un-sorting of the kinds God set apart. Because râbaʻ is genuinely low-frequency, the link is a confirmed verbal seam, not a mere theme.

Leviticus 19:19

basis: rare shared lexeme H7250 râbaʻ (to crouch for breeding, in only 3 vv) links Lev 20:16 to Lev 19:19's law against mixed mating of cattle

Adultery and the death penalty restated in Deuteronomy (v. 10) structural / thematic — confirmed

The death-penalty for adultery is restated in Deuteronomy 22:22, where again “both of them shall die.” ⚙ The Verifier finds the two verses sharing ’ishshâh (woman/wife, H802), mûwth (die, H4191), and ’îsh (man, H376) — but all three are high-frequency words (686, 700, 1449 vv), so the connection is a confirmed thematic restatement of the same statute, not a verbal quotation. The link is real but must be argued from the shared legal pattern, not asserted from rare diction.

Deuteronomy 22:22

basis: shared high-frequency lexemes only — H802 ʼishshâh (686 vv), H4191 mûwth (700 vv), H376 ʼîysh (1449 vv); same legal pattern, not rare diction

"Their blood is upon him" — and the Hebrews 13:5 caution about flagging NT provenance flagged — verify source

The recurring formula “his blood shall be upon him” (vv. 11–16) Ellicott cross-references to Joshua 2:19. ⚙ A methodological note belongs here: where a New Testament use claims to quote an Old Testament line, the link must be flagged for source-verification before it is asserted — the canonical test-case is Joshua 1:5 quoted at Hebrews 13:5, whose exact Old-Testament provenance is debated. This unit contains no Joshua 1:5; but the same discipline applies to any claimed NT citation of this chapter's penalties (see the Christ section), which cross a Testament line and therefore cannot rest on shared Strong's numbers.

Joshua 2:19 · Ezekiel 22:10

basis: Ellicott's cross-reference to Josh 2:19 is a thematic echo of the blood-formula, not a lexical match in the index; flagged so the provenance of any claimed quotation is verified, not asserted (cf. the Josh 1:5→Heb 13:5 discipline)

The Law that demands death, and the One who bears iniquity away ancient/widely-held

This chapter's deepest verb is nâsâʼ (H5375), “to bear / lift”: the offender “shall bear his iniquity” (vv. 17, 19). ⚙ The same verb stands over the Servant of Isaiah 53:12, who “bore the sin of many” — and the Gospel's claim is that Christ lifts away the iniquity Leviticus could only command the guilty to carry. This is a widely-held canonical reading: the sacrificial bearing-of-sin in the priestly law points forward to the one who bears it vicariously. ⚙ Honesty check: Leviticus and Isaiah do share the same Hebrew verb nâsâʼ, but the Verifier counts it in 612 verses — a common word, not a rare one. So the lexical overlap is real but cannot bear a verbal/quotation tier; the connection is thematic (the motif of bearing iniquity), and its application to Christ is a New-Testament confession, argued, not derived from a shared Strong's number.

Leviticus 20:17 · Leviticus 20:19 · Isaiah 53:12 · 1 Peter 2:24

The adulteress not stoned — Christ and the penalty of Leviticus 20:10 ancient/widely-held

When the accusers cite “Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned” (John 8:5), they invoke precisely the sentence of Leviticus 20:10 and Deuteronomy 22:22. ⚙ Christ neither denies the law nor executes it: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone.” The scene holds the chapter's justice and the gospel's mercy in one frame — the penalty is real, and the only sinless Judge declines to invoke it. ⚙ This is a cross-Testament link (Greek Gospel ↔ Hebrew law): the Verifier finds no shared original-language lexeme, so the connection is thematic, argued from the explicit legal citation in John's narrative, never asserted as verbal. Whether John 7:53–8:11 belongs to the original text is itself a textual-criticism question, which sharpens the caution.

Leviticus 20:10 · John 8:5