Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Leviticus 20:13 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 13. 13If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse assigns death for male-male intercourse without authorizing modern violence.
Read It With
- Leviticus 20:10-21
Read through 20:10-21 and watch how each actor, material, status, or command relates. Leviticus 20:13 assigns death for male-male intercourse without authorizing modern violence; the whole unit establishes this: Adultery, kinship violations, male-male intercourse, intercourse with a woman and her mother, bestiality, menstruation, and other family relations receive varied death, cutting-off, burning, or childlessness sanctions.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Chapter 20 returns to many chapter 18 prohibitions and adds varied penalties; interpretation must hold the repeated acts and severe sanctions together. Within the whole book, this unit contributes: Adultery, kinship violations, male-male intercourse, intercourse with a woman and her mother, bestiality, menstruation, and other family relations receive varied death, cutting-off, burning, or childlessness sanctions. Within that movement, this verse assigns death for male-male intercourse without authorizing modern violence.
Follow the Context
- The unit opens the particular procedure, case, scene, or instruction named “Sexual prohibitions return with severe penalties and childlessness formulas.”
- Adultery, kinship violations, male-male intercourse, intercourse with a woman and her mother, bestiality, menstruation, and other family relations receive varied death, cutting-off, burning, or childlessness sanctions.
- The unit closes with this interpretive boundary: These penalties belong to an ancient legal rhetoric and cannot authorize execution, assault, conversion coercion, anti-LGBTQ abuse, or family violence.
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“their blood shall be upon them”
In plain language: The formula assigns a death penalty within this ancient legal text.
Chapter 20 attaches penalties to acts also listed in chapter 18.
Why it matters: Modern vigilantism and execution are not authorized.
How certain? very strongWhat This Verse Is Not Saying
Leviticus 20:13 does not authorize modern execution, assault, expulsion, threats, family rejection, or denial of care to LGBTQ people.
What Remains True
The verse pairs the male-male prohibition with a death sentence in this ancient code; denominational disagreement cannot hide either the wording or the severe ethical danger of its reception.
How It Can Shape Life
- Never use this text to execute, assault, threaten, expel, shame, or coerce LGBTQ people; discuss contemporary ethics through transparent interpretive and denominational reasoning.
Teach It Back
Explain Leviticus 20:13's contribution to Leviticus 20:10-21. Name the category involved, what the surrounding verses add, any material uncertainty, and what the verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Leviticus 20:10-21 — Sexual prohibitions return with severe penalties and childlessness formulasSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
Interpreters disagree over Priestly and Holiness composition, legal scope, ancient enforcement, kinship structures, sexual acts and rationales, moral versus ritual categories, resident-outside status, and how Jews and Christians should reason from these texts today. Material alternatives are stated without pretending the ethical stakes disappear.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: Leviticus 20:10-21, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Leviticus
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, ritual and legal vocabulary, names, clause relationships, KJV language controls, and translation limits.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Lev.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 20:10-21
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Leviticus with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
eBible.org distribution of the NET Bible, PDF generated 2025-12-31
Supports: Unit-bounded translator notes on Hebrew, syntax, ritual vocabulary, measures, textual questions, and older-English wording; silence is not treated as evidence.
Exact location: NET Bible Leviticus PDF, complete PDF pp. 1-99, translation and translator notes for 20:10-21
Open source ↗