Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Leviticus 20:2 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 2. 2Again, 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.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse assigns an ancient communal death penalty for giving offspring to Molech.
Read It With
- Leviticus 20:1-5
Start with 20:1-5 rather than Leviticus 20:2 alone. In that complete movement, this verse assigns an ancient communal death penalty for giving offspring to Molech. The unit's controlling claim is: The native or resident outsider who gives offspring to Molech faces stoning, and the community is condemned if it hides its eyes from the act.
Why This Verse Appears Here
This verse assigns an ancient communal death penalty for giving offspring to Molech. Its place in Leviticus 20:1-5 matters because leviticus places this unit within the penalty sequence that revisits Molech, mediums, sexual and kinship laws, land, food distinctions, and chosen status. Its particular contribution is: The native or resident outsider who gives offspring to Molech faces stoning, and the community is condemned if it hides its eyes from the act.
Follow the Context
- The unit opens the particular procedure, case, scene, or instruction named “Molech child-giving brings communal and divine judgment.”
- The native or resident outsider who gives offspring to Molech faces stoning, and the community is condemned if it hides its eyes from the act.
- The unit closes with this interpretive boundary: The law exposes child sacrifice as grave harm; it does not authorize mobs, religious vigilantism, or accusations without evidence.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
Leviticus 20:2 does not turn its distinct contribution—assigns an ancient communal death penalty for giving offspring to Molech—into a free-standing rule; the law exposes child sacrifice as grave harm; it does not authorize mobs, religious vigilantism, or accusations without evidence.
What Remains True
Assigns an ancient communal death penalty for giving offspring to Molech. Within Leviticus 20:1-5, this contributes to the larger claim that the native or resident outsider who gives offspring to Molech faces stoning, and the community is condemned if it hides its eyes from the act.
How It Can Shape Life
- When teaching Leviticus 20:2, keep the verse inside Leviticus 20:1-5. Hold this boundary: The law exposes child sacrifice as grave harm; it does not authorize mobs, religious vigilantism, or accusations without evidence. Apply only the noncoercive truth the complete unit supports.
Teach It Back
Explain Leviticus 20:2's contribution to Leviticus 20:1-5. 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 20:1-5 — Molech child-giving brings communal and divine judgmentSources 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 20:1-5, 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 20:1-5
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 20:1-5
Open source ↗