Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Leviticus 24:16 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 16. 16And he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the LORD, shall be put to death.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse states the ancient death penalty for blaspheming the Name for native and outsider alike.
Read It With
- Leviticus 24:10-16
Place Leviticus 24:16 inside 24:10-16. This verse states the ancient death penalty for blaspheming the Name for native and outsider alike. Its surrounding procedure or case makes the larger point: After a fight, an Israelite woman's son blasphemes the Name, is held until the LORD's decision, and the congregation stones him under a rule for native and outsider.
Why This Verse Appears Here
The unit needs this detail before it can reach its next action or distinction: this verse states the ancient death penalty for blaspheming the Name for native and outsider alike.
Follow the Context
- The unit opens the particular procedure, case, scene, or instruction named “A mixed-parentage man's blasphemy case moves from custody to execution.”
- After a fight, an Israelite woman's son blasphemes the Name, is held until the LORD's decision, and the congregation stones him under a rule for native and outsider.
- The unit closes with this interpretive boundary: The narrative names his mother's Israelite and father's Egyptian identities without making mixed ancestry the cause of wrongdoing; the execution is not a modern blasphemy law.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
Leviticus 24:16 does not authorize blasphemy executions, mob violence, forced religion, or punishment without modern due process and human-rights safeguards.
What Remains True
The blasphemy ruling culminates in congregational execution; the severity must be named without turning religious offense into a modern capital law.
How It Can Shape Life
- Protect free conscience, due process, and nonviolence, and answer offensive speech without mob punishment or religious terror.
Teach It Back
Explain Leviticus 24:16's contribution to Leviticus 24:10-16. 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 24:10-16 — A mixed-parentage man's blasphemy case moves from custody to executionSources 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 24:10-16, 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 24:10-16
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 24:10-16
Open source ↗