Leviticus 20:27

Summary

Leviticus 20:27 prescribes the death penalty for a man or woman who has within them the status of an 'ov ("necromancer", H0178) or yidde'oni ("soothsayer", H3049). The method specified is death by stoning, and the text closes with a formula placing responsibility for the bloodshed on the offenders themselves.

Key words

• 'ov ("necromancer", H0178) — masculine singular noun designating one associated with consulting the dead; paired with yidde'oni.
• yidde'oni ("soothsayer", H3049) — masculine singular noun for a diviner/knowing-spirit practitioner, joined to 'ov by 'o ("or", H0176A) as an alternative category.
• mot ("certainly [to die]", H4191) — qal infinitive absolute of the same root as the following verb, used to intensify the verbal action.
• yumatu ("they will be put to death", H4191) — hophal (causative-passive) imperfect, third masculine plural: "they will be caused to die," expressing that the death is externally enacted, not natural.
• yirgemu ("they will stone", H7275) — qal imperfect third masculine plural, an impersonal/collective "they" referring to those who carry out the stoning.

What the text says

The verse opens with ve-'ish 'o-'ishah ("and a man or a woman"), establishing that the law applies equally to both grammatical genders without distinction. The conditional particle ki ("if/that", H3588A) introduces the case: yihyeh vahem 'ov 'o yidde'oni — literally "there will be in them a necromancer or a soothsayer." The construction with bahem ("in/among them", H9038 suffix on H9003) indicates that the 'ov or yidde'oni is treated grammatically as something residing within the person, rather than as an action they perform.

The penalty clause uses the paired construction mot yumatu — the infinitive absolute mot (H4191) followed by the finite hophal imperfect yumatu (H4191), both from the same root. This doubling is a grammatical intensifier common in legal formulas, and the hophal form specifically marks the verb as passive-causative: the subject does not die on its own but is put to death by external agents. The means of execution follows: ba'even yirgemu 'otam ("with stone(s) they shall stone them"), where 'even ("stone", H0068G) is singular in Hebrew though rendered as plural in the gloss, and yirgemu is a qal imperfect with an unspecified plural subject ("they"), implying the community or those responsible for carrying out the sentence.

The closing phrase demeihem bam ("their bloods are upon them") uses demei ("bloods", H1818) in construct plural form with the suffix -hem ("their"), followed by bam ("in/on them", H9003+H9038). This formula attributes the bloodshed to the executed parties themselves rather than to those who carry out the stoning.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the Hebrew 'ov and yidde'oni with ἐνγαστρίμυθος ("belly-speaker/ventriloquist") and ἐπαοιδός ("enchanter"), terms drawn from Greek categories of divination rather than direct equivalents of the Hebrew nouns. The Vulgate uses pythonicus...spiritus ("Pythonic spirit") and divinationis...spiritus ("spirit of divination"), introducing the Greek-derived "Pythonic" concept absent from the Hebrew text. The LXX also adds ἀμφότεροι ("both of them") and ἔνοχοί εἰσιν ("they are guilty/liable"), phrases not present in the Hebrew's closing demeihem bam formula.