---
title: "Leviticus 20 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/leviticus/20/
description: "Divers crimes to be punished with death. Leviticus 20 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Leviticus 20

Leviticus 20 is chapter 20 of 27 in the Book of Leviticus. Here are all 27 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> Divers crimes to be punished with death.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Leviticus 20 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
2. You shall speak these things to the sons of Israel: A man among the sons Israel, or among the newcomers who live in Israel, if he will have given from his seed to the idol Moloch, he shall be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him.
3. And I will set my face against him. And I will cut him down from the midst of his people, because he has given from his seed to Moloch, and he has contaminated my Sanctuary, and polluted my holy name.
4. But if the people of the land, having been neglectful and holding little regard for my authority, release the man who has given from his seed to Moloch, and they are not willing to kill him,
5. I will set my face over that man and over his kindred, and I will cut down both him and all who consented with him to fornicate with Moloch, from the midst of their people.
6. The soul who will have turned aside to astrologers and soothsayers, and who will have fornicated with them, I will set my face against him, and I will destroy him from the midst of his people.
7. Be sanctified and be holy, for I am the Lord your God.
8. Observe my precepts, and do them. I am the Lord, who sanctifies you.
9. Whoever curses his father or mother shall die a death; he has cursed his father and mother. So let his blood be upon him.
10. If anyone will have committed sexual acts with the wife of another, or will have perpetrated adultery with his neighbor’s spouse, they shall die a death, both the adulterer and the adulteress.
11. Whoever will have slept with his stepmother, or will have uncovered the shame of his father, they shall both die a death. So let their blood be upon them.
12. If any man will have slept with his daughter-in-law, both shall die, for they have acted according to wickedness. So let their blood be upon them.
13. If any man has slept with a male in place of sexual intercourse with a female, both have committed a nefarious act, they shall die a death. So let their blood be upon them.
14. If any man, having taken the daughter as a wife, will have married her mother, he has acted according to wickedness. He shall be burnt alive with them. Neither shall so great a nefarious act persist in your midst.
15. Whoever will have committed sexual acts with any animal or cattle, he shall die a death. Likewise, you shall slay the beast.
16. The woman who will have lain under any animal at all shall be destroyed together with it. So let their blood be upon them.
17. Whoever will have taken his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother, and will have seen her nakedness, and she will have looked upon her brother’s shame, they have committed a nefarious act. They shall be slain in the sight of their people, because they have uncovered one another’s nakedness. And they shall bear their iniquity.
18. Whoever has sexual intercourse with a woman in her menstrual flow, and has uncovered her nakedness, and she has opened the fountain of her blood, both shall be destroyed from the midst of their people.
19. You shall not expose the nakedness of your maternal or paternal aunt. Whoever does this has laid bare the shame of his own flesh; both shall bear their iniquity.
20. If any man has had sexual intercourse with the wife of his paternal or maternal uncle, and he has uncovered the shame of his close relative, both shall bear their sin. They shall die without children.
21. Whoever will have married his brother’s wife has done an unlawful thing; he has uncovered his brother’s nakedness. They shall be without children.
22. Observe my laws as well as my judgments, and act according to them, lest the land, into which you will enter and live, may vomit you out, too.
23. Do not be willing to walk by the ordinances of the nations, which I will expel before you. For they have done all these things, and so I abominate them.
24. But I say to you: Possess their land, which I will give to you as an inheritance, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from the other peoples.
25. Therefore, you must also separate the clean animals from the unclean, and the clean birds from the unclean. Do not pollute your souls with cattle, or birds, or anything that moves upon the earth, and which I have shown you to be unclean.
26. You shall be holy unto me, because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have separated you from the other peoples, so that you would be mine.
27. A man or a woman, in whom there is an oracle-like or a divining spirit, shall be put to death. They shall stone them. So let their blood be upon them.

## Leviticus 20 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Locutusque est Dominus ad Moysen, dicens:
2. Hæc loqueris filiis Israël: Homo de filiis Israël, et de advenis qui habitant in Israël, si quis dederit de semine suo idolo Moloch, morte moriatur: populus terræ lapidabit eum.
3. Et ego ponam faciem meam contra illum: succidamque eum de medio populi sui, eo quod dederit de semine suo Moloch, et contaminaverit sanctuarium meum, ac polluerit nomen sanctum meum.
4. Quod si negligens populus terræ, et quasi parvipendens imperium meum, dimiserit hominem qui dedit de semine suo Moloch, nec voluerit eum occidere:
5. ponam faciem meam super hominem illum, et super cognationem ejus, succidamque et ipsum, et omnes qui consenserunt ei ut fornicarentur cum Moloch, de medio populi sui.
6. Anima, quæ declinaverit ad magos et ariolos, et fornicata fuerit cum eis, ponam faciem meam contra eam, et interficiam illam de medio populi sui.
7. Sanctificamini et estote sancti, quia ego sum Dominus Deus vester.
8. Custodite præcepta mea, et facite ea: ego Dominus qui sanctifico vos.
9. Qui maledixerit patri suo, aut matri, morte moriatur: patri matrique maledixit: sanguis ejus sit super eum.
10. Si mœchatus quis fuerit cum uxore alterius, et adulterium perpetraverit cum conjuge proximi sui, morte moriantur et mœchus et adultera.
11. Qui dormierit cum noverca sua, et revelaverit ignominiam patris sui, morte moriantur ambo: sanguis eorum sit super eos.
12. Si quis dormierit cum nuru sua, uterque moriatur, quia scelus operati sunt: sanguis eorum sit super eos.
13. Qui dormierit cum masculo coitu femineo, uterque operatus est nefas: morte moriantur: sit sanguis eorum super eos.
14. Qui supra uxorem filiam, duxerit matrem ejus, scelus operatus est: vivus ardebit cum eis, nec permanebit tantum nefas in medio vestri.
15. Qui cum jumento et pecore coierit, morte moriatur: pecus quoque occidite.
16. Mulier, quæ succubuerit cuilibet jumento, simul interficietur cum eo: sanguis eorum sit super eos.
17. Qui acceperit sororem suam filiam patris sui, vel filiam matris suæ, et viderit turpitudinem ejus, illaque conspexerit fratris ignominiam, nefariam rem operati sunt: occidentur in conspectu populi sui, eo quod turpitudinem suam mutuo revelaverint, et portabunt iniquitatem suam.
18. Qui coierit cum muliere in fluxu menstruo, et revelaverit turpitudinem ejus, ipsaque aperuerit fontem sanguinis sui, interficientur ambo de medio populi sui.
19. Turpitudinem materteræ et amitæ tuæ non discooperies: qui hoc fecerit, ignominiam carnis suæ nudavit; portabunt ambo iniquitatem suam.
20. Qui coierit cum uxore patrui vel avunculi sui, et revelaverit ignominiam cognationis suæ, portabunt ambo peccatum suum: absque liberis morientur.
21. Qui duxerit uxorem fratris sui, rem facit illicitam: turpitudinem fratris sui revelavit: absque liberis erunt.
22. Custodite leges meas, atque judicia, et facite ea: ne et vos evomat terra quam intraturi estis et habitaturi.
23. Nolite ambulare in legitimis nationum, quas ego expulsurus sum ante vos. Omnia enim hæc fecerunt, et abominatus sum eas.
24. Vobis autem loquor. Possidete terram eorum, quam dabo vobis in hæreditatem, terram fluentem lacte et melle. Ego Dominus Deus vester, qui separavi vos a ceteris populis.
25. Separate ergo et vos jumentum mundum ab immundo, et avem mundam ab immunda: ne polluatis animas vestras in pecore, et avibus, et cunctis quæ moventur in terra, et quæ vobis ostendi esse polluta.
26. Eritis mihi sancti, quia sanctus sum ego Dominus, et separavi vos a ceteris populis, ut essetis mei.
27. Vir, sive mulier, in quibus pythonicus, vel divinationis fuerit spiritus, morte moriantur: lapidibus obruent eos: sanguis eorum sit super illos.

## Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraph numbers and the Catechism's own section headings (never quoted); text at vatican.va.
- CCC ¶ 2813: "Hallowed be Thy Name" ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 15: The killing of the beast was for the greater horror of the crime, and to prevent the remembrance of such abomination.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).