What Does Leviticus 20:2 Mean in the King James?
Again, 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.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse sets two transfers side by side: a person hands over their offspring to Molech, then the people of the land stone that person to death.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks a severe boundary: anyone among Israel, including a stranger living there, who gives offspring to Molech is sentenced to death. It assigns the stoning to the people of the land, holding the child’s handover and the community’s lethal response in the same frame.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It overturns the claim that devotion to a god makes a child available for sacrifice: the child’s life is not the giver’s to surrender.
THE ROOT
זַרְעוֹ
zarʿo
GROWS FROM
זרע
z-r-ʿ
To sow; seed or offspring
The verse says a person gives from his zeraʿ, a word that holds seed and offspring together. The threatened child is named through the language of what carries life forward, not as an abstract possession.
ALSO GROWS
zeraʿ: Seed, descendants, or offspring
זֶרַע
This is the word used for what the person gives to Molech, keeping the child and the continuation of life in the same image.
zāraʿ: To sow seed
זָרַע
The verb grows from the same root: the verse’s word for offspring carries the same seed-language as the act of sowing.
יִתֵּן
yitten
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
To give, set, or place
“giveth” in this verse is yitten. The Hebrew verb carries the sense of giving or placing. The wording makes the act a transfer: offspring are handed over to Molech, and the giver is then subjected to the land’s lethal sentence.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: A gift or present
מַתָּנָה
This related noun shows the root’s sense of something given; here, the object of the transfer is a person’s offspring.
natan: To give, place, or set
נָתַן
The verb’s range makes the handover concrete: the offspring are placed under Molech’s claim.
THE PATTERN
Scripture names offering children to other gods as violence that stains the people and the land.
Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils, And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood.THE THREAD
And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.This verse repeats the same seed-word, זֶרַע (zeraʿ, seed or offspring), and the same give-word, נתן (natan, give or place). The shared wording reveals the act at the center of the command: a person places their offspring into Molech’s claim.
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