What Does Leviticus 20:23 Mean in the King James?
And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.
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
A custom becomes a path when you walk in it, so familiarity does not make a way acceptable.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks into the reader’s present surroundings: a custom can be familiar and still be a path the LORD rejects. It names the judgment without cushioning it: the LORD casts out the nations and says he abhors them for what they practice. To walk in a custom is to make its pattern a lived direction.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that whatever a surrounding culture normalizes becomes acceptable simply because it is common.
THE ROOT
חֻקּוֹת
ḥuqqōt
GROWS FROM
חקק
To inscribe, engrave, or decree; a pattern fixed in place.
The Hebrew word means statutes or prescribed customs, carrying more weight than the surface sense of “manners.” From the root meaning “inscribe” or “decree,” it presents a community’s customs as established patterns that can be taken up and walked.
ALSO GROWS
ḥoq: Statute or prescribed limit
חֹק
This related word shows the sense of a pattern set in place within ḥuqqōt, the customs named in the verse.
meḥoqeq: Lawgiver, one who decrees
מְחֹקֵק
The same root links a fixed custom with the one who establishes or decrees a pattern.
תֵּלְכוּ
tēlekhū from halakh
GROWS FROM
הלך
To go, walk, or proceed.
“walk” in this verse is tēlekhū from halakh. The verse speaks of more than noticing another way: walking means proceeding along it. The English phrase holds custom and movement together, showing how a repeated pattern becomes a lived direction.
ALSO GROWS
halikhah: Walking, going, or a course of movement
הֲלִיכָה
This noun from the same root makes the movement in “walk in the customs” explicit.
holikh: To lead or cause to go
הוֹלִיךְ
The same root can describe leading as well as proceeding, revealing how an adopted pattern can direct a person’s course.
THE PATTERN
A repeated social pattern becomes a path when people follow it, so scripture tests the direction of a way rather than its popularity.
Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgment:Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.THE THREAD
And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,“Walk” translates the same Hebrew root, הלך (halakh), in both verses. Together they show that movement itself is not the issue: the question is which way becomes the reader’s lived direction.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us