What Does Leviticus 20:24 Mean?
But I have said to you, You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the LORD your God, who has separated you from the peoples.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey: I am the LORD your God, which have separated you from other people.THE KEY
The verse binds abundance to possession of what it names as another people’s land.
THE MEANING
You are addressed through a stark pairing: an abundant place is given to you, and you are distinguished from other peoples. The place is still called theirs before it becomes yours, so provision and displacement remain bound together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that a gift can be understood apart from those who lose possession: the verse still calls the land “their land” as it promises it to you.
THE ROOT
הִבְדַּלְתִּי
hivdalti
GROWS FROM
בדל
b-d-l
To divide, separate, or distinguish.
“separated you” in this verse is hivdalti. English “separated” can sound like a static label, but בדל names the act of dividing or distinguishing; the same root marks light apart from darkness in Genesis 1:4. Here, the boundary is between you and other peoples, alongside an inheritance.
ALSO GROWS
vayavdel: And he divided or separated.
וַיַּבְדֵּל
This is the same root used when God divides light from darkness, revealing separation as an active boundary.
mavdil: One who separates or distinguishes.
מַבְדִּיל
This form makes the root’s action clear: the distinction in the verse is something enacted, not merely a label.
תִּירְשׁוּ
tirshu
GROWS FROM
ירש
y-r-sh
To inherit, take possession, or dispossess.
The clause says “inherit” with תִּירְשׁוּ, then repeats the same root in לָרֶשֶׁת, rendered “to possess.” English uses two words for one root: taking possession. That root can also mean dispossessing, holding acquisition and displacement within the same linguistic act.
ALSO GROWS
lareshet: To take possession or possess.
לָרֶשֶׁת
This repeats the root immediately in the same sentence, joining “inherit” and “possess” as one action.
morashah: Inheritance or possession.
מוֹרָשָׁה
This noun from the same root shows inheritance as property received, echoing the verse’s transfer of land.
THE PATTERN
Separation creates a boundary that makes distinct places and belonging visible.
And God saw the light, that it was good, and God parted the light from the darkness.Therefore, go out from their midst, and be marked off, says the LORD, and do not take hold of what is unclean. And I will take you in.But you are a chosen lineage, a royal priesthood, a set-apart nation, a people made his own, so that you may tell out the excellences of the one who called you out of darkness into his wondrous light.THE THREAD
And God saw the light, that it was good, and God parted the light from the darkness.The verb translated “separated” here comes from the same root as “divided” in Genesis 1:4. In both verses, the root names an active distinction: light from darkness there, one people from other peoples here.
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